| HistoryText
| - Marlon Shakespeare is a supporting character in the 2000 AD strip Judge Dredd, and sometimes appears in his own strip, Chopper. 'Chopper' was the identity he adopted as one of Mega-City One's disaffected youth, asserting his individuality through scrawling graffiti on the most inaccessible public buildings . Beaten to the title of 'King Scrawler' by the rogue robot known as the Phantom, Marlon was arrested by Judge Dredd following the Phantom's destruction, and was jailed.
Years later, on probation, Marlon took up Powerboarding and became the Midnight Surfer, a contestant in the illegal contest Supersurf 7. Winning the contest, Chopper was arrested again, but this time was considered a hero by the populace of Mega-City One.
Three years later, Chopper escaped during a prison transfer in order to compete in the now legalized Supersurf 10, to be held in in Oz . Dredd tracked Chopper to Oz but allowed him to compete in the race for the honour of Mega-City One.
After narrowly losing to Oz surfer Jug McKenzie, Chopper escaped into the Radback . Marlon spent months in the Radback, forming a close relationship with a girl named Charlene and eventually beating Jug McKenzie in a personal rematch before returning to civilization to compete in the lethal Supersurf 11 in Mega-City Two, in which he almost died .
Surviving, Chopper retired to a drop-out community in the Radback with Jug and Charlene, but the community was devastated by StigCorp, the sponsors of Supersurf 11, out for revenge on Marlon for the death of their CEO, Stig, at the conclusion of the contest. Aided by Jug, Chopper took revenge on StigCorp with a near suicidal assault on Powerboards.
Years later, following Jug's death, Marlon was conned into returning to Mega-City One by Jug's estranged wife and daughter as part of an elaborate scam, but escaped again after another encounter with Judge Dredd and returned to Oz and his job as a lifeguard. He was later seen being interviewed on a TV talkshow, and was depicted as a burned-out shell of his former self, mourning the loss of past glories and seen as irrelevant by the new generation of youth. Talk about a fate worse than death...
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