Review by Frank Plowright

To the Ends of Nu-Earth covers most of Rogue Trooper’s activities as serialised in 2000AD during 1984, all written by Gerry Finley-Day, and mostly drawn by Cam Kennedy. The content continues from Eye of the Traitor, but as Finley-Day’s only continuity is Rogue’s hunt for a traitor, there’s no need to prioritise reading the collections in order. Around half the collection had previously been reprinted in Rogue Trooper’s Future Wars.

Three extended serials form the bulk of this collection. Finley-Day warms up with the six chapters of ‘Colonel Kovert’, featuring a stock in trade piece of plotting in which Rogue takes a giant logical leap, and it turns out to be entirely correct. Kennedy’s version of Rogue in space, though, is widescreen elegance.

The emotional hook of ‘You Only Die Twice’ concerns the strip’s key feature of Rogue’s former comrades being reduced to computer chips fixed to his effects and in the case of Gunnar able to control his gun. The aim is to get them back home where they can be restored to a body, but how effective would Rogue be with Gunnar incapacitated? That’s only the starting point, though, of a tale maximising suspicion as it seems the Norts really have come up with a way of dealing with Rogue. This works pretty well all the way through, sowing doubt among comrades and being just the right length at ten chapters, meaning it again poses the question of why Finley-Day can’t manage to hit the target consistently.

He certainly doesn’t in ‘Message From Milli-Com’, which is shorter at nine chapters, but doesn’t feel like it, as after an interesting set-up, Finley takes the plot for a wander. Rogue falls in with a group of Souther officers who sell him on the idea of the war being prolonged by the incompetence of their superiors. If he can train them to kill a Nort general on their behalf they’ll be promoted and be able to end the war. Are you sniffing any rats? A saggy middle section scuppers the story, and by the time it picks up again it’s too little, too late.

There’s a spartan elegance to Trevor Goring’s art, which makes it a shame he only ever drew five pages of Rogue, and Steve Dillon is excellent on just ten and would draw more, but both stories are filler.

The best of the remaining content, all excellently drawn by Kennedy, is the title strip, at least until the end, where yet again Finley-Day has the traitor Rogue’s been hunting all this time make another ridiculously improbable escape. As was the case in Eye of the Traitor, there’s a conveniently located spacecraft just at the place where Rogue seems to have caught him at last. However, there is a step forward to be picked up in Re-Gene.

‘You Only Die Twice’ ranks as one of Finley-Day’s best Rogue stories, and the length makes this the ideal Rogue Trooper sample. If you enjoy the remainder also, it’s worth investigating further.

These slimmer paperbacks have been supplanted by bulkier collections of Rogue’s experiences. Tales of Nu-Earth 02 contains everything, but has now been superseded by Complete Collection 2.