The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2346: Welcome Back ‘Regened’ — Cadet Dredd’s On The Case

More from the regular 2000 AD Regened all-ages Prog, where the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest get turned over to Tharg’s lil’ nephew, Jojo-Jargo, to fill the pages with all-new all-ages thrill power.

 

2000 AD Prog 2346 hits the shelves and digital on Wednesday 23rd August, bringing you 52-pages of 2000 AD all-ages fun.

Inside, four strips, as has become the case in the last few Regened Progs. And that’s a good change. Instead of having to wait 10+ weeks for the next episode of something that’s drip-fed in shorter instalments, now there’s more space to tell more in each Regened Prog. It’s particularly noticeable with both Lowborn High and Renk here, allowing the writers so much more space to really expand upon the story.

Everything starts, as you’d expect, with Cadet Dredd, and a very different-looking Cadet Dredd with that art from Joe Currie (something that’s going to inflame the already fragile egos of those 2000 AD ‘fans’ out there who hate with a passion everything that isn’t ‘their’ 2000 AD.)

After that, we have a long instalment of Lowborn High, by David Barnett and Mike Walters, the wizarding school tale that’s really making the most of the extra space allowed. Then we have a short Future Shock, Autocop by Karl Stock and Toby Willsmer, and it all ends with the second story for Renk, the one-armed dwarf PI created by Paul Starkey and Anna Readman.

So, time to pile into the latest Regened. And remember, don’t be one of those ‘fans’ – if you don’t necessarily like everything, don’t lose your mind over it. Appreciate it for what it is and maybe, just maybe, give it to a younger relative or your local school – because that’s the important thing with Regened, to grab the new generation of readers.

Okay, comics public service announcement over. Time to have a look inside…

 

CADET DREDD: THE EXCHANGE – by James Peaty and Joe Currie, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A very different-looking Cadet Dredd now, from Joe Currie, who’s previously had a pin-up in a Megazine and worked with Ben Wheatley on the graphic novel Kosmik Muzik. It’s different because Currie’s brought along a very European-influenced style to Dredd, and that’s a very good thing. Looking, as it does, like this…

 

As for the story, it’s Peaty and Currie having fun with Dredd welcoming (or not) an exchange cadet from Mega-City Two. Rico’s gone from MC-1 to MC-2 as the other side of the exchange.

So, immediate fish-out-of-water stuff with Dredd just hating it all, really not getting on with Cadet Boniek, and just trying to do his job. And then there’s all those questions that Boniek’s asking…

 

Suspicions get into Dredd’s head and we’re off on another well-put-together Cadet Dredd written by James Peaty.

But it’s the art that’s the star here though, all those wonderfully different looks to the familiar sights of MC-1, the Lawmasters absolutely blown up to exaggerated levels, the background of the Blocks and the colours Currie’s using – all of it just makes this one a real visual treat.

 

LOWBORN HIGH: WISHING WELL – by David Barnett and Mike Walters, colours by Pippa Bowland, letters by Jim Campbell

Wychdusk Manor is THE magical school all the top magical novices, and high-born kids, are sent to, where they train to become the world’s greatest wizards. But if you don’t make the grade, you’re off to Lowborn High, a rundown inner-city magical comprehensive, struggling with funding, buildings falling to bits, just the standard for British state-funded education really.

Into this comes Androgeus Frost, a high born, one of the highest in fact, whose family members have a habit of mysteriously dying or disappearing. Kicked out of Wychdusk for a terrible attitude and worse grades, he’s found a new home at Lowborn High, becoming friends with Maisy, Ali, and Drill and forming the Deadbeats Club.

 

As it is, we’re deep into the tale and it’s a fascinating and well done one. The long game of Androgeus Frost looking to get back into Wychdust and find out what happened to his parents and sister and the witch’s coven at the school with their plans for Frost are all allowed the space to play out here, against the backdrop of a school inspection which, surprise, surprise, isn’t going that well.

And then we have the continued little look at one of the Deadbeats Club. Last episode it was Ali, now it’s Maisy. We see just how talented she really was, see what put her in the wheelchair and how she came to come to Lowborn High. All this whilst the students, including Maisy, are getting ready for their school prom, a prom which might be her last chance to make a move on Andy. With all the pressure on her, she’s going to have to resort to magic to get what she wants, except she’s messing with magic that she shouldn’t have messed with and, in the end, magic she didn’t even need to use…

 

Cue big magical confrontation and a finale that sees the entire Deadbeats Club shifted to somewhere else that links into Andy’s past.

Lowborn High’s the one strip that most benefits from extending the page count due to only having four strips in Regened. Again, we have 20 pages here and that’s a very good thing. As the one continuing strip across the last few Regened we’re seeing a different way of doing things that hopefully is setting the story up well for continued younger readership.

But it’s one thing to have the space and another to use it as effectively as Barnett and Walters do here. So many different strands of story are played out that give this Lowborn High a really satisfying feel, dealing not just with the story introduced for this episode but also for the threads that are slowly being explored in the bigger picture of the strip.

 

FUTURE SHOCKS: AUTOCOP – by Karl Stock and Toby Willsmer, letters by Annie Parkhouse

It’s the near future and AI is causing a hell of a lot of concern amongst human workers, fearful (as ever) of losing their jobs to the machines and increased automation.

Murtin Spork is a plasti-soup taster, surely one of the few roles where AI can’t come in and give him the boot. Well, that would be wrong, as Murtin discovers in panel 2 of this one.

So, it’s time for a career change – off to join the cops, with a chance to wear the Tac-101 anti-troublemaker suit. Specialist training? wonders Martin – nope, that’s where the AI comes in – again. Turns out all that Murtin’s there for is to be the conscience of the suit.

 

Murtin and Autocop make a pretty good team until his conscience gets the better of him, and then he’s going to discover that it’s a harsh place for a hume in an AI world.

Another simple yet cleverly done Future Shock by Karl Stock, having a laugh with some complex subjects – no talking down here at all.

 

RENK: TWINKLE TOES – by Paul Starkey and Anna Readman, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Simon Bowland

Back to Crepuscularia, biggest city in the eastern region, sitting on the edge of the Weeping Desert, home to 50,000 plus beings of all sorts, all shapes, all sizes.

If you want something or someone found in this huge melting pot, you can hire an expensive wizard or warrior. Or, if you happen to be short of gold and silver coins, there’s always the option of Renk, a one-armed dwarf who’ll work for copper.

 

This time, he’s called in to help Twayne and their husband, who’ve had a trophy stolen from their collection of ballroom dancing awards.

And from there we have yet another fabulous tale of investigations in a very strange place, with Starkey and Readman really working hard to make the whole experience full of visual and storytelling treats. It’s inventive, it’s fun, it’s full of interesting characters inhabiting a fascinating world – you can’t ask for more than that.