The Rogue Trooper movie may have recently finished, but I'm not sure if it has been released yet, especially stateside. I have fairly high hopes for it; I kinda figure it'll be not unlike Shin Kamen Rider, as in, a very well-executed love letter to the source material that the average American has never heard of. While we wait, we might as well hit an issue I'm not sure I'd read before: from 1987, Rogue Trooper #7.

The opener, "The Body Looters" and the issue's closer "The Assassination Run" both feature war-scavengers Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland, who are making a tidy sum pillaging battlefields for weapons and equipment to resell, and both get little dollar-signs for eyes at the thought of Rogue catching a bullet and being able to loot all his stuff. They aren't dumb enough to try that themselves, though; and shouldn't they see little pound signs, or whatever the hell British money is? (Tuppence? Shillings? Half-a-farthing? Completely made-up bul--) But later, Brass and Bland had unauthorized access to the satellite spy cameras surrounding Nu-Earth--all the better to see prizes to be picked up--and see Rogue infiltrate the Norter victory rally at Nu Nuremburg. They try to sell that info to the Norts, but no sale: the Norts say they'll find Rogue themselves, and they'll find those two as well. Despite the interference, Rogue still manages to kill two out of four Nort generals there, getting revenge for Dix-1; but now back to his usual quest to find the traitor that betrayed the Genetic Infantrymen. (Written by Gerry Finley-Day, art by Cam Kennedy.)

Surprisingly, there's an Alan Moore/Brett Ewins story here as well, from the 1983 2000 AD Annual. Rogue and the guys meet a young Souther point man, with "Pray for War" on his helmet. While they work together briefly, Rogue (or rather, Gunnar) has to kill Pray when he wants to take out a truck full of Nort women and children, visiting for Christmas.

"Hats Off to Helm" finds Helm getting the guys in trouble, as his chinstrap had rotted away in the corrosive atmosphere. But, Helm has Rogue throw him on a grenade later (a dud!) and then saves Rogue from some Nort bullets, so he was getting maybe a bit big-headed. Rogue worries that between that, Gunnar's trigger-happiness, and Bagman's unpredictability; how long can he rely on his friends? (Also written by Gerry Finley-Day, art by Cam Kennedy.) 

If you're old enough to remember KB Toys, you may have seen the 2000 AD action figures from Re:Action in 1999--I'm not positive that was the year those come out, but even so, that was a million years ago! Rogue didn't get a figure in that six-figure series, but HIYA Toys has one coming soon. He would be a bit spendy, but comparable to other not-quite-mass-market/semi-fancy 1/12 figures. I am tempted...I also need a replacement Strontium Dog. Ugh, maybe I'm doing more overtime this week...

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This seems like as good a day as any for some Rogue Trooper, and we've randomly picked a winner! From 1989, Rogue Trooper #21/22, written by Gerry Finley-Day, art by Jose Ortiz. 

While the war between the Norts and Southers continued, by the point in the series Rogue's primary mission had shifted to "regening" his dead friends Helm, Bagman, and Gunnar; getting them out of their biochips and into new bodies. To that effect, they had left Nu Earth for the planet Horst, in search of a needed antigen for the procedure, only to discover the Norts and Southers were fighting there as well, through alien proxies: both sides had sent military "advisors" to train the natives to fight each other. (It's not dwelled upon or delved into, but it's entirely possible the alien species didn't like each other beforehand, I suppose.) A Souther advisor explains they picked the wrong aliens, and had been largely outclassed, to the point that the Southers had abandoned the planet. Still, the advisor tells Rogue where he can find the antigen information...or does he?

Rogue and the guys fight their way to another zone of the planet in their search, a "crater sea" full of beached ships and corpses. Finding a small craft, they're making good time, until they come across what could be mines. No such luck! The "Nort Navy" is crablike monsters...that strongly resemble Giger's Alien, but armed! Cornered on a small atoll, they manage to set up a "firing square." While Rogue fights them off with a shovel, and Bagman rolls grenades at them, Gunnar covers two sides, by bouncing bullets off of Helm! It's not all going swimmingly, though; as Bagman has noticed the tide is rising, and they would all be underwater shortly...

I don't know if Rogue Trooper ran constantly in 2000 AD, because it seems to run cliffhanger after cliffhanger after cliffhanger. This one almost literally so!

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There weren't any garbage cans on Nu-Earth...

...otherwise, Rogue could've pulled that Spider-Man walking away panel, in today's book: from 1987, Rogue Trooper #14, "Nort by Nortwest" Written by Peter Milligan, art by Jose Ortiz.

Rogue's biochipped comrades Helm, Bagman, and Gunnar are either playfully ribbing each other to distract and cheer him up; or are generally sick of each other after all their time at war. Finally having enough, Rogue tells them he could do it alone, but Bagman counters with a time they totally saved Rogue's hash.

In the Scum Sea Triangle, after hitting a "Mauve Monsoon" ("Purple Rain!") Rogue loses his memory, and the 'chips have to talk him through a visit to the undersea city of Nu Atlantis, which had been taken by Nort soldiers. With the 'chips guidance, Rogue frees the Atlanteans, who explain the amnesia caused by the purple rain is temporary, but will take away any memory of their city. But that wouldn't work on biochips; Bagman explains they never told Rogue because they thought he would be embarrassed about being such a liability. Rogue does see a plot hole, though:

I first read this story in the larger-sized, nicely colored Judge Dredd's Crime File #1; but neither entry in the GCD seemed to know where it was originally published. Actually, it seemed more curious why it was in a Judge Dredd reprint book, but it might've been the first story I read with Rogue, and it's still a favorite.
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There's probably half a dozen easier ways to read this issue: you could get the digital version direct from 2000 AD, or try to find the collection Tales of Nu Earth. If you're in England or thereabouts, maybe you could find the original prog from 1983, 2000 AD #317. IDW recently reprinted several issues, but I'm not sure they got this far. I went with the older American reprint, Fleetway/Quality's 1987 Rogue Trooper #9. All of which feature script by Gerry Finley-Day, and Brett Ewins art for "Fort Neuro," Cam Kennedy on "Bio-Wire!"

"Bio-Wire!" is a five-page short, involving a creeping, living barbed wire; but the bulk of this issue is Rogue's adventures in "Fort Neuro." Under protracted siege by the enemy Norts, the Souther forces entrenched in Fortress Neuropa have started to lose it: the first batch Rogue meets have gone all faux-French, for starters, naming their section "the Napoleonic Complex." With the help of a messenger droid, "Robspierre," Rogue makes his way to the next division, the Lim-ees, who aren't doing much better.

I'm positive most of the other versions are clearer, on better paper, with brighter colors--when available! But I have more than a soft-spot for the low-fi Fleetway-Quality reprints: they were my introduction to Judge Dredd and the rest of 2000 AD's stable of characters. Plus, when you can find them, they're generally cheaper than dirt...and I'll be keeping an eye out, over this weekend! I'm out for three days, we'll see if anything turns up.
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Flipping through an old Quality reprint, Rogue Trooper #29, I saw this ad and was scratching my head as to what the hell that Fantastic Four thing was:

It took me a bit of searching, especially since I thought it might've been a Bill Sienkiewicz cover: he had done a few around that time for some Judge Dredd collections, and that Dazzler: the Movie cover as well. I was way off: it was Marvel Comics Index: Fantastic Four #4, by none other than Steranko!

Anyway, that's what I was thinking about while watching football the other day. Who says it's not a productive use of time?
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I was considering saving this for the end of the year:

Sometimes, a good plot engine will eventually have to be replaced: eventually, Gilligan has to get off the island; or the viewers will get sick of watching characters continually get nowhere. Hunting someone for revenge? Pretty good plot driver, especially for a Genetic Infantryman accompanied by his three biochipped comrades on the battleground planet Nu-Earth. This new plot, though...from Rogue Trooper #41, "The Hit, conclusion" Written by Steve Dillon, art by Chris Weston.

The current premise was, aliens approached Rogue with the opportunity to possibly end the war, by assassinating certain key figures. Out of a dozen, Rogue's finished eleven, but is confronted by Ingrid, who had been tailing him for some time: she had discovered the aliens' intent was less than altruistic, and they were in fact manipulating not just Rogue, but just about everyone, to destroy themselves and clear the aliens' invasion.

The last target had been collaborating with the aliens, so Rogue gives him a one-way ticket to Nu-Earth. But Rogue's tired of war, and since he thinks the aliens will be coming after him, he leaves his friends Helm, Gunnar, and Bagman with a friendly scientist, who puts their biochips in new, infant bodies. This would be the conclusion of the current plot for Rogue Trooper, and most of his appearances afterwards were either flashbacks or an entirely new continuity.

Also this issue: a couple chapters of Ace Trucking Co. They're horrible. Any British fans remember them fondly? Were there extra pages in 2000 AD that needed filling? I know the weekly has been all killer, no filler for the last few years...
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Sometimes, we buy these just for the covers:

Saw this one on sale the other day, and had to throw it into the pile...even though I had never read an issue of 'Mazing Man before. I knew it was a thing, since I remember his origin was in Secret Origins #16. (I bought that one for the Warlord story.) Guess this was the last issue, and the cover doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but hey, Frank Miller cover. (With Stephen DeStefano and Karl Kesel.)


In the same vein, the Youngest wanted this one, and still thinks that the cover is hilarious. It's not the best Simpsons Comics issue I've ever read: most of the story is about Homer drooling over "Pizza Day" at work (a distainful Lenny and Carl point out they can buy pizza, "but it's free!" Homer exclaims) then takes a swerve when Homer gets sick, has a nightmare about a world without beer, and spends the rest of the issue trying to reinvent beer...still, the kid liked it.

And...I spent a good chunk of today playing video games, sorry: we're still working on the Spongebob Squarepants Movie game, and I've been stuck on that one at different points for shamefully long periods of time...oh, but I also found Rogue Trooper (based, of course, on the classic 2000 AD character) for $2.99, and it's not bad. Except now, crap, I just looked up the Quality/Fleetway reprints on GCD, and I might have some of the missing issues to scan...of course, I'm also pretty sure I misspelled 'Rouge Trooper' several times on other posts here, anyway.
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Timing, part seven.

I haven't read 2000 AD or any of it's related titles in a dog's age, and the one's I have were older anyway; but it's still ongoing. I used to get the Fleetway/Quality reprints of Judge Dredd, but a nice reprint book had a great Rogue Trooper tale that introduced me to Gunnar, Bagman, and Helm. Oh, and Rogue too, I guess.

Quick setup: in science-fictiony wartorn future, vatgrown clones called GI's, for "Genetic Infantrymen," are the new face of war between rival factions the Norts and the Southers. (I had to look it up, Rogue was a Souther.) Betrayed by the Traitor General, who presumably wasn't called that before that incident, Rogue is the last surviving GI; but three of his squadmates are "saved" to biochips, so they could be put in new bodies someday. (Presumably, this was less for humanitarian reasons, than as a cost-cutting timesaver to training a new trooper.) So Rogue's fighting the traditional one-man war, just backed up by his talking hat, gun, and backpack; who actually are helpful and entertaining.

Most of the time: the story I remember begins with an exhausted Rogue trudging through some godforsaken no-man's land, while Helm, Gunnar, and Bagman argue. Fed up, Rogue tells them to can it; but Bagman counters with a little story about how much he needs them: his memory temporarily wiped out by a gas attack, his disembodied friends guide him to safety. Rogue almost buys it, except in Bagman's story, the three don't argue once. Helm and Gunnar immediately snipe on Bagman for dropping the ball there, and Rogue decides to take a little walk without them. A fun little eight-page number, that tells you everything you really need to know about the characters and their setting.

I preferred Rogue's comic to Strontium Dog's, but Johnny Alpha was both lucky enough to get his own action figure (unlike Rogue) and Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg played SD in a couple audio plays. In SD's future, mutants are treated quite as badly as in Bishop's: they aren't rounded up and put in concentration camps, but they do live in ghettos and the only job for most of them is Strontium Dog, a sort of bounty hunter. The comic was actually a little more unusual when it started--there's an early mission where Johnny and his partner Wulf the viking are sent back to capture Hitler--but I think it mostly settled in to sci-fi western adventure.

If I'm not mistaken, Johnny's currently dead, although he and the also-deceased Wulf made an appearance in Judge Dredd a few years back, through the magic of time-travel. (For those of you not familiar with Dredd, mutants aren't welcome in Mega-City One either...) I also gather killing Johnny off is considered a mistake, and that a revival will probably happen sometime.

"Timing" continues on Wednesday, and later this afternoon: Acts of Vengeance lasted a little over three months, didn't have it's own or any subsidary mini-series, and didn't set up the next year's worth of storylines: would it even be called a crossover today?

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