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Having taken a deeper dive on the Harlem Heroes and Sinister Dexter, encyclopedia author Scott Montgomery meets the war crimes investigator from the world of Rogue Trooper: ATALIA JAEGIR!
The original Rogue Trooper series, created by writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons, was set on Nu Earth – the war-torn heart of the galactic conflict between the Southers and the Norts. Rogue was a genetically-engineered Souther fighting machine, the last of an elite force, wiped out by the vicious, evil enemy, in league with a Souther Traitor General.
First published in Prog 228 in September 1981, Rogue Trooper had a huge impact and was very popular. The strip went through several reboots – most of which struggled to capture the spirit of the original. Fast forward to 2002 and a successful re-visitation was scripted by seasoned 2000 AD writer Gordon (Missionary Man/Judge Dredd) Rennie – with unseen stories set during the original run while Rogue was still hunting the Traitor General. Although his scripts were filled with the requisite future war action, Rennie added a layer of political intrigue – and the writer was quoted at the time as saying that he was much more interested in the backdrop of the Nort/Souther war; rather than the last Genetic Infantryman per se.
Rennie went on to co-create some spin-off series – including The 86ers (featuring GI deep space pilot, Rafe Blue) and Hunted (wryly focussing on the on-the-run Traitor General). The latter paved the way for JAEGIR, arguably Rennie’s most assured take on this expanded universe.
Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir of the Greater Nordland Republic’s State Security Police investigates war criminals amongst her own ranks. Never before had a Nort character taken centre-stage before – it was a genius stroke from Rennie, revitalising the whole concept.
Here’s the entry on Jaegir from the 2000 AD Encyclopedia:
While war rages across the galaxy between the Great Nordland Republic and their Souther enemies on countless planets, scarred veteran Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir of the Nordland State Security Police investigates and tracks down war criminals. Aided by her loyal team – Klaur, Reesa and Heise – she also roots out corruption in the ranks.
Haunted by an incident on a Nu Earth battlefield where a decision she made caused over three hundred captured Souther POWs to burn to death, Atalia is tasked with investigating the ‘Strigoi taint’ – a genetic aberration deliberately introduced into the gene pool by her father, the much-feared high-ranking General Josef Jaegir, in an attempt to turn the Norts into a race of genetically enhanced super-soldiers.
Before his disgrace and exile, her emotionless father also infected Atalia herself with the taint, knowing that it could turn her into an uncontrollable and mindless subhuman killing machine. The monstrous general also killed Atalia’s Souther mother several years previously, poisoned in a gas chamber in front of his young daughter, whom he has always despised. Viewed with suspicion by the rank and file Nort troops, Jaegir is no stranger to conflict and betrayal but her fearsome reputation will not protect her from an inhuman quarry that she is tasked with finding. She must bring down a former military academy classmate, Grigoru Kuttner, who has now transformed into a monster, before he can murder his own family. He would rather do this than see them turn out like him.
She despatches Kuttner with ruthless efficiency even though they were once lovers, seeing it as a mercy killing. Another mission saw Jaegir neutralise the rogue General Mabuse, known as the Dollmaker because of his penchant for ‘wearing’ different bodies by downloading his biochipped conscience into them. He was working on a secret project codenamed ‘Circe’ which involved a deadly pathogen. Posted to Nu Earth for combat duties, Atalia’s team take on the responsibility of capturing a high-ranking Souther official, Facilitator Choi. A further mission sees the squad sent to Forward Firebase Gogol – a location which contains vital mineral deposits underneath but is so steeped in death it is gruesomely known as Bonegrinder – to arrest the war criminal Commanding Officer. Atalia takes over command when an overwhelming Souther attack commences. Knowing she cannot win, in order to save her comrades, Atalia offers up herself – a high-value prisoner because of her father – in surrender to the Souther forces and ends up in the psychopathic hands of the deranged torturer, Colonel Raksha.
Jaegir’s ever-loyal team enlist the help of the ruthless Kashan legion to mount a daring attempt to extract her before Souther Secret Intelligence operatives – ‘S3’ – come to collect her, led by the mysterious COLONEL (now General) KOVERT. Brutalised, tortured so badly that she had to be brought back on the operating table three times, Atalia had managed to #ght back before the eventual rescue. She con#des to Klaur that her father had set up a secret lab on Nu Earth to develop a new killer virus which would only destroy subjects from Souther bloodlines. She had thought she would destroy it if she discovered it – but now Atalia is poised to seek out the lab and use the weapon to end the war once and for all by wiping out every Souther man, woman and child in the galaxy.
The Rogue-verse (I hope I just invented that term) is a pretty big place – one which brought about a huge amount of cross-referencing in the 2000 AD Encyclopedia. For all of you who love a list – and who doesn’t? – this was the point when your humble Encyclopedia compiler started to feel like he would potentially rather face a Nort firing squad…
Rogue Trooper gave way to new series such as, erm, Rogue Trooper (AKA next-gen Friday) and its brain-meltingly complicated continuity; female GI mercenary Venus Bluegenes; space hospital drama Mercy Heights and its own spin-off featuring space ambulance pilot and Rogue clone Tor Cyan; as well as the aforementioned The 86ers and Hunted. There were also several supporting characters with their own entries: Azure; Brass and Bland; Colonel Kovert; Gabe; Major Magnam; Sister Sledge; The Traitor General and War Marshal Arkhan.
There was even a brand new addition to this Universe as the Enclyclopedia was in its final stages of being written – and luckily there was just time for the latest tale to get a mention. Mayflies is an all-ages take on the concept for 2000 AD Regened issues: concentrating on the survival of a group of teenaged GIs, released early from their artificial gestation, not yet adults nor fully-fledged soldiers. It is definitely fitting that Jaegir’s artist, Simon Coleby, also illustrates this latest iteration.
Indeed, getting back to Jaegir, it is clear that this series is one of the most important of all the spin-offs. We see – through Atalia’s eyes – that there are more to the Norts than just the evil, one-dimensional villains that readers were originally presented with back in 1981. Nonetheless, Atalia herself is far from a saint: She is tough, ruthless and genetically tainted. Yet somehow she is compelled by a code of honour which makes her seek out and bring to justice the very worst monsters of war. However, only time will tell if she will be able to bring herself back from the horrific, dark path of Souther genocide which she has embarked upon.
Co-creators Rennie & Coleby have done a superb job in delivering a fascinating series packed with future war action, murky intrigue and a well-rounded central character in Atalia Jaegir.
The 2000 AD Encyclopedia is out now from all good book and comic stores, as well as online retailers and 2000 AD’s webshop and app.
