THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE.

by Matthew Amuso. Gear up, kids; you’re going to war.
Rogue Trooper, soon to be an animated movie directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Warcraft), first put boots on the ground in the early days of 2000 AD in 1981. Essential Rogue Trooper Volume Vol. 1 collects many of the earliest Trooper stories, all written by Gerry Finley-Day (Fiends of the Eastern Front) with co-creator Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) on initial art duties, who was eventually relieved of duty by a hard-fighting squad of thrill-powered partisans. This collection provides quality basic training for new recruits.
The Rogue is a GI (Genetically Engineered Infantryman), remade in a lab to survive the poisoned environs of Nu-Earth, a human colony world orbiting a black hole, ravaged by an endless galactic war between fascist Norts and democratic Southers. When the other GIs are ambushed and massacred, Rogue goes AWOL to seek out and destroy their betrayer. With his blue skin and mohawk, he’s a punk rock soldier, dedicated to the mission but taking orders from no one. However, he’s not alone. Three fallen comrade’s personalities have been preserved as bio-chips: one is equipped with his bag, one to his helmet, and the most opinionated and talkative of them resides on the barrel of his gun. They’re science-fiction ghosts, providing companionship as much as they haunt him.
The bio-chips are just one of many clever feats of world-building Finley-Day performs. His straight-ahead military-adventure style is more old-school than what some more radical 2000 AD scribes dished out, but it still provides a solid backbone for snappy sci-fi ideas. Rad weaponry like vibro-dags, hard rains, and dreamweavers abound, and each installment adds something new or builds on something mentioned previously. As details about life on Nu-Earth steadily accrete, it becomes tangible, a solid world spinning under the reader’s feet. You can smell the pollution, hear the explosions, feel the las-fire sizzle just overhead. It’s a terrible place, but you’ll want to stay.
Finley-Day’s traditional storytelling instincts and knack for efficiency were perfect for 2000 AD’s short, episodic format. Each four-page installment is loaded with action and information (more than some modern twenty-page comics you could name), but they never feel overstuffed. However, that approach can be overwhelming when reading dozens of strips in a row. Rogue was purpose-built to give the reader one serious jolt of action per week. It wasn’t made for our binge-TV dystopia, and the steady rhythms and rehashed exposition can wear the modern reader down. Sip these stories slowly; this is good whiskey, not light beer. Your palette will be rewarded with the tangy flavors of black humor and smoking carnage, enhanced by subtle undercurrents of decency and courage.
Each artist deployed here came to the page battle-ready and pens blazing. Dave Gibbons mapped out the terrain with a sniper’s precise eye; as revealed by his steady hand, Nu-Earth is an impassive and barren hellhole where exciting ways to die await just beyond the next pile of rubble. Characters have weight and volume as they leap into action, and faces twist and contort in fear, pain, and rage. (Plus, his double breathing-tube design for the Nort soldiers makes them classic evil henchmen.) When primary replacement Colin Wilson joined the fight, he sharpened the edges, designing hyper-detailed future tech that gleamed with ill intent. Cam Kennedy added a looser, waggish bounce without sacrificing grit, and Brett Ewins’ raw, thick lines presaged the ’80s black-and-white boom in America.
These strips were originally in black-and-white themselves; here, they get an unnecessary and often unfortunate makeover in color, complete with digital shading. It’s this collection’s only serious drawback, albeit one more casual readers won’t mind or even notice. It’s not all bad — sticking to a flat palette was a wise choice, and occasionally, it adds an extra degree of weird menace. Overall, the change obscures more than it reveals, a minor wound that doesn’t inflict mortal damage.
Rogue Trooper is too tough to die.
8 / 10
Essential Rogue Trooper: Genetic Infantryman hits stores on March 27. For ordering information, click this.
2000 AD / $28.99
Written by Gerry Finley-Day.
Art by Dave Gibbons, Colin Wilson, Cam Kennedy, & Brett Ewins.
Letters by Dave Gibbons, Bill Nuttall, Tom Frame, & Tony Jacob.
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