Prog 2262 – The Spirit of Xmas Future

[norton canes]

Okay, I'm finally though my 100-page mega-special - been eking it out so as to prolong the festive thrills

First of all, the most florix of grabundaes to TMO and all his droids for maintaining the thrill-flow throughout another difficult year. It's truly been a pleasure reading everything from the biggest mega-epic to the lowliest Future Shock - and this latest Xmas pulse-pounder keeps the thrill-bar raised high.

Let's lead with the Kek-W double-whammy (grud knows). Always fantastic to see The Order back in the line-up and the idea of a miniature Fantastic Voyage looks like it'll provide plenty more entertaining weirdness. If I had to temper my appreciation, I'd say that for a story with so many characters, some of them do lack a bit of distinct personality; and the archaic dialogue, though there for a purpose of course, sometimes comes across a bit stilted. Despite that, I'm looking forward to seeing where this run takes us. Deadworld continues to impress with its one-shot formula and brings some welcome grisly fun.

It's also great to see Kingmaker back with a bang, the story continuing to play brilliantly to the Gallagher droid's artistic genius. Proteus Vex goes all-in for exposition with a backdrop of gratuitous bloodshed, the perfect combination. It'll be intereseting to see what kind of protagonist Vex makes without Midnight Indicating Shame to play off. Top marks for the bottle ingestion panel!

You know the quality is going to be ramped up whenever the Abnett droid is involved and here, both his efforts toally hit the mark. Yes, Dexter in its current iteration is mining a wealth of dramatic cliches but I'm happy with that TBH, especially when the characters display the author's gift for naturalistic and engaging dialogue. Super cheeky to make this a Christmas instalment! And no matter what time of the year or which prog it's in The Out just sails on through. Do we even know how many episodes are in this chapter? I'm half expecting a special all-ages appropriate instalment to appear in the next Regened prog.

Last but by absolutely no means whatsoever least, two stories from the world of Dredd. 'Trinity' serves up a pitch-perfect blend of humour and gravitas, mixing a plethora of pot-shots at the movie versions with a sombre relfection on the Judges' duty to the people. Combine that with incredible work from the Elson droid and it's all win. Love the smattering of gratuitous dismemberments, and of course that 'retro Dredds' panel is sublime (just a shame the Ezquerra Dredd gets half-covered!).

But if I had to give out a TOP THRILL award to something in this prog (and I am going to give out a TOP THRILL award to something in this prog... right now) it would go to 'Christmas Comes To Devil's Island', without a doubt. It's just a lovely mixture of silly humour, callbacks from progs past and a terrifically wistful denouement, accentuated by the sudden addition of colour. Double oil rations for the Stock, Newell and Parkhouse droids please, TMO.

[Colin YNWA]

A good sign on many fronts is the fact that I didn't manage to read all of the X-mas Prog yesterday (X-mas day) and have finished it off this morning as the rest of the family slumbers (or plays Minecraft beside me). And what a chuffin' belter it is.

If these bumper Progs are primarily gateways to the new year in thrillpower we're in for a smashing start to 2022.

Dredd - Trinity is just what this sort of Prog needs. A cute treat that feels like an indulgence. What better on X-mas day! Niemand and Elson do a fantastic fun job of playing with the toys, poking fun where needed and when putting it all away neatly so we don't have to worry about any mess. Perfect end of year special fun.

Then in true 2000ad style from such glorious fluff you slam straight into The Fall of Deadworld with all its dark grit and oozing wounds. Fantastic flip in style and this one does darkly push things forward and can't wait for the main series to return to see where this goes.

Nice text piece with Doug church

Kingmaker very happy to have this back... but ... err ... they just did that... right... I mean that's dead... right.... certainly seemed to underline the - and there's no coming back from that (I suspect there might be some magic schnanigens afoot) ... fantastic dramatic opener to the new series.

Letters page that allows the Regene ding dong to rumble on. Hidden in there the good news that we will be getting more Pandora Perfect - though in the Regenes, Enemy Earth is getting a series, chuffed with that it was great, Chopper will be back, happy with that, alas no confirmation of more Mayflies which I was hoping for. A third series of The Out already planned - lovely . So a lot of good news packed in one letters column.

Oh and more evidence that for all the neighsaying those with the inside track seem clear that the Regenes are working, still creating a sales bump and a quick poke in the eye for us Internet types...

Dexter - Tazio Bettin is getting better and better as this goes on and despite my misgivings I'm enjoying Bulletopia more and more. Another good episode.

The Order another one I'm very happy to have back. Nice reintroduction to and the current awash in the timestream stuff is certianly going to prove interesting. Happy to have this one back.

Tales from Mega-City One really great little one off. Enjoyed this immensely.

The Out well its just brilliant isn't it. The building of the mystery around Cyd is just fantastic - is she pregnant? What is the contamination? If she is pregnant is that the contamination, who are the Tankinar (I'm still convinced they are humans or trying to wipe out humans or... actually I don't have a solid theory...) is the 'Marabunda' the same contamination? This epsiode wonderfully recaps all those building mysteries while being an utterly fantastic read in itself. Oh and then gives us an ending that blows all that stuff to the back of our (and Cyd's) minds and we continue ever on.

Proteus Vex - speaking of giving a fantastic recap while driving us forward and being a compelling read by itself - that's exactly what we get here. Brilliant.

And so we start 2022 with a line-up of Proteus Vex, The Order, Kingmaker, The Out backing up Dredd - I'm very happy with that and this is a stella end of year / start of year Prog. Magnificent.

[Tjm86]

Oh and more evidence that for all the naysaying those with the inside track seem clear that the Regenes are working, still creating a sales bump and a quick poke in the eye for us Internet types...

To be fair the view in these parts tends to be pretty positive.  Whilst the RP's are not everyone's cup of tea each issue is being quite fairly critiqued.  The strengths are beginning to outweigh the weaknesses with the increased frequency.

Glad to hear that Enemy Earth is going to get another stab.  Hopefully Mayflies will resurface in time.  Then again, could it be down to Coleby doing more Jaegir?  TBH I'd rather wait until he's able to dash it off again (not that his work looks that way, just that he can fit it in!)

[Colin YNWA]

Oh and more evidence that for all the naysaying those with the inside track seem clear that the Regenes are working, still creating a sales bump and a quick poke in the eye for us Internet types...

To be fair the view in these parts tends to be pretty positive.  Whilst the RP's are not everyone's cup of tea each issue is being quite fairly critiqued.  The strengths are beginning to outweigh the weaknesses with the increased frequency.

Yeah that's a fair accessment I'm not convinced that was aimed at us, but I didn't want to start a Facebook Page X is a bit rubbish snark so I left it none specific.

[Timothy]

is Cyd contaminated by the Tankinar? Is she their latest host?

[Timothy]

possibly from when they killed her the first time and she had to be rebuilt

[Sean SD]

Finally got around to finishing this one!!

Not a fan of The Order , (has never really clicked with me) but everything else was fine

My Top 3 for Prog 2262

1st - Proteus Vex - well done by Carroll, Lynch, Boswell, and Boland. Liked how the action was being described on the Citheronian Homeworld and shown in the panels with Proteus Vex doing his thing. I like the design of the Imperium spacecraft on page 1 too

2nd -Dexter - liked it . Well done and its a Christmas tale too lol

3rd - Kingmaker - like Proteus Vex, good to have this one back