V.C. one-off

[Mangamax]

Thought it was okay. But that's it. Nothing wrong with the art, a bit of characterisation but - i dunno - nothing really happened and it really smacked of filler.

[Devons Daddy]

yeh it screamed filler in one sense,
but it also showed the fact that the geek is a VC.and smith sees him as such.as do the former VC troopers.
it had a sutle layer of depth to it.
i feel it will create a greater sense of our aceptance of the new recriuts.we discussed the fact we did not feel a sense of loss at the death of the first new trooper.this could well be the turning of that tide.
and just having a VCs base story was great. though,if your going to fill.do it with style. this one had it in spades.

[Bolt-01]

Well scripted, superbly illustrated. This was well worth waiting for, and is a great 'in' for Anthony Williams (Who I used to loathe art by). If only Sin/dex was this good. Mind you, the text story in 2003 was top.

Dave6795

[Queen Firey-Bou]

I think its important to develop our understanding of the team or characters with storys like this. how they deal with situations off the battle field & how they interact with each other is fundemental to our understanding of what happens On the battlefield or wether we care or not. Its vital to team work that personal issues & heirarchies are worked out behind the scene. this usually involves a lot of drinking, shouting & arseing about in my experience. So i didn't think this was filler at all. A good tale.
my only prob with the VCs is that i make Smith around 70 years old, if the last war was 50 yrs ago...that just doesn't work for me , if theres some fancy youthfulness technolegy on the go I'd like it explained. A vet in 50's can still kick ass, but 70's eh ehhhh.
What d'yous reckon?

[Mangamax]

O.k, we got a bit of development regarding team interaction but if this was your first issue (which, lets face it, is one of the reasons for the end of year specials) would you know what was going on and - more importantly - would you want to read more?

[seeneester]

Still got a long way to go to match the original series.

[DavidXBrunt]

Bou, I think Smith's still being fit for service is to do with a number of factors/ Firstly people are living a lot longer now than we would have done a hundred years ago, so by the time the story is set 70 might be the equivalant of the 50's now.

Plus there's bound to be medical improvements over the intervening years, so that will have helped keep Smith fit.

Add onto that the fact that in the intervening years Smith has been working in a menial job as opposed to retiring/working behind a desk that would contribute to his ability to ruck.

As would the fact that he'll have been in combat training since the war began. If the fight had taken place just after the war began then it might have been less believable, but seems okay now.

Oh, and finally, the fight was in a gravity bar, so the conditions for a hand to hand would have been better than if he was somewhere else.

Personally I think it's not something that needs explaining within the story.

[John Caliber]

'Still got a long way to go to match the original series.'

I'd say the original series had nothing going for it - generic future war at its most tedious - so the new series can only be an improvement. We still desperately need Cam Kennedy to lend a hand with the artwork...

[Mangamax]

Tedious?? Geeeeeeeeee!

[JimBob]

 Nah the original series was great. People forget that the comic was aimed at a younger age group then, when i first read it as a kid in the Titan collections it blew me away, I really loved it. Bought the Best Ofs with it in at Dreddcon and was pleased to see it was still great, much better IIHO than any Rogue Trooper stories. I think the update has worked brilliantly, being faithful but aimed at an older audience I was pleased to see my Legion inspired faith in Abnett wasn't madness despite way too many dodgy Sin/Dex stories

[John Caliber]

I first read VCs when I was - oh, about eight? - I found it dire back then, certainly not a patch on the other strips in 2000AD at the time. The new series is bearable, originally because of Henry flint's artwork, but now... it could go either way. I don't care for VCs in any form, but I'd rather see it in my weekly prog instead of SinDex...

- JC