2000AD Regened Review

Writers: Matt Smith, Chris Weston, Rory Mcconville, Alec Worley, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Cavan Scott, David Baillie, Ned Hartley, Karl Stock, Owen Johnson, Colin Bell, Henry Flint, Arthur Wyatt
Artists: Neil Googe, Chris Weston, Ilias Kyriazis, Ben Willsher, Davide Tinto, Pj Holden, Nick Roche, Rob Davis, Tanya Roberts, Brett Parson, Luke Horsman, Indio!, Henry Flint, Pye Parr Colours: Gary Caldwell, Len O’grady, Chris Blythe, Pippa Bowland, Jim Boswell, Abigail Bulmer, John Charles, Dom Regan
Letters: Annie Parkhouse, Sam Gretton, Simon Bowland, Ellie De Ville, Jim Campbell, Maz Smith, Colin Bell, Henry Flint, Pye Parr
Publisher: Rebellion

Britain once had a vibrant ecology of comics for younger readers. Beano and Dandy date way back to the 1930s, with tales of comedy cowboys and naughty schoolkids disobeying the rules. War comics like Warlord, or sports comics such as Tiger were popular for decades. There were edgy violence fuelled comics like the short lived Action, whilst Misty told supernatural themed tales aimed at girls. It was into this market that 2000AD was launched in 1977, designed to cash-in on the sci-fi wave.

Over time these merged and faded away and really only 2000AD remains. The old girl’s audience, however, have grown older, grown beards and had kids of their own. Visit any newsagent now, and you’ll be greeted with a display of sparkly plastic, with comics aimed at kids that function as adverts for the latest trend.
 

Rebellion have launched their “Regened” label, with familiar 2000AD characters in stories aimed at younger readers. There have been occasional Regened take-overs of the weekly 2000AD anthology, with regular stories taking a short break to make way for stories about Cadet Dredd, or whole new characters created with the younger reader in mind.

2000AD Regened is the first collection of these stories.

There’s an old-school, Saturday morning cartoon feeling to most of these strips. They’re action packed, bright and original, and mostly contain a hidden, reassuring moral lesson. The violence and bloodshed has mostly gone, but the characters and humour remain. Plenty of action and humour, but less people die.

There are a few tales of Cadet Dredd, which are less fascism and more fun action, easing the youngsters in to stories of future cops before they realise that Dredd is the bad guy. A grumpy teenage Dredd punches dinosaurs and fights robot dragons, putting outspoken adults in their place.

PSI Judge Anderson continues her ongoing theme of assisting troubled kids, whilst mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha has an action adventure, briefly putting aside the strip’s origin as a rallying cry against bigotry. Even perpetual soldier Rogue Trooper manages to learn the value of teamwork, and has two full adventures where he doesn’t murder anyone.

Alongside these reimagined classics you’ll find Finders Keepers, in which youngsters Meera and Eliot stumble across occult technology and set about hunting ghosts, was written for the Regened audience, but retains the anti-authority-but-marketable ethos of early 2000AD.  There aren't any bad stories here - they're not all perfect, but each of them meets the usual high quality for the regular, weekly, grown-up 2000AD.

This is a gentler, less in-your-face 2000AD, but there are plenty of call backs for older readers – Krong the giant animatronic gorilla has a cameo, and there are quiet hints of Dredd’s future confrontation with his clone bother Rico. There’s blunt Trump-bating political satire and smart characters.

There are plenty of those grown up and bearded readers unhappy about the Regened experiment, spending an unfortunate time on the internet telling each other about their opinions. They’ll tell you that Rebellion are too eager to appeal to readers who aren’t them, that comics used to be better in the old days, that everything used to be better in the old days.

Regened isn’t for them. It’s for kid who otherwise would be reading something with plastic strapped to the cover. is a fantastic introduction to 2000AD, and to plastic-free comics, for younger readers.  Is it, as the cover claims, "The best new comic in the galaxy"? It's certainly the one of the best introduction to comics for the intended audience.