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Prog 2220 Regened: Earth-Shattering

Started by Tjm86, 20 February, 2021, 04:43:13 PM

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The Enigmatic Dr X

Gives a weekly for the sproglets, and a monthly for the oldies.
Lock up your spoons!

broodblik

This was a good regen prog I can say without a shadow a doubt that I enjoyed all the stories. It felt more like a jump-on prog with 3 new thrills on displayed.  Still a lot of experimentation going on to determine what works and what does not. With Full Tilt Boogie, Department K (which will get its own series in the prog) and Pandora Perfect I believe there is enough quality available to be able to launch something "new".

Mayflies was my top thrill this week and would like the story to continue. I can also see some space for both Viva Forever and Action Pact.

I still would like the regen issues to be a more regular/natural break rather than a disruption of the current running series. Overall, the regen progs are growing on me.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 February, 2021, 12:01:34 AM
Gives a weekly for the sproglets, and a monthly for the oldies.

Nope the reverse I like my weekly prog how else will I get through a week
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

TordelBack

Hmm, pretty uneven this time out.

A strong cover, and a well-told and crisply drawn story can't really offset the feeling that Cadet Dredd is just a bit... boring. Tinto does a neat bit of redesign on the shoulder eagle, everything is lively and clear, and Wyatt gives us some nice Dreddy characterisation in his suspicions about the missing kid's allowance, but I'm just not feeling it.

Action Pact, the first of two Carrolls, is a good setup for a series, and nicely event-packed. Horsman and Soffe draw some excellent gritty SF action, even if at times some of the character designs remind me of Jim Lee's Youngblood (but with feet).

I have to confess I had to re-read this a few times to work out exactly what was going on: a decent look at Branna the Raydar pilot when he/she/it was first defrosted might have saved me some confusion later on. But I liked the Alien Legion overtones, and I'd really like to see more.

Viva Forever almost works, but doesn't quite. I'm always excited to see something new from David Bailie, and Anna Morozova certainly draws a stylish hero, but again I found myself confused more often than I'd have liked. The reveal that one of the troopers is a holographically-disguised Viva fan didn't come across at all, I had to re-read those pages several times.

Equally the revelation that all the action scenes of Our Hero were actually a gaggle of apprentices in the same costume V-for-Vendetta-style took some puzzling out. But look, it's a good idea, and a lot of story packed into a few pages, I just don't think it quite came across: but almost. Possibly this was all crystal clear to anyone whose brain hasn't entirely ossified.  Is there more mileage to be had here?  Maybe.

Future Shock. Terrific 2000AD art and design from new-to-me Silvia Califano, and vibrant colours from the reliable John Charles. Lots of nice buzzwords and zeitgeisty ideas, but maybe Karl Stock was trying to jam a bit too much into a humble FS, in that there's as many events and characters as in a whole series of obvious-comparison Zaucer of Zilk. Still, better too much than too little.

And then we come to the second Carroll, and indisputable stand-out, Mayflies. Obviously having reigning champion of the Rogueverse Coleby and king of the lustrous finish Teague on art-duties helps sell the concept, but this is still a fine story. Inverting the RT concept of a solo hero with an intangible team, we get all the various GI competencies born into individual flesh, and it just works.  Hopefully there are good stories to tell with this team,  I certainly want to read them.

So for me that's two solid hits in Mayflies and Action Pact, two almost-theres in Viva Forever and the FS, and one very well-executed Cadet Dredd that just failed to excite me. That's a decent showing for an altogether grittier more action-packed Regened than we're used to, although again it seems a pity from an identity point of view that the only returning strip is  Dredd, when it could have been something homegrown like Finder & Keeper, Dept K or Pandora Perfect.



norton canes

Not much to add except to say that Mayflies was by a considerable distance the best thing in this and in fact any Regened prog so far.

Any idea why we've had so many opening instalments of new strips over the last few Regened progs? Seems strange that not even the promising ones are being followed up. 

Colin YNWA

Quote from: norton canes on 25 February, 2021, 09:18:58 AM
Any idea why we've had so many opening instalments of new strips over the last few Regened progs? Seems strange that not even the promising ones are being followed up.

Some are. So we know we're getting more Department K and Pandora Perfect (I didn't dream that did I - we are getting more of those arewn't we?) and Full Tilt Boogie already kicked on and then some.

I guess (it is a guess of course) there is a lot of experimentation going on and hopefully we'll see things settle down when folks feel they are in the stride with these strip a bit more.

IndigoPrime

I don't recall hearing anything about more Pandora Perfect. Would be great if that's true, mind.

As for things settling down, frequency is always going to be the enemy. If you're doing four Progs per year, you've got four or so non-Dredd slots to fill. That makes it tricky to create an ongoing strip. Additionally, if anything that warrants a full series then gets shifted into the regular Prog, that creates the odd situation where something primarily designed for a younger readership then exists alongside strips said readers should not read, presumably then gearing themselves towards standalone collections.

I don't envy Rebellion in any of this. Things were tough enough before COVID, but now trying to juggle this kind of thing must be hellish.

Colin YNWA

Phew didn't dream it. Pandora Perfect is listed as returning at some point in 2021 in this Downthetubes article.

https://downthetubes.net/?p=123224

Tiplodocus

Yeah, I enjoyed that.

As noted above, MAYFLIES excepted, not everything was a palpable hit but even the average stuff was raised by some cool ideas.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

IndigoPrime

Ah, good. More Roger Langridge is always a good thing, and I really enjoyed that opener. Lots of fun.

broodblik

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 25 February, 2021, 11:28:29 AM
Phew didn't dream it. Pandora Perfect is listed as returning at some point in 2021 in this Downthetubes article.

https://downthetubes.net/?p=123224

Great because I really enjoyed this
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

norton canes

Now I have asked this a couple of times before, but no-one has committed to an answer. So I'm going to have to press you all here: is it 'Regened' to rhyme with 'gleaned' (as in have new genes) or 'Regened' to rhyme with 'lend' (as in 'made for a new generation')? 

Barrington Boots

Good question. I read it as the latter, as in regeneration.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Bolt-01

Whereas I go for the former - As in Gene the Hackman.