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« on: 27 June, 2022, 12:27:04 PM »
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
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