GI Joe: Special Missions #4 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Paul Gulacy (art), Aburtov & Grafikslava and Romulo Fajardo, Jr. (colors) and Neil Uyetake (letters)

The Story: Crush Depth concludes….will anyone get to take the sunken Cobra money?

Review: This is not good.  As I was reading this comic, I tried to think of reasons could be so poor.  But, rather than dive into excuse-making for creators, let’s talk about why this issue (and series so far) have been a total waste.

The story is highly-problematic.  Whereas the main GI Joe title and Cobra Files are doing some very subtle, intricate storytelling that appears to be heading somewhere, this “Crush Depth” story has gone nowhere–literally.  In issue one, we learned about how Baroness had a plan to reclaim some money that was on a sunken Cobra ship.  Scarlet and her special team of Joes set off to interdict her and “tag” the money so they could monitor Cobra’s activites.  We’ve had some danger and fighting along the way, but the end result is that the money was sunk back to the bottom of the ocean.

GI Joe: Special Missions #3 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Paul Gulacy (art), Aburtov & Grafikslava (colors) and Neil Uyetake (letters)

The Story: Scarlet tries to thwart a Cobra salvage operation.

Review: This is a pretty mediocre comic.  If you’re a big-time GI Joe fan and just want to keep connected to the storyline, I guess this will do, but it’s hard to imagine this issue winning anyone over to the cause of GI Joe comics.

The story is pretty mundane and routine: Cobra is trying to salvage a bunch of money from the wreck of one of their ships; Scarlet and a team of Joes is trying to stop them.  Most of the actual fighting happened last issue and this issue treats us to little more than Scarlet watching Cobra escape.  The storytelling choices in this issue leave a lot to be desired.  For example, at one point in the issue Scarlet and Mainframe have a mini-cliffhanger of “We’re not alone in this water filled room…”  Turn the page and they get attacked by a shark–and that’s kinda cool.  Who doesn’t enjoy a shark-attack?

GI Joe: Special Missions #1 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Paul Gulacy (pencils), Aburtov & Grafikslava (colors), Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: Now that most of the Joes are out in the open, someone still has to do the dirty, secret missions.

Review: This issue was a bit of a disappointment.  The sorrow starts with the art.  This just isn’t good enough.  I was really excited when I saw that Paul Gulacy would be drawing this series.  Gulacy isn’t my favorite artist, but there’s no question that he is highly competent; the man has had an almost 40 year history in comic art and has drawn just about everything.  This issue is NOT one of his higher points.  I’m really not sure what happened with the art in this issue.  There are panels here and there that look like classic Gulacy, but there are also a LOT of rough images.  I wonder if IDW just didn’t pay him much and he drew it in a hurry?  I’ve heard rumors about what IDW pays their artists (~$40/page) and it’s really cheap….certainly not something a person could pay the rent with.  I also noted that Gulacy is only credited as a “penciller” and that no inker is credited.  If these are rough pencils (perhaps done in a hurry) where all the “inking” was added via Photoshop contrast adjustments and the spot blacks and shading by the colorists, that would explain a lot of the rough looking faces and inconsistency of the comic.  Ultimately, all these potential excuses don’t matter: Gulacy’s name is listed and the comic costs $3.99.

GI Joe #11 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Robbie Robbins (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: As the Cobra Command crossover comes to a close, Cobra has just about cleared out the country of Nanzhao.

A Few Things: 

1. Entertaining ideas, but… – This has been an entertaining and creative storyline, but it’s just too damn long.  I really don’t understand this fixation that publishers/writers/editors have on making stories longer.  When Cobra Command finishes, it’ll be NINE issues long.  I don’t see any good reason this couldn’t be 6 issues and still have accomplished the same things.  Let’s move onto what is next!  I guess when it comes down to it, I like the ideas presented in this story (and issue), but the execution is lacking a little bit.  Lots of the scenes are too long by a few panels.  As an example, there surely there was some drama in Scarlet’s decision to shoot down a nuclear armed Cobra drone, but that decision shouldn’t take a full two pages.  Comics aren’t supposed to read like a novel.  Keep it snappy!

2. Cobra will be in an interesting place when this is over. – I’ve really enjoyed IDW’s view of Cobra as it emerges from the shadows.  When this arc ends, they’ll have basically destroyed a sovereign country just to remove a competitor in the global drug trade.  Scary huh?  When you get down to it, this was all a big battle between two rival drug gangs; just like Marlo versus the Barksdales in The Wire…except that Cobra has nuclear weapons.

Snake Eyes #10 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (breakdowns), Beni Lobel (finishes), J. Brown (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) and John Barber (editor)

The Story: As Cobra is taking over the small country, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are going to have some business together.

Review: I honestly wasn’t planning to review this issue.  Last week I reviewed GI Joe #10 and was a little hard on the art by Axel Cal.  I knew that he was also doing the art on this issue and since here at WCBR we “sign up” for comics to review early in the week, I didn’t want to review something that I knew probably would be negative on.  See…..I’m not a total creep. 🙂

But, you know what, this issue was a lot better and I felt that Alex deserved a bit of a pat on the back after I was hard on him last week.  There are some artistic changes on this issue….  Namely, Cal has an inker on this issue.  But, the effect is that suddenly this comic is perfectly fine from an art standpoint.  It isn’t a comic that I want to be buried with me (or anything like that), but this will do just fine.  I can see the action now!  That is such a huge thing in a comic like Snake Eyes… I want to be able to tell how characters get into the positions they are in and how they threw that punch or kick.

It’s also worth mentioning that GI Joe comics are hard to draw.  For one thing, you’ve got to get all of the equipment correct.  Not only does that mean drawing accurate firearms which most comic artists barely bother with, but you also have to get all the GI Joe toys correct and make them look real.    That’s not easy.  Even the characters look like a pain in the butt to draw: Snake Eyes has that funky visor with six lines (and fanboys will complain if there are 5 lines), and pouches and kneepads.  These characters are harder to draw than typical superheroes which are mostly nudes with costumes colored onto them.

GI Joe #10 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Shawn Lee (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: Cobra has taken over a sovereign country and is driving the civilians out!  The Joe’s have to stop them.

Five Things: 

1. Cobra is a pretty compelling enemy. – The best thing about the GI Joe relaunch at IDW (which is a couple of years old now) is how they have and are handling Cobra.  They’re not some out-in-the-open enemy and have been more of a rumor until very recently.  The Joes have a hard time even convincing people that Cobra is real.  In some ways, Cobra is kinda like a pre-September 11th Osama bin Laden; certainly a lot of folks knew who he was, but there was disagreement about whether he was a serious threat to the US or just an annoyance spouting venom in Afghanistan.  Combine this mystery with the fact that the main Cobras are all really interesting and you almost find yourself rooting for them over the very vanilla Joes.

2. Overall thrust of the story remains good. – Going with my first comment above, this is a good overall story: Murky criminal/terrorist organization, no one believes they’re a threat and the first thing they do after going public is to overthrow a sovereign country!  Wow!  That really steps up the treat level for Cobra!  You could understand how with their cool technology that Cobra could be a major nuisance, but this story is showing that they have a magnitude to them as well.  And, since any story is only as good as its antagonist, this Cobra Command story arc is opening a lot of possibilities.

3. Can’t really get behind this art anymore. – Unfortunately, Alex Cal’s art has gone from “competent” a few issues ago to “problematic”.  He seems to be drawing 2 or the 3 Joe books right now (this and Snake-Eyes) and while I presume that IDW started him working on these ahead of time, this art looks more rushed than his first issue.  Why IDW would dump such heavy art chores on a fairly new artist is beyond me.  Cal does draw some characters fairly well and sticks to a realistic style that will be pleasing to most GI Joe fans, but his action scenes leave a lot to be desired (i.e. you can’t tell what is happening) and his characters lack any sense of energy (i.e. they look posed).  Also, lots of depth problems in these panels between the characters and their backgrounds.  And, I’d stop doing splash pages.  Cal’s art would be better if it was smaller and allowed fewer opportunities for error.  Note to editor: Caption boxes telling us who the characters are would be appreciated.

Snake Eyes #9 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: Cobra has taken command of a piss-ant country.  Snake Eyes & his team go in to cause them trouble.

Four Things: 

1. Pretty simple & linear story. – This is kind of a weird issue.  The main thrust is about Snake Eyes taking out a bunch of Cobras.  His team is there with him, but he does the killing himself.  And, there’s nothing wrong with that.  The action scenes have some imagination to them and are pretty well-drawn, so if you like watching a cool ninja dude who is equally adept with guns as he is with swords, then you’ll have fun with this.  But, there isn’t a lot of meat on the bone.

2. Just barely tied into Cobra Command crossover. – This Snake Eyes series is so close to being a stand-alone.  Ya know, read GI Joe and Cobra for the “main” story, but the real Joe fanatics will want to read Snake Eyes too just to see him killing things on the periphery of the “main” story.  But, there are just enough little niblets of the “main” story in here that you’d be ill-served to miss this issue and just read the other two GI Joe series.  That’s really a mixed bag for me because most people will get sick of seeing Snake Eyes stabbing stuff and it’d be nice for that to be optional.  But, if IDW is going to include this as a numbered part of the Cobra Command Crossover (it is Part 2), then it better tie into the main story (and it does).  OR give Snake Eyes a more important mission than killing random Cobras!

GI Joe #9 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Shawn Lee (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: The Joes must react to the first big act of the new Cobra Commander.

Four things: [SPOILER WARNING]

1. Beginning of a new crossover story. – Coming out of the Cobra Civil War where a new Cobra Commander was selected (the winner was whoever killed the most Joes), we had to wonder: What will the bad guys do next?  Well…..they’re taking over a damn country!  Not a big country like the United States or Germany, but a little country that no one cares about.  There are….of course….real world parallels.  Should the Joes be given unlimited resources to fight bad guys in a country that nobody cares about?  IN real life, should we care about bad guys in Somalia and Afghanistan?  It’s always nice to see comics tickle current events.  I also give IDW huge props for numbering this Cobra Command crossover.  If they’re going to cross over, I want a sequential reading order and not just a bunch of titles happening under a banner.

2. Love the vibe of secret Cobra. – I LOVE that in this GI Joe universe that Cobra is a secret organization.  They’re not outward and overt, but kinda behind the scenes and emerging.  That makes it much more difficult for the Joes to fight them (or even get the resources to fight them) because people question how real and dangerous this Cobra organization is.  Again, there are real world parallels and regardless of how you personally come down on current (real world) events, it’s fun to see a comic that is relatable.

Snake-Eyes #8 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Casey Maloney (pencils), Juan Castro & Chris Dreier (inks), Simon Gough & Romulo Fajardo, Jr. (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters) & Carlos Guzman & John Barber (editors)

The Story: Snake-Eyes and Duke try to find a cure for a Cobra engineered bioweapon.

Four Things:

1. Generally been enjoying GI Joe comics recently. – I don’t know how this happened.  I read some of the old Marvel GI Joe series when I was a kid and had enjoyed the GI Joe/Cobra series from IDW featuring Chuckles as a spy within Cobra.  But, something clicked in me that I needed to read this Cobra Civil War series a few weeks ago and via the beauty of digital comics I was able to mainline the whole story in a week or so.  And, it’s a really good and strong story.  There’s one big caveat with the books that I’ll get into below, but the storyline behind the GI Joe books is pretty hot.

2. Snake Eyes busting the place up. – This story is pretty basic: Cobra has released a bioweapon and Duke has also been infected.  So, Snake Eyes and Duke go charging into the Cobra lab facility to find the cure.  Duke has some kind of armored hazmat suit that’s kinda cool.  And they fight all kinds of Cobra troops with Snake Eyes being all bad ass, and that’ definitely cool.  There really isn’t a whole lot of subtlety to a comic like this and there are plot holes galore (what happens to the Vipers if they shoot Duke’s suit and the virus spills out?), but it is exciting to read.  Duke is in really bad shape and IDW has demonstrated that they’re not afraid of death.  A LOT of GI Joe’s have been killed recently and a few “named” Cobra guys too.  So, this issue isn’t something you can read thinking, “Oh sure…..Duke will be fine in the end because it can’t end any other way.”  That threat of DEATH adds some weight to these scenes of Snake Eyes fighting all these Hasbro-toy-line inspired Cobra bad guys.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly #7 – Review

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Esteve Polls (pencils and inks), Marc Rueda (colorist)

Before the Review: I started keeping an eye on the Dynamite line since they launched their Project Superpowers. I’m lukewarm to their take on superheroes for the internal art, despite the quality of the stories. However, I often follow Zorro or the Lone Ranger where I think the grittier art style Dynamite excels at really fits. I’ve been tempted, but haven’t yet made the plunge on Athena and Buck Rogers. This is my first issue of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Story: Temple Walker, the last survivor of a gang that stole ten thousand gold coins, has been inexplicably released from prison early. As soon as he makes his first stop, he’s attacked by three bandits ready to carve him into pieces. They want that gold. Enter our hero, who makes quick work of the attackers and who forces himself on Walker for a fifty percent stake in the gold. Will they survive?

What’s Good: Esteve Polls’ art dominated every other element of the book. It fit the setting, tone, characters and plot perfectly. Take a look at the first page, where dun-colored hills almost camouflage the Yuma Prison, while scrubby shrubs and cacti are deeply shadowed in the foreground. That’s just panel one. Panel two introduces us to Polls’ ability to draw a bitter, hardened, betrayed convict about to get out of jail. The other page of art that really slowed down my reading was the four-panel spread of our hero walking into a saloon. Check out the mood and shadowing of the environment and the expressions of the card-players. Coloring was controlled and disciplined. Brown had to be the dominant color in most of the book and yet we had to be able to see the figures, so Rueda walked that tightrope well.

Dixon’s writing is appropriately spare, with the story told almost exclusively through dialogue whose tone and authenticity are excellent. Dixon kept me in the moment of the old west throughout the entire book. On the plot, Dixon drove the story from panel one, with a mixture of pursuit and caper plots that drive so many suspense stories. This is smart, evocative writing.

G.I. Joe #0 – Review

By Chuck Dixon, Larry Hama, Mike Costa, and Christos N. Gage (writers), Robert Atkins, Tom Feister, and Antonio Fuso (artists), Andrew Crossley and Chris Chuckry (colors)

What You Get: Three short stories that serve as teasers for three upcoming series from IDW: G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe: Origins, and G.I. Joe: Cobra. One story takes us back to the beginning where the Joes hear the first iteration of a new terrorist group, Cobra. The second story shows us how Duke is recruited onto the Joe team and gains his call sign. And the last story features a covert op by one of the more obscure characters in Joe lore, Chuckles!

What’s Good? There’s a lot of potential here. Larry Hama knows Joe history inside and out and even after all these years he shows he still has what it takes. I love how all the writers keep the exposition to a minimum while the acronyms and military terms are properly used with no explanations given whatsoever. It’s called “not talking down to the reader” and I appreciate that. All three writers (and artists) make out well given the small workspace they’ve been given and this issue is a great example of how to get readers excited about the new G.I. Joe series.

What’s Not So Good? I realize that there’s a G.I. Joe movie coming out next year and Hasbro rapes comic book publishers with the licensing costs, but having three series out next year is too much too soon. Comics are expensive as it is — does IDW really think people are going to buy all three titles at $3.99 a pop? Do we really need cardstock covers?

Conclusion: At $1.00, buying this issue’s a no-brainer. Granted the production values are excellent and the stories conveyed here seem to have genuine promise, but like most of IDW’s titles the prices of these forthcoming G.I. Joe series cannot be possibly justified (unless they’re 48 pages each). As excited as I am to read these on-going series, I’ll be holding out for the inevitable trades.

Grade: B+

– J. Montes