History[]
Gunnar, a character in the 2000 AD strip Rogue Trooper, was one of the Genetic Infantrymen created by Milli-Com to fight the war against the Norts on Nu Earth. He was given his name because he was such a good marksman. An unstable personality with violent tendencies (which is quite an achievement, given that every part of him was supposed to be precisely engineered to make an ideal soldier), Gunnar was almost rejected by Milli-Com. Thanks to the help of his friend Rogue, he was eventually cleared for combat and dropped into the middle of what became known as the Quartz Zone Massacre, a traitor at Milli-Com having given the G.I.s' drop coordinates to the enemy.
Gunnar died but, along with his buddies Helm and Bagman, his biochip (a microchip in his brain which preserved his personality at the moment of death) was rescued by the Rogue Trooper. It was placed in a slot on his rifle until he could be 're-gened' (given a new body by Milli-Com). Gunnar joined Rogue's squad in their search for the traitor who had killed them.
Later, Rogue lost the rifle and Gunnar was reclaimed by Milli-Com, who re-gened him. The new and improved Gunnar, who now had telekinetic abilities, returned to Nu Earth to rejoin Rogue, unaware that he had been brainwashed to kill Rogue, who was officially a deserter. (They did it by putting him in a dark room with lots of flashing lights and a voice saying "Kill Rogue Trooper!" over and over again.) Rogue escaped when Gunnar tried to shoot him with a Nort gun that was jammed and exploded in his face. Gunnar lost his second body and wound up stuck in the rifle again, though now able to operate it telekinetically.
Gunnar, Helm and Bagman were re-gened when the traitor was killed, and promptly entered a fight to defend Rogue from some 'Milli-Fuzz'. Gunnar then punched Rogue as payback "for all the times you bossed me around." When Gunnar realised that his new body was going to disintegrate (because of the breakdown of enzyme E, a protein vital in the re-gening process, caused by a virus they'd picked up in the Neverglades) he holed himself up on the armoury deck on Milli-Com and threatened to blow himself up with a grenade. Rogue opened the airlock so that Gunnar was sucked out into the vacuum of space, killing him but leaving his biochip intact. Given that Gunnar had expressed strong antipathy to the idea of living as a biochip in a rifle again (see quotes), this was an ethically dubious action. Back in the rifle, Gunnar was taken by Rogue, with Helm and Bagman, to the planet Horst to look for the Neva antigen, a cure for the virus.
Years later, Gunnar and his buddies were again re-gened, this time as infants with supposedly no memory of their pasts. Somehow though, they were restored to adulthood and ended up working with Rogue again.
When the squad encountered the second generation G.I. named Friday, Gunnar was killed again in a firefight and ended up biochipped and back in the gun, and when Rogue apparently died soon after, Friday and his companion Venus Bluegenes 'inherited' Gunnar. He remained with Friday until the conflict with the religious order known as the Karvanu, but the rifle containing Gunnar was eventually captured by the Karvanu. Gunnar's final fate remains unknown.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers
Limited Telekinesis
Abilities
Shooting, even when fully immersed in highly polluted water.
Strength level
Superhuman. (He's a gun.)
Weaknesses
Tends to be a bit too cocky and aggressive for his own good.
Paraphernalia[]
Equipment
Lazooker shells, sealbursters, etc.
Transportation
Carried around by Rogue Trooper and Friday.
Weapons
He is a weapon.
Notes[]
- Gunnar was the only one of the 'biochip buddies' to be given a personality. An aggressive person who enjoyed combat, he was also deeply cynical and seemed to be the sole biochip buddy who was fully aware of the bleak, existential horror of their situation (see quotes).
- Gunnar's biochip was numbered 2. Helm was 1, Bagman was 3 and it was eventually revealed that Rogue's biochip was number 4.
- According to professional looters Mr Brass and Mr Bland, Gunnar is worth "ten thousand nu creds."
- A parody of Gunnar appeared in the Judge Dredd story in prog 954, Blaster Buddy.
Links[]
- Appearances of Gunnar
- Character Gallery: Gunnar
- Images that feature Gunnar
- Fan-Art Gallery: Gunnar
- Gunnar quotations
Discover and Discuss[]
- Search News for: Gunnar · Trooper G20 · Gunnar