Hmmm, that comic panel is by Dave Gibbons who wasn't one of 2000ad's better designers/futurists. I'll have to dig up some of the Cam Kennedy issues to see how he did them as I remember he was pretty good at vehicle design, so maybe he addressed those issues you mention.

You could argue that inside the "flat" looking mask there's some kind of molding around the soldier's face to allow speech and breathing and the regulation happens inside the tubes themselves or is hidden inside the cylinders etc, but that's stretching it - Gibbons wasn't really a "design" guy. I had a friend who would take offense at this position and refer to Gibbons' work on Ro-Busters, but he didn't realise all the key robot designs were by Kevin O'Niell who was art director at the time.

Sometimes the "feel" of a design can be more important than the practicality. A lot of old armor design was very much about intimidation rather than full practical mobility (see Judge Dredd!), so the look of a Nortie Soldier could be about conveying the impression of a sneaky reptilian ninja-esque type of creature.

Cheers

PS: Has anybody ever modelled Strontium Dog/Johnny Alpha's helmet? That's a really odd design - I could never get the hang of drawing it.