Rogue Trooper


Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons in 1981. It follows the adventures of Rogue, a "Genetic Infantryman", a genetically engineered, blue-skinned, super soldier and his three comrades' search for the Traitor General. His comrades are in the form of biochips – onto which a GIs entire personality is downloaded at the time of death for later retrieval – and are named Gunnar, Bagman and Helm. He is genetically engineered to be immune to almost all known toxins, can submerge in strong acid unaffected, and is able to withstand a vacuum in his bare skin.
The series was rebooted in 1989 in the story "The War Machine," featuring a new version of the character called Friday. This version of the character last appeared in 1996. The original character returned in 1999 and all stories since then have featured the original Rogue. The character has also featured in a number of 2000 AD crossovers.

Publication history

Gibbons left the strip early on, to be replaced by a succession of artists and writers who have taken the strip in several different directions over the years. Artists to have drawn the character include Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy and Colin Wilson. This quest continued from 1981 until 1985, when the G.I. had his final confrontation with the traitor general and, after a brief further run set on the Planet [|Horst], Finley-Day ceased writing the strip. Simon Geller took over, reinventing the character as an intergalactic hitman attempting to end the war by assassinating key figures, but this new direction was dropped in 1989. John Smith wrote a 'flashback' story, "Cinnabar", set in Rogue's deserter days, before original series artist Dave Gibbons returned to write a much more radical revamp of the character.
In "The War Machine", Gibbons and artist Will Simpson created a different war, set on a different planet, starring a different Genetic Infantryman, this time called Friday. The bio-chips were dropped, and Gibbons concentrated on the politics and economics of war and the sinister nature of the genetic engineering involved. A new ongoing series featuring Friday followed, written by American writer Michael Fleisher. In Fleisher's final story, "Scavenger of Souls", the bio-chips are reintroduced via an alien 'soul collector'.
Fleischer was replaced with Steve White, who made the military aspect of the strip more up-to-date and tried to reconcile the two versions of the character. He also reintroduced Venus Bluegenes who had her own short spin-off run. His run on the character was also notable for the 2000 AD debut of artist Henry Flint.
The character was rested after White's last story in 1996. In 1997 a related character, blue-skinned ambulance pilot Tor Cyan was introduced in the story Mercy Heights.
In 2002 the original Rogue was reintroduced, again in flashback to his days hunting the traitor general, written by Gordon Rennie. Artists have included Staz Johnson, Dylan Teague, Mike Collins, Simon Coleby and PJ Holden. In 2004 Rennie stated that he had intended to revamp the character yet again, but had been blocked by 2000 AD editorial. He also hints that any return to the Rogue Trooper universe will concentrate on supporting cast and not include the Rogue character. This can be seen in the new series The 86ers.

Plot synopsis

The story is initially set on the planet Nu-Earth, where a war of attrition between the Norts and Southers is being fought. There is some similarity to both the American Civil War and to World War I, with the Norts resembling Germany, and the Southers the Allied forces. During the conflict, the use of chemical and biological weapons have poisoned the planet's atmosphere and oceans. As a result, what remains of the population of the planet, including the troops of both sides, live in enclosed domed military bases and habitats. They wear protective suits, helmets and respiration gear when outside their domes. These suits are known as "chemsuits". Any damage to the helmet or chemsuit is usually fatal to the wearer.
In an attempt to bring an end to the stalemate, the Southern High Command have created the GI, or "Genetic Infantryman". The GI is a soldier genetically engineered to be immune to the poisonous atmosphere of Nu-Earth, and therefore be able to fight without chemsuits. The Southern High Command deploy the entire GI Regiment in a mass spaceborne capsule drop over an area known as "The Quartz Zone", which resembles one of the Earth's Poles because the surface has an icy, glacier-like nature. The assault was intended to be a surprise attack, but because a traitor within the Southern High Command has passed details of it to the Norts, they are expecting the attack. The Norts employ elite infantry known as the Kashan and Kashar Legions to repulse the assault, and the entire GI Regiment - apart from Rogue - is wiped out. This event is referred to as "The Quartz Zone Massacre". Rogue, the only surviving G.I., goes AWOL in order to track down the traitor. Along the way he thwarts numerous Nort schemes, discovers and inadvertently destroys the only portion of Nu-Earth not contaminated by chemical weapons, and is betrayed by every female character he encounters.
A later storyline – "MilliCom Memories" – shows how the GIs progress through their training, and that rather than a name each GI has a letter suffixed by their age. Rogue is "R", Gunnar "G", Helm "H" and Bagman "B". Two other troopers "D" and "N" are referenced in the storyline. During their training each GI is given a nickname - Gunnar is so named because of his marksmanship ability. Millicom Memories showed there were other prototype GIs before the development of Rogue's class, some of which were killed during his training.
In a multi-part story titled "The Marauders", Rogue encounters a group of deserters from both Nort and Southern sides, who operate as scavengers from a hidden base and attack both Nort and Southers in order to obtain food, ammunition and supplies. Unknown to Rogue, the commander of The Marauders is the Traitor General. Due to accident the General was severely burned and is now unrecognisable. The General later reveals himself to Rogue, then captures and tortures him. Rogue eventually escapes, and with the help of one of the Marauders, defeats the Marauders that pursue him. The Traitor General escapes, destroying the Marauder base as he does so.
In "All Hell on the Dix-I Front" a massive Nort assault forces the Southerners to retreat from a vast area of Nu-Earth, similar to the Ardennes assault of World War II. During this, other Elite units of the Nort military are introduced, such as the Sun Legion, a Regiment of solar glider troops, and the Scum Marines, an amphibious assault force. "Sister Sledge", a military nurse accompanied Rogue during the Dix-I campaign. She is secretly an enemy agent known as a "filth columnist" and dies in the final episode of the series when Bagman causes her to fall from a boat into the heavily polluted and toxic "Scum Sea".
"Fort Neuro" introduced a defensive line that has been cut off from both Southers and Norts since the beginning of the war. The Fort has been split into separate sectors by the same clouds, meaning each sector operates independently of each other, without any contact or cohesion. The soldiers within each sector are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder so the French sector – known as "Franks" – wear Napoleonic era uniforms, and hold grand balls that were popular in that period. Other sectors display similar erratic behaviour, with the English troops – known as "Lime-ees" – dressing as holiday camp redcoats and behaving as though they are on a perpetual holiday, while the "Rom" garrison fashion themselves as 1950's Teddy Boys - or "Romeos".
Rogue is immune to all known toxins, diseases, and acids with three known exceptions:
In a lighter moment during the Fort Neuro series, Rogue is shown to have difficulty breathing when in a staff car full of officers from the "Rom" sector, who in anticipation of a good night out with the neighbouring "Scan" sector, have applied too much aftershave.
The Biochips are infected by a latent malady unknowingly contracted whilst passing through the Neverglades area of Nu Earth. The unnamed condition renders them susceptible to "Enzyme E disfunction", which causes their newly re-gened bodies to disintegrate, leaving only their bio-chips.

Norts

Norts are a fictional fascist enemy with Slavic and German-like overtones. They are fighting the Southers. They were mainly responsible for the Quartz. The Traitor General was briefly allied with them.

History

In a war which broke out on Earth, it is presumed that Germany and Russia formed a large empire stretching from Asia to Central Europe and ended the war by entering into an unstable alliance with the Southers. The ruling political party of the Norts, the Nordland Party, urged their armies to colonise the various planets deep in Souther space, including Nu-Earth. The early Nort colonists lived in the desert and tamed its wild animals. Years later, when it was discovered that the black hole near the planet led to other parts of the Galaxy, the Norts declared war and launched a preemptive attack on Fort Neuropa, starting the "Nu-Earth Future war". By the time of Rogue Trooper, the atmosphere of Nu-Earth is heavily poisoned by war gases and cannot be breathed except by the Rogue Trooper; all others in the open must wear chemsuits.
In the separate 'Friday' continuity, the Norts started off as a trading company and rival to its sister company, the Southers. When their parent company started a war between Humanity in an effort to avoid stagnation, they pitted the two corporations against one another. After several years, they recalled all high-ranking officers back to their corporate HQ. The sole surviving member of the program, Friday, sneaked on board a rocket bound for their corporate HQ and successfully assassinated Mr. Clavel, the founder and CEO of Clavel Corporation and destroying the company AI, Highside. In the process, he re-ignited the war between the two trading companies.

Realpolitik storyline

In the "Realpolitik" storyline, War Marshal Zell travels to Nu-Earth after hearing of his son's death. He releases Kapitan Arkhan from prison with the intention of capturing and killing his son's killer, the Rogue Trooper. When Arkhan fails the mission, Zell orders Nu-Earth to be captured and sends all available troops there. Eventually, Zell's Inner Circle begin to plot against him, believing he has gone mad due to his son's death. They capture Rogue Trooper and order him to assassinate Zell. Arkhan discovers the plot and executes the chief plotters. Meanwhile, Rogue's contact in the base betrays him, resulting in her death. Arkhan then contacts Rogue and orders him to continue the mission. After Rogue successfully finishes the mission, he is captured, but is soon released by Arkhan after Arkhan is promoted to War Marshal. Before the newly promoted marshal leaves Nu-Earth, he orders the remnants of the plotters to be executed.

Military

Their armed forces include:

Armed forces

The Nort military have formed many units and war machines at their disposal including:
On Horst the Norts had numerous allies:
Their usual chemsuit has a soft hood, often with a low blunt-pointed top, hiding the wearer's face completely except small round or oblong eye-holes, and two large backpack air or oxygen cylinders. Two wide breathing tubes run, one from the top of each cylinder over the shoulders and run into the hood beside his mouth and nose. The design was likely inspired by the old-type open-circuit :Image:Aqualung old type.jpg|aqualung. In some episodes this set has an extra smaller cylinder on the back of the two main cylinders, likely imitated from :Image:Usafl rend.jpg|U.S.Army flamethrowers.
In at least one comic issue, one page shows Nort chemsuit breathing sets drawn with the breathing tubes coming from an demand valve midway between the tops of the cylinders; but many other Nort breathing sets in that issue show the usual design, and in a few frames a version with one cylinder.

Well-known Norts

Well-known Norts include:
Southers are the "good guys" fighting the Norts in Rogue Trooper. Their country is called the Souther Confederacy. They receive orders from Milli-com, their military command complex. It was Souther army scientists who developed the G.I.s in an attempt to produce a soldier more suited to the toxic conditions on Nu-Earth.

History

After an unnamed war ended on Earth, the remnants of America and Britain quickly took control of the Americas, Western Europe and parts of Africa to create a new country and proceeded to promote peace and stability on Earth. They then proceeded to colonise other planets, forming the "Souther Confederacy" and when Nu-Earth was discovered, they built Fort Neuropa as a base of operations. When it was discovered that the black hole near the planet led to other parts of the Galaxy, tensions mounted between both sides. Eventually, the Norts attacked Fort Neuropa so the Southers were forced to retaliate. By the time of Rogue Trooper, Souther Gene-Scientists had created the G.I. Project in a desperate struggle to win the Nu-Earth Future War.
In the separate 'Friday' continuity, the Southers started off as a trading company and rival to its sister company, the Norts. When their parent company started a war between Humanity in an effort to avoid stagnation, they pitted the two corporations against one another. After several years, they recalled all high-ranking officers back to their corporate HQ. When the sole surviving member of their eugenics program, Friday, sneaked on board a rocket bound for their corporate HQ and successfully assassinated Mr. Clavel, the founder and CEO of Clavel Corporation and destroying the company AI, Highside, in the process, he re-ignited the war between the two trading companies.

Fort Neuropa

Fort Neuropa was a Souther fort in the "Fort Neuro" story in the Rogue Trooper stories. Completely isolated since the beginning of the war, its garrison developed bizarre customs resulting in its inhabitants aping the manners and clothes of various European nations and groups from centuries earlier.
When Rogue Trooper arrived at "Fort Neuropa", he discovered that everyone was suffering "Siege Mentality". After losing Bagman, Helm and Gunnar to the "Fort Neuropans", he discovered a plot by the Norts to capture the fort by playing on these neuroses. After foiling an assassination attempt on his life, he recruited the Robe-Runners to help him foil the invasion. Afterwards the neuroses cleared and the garrison were all back to being ordinary Southers.
Rogue had to rescue each sector of the fort separately:
Admiral Torpitz then used his Scum Legions to attack all four sectors at once, bringing in their "Amoks". All the sectors attacked the Nort forces destroying all the Amoks and killing the majority of the Norts which resulted in the rest of the Norts surrendering. During the battle, the resulting explosions and force-fields make a break in the chem-clouds which resulted in sunlight reaching the ground and as a result, the garrison lose their format obsessions. Before Rogue leaves, the Fort Neuropans reward the Robe-Runners with a new redesign and vow to protect Fort Neuropa from the Norts.
As a result, the Nort commander in charge, General Vagner went insane from the shock of defeat.
Realpolitik
Shortly afterwards, Fort Neuropa was destroyed. Its remnants reverted to the World War II era with the leaders modelling themselves after Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, and Harry S. Truman.

Military

Their armed forces include:-

Armed forces

The Souther military have at their disposal:
Numerous allies have included:
Their usual chemsuit has a hard helmet, often with a big anti-gas filter like in gasmasks but bigger, on the front of the chest, connected by a wide breathing tube to the bottom of the helmet faceplate. All the wearer's face can be seen from outside.

Famous Southers

Notable Southers that appeared in the Rogue Trooper fictional universe include:
Many elements of the Rogue back-story were inspired by World War II, the American Civil War and the Cold War. Norts fought against generally less-well equipped Southers, and several battles were referenced, such as the First Battle of Bull Run, which was retold as the Battle of Mek-Bull Run. The Norts appear totalitarian in nature. While their uniforms have Nazi connotations their dialect and names are mostly quasi-Slavic, as if they represented a futuristic version of the Soviet Bloc, although there is some usage of German names as well, for example General Vagner, Admiral Torpitz. Their conduct and methods of waging war are also more barbaric than those of the comparatively civilised Southers. Although as the series develops the Southers are also shown committing comparably immoral acts as well. "Genetic Infantryman" is a direct homage to the supposed "Government Issue" tag that American troops were nicknamed after.

Stories in regular issues

The original run, mostly written by Gerry Finley-Day, was:
Subsequently, Rogue Trooper appeared in stories by three other writers:
The Hitman storyline concluded in the 2000 AD Winter Special 1989.
There was then a story set before the Hitman series:
Rogue also appeared in crossovers with the new "Friday" series, all written by Steve White:
After the new series finished, the original series returned in a story set after Rogue's death, written by John Tomlinson:
The original Rogue later returned in stories set before his death, all written by Gordon Rennie:
Gerry Finley-Day returned to the character after 25 years away, for the end of year special in 2010:
In a short series of one-off stories called What If...? featuring alternative takes on popular 2000 AD characters, Rogue Trooper returned in a story written by Andy Diggle:
The series appeared in one-off stories in annual special issues from 2014:
The character returned to the regular issues of the comic in 2016:
The initial reprints of the 2000AD stories were printed by Titan Books. The most recent books are printed by Rebellion Developments.
The complete series of stories from 1981 to 2012 were reprinted by Rebellion Developments in four volumes:
The original Rogue Trooper stories chronicling the hunt for the Traitor General are also collected in another series of four books by Rebellion Developments:
Additional stories have been collected into two more publications by Rebellion Developments
Starting in February 2018, Rogue Trooper began to be collected in .

Spin-offs and reboots

The 86ers

The 86ers was created by writer Gordon Rennie and drawn by artists Karl Richardson and PJ Holden. The story stars G.I. pilot Rafella "Rafe" Blue and her robot Gabe.

Venus Bluegenes

Venus Bluegenes appeared both in Rogue Trooper and in her own eponymous strip, with stories written by authors including Grant Morrison, Steve White and Dan Abnett.

Tor Cyan

Tor Cyan appeared both in Mercy Heights and in his own eponymous strip, in a series written by John Tomlinson.

Jaegir

Jaegir is a recurring series in 2000 AD, focusing on Kapitan-Inspector Atalia Jaegir, who serves in the Nordland State Security Police. Her role is to hunt down escaped war criminals.

Hunted

Gordon Rennie and artist PJ Holden produced Hunted, a nine-part story told from the point of view of the Traitor General, in 2016. It began in 2000AD progs 2001 to 2009. It features a young Atalia Jaegir and a monstrous early specimen of the G.I. project.

IDW Publishing reboot

On 20 July 2013, American company IDW Publishing announced that after the success of its adaptation of Judge Dredd from 2000 AD it would now champion Rogue Trooper with recoloured old issues as well as completely new stories. "Following the success of Judge Dredd, IDW and Rebellion/2000 AD expand their thriving relationship with the addition of Rogue Trooper to their publishing slate! IDW will launch an all-new Rogue Trooper series in 2014, and also offer newly colored re-presentations of past Rogue Trooper comics, too." On 13 November 2013 it was announced that the new series would be written by British fantasy writer Brian Ruckley and drawn by Alberto Ponticelli. Brian Ruckley acquired the position "by writing a pitch document that people apparently liked." He described his first challenge as scriptwriter as "I can now say from personal experience that writing comics is not straightforward or effortless!"
The new Rogue Trooper features a re-designed helmet, rifle and backpack which serve as the three main supporting characters in the stories. The first episode was originally set to ship at the end of February 2014, but the first issue was actually released on 5 March 2014. Due to lower-than-expected sales, the decision was made to put the series "on hold". The final issue of the new Rogue Trooper series was issue 4, published on 21 May 2014. All four issues were collected as a trade paperback and released on 17 September 2014 under the title Rogue Trooper: Last Man Standing
IDW also published Rogue Trooper Classics, a series of recoloured stories from 2000 AD, in order. It was originally intended to consist of 12 issues, but like the new Rogue title, it was cut short, with only 8 issues to be produced in total - again, a result of lower-than-expected sales.

Other media

A range of Rogue Trooper material has been produced:

Novels

There are three novels based on Rogue Trooper:
The Rogue Trooper Boardgame was released in 1987 by Games Workshop.

Video games

A number of Rogue Trooper computer games have been released in 1986 and 1990. An isometric shooter by Piranha Software for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum was released in 1986. The game consists of killing Norts while searching Nu-Earth for 8 vid-tapes containing evidence of the Traitor General's involvement in the Quartz Zone Massacre, where all of the G.I.s except Rogue were slaughtered. On finding all 8 tapes, Rogue has to return to the Souther base of Milli-Com to prove the General's treachery and the extenuating circumstances of his going AWOL. During the game, as well as the vid-tapes, players could also pick up medi-kits to regain health and ammo boxes to feed Gunnar. A platform game incorporating first-person vehicle levels for the Amiga and Atari ST by Krisalis Software came out in 1990.
After Rebellion bought 2000 AD they released a Rogue Trooper video game in 2006, with a Wii version out in 2009.
In 2009 Rogue Trooper featured a guest role in the game "LittleBigPlanet" for PS3. It came in the form of content which could be bought in the PlayStation Store.
In 2017 Rogue Trooper Redux was released to the current generation PC, PS4, XB1 and Nintendo Switch, developed by Rebellion and TickTock Games.

Film

has said he will be writing a Rogue Trooper screenplay for Sam Worthington's production company Full Clip Production. On 16 July 2018, Duncan Jones revealed that he will direct the movie, without Full Clip Production.
In 2018, a directed by Adam Kirley, produced by Joby Stephens and starring stuntman Damien Walters is being released. The short will premiere at the International London Sci Fi film festival.
In November 2018, Rebellion Developments announced they were setting up a studio for Film and TV series based on 2000 AD characters with Rogue Trooper as one of their projects.