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Hunted

Started by Leigh S, 28 October, 2016, 05:24:13 PM

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Leigh S

So my son Joe, who is 11 has been introduced to 2000AD stuff over the past year via the complete Dredd mags initially (he is up to about the mid 400s) and the first 15 or so Best ofs... (bear with me!)

He is massively taken by the supposedly old fashioned even for its time Rogue Trooper - more so than anything else he has read, he has really got into it.  He has read all the GFD stories up until the end of the Horst storyline and I got to wondering...

Is Hunted an attempt to create a world for Post Traitor Rogue that explains some of the events of both the Re-gene/Horst/The Hit period?

Specifically, we have the idea of a bigger alien threat that humanity needs to unite against - and who was behind the Hit?  a shadowy bunch of aliens! And just who owned that weird alien looking hand that claimed it was the "bigger threat" to the galaxy in the Return to Millicom storyline.

I may have been guilty of reading too much into Grennies Rogues in the past, but if this isnt leading somewhere, or at least informed by those unresolved post Traitor threads, then it would be something of a shame!

I havent reread the post Traitor stuff for some time, but having my son loving it, and with Hunted striking some similar notes, I think I will have a reread!

pauljholden

I'm saying nothing, but if your son is enjoying hunted let me know and I'll knock him up a little head sketch.

-pj

pauljholden

Obviously, if he's not enjoying it... sod 'im.

Leigh S

Quote from: pauljholden on 28 October, 2016, 05:41:15 PM
Obviously, if he's not enjoying it... sod 'im.

Ha!  Cheers PJ - I will let you know! I am still juggling with giving him the Hit stuff to read or to show him the new progs... If he liked the Horst stuff, then maybe the Hit would work too.... but actually, this might be just the right time for Hunted...

pauljholden

As a parent of an 11 year old, I'm pretty sure a) there's nothing in it that would offend and b) my 11year old couldn't be less interested...

ZenArcade

That's a handsome gesture PJ. Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

Leigh S

Quote from: pauljholden on 28 October, 2016, 06:02:34 PM
As a parent of an 11 year old, I'm pretty sure a) there's nothing in it that would offend and b) my 11year old couldn't be less interested...

Yes, I am surprised and a bit chuffed that Joe has taken to Rogue so much - I always preferred Stront and Nemesis myself, though I was fond of the old blue chap.  When I had kids I assumed they would be at least as geeky as me, but he couldn't be more different than speccy old me - Though he maybe has fond memories of me playing the x-box version.  I always assumed that Nemesis book 1 or "Portrait of a Mutant" would be the real "in" to 2000AD like it was for me - he enjoyed them, but didn't show any of the glee he did when Gunnar was re-gened in "You only live twice"!

GordonR

QuoteIs Hunted an attempt to create a world for Post Traitor Rogue that explains some of the events of both the Re-gene/Horst/The Hit period?

Simple answer: no. I've no regard at all for The Hit or, really, any of the post-Traitor General RT stories, so no reference will be made to them.

Also, I should point out that Jaegir's set slightly further ahead on the RT universe timeline - about 8-10 years - and that the war's still going on. So, as far as I''m concerned The Hit didn't happen.  (Although Rogue is also absent in Jaegir's present; whatever happened to him, he's not around anymore.)

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: GordonR on 28 October, 2016, 07:25:45 PM
(Although Rogue is also absent in Jaegir's present; whatever happened to him, he's not around anymore.)

He's still off hitting people.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
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Leigh S

#9
Quote from: GordonR on 28 October, 2016, 07:25:45 PM
QuoteIs Hunted an attempt to create a world for Post Traitor Rogue that explains some of the events of both the Re-gene/Horst/The Hit period?

Simple answer: no. I've no regard at all for The Hit or, really, any of the post-Traitor General RT stories, so no reference will be made to them.

Also, I should point out that Jaegir's set slightly further ahead on the RT universe timeline - about 8-10 years - and that the war's still going on. So, as far as I''m concerned The Hit didn't happen.  (Although Rogue is also absent in Jaegir's present; whatever happened to him, he's not around anymore.)

Cheers Gordon

I've never had much love for post Traitor Rogue, so I suppose I have my Strontium Dog hat on here, where Wagner took the strands of post Wagner Stront(s) and tried to weave a coherent way to continue a continuity that had been mired in other peoples dabblings for good or ill, without totally disregarding the lot.  The reference to this alien menace seemed a possible retro foreshadowing of the mystery "new threat" that we see  in those later stories.

In some ways, Rogue would be an easier "save" from its future meanderings - we dont even see the villain die, let alone the star. And those aliens that turn up with convenient teleporting tech provide a bit of a groan worthy (but ultimately less convoluted) way of picking up somewhere salvagable.

As someone who loved the Wagner Stront flashback tales a tad more than the continuation stuff, I am intrigued eitehr way and I'm sure Joe will be grateful for another hit (no pun intended) of Rogue!

TordelBack

Fascinating info. Rennie may be ignoring post-Traitor stuff in his current stories, but even unintentionally the setup he presents isn't incompatible with some of it (given that a lot of it was basically very pretty drivel).  More importantly Hunted works as a new and exciting Rogue Trooper story and as a bridge to the wider canvas of the excellent Jaegir (and The 86ers?). It's also a more satisfying angle than his earlier set of Nu-Earth-era Rogue stories.

One of my problems with 'The Hit' at the time was the way the existence of meddling aliens was presented as a huge revelation to an incredulous Rogue, when we'd already seen dozens of alien species involved with/affected by the war in 'The Gasbah' and Horst storylines. 


Leigh S

The main problem with the Hit as I remember it (could be wrong without that re-read!) is that the aliens who hire Rogue are the same ones behind the Beamers.  The beamers kidnap the Genies and Rogue then kills one of the Beamers, only to discover to his horror it was one of the Genies. 

The aliens then tell Rogue they have graciously decided not to kill him after all, and if he would just kill some key personnel for them - doesn't ask about the other Genie or question what the hell these monstrous beings are to be using scientists as murdering puppets and requires no convincing to switch sides...

Hmm - I'm definitely going to put The Hit off the readng list...Hmm - now I need to check if I have that "Realpolitik" reprint in the loft, and in the meantime point Joe towards Hunted....

Cheers all!

GordonR

#12
Quote from: Leigh S on 29 October, 2016, 09:42:48 AM
The main problem with the Hit as I remember it (could be wrong without that re-read!) is that the aliens who hire Rogue are the same ones behind the Beamers.  The beamers kidnap the Genies and Rogue then kills one of the Beamers, only to discover to his horror it was one of the Genies. 

The main problem with The Hit is that it's fucking pointless and rubbish.  Even its own writer thinks so.  I found an interview Bishop did with Simon Geller where  Geller sums up what's wrong with it--

It was a mistake to ever kill off the Traitor General, which completed Rogue's arc and removed his raison d'etre as a character.  (The great comparison Geller gives is The Fugitive TV show; once Richard Kimball catches the one-armed man and proves his innocence then the story is finished. Same with Rogue and the TG.)

That Rogue only really works as a character in stories set on Nu Earth. Send him to another planet or off into space as an interstellar assassin, and there's very quickly nothing really remarkable about him.

That The Hit was written "out of desperation".  Editorial knew it had been a mistake to kill the TG and that the strip really had nowhere to go now, but it was still popular with the readers, so some kind of new Rogue adventure had to appear. 

Leigh S

Quote from: GordonR on 29 October, 2016, 12:54:59 PM
Quote from: Leigh S on 29 October, 2016, 09:42:48 AM
The main problem with the Hit as I remember it (could be wrong without that re-read!) is that the aliens who hire Rogue are the same ones behind the Beamers.  The beamers kidnap the Genies and Rogue then kills one of the Beamers, only to discover to his horror it was one of the Genies. 

The main problem with The Hit is that it's fucking pointless and rubbish.  Even its own writer thinks so.  I found an interview Bishop did with Simon Geller where  Geller sums up what's wrong with it--

It was a mistake to ever kill off the Traitor General, which completed Rogue's arc and removed his raison d'etre as a character.  (The great comparison Geller gives is The Fugitive TV show; once Richard Kimball catches the one-armed man and proves his innocence then the story is finished. Same with Rogue and the TG.)

That Rogue only really works as a character in stories set on Nu Earth. Send him to another planet or off into space as an interstellar assassin, and there's very quickly nothing really remarkable about him.

That The Hit was written "out of desperation".  Editorial knew it had been a mistake to kill the TG and that the strip really had nowhere to go now, but it was still popular with the readers, so some kind of new Rogue adventure had to appear.

Well that too!  Just the any premise falls apart before it can even work once you have Rogue decide that maybe it would be a good idea to do the bidding of these mysterious aliens who have so far broken the peace between the Norts and Southers, tried to kill him and kidnapped (and let be murdered) the only people able to re-gene his bio-chip buddies. It seemed a very convoluted way to try and push the character out of his comfort zone - you could argue brave of them not to just bring the TG back as the force behind the shadowy figures and set him off again on Nu Earth. 

Even if it is by accident, the TG's reasons for going traitor as shown in Hunted does actually fit that later period Rogue and I'll be interested to see if Jaegir itself takes that alien threat angle anywhere (or whether TGs reasons are just the ravings of a paranoid Xenophobe - Farage for the movie version!)

ZenArcade

The General does see a tad unstable. Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead