Prog 2220 Regened: Earth-Shattering

[Tjm86]

The Regened project has been an interesting ride for more familiar readers hasn’t it.  Still in an experimental stage, looking for some sense of what works and what does not.  Then again in many respects that’s the whole point of the project is it not.

Cadet Dredd continues to link the various different presentations.  Wyatt and Tinto present a fairly serviceable one-and-done, exploring Dredd’s early career.  Tinto’s artwork  has a good feel to it, presenting realistic scenes of early MC-1 that to an extent are reminiscent of the 2012 film rather than Ezquerra’s grand finished scene.

The plot centres around familiar tropes of rogue AI’s, pre-war tec, excessive consumerism and youth as exploitable.  It moves along at a good pace with plenty of action to keep attention.  Once again the ‘dults turn out to be the weak link, raising the question of how the Judges managed to rise to prominence (quite a contrast to the lethal Dreadnought’s of the meg).

Once again Tek division shines. Considering what we’ve previously seen in Regened, it really does show the potential for a series exploring this dimension of MC1.  Something we’ve seen from time to time down through the years.  Fertile ground though …

Action Pact – The Radyar Recovery has a nice idea at its core and is well executed.  Horsman’s art is a little busy and scrappy but it works well for the tale.  Soffe’s colours certainly bring it out well.  Certainly it might be interesting to see where this might go but something tells me there might be less scope than the original premise contains.

Viva Forever is another that might benefit from a further outing to explore its potential.  As a one-and-done MC1 tale it certainly works well.  Morzova’s art and Bowland’s colours do completement each other well. Baillie’s script may perhaps be a little too clever on some level with multiple overlapping voices sometimes distracting from the core action.  Aspects of the reveal re-tread familiar ground but as an introduction it works quite well.  Another one for the Meg to revisit perhaps.

Future Shocks is possibly the weak link, certainly for me.  Califano’s artwork channels Transmetropolitan well for this social-media-abuse inspired tale.  There’s an interesting take on the waning influence of ‘influencers’ but little about it feels too original.  Others may well disagree but on a first reading it does feel a little like an early, weaker, FS.  That said, kudos to the creative team for their efforts.  Not horrendous but not awe inspiring …

Mayflies though has to be the star of the show and possibly Carrol finding a potentially rich seem in Rogue Trooper’s world.  It is a little surprising that it has taken this long for Milli-Com memories to register.  Some of the earlier attempts at finding an aspect of RT lore that fit within the Regened project have not been overly successful  but this one …

Mind you, Coleby and Teague’s artwork don’t hurt at all.  Hardly surprising from such a powerful creative team.  Coleby’s earlier work in this world has served him well in terms of grounding the story.  The steady reveal of the different characters helps with the gradual reveal of the framework for the strip.  Although the characters are cyphers to a large extent that is hardly surprising in the circumstances.  What remains to be seen is whether that could be fleshed out.

Certainly of all the strips that could translate well into the prog, this has the most potential for my money.  The closing line says it all really .. “Now we suddenly had a future.”

Arguably this is a stronger offering, once again containing several strips that could well have longer legs.  Mayflies definitely deserves another.  Of the other strips Viva Forever and Action Pact may need another outing to see whether there is enough life in them but certainly there is little to warrant writing them off.  Overall a solid showing.

[Bolt-01]

A thoroughly entertaining prog but Tjm86 has it right - Mayflies is indeed the pick of the prog this time. A superb entry into the Rogue Trooper world as it exists for Regened.

[broodblik]

Cover by Nick Roche:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Richard]

Mayflies and Viva Forever are the highlights for me. I'd be happy for either or both to get a series.

[Tjm86]

See I'd argue that a failure to give Mayflies a shot at a series is borderline criminal neglect ... Viva definitely deserves a shot at an extended outing.  Perhaps a few longer one shots in the meg to start with?

[JimmyNailz]

I agree with everyone's love of Mayflies. Alongside Full Tilt Boogie and Dept K, I am enjoying the Regened stories which centre on a team rather than an individual.

That being said, whilst I enjoyed the team set-up of Action Pact, I worry the premise of time-travel aspect doesn't quite work with aliens as time-travel tends to rely on the reader having a basic knowledge of history, which we don't have for alien planets. However, I enjoyed the art and pace of the action so am happy to be proven wrong.

I enjoyed the art and premise of Viva Forever. I think it could have done with a visual clues that we were in MC-1 (wouldn't the Judges be after her?), but enjoyed the ride.

Futureshock was fine.

Mayflies was great.

Not my favourite of all the Regenes but certainly some good stuff in there.

[Colin YNWA]

A mixed bag but with some good stuff. I strongly suspect that there will be a conscenus as to the star that should join Department K and the even better Pandora Perfect in getting a longer run.

Anyway we'll come to that.

Dredd - one of the best of these, really enjoyed it and some lovely art. This strip really benefits from not having mustache twirling Rico in all the time and toying with other angles the City and being a cadet opens up.

Action Pact just didn't gell with me. It bounced of me almost entirely. It was all so sharp and pointy and blasty and shouty and at no point was I compelled to care why.

Viva Forever was really nice. Not sure why its been thrown into Mega City One but hopefully it comes back so that tie can be made stronger. It twisted and turned, was well structures and told and fine art. Loved this one.

Future Shock was okay.

and then we get to Mayflies and pretty quickly I knew why everyone was calling this one out. Its fantastic. Simon Coleby's art shouldn't work in a Regened (at least how I think of them... and his style... but Dylan Teague's colour really softened it and helped it pop wonderfully. The story was fun, dynamic and begging to come back.This episoded opened so much potential. Kids designed to die, with no sense of who they are, each with a unqiue trait, cast into a world that is set to ready to kill them. What's not to love.

Okay Joko-Jargo time to stop messing about with these tester strips. You already pumped Full Tilt Boogie into the main Prog - fine - but we now have enough great strips to stop messin' about let's have a Regened with regular Pandora Perfect, Department K, Mayflies and then a mix of one off and shorts of the good stuff like Viva Forever alongside Cadet Dredd and we're good to go. The next stage is ready, come on... its ready...

Enjoyed this one.

[ianlineham@yahoo.com]

So, do we think Regened now has enough good stories to become a monthly in its own right?
Cadet Dredd
Mayflies
Dept K
Pandora Perfect
Full Tilt Boogie (if there's more to go in that)
Future Shocks - remember this is aimed at new, probably YA, readers so things us oldies see as cliched may be new to others (something I think most times there's a SF film that gets huge critic credibility, like Ad Astra - it's only because I've been reading this stuff for 40 years it seems old!)

Viva Forever and Action Pact maybe?

[Colin YNWA]

So, do we think Regened now has enough good stories to become a monthly in its own right?
Cadet Dredd
Mayflies
Dept K
Pandora Perfect
Full Tilt Boogie (if there's more to go in that)
Future Shocks - remember this is aimed at new, probably YA, readers so things us oldies see as cliched may be new to others (something I think most times there's a SF film that gets huge critic credibility, like Ad Astra - it's only because I've been reading this stuff for 40 years it seems old!)

Viva Forever and Action Pact maybe?

Costs and risks of launching a new comic aside I think the material is getting there now. You can also drop in Cadet Anderson and things like that amazing Death Planet game type thing that Henry Flint did in the first FCBD issue. That was excellent - oh and Intestanauts was in that too wasn't it?

Commission a strip from Jamie Smart and Neil Cameron (from The Phoenix) to bunch things up later and we'll laughing.

Gosh its all so easy isn't it... ahem...

[IndigoPrime]

If the money was there and the risk wasn’t, you could easily enough see two Rebellion launches: Regened and Cor/Buster. I think the former is at this stage in a stronger place and more refined. It could do with a little more spark at times (2220 was for me a bit flat—solid, but nothing really grabbed me compared to Pandora Perfect, Full Tilt Boogie and Dept K) and probably a humour strip or two (thereby becoming a ‘reverse Phoenix’), but it works.

Cor/Buster is a solid framework, but feels a bit more rough and ready compared to the young-person comics mini-IP reads. Naturally, it’s a good thing to have a different approach (Oink showed that in the 1980s), but the material in The Beano and The Phoenix is, on average, stronger. Where Cor/Buster succeeds over those strips is in diversity of approach (The Beano is still very formulaic, with far too much reliance on constant wordplay puns) and having a mix of that and a humour title structure (The Phoenix sometimes has pacing that doesn’t work well, due to too many adventure strips and filler reading pages, like the annoyingly regular and dull flow charts).

Of all the Rebellion announcements this year, the lack of a Cor/Buster special is, for me, the biggest blow. Sure, we can all revel in nostalgia and get excited about seeing an old brand on the newsstands again (Smash; Action). And Rebellion has a consistently solid line in horror (Misty; Scream). I also found the Tammy/Jinty stuff smart, and although girls are now better catered for with The Beano and The Phoenix, the emphasis remains with male-led strips. But it’s in that younger audience I’d love to see a breakthrough rather than the existing sea of plastic shit that populates the newsagent shelves.

Still, until more parents become aware of comics, I don’t see anything changing. Mini-IP exists in a fairly affluent town, in a class of 30 kids in the 6–7 age group. She gets two comics every week. One boy in her class gets The Beano. That’s it. Such numbers are why comics are going to die on the vine within a decade or so, unless something very big changes. (Graphic novels and Manga are of course doing a lot better, not least at a slightly higher age group, but it’d be crushingly awful if The Beano and The Phoenix folded.)

[Barrington Boots]

I'm not a fan of the Regened issues but this I thought was one of the better ones.

The original strips seem far stronger than those based on one of the classic IPs like young Johnny Alpha or PG Rogue Trooper - I find Cadet Dredd to be one of the weaker strips in these - but I wonder if that's due to my familiarity with the existing characters. I still think something more light hearted / anarchic would be a standout here: Pandora Perfect took all the platitudes when it appeared and is still to my mind the best thing we've seen in Regened and I think it had both of those elements in spades.

This issue: solid Dredd, I thought the concepts behind Action Pact and Viva Forever were interesting although the strips to me weren't, and a really good idea in Mayflies - interesting to see this drawn by Simon Coleby when in general Regened has gone for a different art style. All three of those are worthy of a return imo.

As ever I'm aware I'm critiquing something that's aimed more at a different age group so I'd really like to hear a review from someone from the actual target audience instead of those of us who generally haunt these boards. Has anyone got a youngsters opinion on the comic?

[broodblik]

The original strips seem far stronger than those based on one of the classic IPs like young Johnny Alpha or PG Rogue Trooper - I find Cadet Dredd to be one of the weaker strips in these - but I wonder if that's due to my familiarity with the existing characters.

So far I have the same sentiment about the classic characters. Their is nothing wrong with Cadet Dredd but it just do not feel like it is true Dredd. So far the new characters just works better. Maybe it is a case that how do get past the fact that the classics have more than 40 years of backstory too them

[IndigoPrime]

Cadet Dredd has a kind of Elseworlds vibe to me—it does not align terribly well with what we’ve previously seen from young Dredd, who was ruthless from the get-go. Some of the other characters work better, not being massively different from things like the kids on hotdog runs.

[JimmyNailz]

I think a Dredd-verse story about Justice Dept Cadets, with a new roster of young, slightly flawed characters (some of whom might even begin to question the fascist regime they're being groomed into) with the occasional Dredd cameo might work better than "Cadet Dredd".  There's no real "threat" to the Cadet Dredd stories because we (and I assume even younger readers) know he grows up to be the Old Stoney Face we all love/hate.

... or maybe I enjoyed Mayflies too much.