33: Necropolis

There are maybe 5-10 Dredd stories that were so big when first published, and have been analysed and examined so often since, that it can be challenging to find much to say about them that hasn't already been said - and said better. America was one, and Necropolis is most certainly another.

I'm not going to have some contrarian view or any sort of "hot take" here: Necropolis is great. John Wagner's work feels energised and urgent, driven by the themes that have been bubbling away all this through this and the previous Volume: duty, becoming obsolete, inheritance and how succession works (or doesn't) to name just a few. Even though Necropolis has 26 episodes to play with, Wagner wastes no time in getting to work. Dredd's apartment is destroyed in fire right at the start - the very last symbolic act of his removal from Mega-City One.

I was surprised just how quickly Kraken falls to the power of the Sisters. My memory of my first read of this story was that it was a much longer struggle - but it's insanely quick. I'm always impressed with how Wagner doesn't go for the obvious. We could have had 10 episodes of inner turmoil and struggle, but Wagner doesn't see any point in hiding the inevitable conclusion: Kraken is weak, and always was.

In the end, amidst all the fantastic scenes of the City under the power of the Sisters and the Dark Judges, this run of stories has always been about Dredd - how reliant the City is in him, how fallible he is and how hard he will be to replace when the time comes. Kraken should have been the ultimate replacement - honed to be a Judge. But he falls at the very first hurdle. And when he falls, the entire system falls. The Judges end up under the power of the Sisters, oppressing the citizens they are meant to protect.

Mega-City One is imperilled by "The Perfect Judge", working as a solo force. It is saved by a group of the imperfect - raw cadets not yet Judges; somewhat crazy McGruder; injured Anderson; and Dredd himself. Kraken was used by Odell and Silver after they thought Dredd was past it - but the City is eventually saved with the return of two "old-timers", Dredd and McGruder, from out of the Cursed Earth. In the end the idea of a single superhuman Judge can't work. It's working together with others that fight on despite what holds them back that allows Dredd to do what he does.

In the end Kraken is a tragic and doomed figure. Used by the Judda, then by the Justice Department, then by the Sisters. Kraken was meant to the perfect solo Judge, a man alone enforcing the Law - and it turned out that the one thing he could never be was his own man. Dredd eventually gives Kraken the only release he can - some measure of acknowledgement that Kraken was a victim, and then a quick death.

Everything around this central issue is just window dressing, but the majority of it is very entertaining. Carlos Ezquerra's colour-stained artwork is evocative and gripping; the return of McGruder is hilarious and her unlikely buddy comedy road trip with Dredd is a fun mid-story diversion.

At the time, Necropolis was the finale to a masterclass in storytelling by John Wagner, bringing together story threads from years previously to this renewal of Dredd. It's still effective today. What else is there really to say?