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Trooper - Eye of the Traitor
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16th
December 05 |
Rogue Trooper -
Eye of the Traitor
by Gerry
Finley-Day, Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy, Boluda
Buy
Eye of the Traitor from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
The last of the Genetic Infantry continues his search for the Traitor General,
with help from a few unexpected allies along the way…
Review by Hugh
Platt
It’s a grim and grey lunchtime, sometime in the winter
of 1991. A young pre-squaxx is picking a tatty copy of what will be his first
2000AD (hidden under a pile of Wildcat comics) out of the box of old comics the
teachers provided to keep the kids quiet during a rainy lunchbreak. It’s
not Dredd or Johnny Alpha that grabs his imagination, but that of a blue-skinned
soldier with a talking gun. And for an 8 year-old, a talking gun is pretty damn
cool.
Of course, the fact that the run of comics ran out just before
Rogue finally took down the Traitor General is neither here nor there. The fact
is, I wanted it to rain some more so I could stay inside and read more of these
comics. Looking back on it now, can still excite me in the same way it did back
then?
The story picks
up direct from the events of Fort Neuro, and plunges straight back into the action,
with Bland and Brass scavenging the battle-mad Major Magnum. Like both the previous
volumes, Eye of the Traitor sees Rogue wander the various zones of Nu-Earth, with
a couple of longer, slightly more crucial to the overall story arc pieces slotted
in. It’s a good mix between meaty thrills and the more gung-ho, throwaway
one-offs.
In the blurb at
the back, Gerry Finley-Day is described as an “ideas man” (those are
Rebellion’s speech marks, not mine) and they’re not wrong. Some of
this stuff seems almost laughable today (such as Rogue’s bizarrely coherent
fever dreams when Bagman operates on him during Milli-Com Memories). However,
the strength of many of the ideas really pulls it through – be it the malevolent
living Bio-Wire or the remote Snooper cams, filming the war for propaganda. In
many ways, Rogue just acts as a cypher for the madness of the Nu-Earth warzones
to shine through. War is Hell, and Rogue Trooper doesn’t let you forget
it. On at least 4 occasions troops surviving insurmountable odds thanks to Rogue’s
involvement still end up dying at the end of the story. Rogue might be the most
dangerous man on Nu-Earth, but the only skin he is guaranteed to save is his own
bullet-proof one.
The aforementioned
Milli-Com Memories provides some vital characterisation of Helm, Gunnar and Bagman.
Throughout this collection they seem to be given bigger and bigger roles, far
beyond that of merely expositional foils for Rogue to explain to the reader what’s
going on through. While they still come across as slightly dense and often spoiling
for a fight, they are at least starting to come across as characters all of their
own. Perhaps
the most important story in the collection, From Hell to Eternity, provides the
first proper introduction of Venus Bluegenes, Rogue’s longterm female counterpart.
Even if she does come across like a Russ Meyer caricature – switching from
happy homemaker with Rogue’s dinner on a plate, to knife-happy psycho-bitch,
Brett Ewins manages to balance the simpering fluttering of eyelids and defiant
pouts so she doesn’t come across as wholly ridiculous.
Both Ewins and Kennedy are both fantastic here on art duties.
There are echoes of Kennedy’s previous work on The V.C’s throughout,
especially in the titular story, Eye of The Traitor. And looking back, you can
see where Brett Ewins got his form for Bad Company from. but just who is Boluda?
Apart from a couple of Time Twisters, I can find no other reference to his/her/its
work in the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest. Boluda’s art is gloomier
than the rest of the collection, but in a way that I read his/her/its stories
as being set at night, rather than just a fondness for a bit more black ink.
The new cover,
re-coloured and re-worked from the cover of prog 317, showcases how the old and
the new are really being brought together so well in these collections. The messageboard
rumblings were correct – the new matt finish to the cover really is luxurious
to the touch.
It’s not
just the covers that are noticeably finer quality. The paper stock is much glossier
than the DC line. At just shy of 200 pages, this is a real bargain at £10.99.
The new designs – especially the separator pages in between the individual
stories – look stylish yet don’t break the flow of reading the stories
in one massive go.
So does Rogue live
up to the expectations 14 years later? Definitely. This is an essential purchase
if you’ve got the previous two collections. Apart from the cringeworthy
Time Slip leaving a slightly sour endnote to the proceedings, this is a hefty
dose of Nu-Earth carnage, and bodes well for Rebellion’s continued reprint
schedule without DC.
Buy
Eye of the Traitor from Amazon.co.uk
Buy
more 2000AD collections from the 2000AD Review shop
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