Necropolis (Judge Dredd story)
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Necropolis was a 26-part Judge Dredd epic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, published in 1990 in 2000 AD progs 674-699. The story was the subject of extensive foreshadowing in the comic: beginning with "The Dead Man" (progs 650-662); followed by "Tale of the Dead Man" (progs 662 to 668) and finally "Countdown to Necropolis" (progs 669-673). It pulled together story threads going back four years. "Necropolis" was also followed by a number of epilogues and other follow-up stories, and had repercussions within the Judge Dredd strip which lasted for years.
Set in the year 2112, the story concerns the tragedy that befalls Mega-City One following the resignation of Judge Dredd. The Justice Department considered Dredd a symbol of justice, and that knowledge of his resignation could adversely affect public order. To that end, Kraken, a clone-brother of Judge Dredd rescued from the fanatical Judda sect, was ordered to assume Judge Dredd's identity. He soon fell under the influence of the Sisters of Death, and kidnapped Psi-Judge Kit Agee, whose psychic powers were used to form a bridge between Deadworld and Mega-City One. Realising something was up, Chief Judge Silver ordered a full-scale assault on Dunc Renaldo Block; the last known location of Judge Agee. The Sisters retaliated; their illusions making short work of the Judges. Top Psi-Judge Anderson realised that Kraken was under the Sisters' control, but was knocked out before she could raise the alarm. She disappeared beneath a tank, only to fall through a crumbling roadway into the Undercity; the remains of old New York. In the midst of this chaos, the Sisters sent Kraken to Tech 21, the dimensional research laboratory, and forced him to use their technology to free the Dark Judges from another dimension.
With the Sisters of Death's psychic power, the Dark Judges seized control of the city's Judges. Chief Judge Silver attempted suicide, but was captured, killed and then reanimated as their pet zombie and torture victim. The Sisters of Death shrouded the city in impenetrable shadow and blotted out all sun- and starlight, plunging the city into darkness; transforming Mega-City One into Necropolis. All life was outlawed, and the Dark Judges sentenced the entire population to death. Under their rule at least ten thousand citizens were rounded up and killed by the Dark Judges each day, with Kraken forced to take part in the slaughter; many others committed suicide, were shot by judges for breaking curfew, or fell to disease and starvation.
This reign of misrule continued for months, with few managing to escape. Judge Dredd and former Chief Judge McGruder, returning to the Big Meg to fight back, encountered a column of refugees that had fled into the Cursed Earth, while four Cadet Judges (Giant, Ekerson, Santando and Monk) had evaded pursuit from Judge Mortis and escaped into the Undercity, where they encountered the injured Psi-Judge Anderson. They soon met and joined forces with Dredd and McGruder and formed a plan of action. Following Judge Anderson's advice, Dredd decided to kill Kit Agee and thus break the Sisters' link with earth. The Judges returned to the surface, hijacked an H-Wagon and used its weapons to destroy Dunc Renaldo block, where Kit Agee was imprisoned. With Agee dead, the psychic bridge was destroyed and the Sisters of Death were banished to Deadworld. The Judges regained control of themselves, and quickly regrouped under McGruder's command, redoubling their efforts to put a stop to the slaughter.
The Judges managed to recapture three of the Dark Judges: Fear was imprisoned in the miracle plastic Boing; Judge Fire was drawn out of his body by a powerful vacuum; while Anderson uses her psi-powers to trap Judge Mortis. Judge Death, when confronted, leapt from a city block window down to City Bottom, where he vanished, masking his presence with his own psychic talents. In this fashion he was able to escape and hide himself among the dead, and was soon buried with them in one of the many mass graves excavated to contain the sixty million citizens who died during this period. Kraken, free of Death's influence at last and overcome with guilt, welcomed his execution at Dredd's hands.
[edit] Publication
The story has been reprinted several times, both as a trade paperback and in the Judge Dredd Megazine, in particular:
- Judge Dredd: Necropolis (collects "Dear Annie" and "Necropolis," Hamlyn, 192 pages, 1998, ISBN 0-600-59640-0)
- Judge Dredd: Necropolis Book One (collects "Tale of the Dead Man," "By Lethal Injection," "Rights of Succession," "Dear Annie," and beginning of "Necropolis," Titan, 144 pages, 2003, ISBN 1-84023-601-9)
- Judge Dredd: Necropolis Book Two (collects rest of "Necropolis," Titan, 136 pages, 2003, ISBN 1-84023-635-3)
[edit] See also
- City of the Damned, an earlier Judge Dredd story which contained a lot of the elements that would later appear in Necropolis.
