On the strength of
Watchmen, the editorial staff of
2000 AD asked
Dave Gibbons if he would be interested in redesigning the
Rogue Trooper character. Gibbons accepted and proposed also writing it, which was greenlit by
Richard Burton. However, time commitments would not allow him to both write it and provide the stories art and
Will Simpson was brought in to cover the art duties. Gibbons says the redesign "was my chance to put everything into Rogue Trooper I wanted and take out all the crap, like the bio-chips" The fourteen-part story was hit by scheduling problems due to the lateness of the art. Gibbons said "I'm still quite happy with the story, although the way it was serialised was erratic - in for two issues, then out again. I was trying to have something that was quite cumulative." After five stories
Steve White was brought in to help address some problems. According to editor
John Tomlinson "Ever since "War Machine" in 1989, readers had been confused as hell about who is Friday and whether he was the original Rogue. I told Steve to figure that out and explain it." This led to a two-year-long run on the series for the writer, although there was a move to hand the series to
Mark Millar which only resulted in a three-part story. and later the original Rogue Trooper, the latter being intended to settle the issue of their origins and connections. Unfortunately, according to Tomlinson "Steve came up with a fairly watertight explanation, but it was enormously complicated and probably confused far more people than it enlightened." That story also brought in
Venus Bluegenes, a G.I. Doll, who would appear in one more story before her appearance in the final story to feature Friday.
Dan Abnett, co-author for that story, was complimentary of White's work, "Steve had such a great feel for military goings on," however, this couldn't overcome intrinsic problems with the story as "he was absolutely hamstrung by the weight of continuity." In the final story in 1996, Friday and Venus disappeared into a black hole and have not reappeared since. Subsequent
Rogue Trooper stories have all featured the original version of the character (except for a non-canonical one-off story in 2024). == Characters ==