Review by Frank Plowright
There have been a few slight modifications, but this second reworking of 2000 AD’s features for a younger audience takes much the same route as the first, although now with two further new creations joining Finder & Keeper.
Roger Langridge and Brett Parson supply the activities of career criminal Pandora Perfect, and Department K are who Mega-City One relies on to repel attacks from other dimensions, as experienced by new recruit Afua. It’s a busy first day on the job, as seen on P.J. Holden’s sample art, but Rory McConville’s story is one of the simpler in the collection. Pandora Perfect’s starting point is a Mary Poppins pastiche, but an imaginatively funny script – love the butterfly dispenser – and great art (sample right) raise it well above.
Once again the Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd efforts are set in their younger days. Mike Carroll’s take on Johnny Alpha betters the last appearance with a mission during the Mutant Wars neatly drawn by Nick Brokenshire, while Carroll also writes two Dredd stories, with previous writer Matt Smith managing the first as Dredd is tested on whether he’s ready for patrol. Carroll has more pages at his disposal, so can include more surprises, but Luke Horsman’s unattractive art scuppers the first. Nicolo Assirelli on the other two Dredds is technically better, but doesn’t make the most of the visual opportunities.
Following their introduction in 2000 A.D. Regened 1 Finder and Keeper are more familiar with their equipment and capabilities, John Reppion alone now writing, with Davide Tinto’s figures and foreshortening diminishing an otherwise attractive style of art. They have to deal with a ghost in their tower block and a vengeful ghost in the museum. They’re slight, but fun stories.
Cavan Scott and Paul Davidson are setting up a bigger plot with Judge Anderson, as both her strips feature single-minded aliens that could be Daleks without their protective armoured shell. These resemble standard Anderson strips, but with the spiritualism and contrary personality stripped out, so really the worst of both worlds. Venus Bluegenes is a more or less straightforward version of the character under Liam Johnson and Aneke, although as it’s been years since she was seen in 2000A.D., perhaps that version was tailor-made for younger readers anyway.
Abelard Snazz has been absent for even longer, an Alan Moore creation whose prodigious brain conceived over-complicated solutions that made any problem worse. Anna Readman captures the disorienting effect of a person with two sets of eyes one above the other, and a suitably wacky tone, but Paul Cornell’s plot is high on gurning for the audience and low on sense.
The final strips are again Future Shocks, although breaking with tradition Andrea Muti is hardly an artistic newcomer. Laura Bailey’s idea of randomly selecting a queen begins well, but doesn’t then move past the obvious. Karl Stock and Tom Newell produce the final two stories, with the more imaginative of them concerning a machine that makes the present an obsolete concept. Newell is a promising artist needing to find a style.
Compared with the first 2000 A.D. Regened both new strips are promising, but only Strontium Dog improves on the earlier outing, meaning this is a slightly weaker collection. Will 2000A.D. Regened 3 up the game?
