32: Dear Annie

For the third time in the Mega Collection so far, when a letter is written - things go very bad, very fast! We’re still exploring the absence of Dredd, and Dear Annie doesn’t even really have anything from the Justice Department bar a single panel. This is very much the real prologue to Necropolis, with the introduction (at least in terms of these Volumes) of the Dark Judges.

It’s clear that John Wagner enjoys writing the twisted monsters, giving them a sick sense of humour that counterbalances their over-the-top horror. Carlos Ezquerra is having a good time too, with an incredible full-page scene showing off all four of the Dark Judges as they take out other citizens.

Wagner takes a gleefully nasty route to reintroduce the epic villains we’ll be facing in the upcoming epic. They’re not back through some scientific experiment, or a cult or some other obvious plot device - they come back through a loving couple that are then forced to go through a twisted version of a failing marriage! The whole thing is even structured around a desperate letter to an agony aunt. Wagner really piles on the cruelty to poor Chip. Stabbed by his own wife and left for an undead superfiend!

This idea that Xena is essentially "seduced" by Judge Death is a nice little set up for Necropolis and Kraken's storyline. Wagner and Ezquerra are obviously no strangers to the horror genre and its underlying themes of being drawn to dark and seductive powers - it's a real appetiser to the main course as the entire City faces the same horror.