Preview: ‘Essential Rogue Trooper: Genetic Infantryman’ — One Of 2000 AD’s Greats Gets The Essential Treatment

Joining Judges Dredd and Anderson in the 2000 AD Essential line – the one and only blue-skinned last of the G.I.s – genetically-engineered infantrymen fighting a war that never ends – it’s Rogue Trooper.

Yes, in the history of 2000 AD there are a fair number of absolutely iconic strips and characters who’ve become beloved by readers – Dredd, Strontium Dog, Anderson, Slaine, Halo Jones – and, of course, there was the future war strip that brought us the brilliance of the Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons-created Rogue Trooper. And given that there’s that Duncan Jones-helmed movie creating buzz around the character it’s no wonder that 2000 AD have brought Rogue Trooper into their new Essentials series.

Of course, it helps a hell of a lot that these earliest of Rogue Trooper tales are some of the very best, Finley-Day absolutely nailing the lone soldier on a revenge mission vibe of the thing and Gibbons creating a look and a design that’s just the epitome of iconic.

For those of you that don’t know, Rogue Trooper is a future war tale of the last of the G.I.s – genetically engineered infantrymen – an elite fighting force created by the scientists of the Southern Confederacy (Southers) to be able to survive and fight in the noxious atmosphere of Nu-Earth, a planet ravaged by the Souther’s conflict with the Nordland Republic (Norts).

But the G.I.s were all destroyed in the Quartz Massacre, leaving just one left alive, accompanied only by the bio-chips of his fallen clone brothers in his helmet, backpack, and gun, to search for the Traitor General, the man responsible for the deaths of his comrades. Wanted by his Souther creators and feared and hated by his Nort enemies, Rogue Trooper is on a mission of revenge.

It’s just a classic and oh-so-simple premise here in Rogue Trooper, the very limited cast, the straightforward revenge plot set against a nightmarish war very much of black and white, us versus them.

In fact, it’s this cut and dried simplicity of the politics that led to Gibbons leaving – he wanted the strip to be more in the vein of Harvey Kutzman’s war tales than the rather simplistic Southers as the Aliies and the Norts as Germans, just with a future war twist. However, the artists stepping into Gibbons’ shoes here – Colin Wilson, Cam Kennedy, and Brett Ewins – are hardly minor league talent and so the artistic punch of the strip here is assured.

Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t times where Finley-Day plays hard to the everyman role that Rogue occupies, the clone with more humanity than either his enemies or his masters, but the driving force of these early Rogue tales is all about the future war and the revenge mission, all within the confines of a weekly page count and a need to throw in plenty of action each episode.

But for so many, these are the absolute highlight of all of Rogue Trooper’s tales, the simplicity of the stories more than made up for by a truly iconic character goign about things with gusto. And this new Essential Rogue Trooper gives us all a chance to discover or rediscover just how good these early tales were, how effective Finley-Day and Gibbons were at taking a basic war story of revenge and redemption and spinning it out with a sci-fi twist.

Initial strips were one offs, each week a different threat, a different enemy for Rogue to deal with, but later strips became longer, multi-part things, culminating in this Essential collection with the 12-part ‘All Hell of the Dix-1 Front’, with art from the combination of Wilson, Kennedy, and Ewins.

And of course, all of these strips here were originally printed in glorious black and white – whereas this Essential Rogue Trooper is in colour. For the life of me I can’t recall, nor can I find where the coloured version here is reprinted from. It looks way too modern to be the Eagle/Quality reprints of the ’80s, so perhaps it’s the IDW reprint series with work, I think, by Adrian Salmon. I can well understand the reasoning behind using the recoloured version here, but there’s a part of me left hankering for the pure brilliance of seeing Gibbons, Wilson, Ewins, and Kennedy’s take on the iconic blue-skinned soldier of vengeance in the original b&w.

ESSENTIAL ROGUE TROOPER: GENETIC INFANTRYMAN
Written by Gerry Finley-Day

Art by Dave Gibbons, Colin WIlson, Cam Kennedy, and Brett Ewins.

Letters by Dave Gibbons and Bill Nuttall.

Contains material originally serialised in 2000 AD Progs 228, 229, 231-241, 246-253, 265-279
Published by 2000 AD on 27th March 2024

Now, a bit of an extended preview for you, first the original Rogue Trooper by Finley-Day and Gibbons, the very first strip, followed by some of Colin Wilson’s wonderful work in Blue Moon.