GI Joe: Cobra Files #5 – Review

By: Mike Costa (writer), Werther Dell’edera (art), Arianna Florean (colors) and Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: It’s not good when the nerd who runs the network (i.e. Clockspring) starts to feel jilted.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): Again, this is another really tight issue of Cobra Files.  It’s really amazing how good this title has consistently been while the other Joe titles tend to wander in the wilderness sometimes.

One of the focuses for this series has been Clockspring, who is a new(er) Joe character.  He runs the networks for this Joe team and is the classic under-appreciated “IT guy”.  He’s also developed romantic feelings for Chameleon, only to be devastated when she and Flint start hooking up.  You can just imagine that this won’t turn out well.

This issue focuses on Clockspring’s past as we follow him through his high school and college years, seeing how he’s always been “the nice guy” who girls are friendly to….until they go hook up with the dumb jocks.  Each time, he’s retreated a little deeper into his computers and that got him the skill to be where he is today.  And now he has once again lost a woman he was interested in (Chameleon) to another dumb jock (Flint).  Except that this time he has the duplicitous Tomax whispering poison in his ears and subtly maneuvering Clockspring to a point where he might stop being “the good guy”.  It’s a really interesting study in bottled up anger.  If/When Clockspring flips out, everyone will be shocked that it was all due to the Flint/Chameleon relationship, but what this issue demonstrates is that this disappointment has been building in Clockspring ever since he was a kid – Losing out on Chameleon is just the final straw.

GI Joe: Cobra Files #2 – Review

By: Mike Costa (writer), Antonio Fuso (pencils), Emilio Lecce (inks), Arianna Florean (colors) & Neil Uyetake (letters)

The Story: GI Joe interrogates the former Cobra Commander’s son.

Review: Even if this issue was a couple weeks late, it is still showing why Cobra Files is the best of the GI Joe titles.  What really sets Cobra Files apart is that it isn’t trying to thrive on fan-service.  All the other Joe comics have some amount of characters referencing the past or or gadgetry having to look like 1980s toys or overt sexiness of the characters, but not Cobra Files.  If the creators wanted to, they could totally go down that path.  I mean, they have Lady Jaye on the team and we know from past GI Joe comic experiences that Lady Jaye can be drawn with an enormous, heaving bosoms–but not here.  In fact, in Cobra Files you can’t really even tell that Lady Jaye has bosoms; she’s just another soldier with her own particular expertise.

GI Joe: Cobra Files #1 – Review

By: Mike Costa (writer), Antonio Fuso (pencils), Emilio Lecce (inks), Arianna Florean (colors) and Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: Having defected from Cobra to G.I. Joe, Chameleon tries to fit in.

Review (with SPOILERS): If you’ve been following the IDW GI Joe books since IDW got the license a few years ago, you know more or less what to expect from a Mike Costa/Antonio Fuso Cobra comic.  No need to sell you on the qualities of this book because it picks up pretty much from the last Cobra series and is of the same quality that Costa and Fuso have delivered all along.