Review by Frank Plowright
While the first two Rogue Trooper collections in this format consisted of one and two part stories almost exclusively, Book Three provided the way forward for Gerry Finley-Day. Lifting a trick from Judge Dredd, he realised he could string together individual stories within the framework of a larger arc, and Book Four supplies two longer outings, and Book Five is entirely the epic ‘Fort Neuro’.
We open with the eight chapters of ‘The Marauders’ featuring the final series art from Colin Wilson (sample left). He’s to be commended for not only attractively detailed art throughout, but also ensuring sometimes muddled ideas are clarified in the storytelling. This, though, isn’t a muddled idea. While Nu-Earth is a battleground between Norts and Southers, some troops from both sides have tired of the endless conflict, joined forces and set themselves up as an independent force motivated by profit. Rogue continues to look for the general who sold him out, and indeed finds him, but the general has the upper hand via a now unrecognisable scarred face and a new name.
It’s a taut thriller, allowing for Finley-Day’s dialogue being functional rather than easy on the ear, never mind an authentic voice. There’s an exploration of how little loyalty is extended to a traitor whose usefulness is over, how Bagman, Gunnar and Helm fare when separated from Rogue and an explosive ending. Wilson starts things off, but Cam Kennedy draws more chapters, and he’s gradually moving away from following Wilson’s lead to the satisfyingly chunky art for which he’s known.
Separating the two longer stories is ‘Bio-Wire’, one of those moments of inspiration Finley-Day doesn’t have often enough, concerning intelligent barbed wire snaking about a battlefield and how it might be used. It’s also Kennedy’s coming of age on Rogue with great art (sample right).
Kennedy draws all of ‘Milli-Com Memories’, in which a delirious Rogue recalls incidents from the past so far kept from Bagman, Gunnar and Helm. It’s a look back to the time when all the genetic infantrymen were engineered and trained, and introduces Venus Bluegenes, a character popular enough to return later in the series. Seeing the chipped supporting characters with bodies gives depth to their personalities, and despite rather a feeble and abrupt ending, visiting the past adds to Rogue’s environment.
Rogue Trooper coasted for a long time on little but the formative ideas, but with the longer stories Finley-Day has found his groove, and this is another readable collection. In bulkier collections the content is spread over Tales of Nu-Earth 01 and 02, and The Complete Collection Volume 1 and Volume 2, while most of the material drawn by Kennedy also features in Eye of the Traitor.
