Like the original Rogue Trooper, Friday is a Genetic Infantryman – a clone soldier genetically-engineered to survive in a toxic environment in which normal people require chemical-warfare suits and gas masks – fighting on the planet Nu-Earth.
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.
[1] 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"[2] The fourteen-part story was hit by scheduling problems due to the lateness of the art.
"[2] Michael Fleisher took over the writing of the series with artists Ron Smith, Simon Coleby and Chris Weston.
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.
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.