Forum’s Favourite Thrill - Rogue Trooper vs. Time Twister Round 3 Heat 19

[Colin YNWA]

Week 3 of Round 3 is ‘One and Done’ week with no fewer than 3 of the surviving Future Shockesque stories appearing. They all have very interesting ties and … well we’ll see. In my mind though, intriguing as those clashes are, is a modern masters face-off that is one of the ties of the Round for me, not everyone I imagine, but for me…

errrr I never right these in a rush in the morning and it does rather feel like this one deserves a good write up, or at least better than I'm going to give it now! Rogue Trooper flag bearer of the prog bested Harlem Heroes (Reboot) just using Helm... errr Time Twisters home of some of the truly great done in one and many of one A. Moore of Northamptons finest shorts. Most of them even the rubbish one would have seen of Moonrunner as they did in Round 2 mind... best I can do in a rush!

Rogue Trooper (Rogue) - more info
Vs

Time Twisters - 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 Friday 27th May and the winner gets a place in Round 4 (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

[abelardsnazz]

Some Time Twisters are absolute classics, giving us the likes of Chronocops and DR & Quinch. Rogue is a masterclass in world-building and has some fantastic art, plus Cinnabar.

Difficult one but on balance I'm going for Rogue Trooper.

[broodblik]

Rogue Trooper (Rogue)

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Time Twisters. Because, frankly, any excuse to vote against Rogue Trooper I will take.

SBT

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Rogue has great ideas but I've always found it boring. Some of the Twisters are mini-masterpieces.

Time Twisters

[Blue Cactus]

Rogue Trooper

[IndigoPrime]

Rogue for me just doesn’t hold up. I found the original run paled in comparison to the likes of Sláine, Nemesis and other classic thrills. It was… just there. It felt contrived and old-fashioned, like it had arrived from the earliest era of 2000 AD. There were glimmers of brilliance within, but beyond the premise and one-offs like Cinnabar and that Alan Moore one-off, it never fully clicked for me (and went properly off the deep end during The Hit).

Time Twisters… while I’m unconvinced this kind of series should be in these face-offs, I recall enjoying most of them, and the highs (notably Moore’s) are well beyond anything from Rogue Trooper. So: Time Twisters.

[rogue69]

Rogue Trooper

[Trooper McFad]

Rogue Trooper

[AlexF]

It is weird comparing one-off shorts to a mega-long-running series, but frankly in this case both are SUCH a big part of the Prog, both with their heydays around the same time, that it feels like a fair fight. That said, I find it hard to get as excited about a set of one-offs compared to getting lost in the glory of 'one-man's mission' narratives. I would also say that, for all that Rogue Trooper is an action series, his whole thing of being a grumpy loner who is better at soldeiring than anyone he encounters, really makes the point that WAR IS HELL so effectively I give it a lot of bonus points. I might've wanted to be Johnny Alpha, or Nemesis, or even, in darker momnets, Judge Dredd, but I've never wanted to actually be Rogue - no thanks!

All by way of saying, I'm votin' Rogue Trooper

[Huey2]

Time Twisters.

[Magnetica]

I always had the impression that Rogue Trooper was massively popular back in the day. For me it was never up there with the very top tier, but it was a decent, enjoyable read.

Once the Traitor General story was done, it lost its way and seemed to be a strip in need of a purpose.

Time Twisters did give us (as others have said) DR & Quinch and a few great one offs. But I’m not sure that’s enough for a vote.


So Rogue Trooper.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

time twisters

[Rogue Judge]

Rogue Trooper. I might like the concept more than the execution, but with great art and fun characters, re-reading Rogue is always enjoyable.

[Funt Solo]

I'm going to suggest that Rogue Trooper isn't meant to be read as a collection - but as a weekly serial it worked really well. Stuff like The Marauders was very exciting, and the huge Nort offensive of All Hell on the Dix-I Front felt like a real tide turning in a real war. Even with everyone rating Cinnabar so highly, it stands on the shoulders of GFD's inventiveness in constructing the world of chem clouds, biowire and hoppers that John Smith could play in. A true 2000 AD classic that has echoed through the history of the comic.

Time Twisters (fault of the format) is very hit and miss.