Dredd's resignation was a significant event in the build-up to "Necropolis" (besides being inherently momentous in its own right). Chief Judge Silver ordered a news blackout on Dredd's resignation and then faked Kraken's execution after reimposing sentence of death for Kraken's crimes in the service of Judd. Reviving Kraken in secret, Silver overturned Dredd's verdict on him and made him a full judge, but on the condition that he impersonated Dredd, so that nobody would know that Dredd had left. Silver believed that Dredd had become such a symbol of law and order to the citizens that news of his departure would provoke a crimewave.