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Prog 2255 - Hag Reflex!

Started by Colin YNWA, 23 October, 2021, 08:52:28 PM

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Colin YNWA

The Prog hits the Regened next week and so we get one of this end not end Progs. Three thrills - kinda - end and two go into a break.

Dredd The Hard Way ends and its gone from the moment it does really. I mean its not bad, in fact it was great fun, but its no more than that. Maitland's final "We're going to make the Red Queen pay..." line is all action  movie forboding ... but not real forboding.

Diaboliks kinda ends really well and then plays straight into the next story which will present what Solomon Ravne has been up. It ends the present story really well, with a clink of light for Jennifer. The problem with the cliffhangers it uses to pull into the next story is when see Ravne [spoiler]lying victim on the floor[/spoiler] I'm kinda glad not worried cos he is such a dick!... mind looking forward to seeing how it all got there so its worked!

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 23 October, 2021, 08:52:28 PM
The Prog hits the Regened next week and so we get one of this end not end Progs. Three thrills - kinda - end and two go into a break.

Dredd The Hard Way ends and its gone from the moment it does really. I mean its not bad, in fact it was great fun, but its no more than that. Maitland's final "We're going to make the Red Queen pay..." line is all action  movie forboding ... but not real forboding.

Diaboliks kinda ends really well and then plays straight into the next story which will present what Solomon Ravne has been up. It ends the present story really well, with a clink of light for Jennifer. The problem with the cliffhangers it uses to pull into the next story is when see Ravne [spoiler]lying victim on the floor[/spoiler] I'm kinda glad not worried cos he is such a dick!... mind looking forward to seeing how it all got there so its worked!

Whoops premature posting and no 'Modify' to wipe up the mess so I'll just have to hammer on a second and hope that makes up for it.

Pandora Perfect has the perfect ending for this series. Brisk, fun and it perfectly wraps up the 6 parts - JUST 6 PARTS! Its testament to the wipe smart pace of this one when so much has been done - such fun.

Scarlet Traces nice way to cut to the break - in fact excellent way. This another good part and looking forward to seeing where it goes.

The Out okay that was interesting. In it own right that was another fantastic episode. Brisk, funny and charming. However it did the one thing this series doesn't do it repeated itself. It was another delight selection of short, entertaining and insightful insights into Humans on the Edge - we did that a couple of weeks ago and it felt kinda weird to return to it.

Decent Prog - let's see what the next Regened brings.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Barrington Boots

Cover + tagline get full marks from me this week.
The prog within:

Dredd I've enjoyed this story a lot, but the ending didn't really land it for me. After what was quite a breakneck story of crazy ultra-violence it wrapped up on a very sombre note with the bulk of the antagonists unaccounted for. I guess it's leading onto the next story and we'll see how that goes. That aside everything about this tale was satisfyingly old school. Superb art again and a nice little tribute to Bolt as well, I think?

Diaboliks Not a fan anyway, but I thought overall this was far weaker than the previous Diaboliks run which I rather enjoyed despite the cast. Agree with Colin about Ravne, not really a cliffhanger when you hope he's had it!

Pandora Perfect Great ending to wrap things up. Especially digging Pandora's evil laugh at the end. An awful lot happened over these six episodes and I've found it a bit less concise than I hoped but overall this was a very enjoyable run and I'd not object to it being back in the Prog: a bit like Full Tilt Boogie was it's been a pretty unique strip within 2000ad (in a good way) and if we're to have Regened strips crossing over this is what I'd want them to be like: fun.

Scarlet Traces - This is terrific. The action scenes I find a bit dreamlike: they don't have the sort of movement and grit of, say, Patrick Goddard's stuff but I feel like that wouldn't suit this. Nice to see plot threads coming together here. Feels pretty excellent all round.

The Out - I also thought we were done with the vignettes about humans so was a suprise to see it return. The cock joke reveal was a bit naff but the second section with the door I thought was excellent. You really can't predict what you're going to get with this week on week and I think that's fine. Strong episode that played to the writer and artists strengths.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

IndigoPrime

Cock joke was indeed naff, but I'm sure we can forgive the team for that. As for your comment about Full Tilt Boogie, Boots, where did that go? I figured we'd have got more of it. Oh well.

For me, Dredd wrapped up fine, if in downbeat manner. Atlantis has been little used, but surprising to see Williams trash it. (Although I suppose it could be repaired, not that you'd really want to live there now.) Diaboliks felt like tidying up at the end of a party. Pandora was breezy and gross. I'd happily see this back in the Prog. Scarlet Traces continues to be excellent, as does The Out. 5/5 again, Tharg.

The Out > Pandora Perfect > Scarlet Traces > Judge Dredd > Diaboliks

broodblik

A good prog still a five on the rating scale. The cover is a reminiscence of the great Steve Dillon especially Dredd's face.

Dredd – This was a good old-school-feel to it and well done to the creative team by bringing us something that is just a pure fun classic Dredd actioner. The last instalment did not disappoint as we are promised retribution.

Diaboliks – As this part of the arc comes to a closure we are introduced to the next arc. This continues to be an interesting story with a lot of possibilities in the future. Good work from Rennie and Fuso.

Pandora – All in all this was an enjoyable first outing and would not mind if we have more of this in the future.

Scarlet Traces – The action has now shift from space to the inside of a spaceship and ends with an interesting twist at the end. As always this is a great story by our creators, and I can feel the end gaming is starting to form.

The Out – As always, the story shifts to another direction as we are introduced to more "humans".  This episode feels like we have been there and was less intriguing.

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

norton canes

I would be collecting my prog round about now but sadly the rain is lashing down in a manner reminiscent of the way it did when Dredd's squad commandeered a Strato-V in The Apocalypse War, so it looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Barrington Boots

Excellent point about the Dillon-ness of the cover - that's a Dillon Dredd face for sure and a lovely homage.

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 25 October, 2021, 04:09:44 PM
Cock joke was indeed naff, but I'm sure we can forgive the team for that. As for your comment about Full Tilt Boogie, Boots, where did that go? I figured we'd have got more of it. Oh well.

For me, Dredd wrapped up fine, if in downbeat manner. Atlantis has been little used, but surprising to see Williams trash it. (Although I suppose it could be repaired, not that you'd really want to live there now.) Diaboliks felt like tidying up at the end of a party. Pandora was breezy and gross. I'd happily see this back in the Prog. Scarlet Traces continues to be excellent, as does The Out. 5/5 again, Tharg.

The Out > Pandora Perfect > Scarlet Traces > Judge Dredd > Diaboliks

Great comments as ever IP. I didn't even register on first read really how destroying Atlantis is actually a fairly big deal.
And I hope we'll see more of Full Tilt Boogie: I know it wasn't universally popular, but it was different and had some really interesting ideas. Has it been binned off for future series?
You're a dark horse, Boots.

IndigoPrime

I don't think we've heard anything either way. But just from a pure momentum standpoint, it would have been good to get something else by now.

SimonBowland

Pretty sure Alex has already written the second series of FTB, so it's definitely on the way.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: SimonBowland on 27 October, 2021, 06:01:52 PM
Pretty sure Alex has already written the second series of FTB, so it's definitely on the way.

This is certainly very good news.

Jacqusie

I found the letter by Nic Freeman to be interesting, as it echo's some of my own concerns, albeit I wouldn't go so far as to call the Regened issues 'unreadable tosh'

What I do agree with however is that when the Regened strips were contained in the one-offs, they were aimed at a kids target audience and I didn't have to engage in reading them, so fair enough.

As many of these strips are now firmly established in the prog, I'm starting to disconnect from it somewhat. When I started reading 2000AD in 1988, comics were in a boom time of attempting credibility for adult readership and so became more 'mature in content. As a 13 year old, reading Crisis and 2000AD was great for my adolescent brain.

The prog is now going the opposite way, lowering it's age bracket and fair play if that what it needs to do to survive. I've nothing against Pandora Perfect per se, but it's clearly aimed at teenagers and not an greying 46 year old such as myself who has now started listening to Radio 4 (crikey!)

So I think as I'm growing older and 2000AD is growing younger, after 33 consistant years of collecting it week after week, it might be time to let go of a relationship, where we've both changed so much from when we started.

There are the odd gems here and there such as Scarlet Traces and I had decided to leave when Wagner penned his last Dredd, but I'm not sure I can keep reading after my subs runs out next summer dining on one or two scraps of quality.





broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

IndigoPrime

Seems an overreaction to me to quit over Regened. 2000 AD is an anthology. During 2000 AD's entire run, I'd say I on average I've cared about three of the five strips. There have been plenty of clunkers. But only during 2000 AD's nadir period did I consider binning the Prog (John Smith being the reason I didn't).

It's not like every Prog is becoming 100% Regened. Now and again, a strip gets a run to enable larger collections to be viable, which might provide greater longevity to the brand as a whole. As for this:

QuoteAs many of these strips are now firmly established in the prog, I'm starting to disconnect from it somewhat.
'Many' seems to be doing heavy lifting. Perhaps I've lost count, but we've had, what, three strips in total? Pandora's not unlike plenty of other humour strips throughout the Prog's history (with the exception that I actually like it). Full Tilt Boogie blazed along, with plenty of stuff happening. I was less keen on where Dept K went and it and Boogie do both feel a bit 'Phoenix' in terms of target audience. But they're perfectly readable stories, which is what I want from a Prog.

Or, to put it another way, I'd much sooner have another series of Pandora than more Skip Tracer or, I dunno, Greysuit.

But it's all personal taste, right? I've really enjoyed the recent run: five out of five for this set, every week. I get that others don't feel that way. Similarly, I don't have much nostalgia for the old days. Reading through the Hachette collection has been pretty interesting. Robo-Hunter was a chore. Nemesis I–IV still clicked. Quite random. Yet The Red Seas and Brink? Lovely.