Prog 2255 - Hag Reflex!

[Darren Stephens]

I’m 53 and I think Pandora Perfect is awesome.

There’s a place in the main prog for stories like that.
Not everything has to be all dark and serious.

Agreed!

[Jacqusie]

Yup, I agree it's ALWAYS been about personal tastes and I'm pleased that the prog is mixing it up to keep healthy after all these years and like I said, if The prog is needs to lower it's age bracket to survive then fair play. I'd rather it do that and carry on, than have old farts like me dictate to what it should publish and it go down the pan.

Again I've nothing against Pandora Perfect or some of the others and glad people like those younger types of strips whatever their age, but coming back to the the personal taste thing... nope, I really don't.

This isn't a last few weeks sort of head scratcher, as I've grown older I'm not really feeling it when I open the pages of 2000AD anymore and the arrival of more lightweight cartoony strips and the departing of stories such as Absalom and a few others has made me reappraise where I'm spending my money and time really.

All good things come to an end I suppose, even after 33 years and things change don't they. I would have loved to see a Wagner / McNeil Stronty Dog, but I don't think with the spin off's that will happen and I still might buy the odd collection if it's the right story.

I might also be interested to pop in now and again just to see how old Dredd is getting on and indeed how old he gets!   

[Richard]

Giving up reading the prog as some kind of protest or disillusionment with Regened seems to me to be a massive overreaction. Personally, I've enjoyed some of the Regened material, especially FTB, and Pandora Perfect was a perfectly good six-episodes of silly comedy that did not outstay its welcome. And anything that helps keep the comic going must be good.

But I do agree with the criticism that the art is usually too cartoony, and the overall feel is that the whole Regened prog is too safe, neutered and bland. When I was a kid I was reading comics which my parents would not have approved of, like Scream and (1980s) Eagle. They were violent, with stories like Doomlord, Bloodfang, One-Eyed Jack, The Thirteenth Floor, and reprints of MACH One. I would never have bothered with Cadet Dredd if it had been around back then.

[Sean SD]

My Top 3 for Prog 2255

1st - The Out

2nd - Scarlet Traces    

3rd -  Dredd

the other strips were fine, no real weak links lately

[Jim_Campbell]

I would never have bothered with Cadet Dredd if it had been around back then.

It bears repeating that the kids’ media landscape of the 2020s is VERY different to that of the late 70s/early 80s. We largely subsisted on a tiny amount of media directed at us, and then picked the bones out of the westerns and war movies that populated the daytime schedules at the weekend.

Now, kids expect their media to be tailored to them. It’s just not the same as it was for us.

[Tiplodocus]

Nice finish to a great run of Progs.

I'm not going to add anything of value to the regened debate (I'm for them) other than to say I wish only 8% of the output had been not to my taste during the dark days.

I was lucky enough that money was not an object at the time so I just stuck with the prog even though there was barely one story a prog to like. But I can see how if something isn't appealling to you and you have better things to spend your money on, it might be time to move on.

[Funt Solo]

Ironically, Pandora Perfect is in some ways objectively better than Dredd's The Hard Way. Yes, I said objectively.

Do I know who all the characters are? Does it make sense within the constraints of the story? Does it hold true to the spirit of the canon? All are yes for Pandora and no for The Hard Way.

I think they're both trying to be comedies, but, whoo boy, does The Hard Way fail miserably at that. It's like a 90s fever dream channeling the worst excesses of Pseudo-Slade, Millar-Vision and Skuzz III.

Why do none of the assassins (except the bland ringleader) care about their own survival? Why is there a circus troupe of assassins anyway? Or - what are the Suicide Squad doing in Judge Dredd? Where is Dredd's cape? What happened to the loose end of citizens hypnotized by the computer virus? Who is Dumbledwee and why haven't they done anything for several episodes, then (later) - why are the conjoined twin assassins (a terribly stupid concept) not conjoined anymore when they leap stupidly from nowhere at all at Dredd & Maitland? Who is Chongan? How was the bland ringleader able to watch everything through his magic binoculars when they're in a submarine facility that one would assume had things like doors and ceilings and so on?

Oh, it's just such a bucket of pants. There are lots of reasons to keep reading the prog, but Dredd isn't anywhere near the top of the list. (People keep excluding Dredd from votes as if he'd be a shoe-in, but it's just not the best strip in the prog anymore. It's like Futsie Shocks now.) I'm really looking forward to the Red Queen (Bond supervillain) just not being a thing anymore, with her bucket of unlikely Orlok clones and invisible pet cat.

[/rant]