Preview: More Blue-Skinned GI Action With ‘Rogue Trooper: The Complete Collection 3’

by Richard Bruton

Doing what The Complete Case Files does with Judge Dredd — this really is the Complete Collection of every Rogue Trooper tale from 2000 AD.

Rogue Trooper, one of the big characters at 2000 AD. Alongside Dredd and Strontium Dog, the blue-skinned GI was one of a triumvirate of heroes who filled the Progs of the ’80s with incredible action.

These Complete Collections give you every single Rogue Trooper tale, reprinted in order, including stories never before collected. For the Rogue Trooper completist, this is one that you’ll want to have on your shelves.

After the events of Book 2, we’ve seen the end of the first great Rogue Trooper storyline, as the hunt for the Traitor General, the man who engineered the massacre of Rogue’s comrades-in-arms, reached its conclusion.

That relentless quest for revenge was what made early Rogue tales so damn good, Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons‘ creation a driven, single-minded thing, everything about the search for the man who’d betrayed the Southers, betrayed the Genetic Infantrymen, leading to Rogue’s quest down on the irradiated landscape of Nu Earth, all set against the never-ending war between the Norts and the Southers.

What we have here is the aftermath of that. Finley-Day carried things on, giving Rogue new missions, yet never really having the same sense of import as the original. Of course, artistically, things never look less than incredible, with Cam Kennedy and Jose Ortiz doing great things on every page through the first half of the book.

After the Finley-Day stories, Simon Geller takes over with a new mission, re-casting Rogue as an assassin, hunting down key targets to impact the Nort-Souther war. It’s all done with some absolutely beautiful art from Steve Dillon, his line and control of the action unmatched.

Alongside these Rogue tales, we get various other writers and artists taking their turn with Rogue, including Peter Milligan, Grant Morrison, Will Simpson, Mike Collins, and others, in various tales from Annuals and Sci-Fi Specials. These one-off tales, freed from the need to develop a new ongoing story for Rogue, allow the writers and artists to tell their own tales, interesting little one-off war meets sci-fi things.

The Complete Collection Book 3 chronicles a time where Rogue Trooper had completed his mission and where writers cast around for new ways to tell his tales. Truth be told, it’s a book where the art is the draw rather than the storytelling. But, having said that, there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had here with Rogue, always a fascinating character in a fascinating world.

ROGUE TROOPER: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION BOOK 3

PUBLISHED BY 2000 AD ON 24th SEPTEMBER

WRITTEN BY GERRY FINLEY-DAY, SIMON GELLER, PETER MILLIGAN, PAT MILLS, STEVE MACMANUS, GRANT MORRISON

ART BY CAM KENNEDY, JOSE ORTIZ, MIKE COLLINS & MARK FARMER, STEVE DILLON, WILL SIMPSON

LETTERS BY BILL NUTTALL, TONY JACOB, GORDON ROBSON, STEVE POTTER, TOM FRAME, RICHARD STARKINGS

ROGUE TROOPER CREATED BY GERRY FINLEY-DAY & DAVE GIBBONS

ORIGINALLY SERIALISED FROM 1985-1988 IN 2000 AD PROGS 401-406, 410-419, 422-432, 444-449, 495-499, 520-531, 567-572, 574-575, 2000 AD ANNUALS 1986 & 1987, 2000 AD SCI-FI SPECIAL 1986 & 1988, DICE MAN ISSUE 3 & 4.

Now, preview time… starting off with Re-Gene by Gerry Finley-Day and Cam Kennedy…