Review by Karl Verhoven

Targeted killings in Mega-City One are connected by each of the victims being in possession of pre-atomic war artefacts. In the 1970s hard as nails cop Jack McBane is coming across corpses from Mega-City One. Adopting a contrived symmetry, Kenneth Niemand has McBane one eye short in the line of duty while Dredd’s bionic eye is in for repair, so supplying the title. Rather than Dredd operating alongside McBane, as the cover suggests, they work on two separate cases in two separate eras, although they do eventually meet.

Niemand enjoys writing McBane’s relentless tough guy dialogue – “It’s Detective McBane to scumbags like you” – and there’s a viable threat to Dredd’s future deep in the past, via the presence of Eartha Fargo. She’s grandmother to later Chief Justice Fargo from whom Dredd was cloned and the revelation of her presence opens new possibilities to the chief villain. Looking back to Fargo’s ancestry is a solid idea, and Fargo may develop in to a viable character, but the title story never greatly comes to life. It’s stitched together from scenes you’ll find familiar as Dredd goes through the motions and McBane’s 1970s never transcends the pastiche it is.

Ian Richardson’s art on the opening chapter is very good, but that he’s replaced by Kieran McKeown for the remainder indicates the quality perhaps isn’t compatible with deadlines. McKeown (sample art left) has a busier style with a few rough edges, but he’s very promising. Anna Readman on the second story (sample art right) is also a work in progress, but a few stages behind when it comes to foreshortening and perspective, and too prone to exaggeration.

The second story is Fargo and McBane teaming up in 1977 to discover who’s framed him for murder. It’s too great a change for McBane, now no longer the brute with a sarcastic quip always on his lips, instead unconvincingly written as a washed out drunken shell leaving Fargo to handle the investigating. What’s revealed is just about feasible, but too predictable in ticking off 1970s touchstones. There’s even space to feature a Vietnam flashback. The characters gel, and there’s reasoning behind Fargo’s respect for McBane, but a good idea just drifts.

Niemand’s previous outing on Dredd, A Penitent Man, was a successful mystery with many distractions, but One-Eyed Jacks lacks that spark.