Prog 2346 - Maximum Thrill-Boost!

[Colin YNWA]

Okay let's look at the positives.

The art of Cadet Dredd is great hope to see Joe Currie again soon. Love it. The story was pretty good too.

And then... nothing, absolutely nothing. Regened continues to be drab and utterly uninspiring. Its such a shame that this is the case. The Nerve Centre highlights what a great idea Regene is, how it can work as it references just three of its successes, Pandora Perfect, Department K and Full Tilt Bogie and there have been more. There is nothing even close to that quality in this issue and hasn't been for sometime.

Lowburn High is once agin over long, poorly plotted, utterly uninspiring and the art static and poorly framed. An example of the issues I have with this the fifth page when Maisy's parents are told of her high levels of magic, an apparently dramatic event and yet the page hangs off a central image of someone pulling a file out a draw, while craming the parents poorly realised reaction into a panel dominated by the drab background. Then the whole inspection thread, built up for so long is handwaved any and exposed as utterly superflous.

And again we get 20 pages of this tepid stuff. 20 bloomin' pages.

The Future Shock has art right out of the muddy 90s and a twist that is... well poor.

Renk, well its dull and daft.

Regened used to be something to look forward to, to see what 2000ad could spin with it new direction. Its was hit and miss, but at least it was something that played with potential. This is a pretty good Dredd with great art and the rest is all utter miss.

If you can't get the talent to do this well maybe its time to call this a day, though one assumes sales still prevent that.

So disappointing.

[IndigoPrime]

Your first main paragraph is particularly interesting:

Pandora Perfect, Department K and Full Tilt Bogie

Imagine the next Regened had that line-up. Cadet Dredd. A perfectly pitched Pandora Perfect. A Dept K one-off. A FTB interlude. I'm sure people would still grumble. And it perhaps wouldn't hit the dizzy highs of Best Prog Ever. But, man, I'd look forward to reading it, rather than looking towards my copy showing up with a sense of acceptance and dread.

Clearly, sales must be strong. Something is driving this. But – again – when I think of how Regened is now compared to The Phoenix, it breaks my heart a little. When Mini-IP leaves a copy lying around, I pick it up. Natch, I flick to Jamie Smart's stuff first and devour it. (Why is there no equivalent in Regened? An anarchic DPS of madness? Bonkers robots, say?) But the other strips mostly click too, making me want to track down other issues and read the full stories.

Sure, it's not everything. But there's so much good in there that the odd wobble can be forgiven. I felt like that about Regened for a long while too. Right now, it feels like it's mostly – or all – wobble. Or topple. Or smashed up on the floor in bits.

[broodblik]

Cover by Peter Yong:

[broodblik]

The regen has always been like a lucky packet you never know what you going to get but this year's entries so far were super disappointing. Sorry but this line-up does not inspire me.

[Southstreeter]

There must be a word for the excitement you feel when you find a Saturday prog on the mat, immediately followed by the disappointment when you realise it's a subscriber's contractual obligation regened prog.

[Le Fink]

There must be a word for the excitement you feel when you find a Saturday prog on the mat, immediately followed by the disappointment when you realise it's a subscriber's contractual obligation regened prog.

Ha. I got the regened prog today too and had that very sensation. Very rarely do I get a Saturday prog.

White text for spoilers.

I've never much enjoyed Lowborn High but I got more out of it this time. The initial pages of setup and flashback were a grind, agree with the particular storytelling issue Colin pointed out, and seeing pages of characters in dull school uniforms is dispiriting, but once they move on from the uniforms and are doing something interesting it rather carried me along. The depiction of the djinn was pretty good, and everyone likes a cliffhanger. Right? The coven stuff I have no idea what's going on or why and it's hard to care about.

Cadet Dredd was quite enjoyable with a very nice light-touch and fun art style, with lots going on in most panels. Regened could do with a bit more zany. Sure one might question the Justice Department security protocols, and whoever thought of putting a frickin' laser beam in the data centre might want to think again. Did wonder how Dredd escaped censure for his assault on the exchange cadet...

Future Shock agree with Colin, although I liked the robot cop design. I like the Willsmer droid's covers, but the painting feels a bit heavy in this strip.

Renk I struggled to get through. There seemed to be some backstory from the last story that I'd forgotten. Art's good.

[Tjm86]

I would have to say that the plot for Cadet Dredd was one of the better ones of late.  Artwise, there were moments I was trying to work out what was going on.  Currie's take on cadets on law masters really did take away from what was happening.  That said, close-up visuals were something else.  Long story short, it will be interesting to see what happens when this artist gets into their stride.

As for the rest of the prog. 

Lowborn high seems to take the worst elements of Harry Potter and Grange Hill, merge them together, throw in contempt for anyone who has ended up in a comp rather than a private school (speaking as someone who was subjected to a private school and spent the rest of his life trying to recover from the experience, they are contemptible in and of themselves ...) and then decided that anyone reading a 'school experience story' is a muppet. 

On a first skim I thought the D'jinn was a demonic extension of OFSTED.  Now that would have been a far cleverer 'joke' and have resonated far more with the handful of 'kids' still reading after this many iterations of Regened.  Certainly it would have been much more interesting take on what was happening rather than the poor disabled girl surrendering her soul for a date with the coooool dude (a story beat that was wrong on so many levels it was more terrifying than experiencing an OFSTED inspection).  At the risk of causing offence here, we have a writer who appears to have managed to be 'ableist' and 'sexist' at the same time.

Future Shocks has the kudos of being a strip that I just could not be bothered with full stop.  The artwork lost me at the poor mans Langley impersonation.  I ought to have another stab at reading it to see if the story goes anywhere but I was lost before I managed the first page.  After nearly 50 years (eeeek!) of Future Shocks, that is an achievement, albeit not in a good way.

Renk.  As Fink says, 'arts good', story .... actually it worked better than the FS as a one-off.  As a character with mileage though ....

It really does seem like we've seen the highlights of the Regened concept.  When I first read Full Tilt Boogie I was not overly impressed but a re-read has changed my mind there.  It might be worth another outing to move things forward there.

Cadet Dredd is always hit or miss.  It seems to work best when it doesn't try to be too clever and dip into the Dredd vs Rico mythos.  That said, it also benefits from strong artwork.  Currie's work needs development in some areas but there were more strengths than weaknesses overall.

Tooth has (to my mind anyway) generally struggled with fantasy strips.  Summer Magic is the obvious exception.  The likes of Lowborn High seem to tap into a fundamental weakness here and perhaps need to be reconsidered. 

Then again, I'm someone who really doesn't rate Slaine or Harry Potter so perhaps I shouldn't comment.  I'd rather read the likes of Le'Guin's Earthsea series, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence or Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisinghamen.

Tooth has, for me at least, always been at its strongest when it has focused on the Sci-Fi.  '77 was a special year for a host of reasons ... Star Wars, 2000AD and Tom Baker's Doctor Who.  Now granted DW had a strong 'fantastical / gothic' dimension to its run in 77 but even so, the SF was still a powerful aspect.  Perhaps that is something that needs to be reconsidered in Regened?

[scrotnig]

I am a supporter of the Regened project but all this year's have left me cold.

This was a decent enough Dredd but nothing else works. How long is this "20+ pages of Lowborn High" going to go on for? Looks like same again next time. Is it because it's cheap to do, or is it genuinely hugely popular and we are all missing something?

I'm rarely this negative. I've loved many of the earlier Regened progs but this isn't doing it for me. I accept I'm not the target market, but is "low grade Harry Potter rip off" *really* what young readers want? I'd be delighted if they do and I'm just a deluded old fuddy-duddy.

[scrotnig]

To be a bit more positive about things....art and colours in all the strips are very good. I could actually follow Lowborn High this time, just don't think the story is that interesting. Points for the pupil flying about on a Henry vacuum though! Also notice the crescent moon logo has been moved down so it no longer looks like Clowborn High.

[IndigoPrime]

My 9yo couldn't give two hoots about Lowborn. Perhaps she's too young. But she spent a chunk of today devouring copies of The Phoenix...

[Tomwe]

They've at least improved the logo so it's not Clowborn anymore.

I wasn't sure about the Dredd art. I like a Moebius riff as much as the next but they have a way to go. Story was good.

[The Corinthian]

I would totally be onboard with Cowborn High.

[Barrington Boots]

There must be a word for the excitement you feel when you find a Saturday prog on the mat, immediately followed by the disappointment when you realise it's a subscriber's contractual obligation regened prog.

This is so well put, same feeling here, too!

Nothing in here resonated for me really. I didn't mind the Future Shock so much but the art was super 90s and offputting. Renk is OK.
Dredd is always a stinker in these imo, but Lowborn High really is the worst. So much wrong with it this time from confusing storytelling in the art to some questionable takes in the story.
Someone somewhere must be enjoying this.

[Hawkmumbler]

I've given Regened a lot more slack than others but this prog around was pretty dismal, I take no pleasure in saying such.

[Proudhuff]

Not saw this yet, but the above doesn't bode well...