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Forum’s Fav Thrill - Kingdom vs. Rogue Trooper Rd 5 Heat 13

Started by Colin YNWA, 10 August, 2022, 06:27:40 AM

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Colin YNWA

Round 5 was always going to be a quickie and in two weeks we are done. I'm thinking maybe next round we'll go to one a day to give us more time to luxuriate (or for me to prep whatever's next if I'm honest, not had to think about that for some time!) Anyway not much else to say except a week of more bastard hard choices!

Over in the 'FAV THRILL ROUND 4 ROUND-UP' thread we had the following posts

Quote from: BPP on 31 July, 2022, 01:05:52 PM
One thrill more popular with others than me that I think could well take out something like ABC or Rogue is Kingdom. That beast is hugely popular.

Quote from: AlexF on 01 August, 2022, 10:32:27 AM
...Still, gonna be quite a challenge for even Rogue Trooper to make it through Round 5!

Little did they know the answer was coming in Heat 13!

Kingdom: Carver Hale; Proteus Vex; DreadNoughts
Rogue Trooper: Harlem Heroes (Reboot); Time Twisters; Cradlegrave

Kingdom - more info

VS

Rogue Trooper (Rogue) - more info

Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.

Match ends early on the morning of Saturday 13th August and the winner gets a place in Round 6 (of 9!!!).

What on Earth is ALL of this?

For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules

Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!

Trooper McFad

Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

sintec

Kingdom. It's far more consistent than Rogue which for every great moment has some meh.

Magnetica

I had always previously had the impression Rogue was regarded as an A list 2000AD character, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm a big Dan Abnett, but think he has series that are even better than  Kingdom.

So this is a close one. I'm going to go with Kingdom.

IndigoPrime

Rogue has its moments but for me was always the least of 2000 AD's classic characters. Kingdom took a while to click with me but swiftly became one of my favourite strips from 2000 AD's entire run. It has a classic vibe in many ways but is also modern in terms of its storytelling and art.

Aaron A Aardvark


abelardsnazz


Funt Solo

Can Rogue's disco dancing skillz save him from Gene the Hackman's fist-blades?

Kingdom's not perfect, mind you. By the time we got into space it all got a bit gradient fill. His wife was thrown aside as so much background dressing as we jumped quickly from scenario to scenario. The end is very much an admission that it could just go on and on.

But those are all the worst bits. Rogue has a longer list of those, and the episodic nature means a modern view of it is usually negative.Tis dated, so it is. Tonally awkward. But with great art.

Kingdom
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 August, 2022, 08:31:42 AM

Kingdom's .... The end is very much an admission that it could just go on and on.

Tharg has said its coming back. I guess its just a schedule issue as to when with both very busy. That said if that was the end it'd do as it worked fine, just would love to see more Kingdom.

Funt Solo

Abnett is good at ambiguous endings, isn't he? Like that time he finished Sinister Dexter.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Barrington Boots

IP sums it up nicely in that Kingdom has the feel of a classic strip but done in a modern style. When it's good Rogue was superb, but that doesn't happen often enough to make it the better thrill here for me. Another vote for Kingdom
You're a dark horse, Boots.


rogue69


Dark Jimbo

There's a lot to like about Rogue Trooper, but oh dear lord is it inconsistent - and that's during the GFD era, too, never mind the latter Hit-era stuff. Kingdom is by far and away the strip I'd rather read on any given day.
@jamesfeistdraws

AlexF

Quote from: Aaron A Aardvark on 10 August, 2022, 08:07:34 AM
I'm not mad keen on Nominative determinism so

Kingdom

'Nominative determinism' as in, your main character is called Gene the Hackman and he has giant blades that slide out of his wrists so he can hack away at people? Or Old Man Gary who is old? Or Clara Bow who is good with archery? Jack so Wild who is a loose cannon? ;) :D

Frankly, the nominative determinism of it all is one of a few things that, to me, Kingdom has borrowed from Rogue Trooper. Not saying it's derivative, as Kingdom is totally it's own thing, but I DO think these two thrills are really rather comparable: they're basically both stories of noble loners (who are always accompanied by companions), who wander around a war-torn hellscape and use their extreme fighting skills to solve problems, until those don't work and they need help. They were also both much better in the early stories - before Rogue found his nemesis, and before Gene ended up in space with the surviving (mostly evil) humans. At least Gene isn't constantly betrayed by a series of beautiful women. That only happens to him sometimes.

I confess I'm rather excited that new thrill Kingdom looks set to beat Rogue here, but as someone who ignored Rogue for years as a very young reader, but then fell in love with the character as a teen, on finding the old Titan volume 1 collection, my votes going to Rogue Trooper. And never mind the boring later Rogue stories. But also DO bear in mind the much later, really rather excellent Rennie run.

(or maybe it's that I still feel guilty about basically stealing the Rogue Trooper idea for a 'creative writing' homework at school once that I got a pretty good mark for)