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Prog 2288: Law versus Claw

Started by Huey2, 26 June, 2022, 11:36:41 PM

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Huey2

A pretty good prog - probably my favourite of the year so far.

Having said that, there's a narrowness in the range of styles to both the writing and art which I think is a shame and doesn't play to 2000AD's strength as an anthology. This is probably more noticeable in the art. What excited me as a young reader was that you could have "realistic" artists like Smith or Bolland rubbing shoulders with more "cartoony" artists like Gibson or even highly stylised artists such as O'Neill or Belardinelli. With the writers also seeming to be be making more of the visual potential of comics than I think the prog has done recently, there are some scenes which seem to be crying out for a Weston or a Flint to really bring their full imagination to. That said, all the artists are fine.

Cover: Fine but, as all the regened covers seem to have Cadet Dredd beating up something non-human, nothing special. Would like to see one of the other characters on the cover for a change.

Cadet Dredd. I'm not a fan of the cadet version of Dredd. It's kind of patronising to the regened readers in suggesting that they couldn't handle an adult version of Dredd. Having said that, this is one of the better tales, some neat ideas and a lot of fun.

Lowborn High. There's an odd opening page which I guess serves to connect this episode to others in an arc but which has no connection to anything else. Once that's gone, the story itself is well told and avoids the cliche ending. I do wonder why I'm supposed to root for the main guy though. It's an odd thing to go from watching the news and finding new ways to hate the current P.M. to reading a story where a character who shares so many of his traits is the hero.

Future Shock - there's a neat little universe here which would make a neat series.

Scooter and Jinx - I couldn't recall the set-up for this series? What do the characters do? What kind of creatures are they? Made it difficult to get into the story at first without knowing/recalling these things.

Pandora Perfect - Definite highlight. There's a real craft here in that any of the Pandora stories could have been the pilot episode with everything a new reader needs to know being effortlessly introduced whilst also telling a fast-paced, inventive and humorous story. The characters are very likeable and, in the classic 2000ad way, are not traditional heroes but will do the right thing if need be. Would love to see this take up a semi-permanent residency made up of short tales just Robo-Hunter or Ace Trucking used to.

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.

Funt Solo

Might be cool to see a different character on the cover of a Regened. Or maybe a montage?
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

IndigoPrime

I've no direct insight into Rebellion's reasoning, but I imagine the Dredd covers are for recognition. That and the old logo will snare parents of a certain age, in a manner some random bunch of schoolkids or Pandora would not.

IndigoPrime

Bit of a mixed bag for me. Dredd still feels like an odd character for a children's comic, given that he has all the charm of Walter the Softie, and the Judges – even in the neutered form here – are fun-loving killjoys. But beyond the basic premise, which still doesn't really work, the strip itself is pretty good, even if it does go a bit overboard explaining everything along the way in countless caption boxes.

Lowborn High would have been better off with a single-page 'previously' to bring people up to speed. The story itself was... I dunno. It's like a B-list Harry Potter with an unlikeable lead we're supposed to root for while his 'friends' knock him into shape? Again, the basic underlying premise feels flawed and at-odds with other children's fare – but in a manner that's almost anti-subversive.

The Future Shock was quite nice, with some great artwork and fun ideas. Then Scooter & Jinx rocked up. I like the art, but it could also have done with a 'previously'. Broadly, I liked this episode, although 1) there's still a weird underlying whiff of sexism in this strip, and 2) the relationship between the leads is entirely unearned. Not bad though.

And then we get Pandora Perfect, which was genuinely funny, had great pace, and honestly showed up how relatively lacking everything else in the issue was.

As a 2000 AD subscriber, I'm OK with this comic. There was as much 'good' stuff in here as in some recent issues (albeit not the better ones) and Pandora remains ace. As a parent, I can see why my almost 8yo struggled with it though. But also, I can see why she wasn't that interested, because the comic just doesn't compare with The Phoenix. I suspect Regened is aiming to be a stepping stone from that comic (although The Phoenix states its target is 7–14, so make of that what you will), but it could take some lessons from it, in terms of pace (add a few one- or two-pagers), tone and storytelling.

The last of those might come with experience. After all, the people behind The Phoenix have years of experience in talking to this specific audience, whereas Rebellion's output has primarily been targeted at adults. When The Phoenix can compress War and Peace into a handful of pages and my kid can understand it, that shows what it's capable of. Regened needs to have a similar level of clarity, to go with some of the things it already does quite well, such as variety and energy.

Pandora Perfect >>>>>>>>> Future Shock > Scooter > Dredd > Lowborn

Tjm86

I'm going to agree with the general consensus on this one.  Some good bits ... Dredd was, for my money, one of the better ones they've managed.  More 'old-school' Mega City weirdness and chaos than trying to be hip and 'down with the kids' ...  Pandora perfect was as bonkers as always.  Definitely the highlight.  The FS worked well with some nice ideas to spin out given time perhaps?  A 3-riller possibly? 

Lowborn High really does feel like it's trying too hard.  Would be interested to know how it got a second outing given that its first wasn't amazing.  This one was such a blatant Potter rip-off its amazing Rowling fans didn't take 5 minutes off from panning Emma Watson to complain.  When you consider how lacking in originality the Potter books are ...

Scooter and Jinx is one I definitely don't get either.  It's hard to put my finger on it but there just doesn't seem to be anything to it.

Bit of a mediocre offering this time then.  Sorry. 8-(

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Funt Solo on 27 June, 2022, 05:07:36 AM
Might be cool to see a different character on the cover of a Regened. Or maybe a montage?

Yeah but I kinda get why they don't, its a shame though.

Inside what is now a generic Regened cover there's a mixed bag as others have said.

I enjoyed the Dredd which is curious as I tend to find these work best when they play wth the Dredd, Rico dynamic - I guess they can't all be that and so scraps in the Alien Zoo seem a good, fun way to go. Love the reunion on the final page. In Mega City 1 there's no need to explain if they even want the human to be transmogrified back!

I hate quizzes when it - if you answer mainly A you are... and this one had the answers firmly pastered on. Still nice to see them at least trying this sort of thing.

Lowborn High was kinda fun. I like the way its not even pretending that its twisting Harry Potter. I really like the fact that after doing that its makes the apparent protagonist such a jerk, after all I think its Maisy we're pulling for. Art is okay, some folks will love it, just the style doesn't quite work for me.

Future Shock is pretty good, like Tom Newell's art and the story is pretty strong.

Scooter and Jinx is just so muh. I'm sure the creators have a sense of what makes these characters matter, aside from being named after a Sonic Youth song, but it just doesn't translate. So this just becomes a load of stuff that seems to happen. Then the lead kiss, for... reasons...

So we have a bum note, a lot of pretty good and then at the end we get the almost perfect Pandora  Perfect in a fantastic pitched, gloriously timed romp of such fun its untrue. Just a delight and its nice to see a strip go back to the regened after graduating to the Prog proper. Hope a couple more can do that.

So pretty decent if not earth shattering. These Regened can be frustratingly close at times!

broodblik

The last few regen progs has been quite average all readable but unfortunately the trend continues here.
The saving grace are Pandora and the Future Shock. I believe it is time to make Pandora a permanent fixture in the regen it is excellent and works on all levels. Maybe it is time to have a different story becoming the anchor of the regen, Cadet Dredd is "readable" but I am not sure it works for the regen.

So, we will have another regen coming up in a few weeks from now and hopefully it can jump a few levels. Bring back Mayflies and keep Pandora please.
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

Not much for me in this one at all. Pandora was the obvious highlight both art and storywise with it's nicely defined characters and total mayhem, and not too sanitised either with [spoiler]both chicken and beggar lady meeting sticky ends.[/spoiler]

Beyond that I had a better opinion of Lowborn High than most here so far - looked great, very blatant about it's Potter-ripoff-isms and the Andy / Maisy dynamic looks to be the focus of the strip and as such I think this needs more time to get off the ground. Everything else was very bland. I'm surprised at how much praise the Future Shock has had here though, it seemed overly complex and jargon heavy for a young audience and the tale it was telling. I thought it was cool to see a quiz in there - it wasn't very nuanced but these never are. In my experience kids love these.

I've far less experience than they do in the area of children and childrens comics, but IPs comments ring true about the pacing, tone and clarity of storytelling here.. I still find the Beano and the Phoenix a reasonably fun read, even though they're not pitched at me: they're breezy, chaotic, often surreal and just fun. Regened often feels like a bland slog.
I suppose assume Rebellion know what they're doing and who they're pitching for, and I'm still ok with losing a handful of 'regular' Progs a year if it aids with the comics long term future.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

norton canes

Really struggling to justify buying this. A fiver for one decent strip (based on what I've read of the recurring strips in previous Regened progs) isn't a great return. Got all the Regeneds so far but the last couple only really out of a sense of completism.

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.

Southstreeter

I read the last panel of the Future Shock and the the first panel of Scooter and Jinx without realising they were different stories. Which suggests firstly the art styles are too similar for adjacent strips and secondly I wasn't really paying attention. Only PP did it for me this time. I did at least get my Brink fix this week by reading nearly purchased Book 4. Look forward to the return of the ongoing story next week!

Goosegash

Honestly surprised that Cadet Dredd strip is getting a pass, I felt like it was easily the weakest one yet.

The story is a bit "meh" and the explanation doesn't make much sense. Why does no-one else in the zoo notice or question the strange new "aliens" appearing? If the perp has at this for some time as it's implied, why is there only one Phearax on display, what happened to the other missing people? Why are the bars on the cages so far apart??

The art was the part I struggled with the most. I actually googled the artist to see if it was their first job or something, but I see Joel Carpenter has plenty of credits including previous Dredd and Tales From The Black Museums, and his older art looks absolutely fine. So I can only assume the colourist took it on themselves to completely ruin it for no good reason.

I also agree that the Future Shock seemed very out of place and I would lay odds it didn't originate as a Regened submission

There is something very off about Lowborn High's weirdly blatant plagiarism, especially at a time when we could do without reminding that anti-trans bigot JK Rowling still exists. The ending where our POV character is saved from actually having to make a moral choice by the intervention of someone else felt like a massive cop-out, but also felt oddly in keeping with the Potter franchise, in which the titular hero is frequently saved from having to make difficult choices by a convenient plot contrivances - could be a meta-comment on how poor the writing is in those books, I suppose...

Richard

Quotewe could do without reminding that anti-trans bigot JK Rowling still exists.

That seems a bit over the top. Why don't you have a little lie down?