Роуг Труппер: История генетического пехотинца

Science fiction strip by Gerry Finley Day and Dave Gibbons

Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley Day and Dave Gibbons in 1981. It portrays the adventures of a "Genetic Infantryman" named Rogue and three uploaded minds mounted on his equipment who search for the Traitor General who betrayed their regiment to the enemy. The series was rebooted in 1989 in the story "The War Machine", featuring a new version of the character called Friday. This version of the character last appeared in 1996. The original character returned in 1999 and all stories since then have featured the original Rogue. The character has also featured in a number of 2000 AD crossovers.

Gibbons left the strip early on to be replaced by a succession of artists and writers who have taken the strip in several different directions over the years. Artists to have drawn the character include Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy and Colin Wilson. This quest continued from 1981 until 1985, when the G. I. had his final confrontation with the traitor general and, after a brief further run set on the Planet Horst, Finley Day ceased writing the strip. Simon Geller took over, reinventing the character as an intergalactic hitman attempting to end the war by assassinating key figures, but this new direction was dropped in 1989. John Smith wrote a 'flashback' story, "Cinnabar", set in Rogue's deserter days, before original series artist Dave Gibbons returned to write a much more radical revamp of the character. In "The War Machine", Gibbons and artist Will Simpson created a different war, set on a different planet, starring a different Genetic Infantryman, this time called Friday. The bio chips were dropped, and Gibbons concentrated on the politics and economics of war and the sinister nature of the genetic engineering involved. A new ongoing series featuring Friday followed, written by American writer Michael Fleisher. In Fleisher's final story, "Scavenger of Souls", the bio chips are reintroduced via an alien 'soul collector'. Fleischer was replaced with Steve White, who made the military aspect of the strip more up to date and tried to reconcile the two versions of the character. He also reintroduced Venus Bluegenes (Helm's treacherous girlfriend from an earlier story who gained a more prominent role during the Simon Geller run) who had her own short spin off run. His run on the character was the 2000 AD debut of artist Henry Flint. The character was rested after White's last story in 1996. In 1997 a related character, blue skinned ambulance pilot Tor Cyan was introduced in the story Mercy Heights. In 2002 the original Rogue was reintroduced, again in flashback to his days hunting the traitor general, written by Gordon Rennie. Artists have included Staz Johnson, Dylan Teague, Mike Collins, Simon Coleby and PJ Holden. In 2004 Rennie stated that he had intended to revamp the character yet again, but had been blocked by 2000 AD editorial. He also hints that any return to the Rogue Trooper universe will concentrate on supporting cast and not include the Rogue character. This can be seen in the new series The 86ers.

Many elements of the Rogue back story were inspired by World War II, The Vietnam War, the American Civil War and the Cold War. Norts (Northerner Unionists) fought against generally less well equipped Southers (Southern Confederates), and several battles were referenced, such as the First Battle of Bull Run, which was retold as the "Battle of Mek Bull Run". The Norts appear totalitarian in nature. While their uniforms have Nazi connotations their dialect and names are mostly quasi Slavic, as if they represented a futuristic version of the Soviet Bloc, although there is some usage of German names as well, for example General Vagner, Admiral Torpitz (a play on the German admiral Tirpitz). Their conduct and methods of waging war are also more barbaric than those of the comparatively civilised Southers. Although as the series develops the Southers are also shown committing comparably immoral acts as well. "Genetic Infantryman" is a direct homage to the supposed "Government Issue" tag that American troops were nicknamed after.

The 86ers was created by writer Gordon Rennie and drawn by artists Karl Richardson and PJ Holden. The story stars G. I. pilot Rafella "Rafe" Blue and her robot Gabe.

Venus Bluegenes appeared both in Rogue Trooper and in her own eponymous strip, with stories written by authors including Grant Morrison, Steve White and Dan Abnett.

Tor Cyan appeared both in Mercy Heights and in his own eponymous strip, in a series written by John Tomlinson.

Jaegir is a recurring series in 2000 AD, focusing on Kapitan Inspector Atalia Jaegir, who serves in the Nordland State Security Police. Her role is to hunt down escaped war criminals.

Gordon Rennie and artist PJ Holden produced Hunted, a nine part story told from the point of view of the Traitor General, in 2016. It began in 2000AD progs 2001 to 2009. It features a young Atalia Jaegir and a monstrous early specimen of the G. I. project.

On 20 July 2013, American company IDW Publishing announced that after the success of its adaptation of Judge Dredd from 2000 AD it would now champion Rogue Trooper with recoloured old issues as well as completely new stories. On 13 November 2013 it was announced that the new series would be written by British fantasy writer Brian Ruckley and drawn by Alberto Ponticelli. Brian Ruckley acquired the position "by writing a pitch document that people apparently liked." He described his first challenge as scriptwriter as "I can now say from personal experience that writing comics is not straightforward or effortless!" The new Rogue Trooper features a re designed helmet, rifle and backpack which serve as the three main supporting characters in the stories. The first episode was originally set to ship at the end of February 2014, but the first issue was actually released on 5 March 2014. Due to lower than expected sales, the decision was made to put the series "on hold". The final issue of the new Rogue Trooper series was issue 4, published on 21 May 2014. All four issues were collected as a trade paperback and released on 17 September 2014 under the title Rogue Trooper: Last Man Standing. The series was reprinted in four issues of the Judge Dredd Megazine (#459 to 462) in 2023. IDW also published Rogue Trooper Classics, a series of recoloured stories from 2000 AD, in order. It was originally intended to consist of 12 issues (with issue 1 being published on 14 May 2014), but like the new Rogue title, it was cut short, with only 8 issues to be produced in total – again, a result of lower than expected sales.

The Rogue Trooper Boardgame was released in 1987 by Games Workshop. EN Publishing released the Rogue Trooper tabletop roleplaying game in 2020.

A number of Rogue Trooper computer games have been released in 1986 and 1990. An isometric shooter by Piranha Software for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum was released in 1986. The game consists of killing Norts while searching Nu Earth for 8 vid tapes containing evidence of the Traitor General's involvement in the Quartz Zone Massacre. On finding all 8 tapes, Rogue has to return to the Souther base of Milli Com to prove the General's treachery and the extenuating circumstances of his going AWOL. During the game, as well as the vid tapes, players could also pick up medi kits to regain health and ammo boxes to feed Gunnar. A platform game incorporating first person vehicle levels for the Amiga and Atari ST by Krisalis Software came out in 1990. After Rebellion bought 2000 AD they released a Rogue Trooper video game in 2006, with a Wii version out in 2009. In 2009 Rogue Trooper featured a guest role in the game "LittleBigPlanet" for PS3. It came in the form of content which could be bought in the PlayStation Store. In 2017 Rogue Trooper Redux was released to the current generation PC, PS4, XB1 and Nintendo Switch, developed by Rebellion and TickTock Games.

Grant Morrison has said they will be writing a Rogue Trooper screenplay for Sam Worthington's production company Full Clip Production. On 16 July 2018, Duncan Jones revealed that he will direct the movie, without Full Clip Production. In 2018, a not for profit short fan film directed by Adam Kirley, produced by Joby Stephens, and starring stuntman Damien Walters was released, with its premiere at the International London Sci Fi film festival. In November 2018, Rebellion Developments announced they were setting up a studio for a film and TV series based on 2000 AD characters with a Rogue Trooper animated film as one of their projects. In January 2024, it was announced that principal photography had concluded, with Aneurin Barnard voicing the eponymous character, and Jones reconfirmed as director, writer, and co producer. The film was animated using Unreal Engine 5.