Review by Frank Plowright

Rogue Trooper counts among the 2000AD heavyweights. A blue skinned, genetically engineered soldier, Rogue’s personality is confined to a computer chip embedded in an artificial body able to withstand the toxins and radiation produced by decades of war between the Norts and the Southers. He carries three further chips attached to his backpack, gun and helmet, comrades temporarily saved with whom he communicates. His endless war has resonated and certainly featured some great artists over the years, yet for a classic character, his stories have never been as good as the reputation might suggest. Can Garth Ennis fix that?

Considering it’s been a while since Rogue Trooper’s last appearances, Ennis could have merely tinkered around the edges, but instead opts to shift Rogue into his more favoured territory. Blighty Valley is to all intents and purposes about the tragic warfare of World War I with Rogue the only anomaly. If you’re prepared to accept that as a Rogue Trooper story, it’s very good.

While the battlefield may have changed, Ennis remains true to the premise of the eternal warrior, setting Rogue among a small troop of British soldiers around the Somme trenches, surrounded by Germans with greater technology. Of course, that greater technology is nowhere near as advanced as Rogue’s. Ennis supplies Rogue with new comrades, representing different attitudes about the war, but all ordinary men, and unlike earlier World War I stories serialised in British comics, Ennis can now have the men talking as they actually would have done. Minor swearing abounds.

Realism is also the priority for Patrick Goddard, whose art is phenomenal. Every single page is packed with detail, be it people, surroundings or assorted material, and when Goddard opens into a battle scene it conveys the horror and chaos. Even more astoundingly this is achieved without ever resorting to a splash or a spread. His use of a grey wash for texturing is excellent, and when design is required Goddard’s conceptual skills are the equal of his technique. In British comics Joe Colquhoun’s years on Charley’s War are the gold standard for World War I comics art, but Goddard’s pages here are Colquhoun’s equal, and Goddard’s even stronger with the emotional content of quiet moments. The only minor quibble would be that he nails the conditions, but the troops themselves are too clean.

Ennis applies a reversal halfway through, returning Rogue to more familiar territory, but improves on earlier Rogue Trooper by providing a stronger element of tension than is usual. Bravery, foolhardiness and awareness of the bigger picture all play a part, and if the symbolism of the ending is overplayed it barely dents what’s the best Rogue Trooper story yet.