The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2170: It’s Time To Get Regened Kids!

The Weekly 2000 AD… Week in and week out, giving you the preview of the new 2000 AD Prog. Except this week is different, this week it’s all-new and it’s all-ages… it’s Regened.
The Regened idea came about in 2018 for Free Comic Book Day, doing a special Prog with some familiar characters, some new strips, but all specifically targeted to an all-ages audience.
And it worked. It really did. So much so that, when they did it again in 2019, Prog 2130, it was the best-selling Prog of the year.
So this year, we’re getting four Regened Progs (Feb, May, Aug, Nov), four all-ages specials, four great opportunities to get the kids into comics, get the kids into ‘The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’.

(Cover by Mark Sexton)

Prog 2170 is out in the UK and on digital from 26th February, with international copies coming out later – those of you in the good old US of A might need to ask for it at your LCS. Now, without further ado… The Weekly 2000 AD… REGENED!
 

CADET DREDD: SCHOOL TRIP – Rory McConville, Ilias Kyriazis, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Annie Parkhouse
The adventures of young Joe Dredd as a Cadet in the Justice Department, such an obvious thing to do for an all-ages audience. And in School Trip, McConville and Kyriazis deliver a fun-filled thing, of a cadet trip to Tek Division, of guilt detecting googles and a weird alien interdimensional thingys running amuck.
Great fun, great artwork, and proof (not that proof was really needed) that Dredd is such a wonderfully broad concept as a character. He works as the hard-line fascistic representation of the law and he works as a simple adventure strip. And yes, he works as a kids’ strip.

 
FINDER & KEEPER: DEAD SIGNAL – Leah Moore, John Reppion, Davide Tinto, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland
Meera and Eliot found themselves doing community clean-up in the house of Victorian ghost-hunter Prof AJ Mortimer and walked away with a pair of spectral goggles and a spirit-trap, plus a glimpse into the spooky and the strange world of ghostly goings-on.
This time round, they’re taking their ghost-busting thing to the cemetery for a test run. Although, as Meera points out, quite brilliantly…

See, it’s things like that that makes things like this work so well.
It’s one of the original strips in Regened, first appearing in 2019, but it’s definitely got legs, could easily make the transition to being a regular 2000 AD strip.

 
FUTURE SHOCKS: LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE – Karl Stock, Luke Horsman, colours by John Charles, letters by Annie Parkhouse
The Future Shock, a mainstay of 2000 AD through the ages, one-off twisty and turny tales of the unexpected. And just because we’re in all-ages territory with Regened, it’s no reason to miss out on a Future Shock.
Here, sometime in the future, the science of Karmatology has made reincarnation the big consumer product… thanks to NooU…

Although of course, there’s always someone coming along to mess things up, and that someone is Barry Newmus, spoiled brat with a plan… Yes, reincarnation as an all-ages thing, why the heck not? Stock and Horsman make it work.

 
THE GRONK: THE TROUBLE WITH GRONKSES – David Baillie, Rob Davis, letters by Jim Campbell
Four arms, mouths in their stomachs, prone to heart attacks at the slightest bit of excitement… the Gronks are a peaceful race who’ve often turned up in the adventures of the Strontium Dogs.
And it gives Baillie and Davis the chance to go full-on Hitchhikers Guide on us here, as Atlantis Valentine, mega-rich holotainment star lands on their planet, Blas… Oh, my heartses indeed…

Which means it’s time for a plan, but how will the timid little Gronkses get the mean, nasty beastie off their planet?
Well, therein lies a tale… a what a delightful tale it is as well, perfect for Regened.

 
ROGUE TROOPER: SAVAGE SWAMP – Cavan Scott, Nick Roche, colours by Abigail Bulmer, letters by Simon Bowland
More all-ages action from the devastated world of Nu-Earth, starring the last of the Genetic Infantrymen, Rogue Trooper. Always one of 2000 AD’s favourite characters, and one that Cavan Scott and Nick Roche first did in Regened back in 2019. And of course, it works just fine, after all, kids have always enjoyed sci-fi war tales. All you have to do is take out the real horror and the bloodshed.
And that’s just what they do here, with a Rogue Trooper tale that’s a great mix of action and sweet message, with Roche’s artwork just perfect for the strip.