The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2356: Big City Law In ‘Regened’

Time for another Regened Prog from 2000 AD, where the pages of the ‘Galaxy’s Greatest’ get turned over to all-ages sci-fi thrills!

2000 AD Prog 2356 hits the shelves and digital on 1st November, bringing you 52-pages of 2000 AD all-ages fun.

Inside, as has become the norm with more recent Regened Progs, four strips takeover the Prog with more Cadet Dredd action, a brand-new Future Shock, and the return of the Gravity Bombshells team in the second episode of Bladers. There’s also the finale to Book 1 of Lowborn High, the magical school drama somewhere between Harry Potter and Grange Hill.

As I’ve said before, reducing the Regened strips from the regular five down to four has given everything a little more space to develop the stories – even more important as it’s many weeks between episodes.

So, time to pile into the latest Regen ed. It’s all-ages 2000 AD sci-fi action and it’s all rather good. And remember, if you do have kids in the family, be sure to pass the joy of comics on!

 

CADET DREDD: DEEP TROUBLE – by Paul Starkey and Ben Willsher, letters by Simon Bowland

Time for more adventures of Joe and Rico, the Dredd clone cadets. This time, Rico’s gone on a bit of a late-night excursion down into Undercity, completely against regs. Oh, that Rico!

So, Dredd has a choice – go find his brother and risk getting kicked out of the Academy along with his brother or stay in bed…

Yep, because an entire episode of Dredd snoozing might just be a little dull.

 

No Lawgiver, just the daystick and the boot knife, and Dredd’s off into the darkness and the ruins of the Undercity, home to all manner of nasties, including those ripping off Department of Law munitions.

So what we get is another self-contained tale of Dredd and Rico, made all the better by Willsher’s artwork, clean, crisp, and colourful. The Cadet Dredd’s really seem to be playing well into the Dredd-Rico relationship and giving us these sort of self-contained strips to enjoy.

 

LOWBORN HIGH: FIRE & FROST – by David Barnett and Mike Walters, colours by Pippa Bowland, letters by Jim Campbell

Well, we’re here at the end of the first series of Lowborn High, one of the strips that’s really benefited from the added pages allowed by just having four strips here in recent Regened Progs.

And it’s been a real success, these tales of the crappy magical comp, all about friendships and the lives of the group of misfits that Androgeus Frost has allied himself with.

But as we’re at the end, it’s time for Barnett and Walters to wrap up the ongoing background tale to Lowborn High and the issue of the Frost family – missing? dead? captured?

Well, we’re about to (sort of) find out right now.

 

The whole gang have been transported to the Plateau of Ming and things aren’t exactly going well. If the cold don’t kill them, the giant homicidal bear is sure going to have a good try.

Cue a mini family reunion, a little bit of surely-not-the-time romance (but hey, teenagers), and a plan to get the whole family back together. Because, as we’ve seen in past episodes, the Frost family are being hunted down by magical powers not seen yet… although the cliffhanger ending that surely promises a welcome second series would imply that we’re going to see more of just who it is who’s got it in for the Frosts.

 

We get much more of the story here – who the coven of witches are at the school (didn’t you always think your teachers were witches? Certainly my old Geography teacher would have fitted right in), the reason for the Frost’s imprisonment, all leading to that cliffhanger of an ending promising us a lot more in Lowborn High season 2. Well, a lot more unless the school happens to fall into the ground over the summer holidays that is.

Yep, Barnett and Walters have done a grand job. And let’s not forget co-creator Anna Morozova in the praise. The trio have given us a series that, although it obviously plays into many different and obvious tropes of magical schooldays, the team have made it work and made it exciting and fun. Yes, it’s Harry Potter meets Grange Hill but don’t forget that JK was there well after Gaiman et al did Books of Magic and Tim Hunter, and Gaiman was obviously playing with so many old school stories found in the history of Brit comics and the magic of the likes of Misty and the rest.

Yep, it’s been a good series. The collection comes out in March and I’d say it’s a perfect gift for any kid you know that’s into something a bit spooky.

 

FUTURE SHOCKS: CONTENT PROVIDER – by Karl Stock and Joe Currie, letters by Rob Steen

Well, we’ve seen Joe Currie on Cadet Dredd in the last Regened, we’ve seen his art on a Future Shock back in Prog 2348, and it’s a pleasure seeing his art once more here. But we do really need to see Tharg tie him down to a longer series in the Prog soon – he’s too good to let go.

It’s the future and everyone in the world has been forced to wear the Ocula Glasses that broadcast absolutely everything everyone does to a watching nation. Yep, imagine YouTube and Twitch streamers now but taken to the next level. Imagine the horror of not having a choice to turn every boring exhibitionist in the world off.

Into this, we get Pluto Norgaz, boring everyman, the sort of guy who nobody’s tuning into. It’s his random turn to star in the game show, All Eyes On You, where he’s got to avoid being seen by the nation to be a winner. And as a complete nobody, maybe Pluto’s just the guy to get the win.

 

The art is the star of this Future Shock, which you can’t help but feel is in need of a few more pages to pull it all together just enough to bring in the barely-glimsed Anti-Ocula League and the prospect of rebellion in the system.

It’s a Future Shock that’s full of good ideas and great art. But it’s also a FS that’s over before it really begins. Indeed, unusually for a FS, there’s actually a second episode that’s needed for this one to explore some of the good ideas Stock’s thrown at it.

 

BLADERS – PART 2 – by James Peaty and Mark Simmons, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Simon Bowland

This is the curse of Regened writ large here. The first episode of Bladers came out in Prog 2306 – pretty much a year ago. Sure, it can’t be helped, but it does make for a difficult reading experience at times.

It’s helped a lot with the first couple of pages giving us all the background to the story we need and effectively making this all self-contained – a real help to us older Regened readers who might not have the most spritely of memories.

So, it’s back to the 25th Century where humanity has exported Gravity Blading to the stars – becoming the most successful, exciting, and lucrative sport in the galaxy.

 

And we’re straight into the action with the Gravity Bombshells winning their semi-final and setting up the final with the Thunder Blazers, a final that could catapult the winner into the big leagues. It’s also a rematch between coaches Abi Caine (yay!) and Judi Neutron (boo!). Back in the first episode, we had Abi’s back story – the talented Blader’s playing career cut short by injury who turned her passion into coaching the Gravity Bombshells. And now it’s all coming down to the final, with Abi’s nemesis, Judi Neutron, coach of the Thunder Bladers.

Bladers does a great job of bringing us the updated and all-ages version of no end of sci-fi sports strips. But just because it’s been done before – indeed it’s been done in Regened and Mega-City Max with Harlem Heroes – it doesn’t take away the enjoyment that Peaty and Simmons bring to the page.