Rogue Trooper

Recently added to the AWB library has been 'Rogue Trooper - Welcome to Nu-Earth', a novel sized reprint of some of the great 2000AD stories. Words by Gerry Finley-Day, art by originally Dave Gibbons and later also Cam Kennedy and Colin Wilson. About 30 years old most of it and, despite the limitations of the standard 2000AD five page format (which basically means a lot of the stories are variations of 'new Nort war machine, Rogue arrives, Rogue kicks arse, Rogue walks off into the chem clouds'), these stories still stack up very well.
There are some interesting bits to pick up. In later years it was well established that the Rogue Trooper, the last of the Genetic Infantrymen breed to survive on the chemical warzone that is Nu-Earth, is blue skinned. However reading these earlier stories, which of course were published in black and white, there is no mention of his skin tone. Indeed you get plenty of mention of people saying 'Look! A man without a chemsuit!' and none of 'Hey, a blue dude! WTF?'.
G.I.s also, as well as possibly being blue, have their memories backed up on bio-chips. That way, when they die in combat, their experiences can be storied till the time when they can be re-genned into a new body, all shiny, possibly blue and ready to fight again. To store these chips all G.I. equipment has holding slots where the chips can be slotted. Hence Rogue roamed the warzones of Nu-Earth with the electronic souls of his dead buddies mounted in his helmet, backpack and rifle.
Conveniently, and reflecting the 'boys comic' nature of 2000AD at the time, Rogues three buddies are named Helm, Gunner and Bagman and no points for guessing which one goes where. Indeed artist P. J. Holden and writer Gordon Rennie took this idea to it's logical conclusion with their definitely non cannon story about Buttplug, the other Biochip.
Yes, that joke is going EXACTLY where you think it is.
Moral of the story being if you must become a genetically engineered clone killing machine, consider changing your name by deedpoll before your first combat.
However that does make you wonder about just how clever the Milli-Com engineers actually were. When said biochips get fitted to said G.I. equipment, the equipment is enhanced as the biochips gain limited control. Helm can monitor sensors in the helmet, Gunner can auto fire and enhances aiming, Bagman and auto dispense useful (read explosive) items from the backpack.
Yet none of these items can do any of these very combat useful things until a biochip is inserted. Until then they are just another rifle, helmet and backpack that any state of the art future war warrior could be carrying.
That's right, a G.I. is effectively designed for failure.
No wonder most of them got massacred.