GI Joe #9 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Steve Kurth (pencils), Allen Martinez (inks), Joana Lafuente (colors) and Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: Destro, Duke and Mad Monk see their plans coming together.

Review (with SPOILERS): This is a very confounding issue.  I love the story, but I loathe the art.

Fred Van Lente’s story is great.  He has spent a number of issues creating layers of intrigue and it’s all starting to pay off.  Not only are GI Joe and Cobra locked in a battle, but each side has internal divisions.  Let’s start with Duke and whether he may or may not be a traitor.  I mean, how brave of a story choice is THAT?  Duke is basically the prototype for GI Joe: nice, no profanity, buzzcut, hard-working, honest, capable, leader-of-men, blah, blah…..  Just the thought that he might be a traitor is a brave step.  Even if he’s just allowing himself to be manipulated by Cobra because they kidnapped his wife pops some holes the the Duke mythos.  The Duke we think we know is duty-first, but the man in this story might be willing to compromise his duty and place comrades in danger to save his wife.  It’s understandable from a human point of view – many of us would do the same thing – but Duke is supposedly “better” than the rest of us.  Stay tuned to see how this works out.

Even more delicious than Duke’s possible betrayal is all the back-stabbing within Cobra.  This is already a time of turmoil for Cobra with Krake having only become the new Cobra Commander within the last year or so.  Baroness is on the outs for failing too many times, so she’s hanging out with Destro and Destro is always fun because of his questionable loyalties.  He seems to prefer Cobra’s ways, but that’s just because they buy his weapons… and he’s not above doing things to undermine Cobra if it means he’ll get to sell more weapons.  And then you have Mad Monk and Destro taking turns selling each other out……plus an appearance by Cobra Commander (who hasn’t been seen in many months)……and it’s all super-cool.

So, why isn’t a comic with all this plotting excellence the runaway “pick of the week”?  Well…..the art kinda stinks.  The art is bad enough that I’m considering dropping the title despite the cleverness of the story.

One problem with the art is that it is way, way too cartoony.  When I say “cartoony” I mean that the art plays too fast and loose with human anatomy and uses various artistic tricks to accentuate certain actions.  For example, a character who is doing something physical may be draw with arms and legs too long and a lean to their body that gravity would never allow.  And I actually like cartoony art, but I just don’t like it in GI Joe.  I think a story needs some element of comedy for cartoony art to work.  Spider-Man can be cartoony.  The Fantastic Four can be cartoony.  Batman?  Punisher?  Probably not.

So, I’m not objecting to the cartoony art because of a personal preference.  It’s simply that this art style is inappropriate for the subject matter.  This is GI Joe and there is nothing cartoony about terrorists and radiological bombs.

The other problem with the art is that it just isn’t very good from a sequential standpoint.  There are a number of action sequences in the comic where it just isn’t clear what happened.  Was Tunnel Rat throwing himself to the ground and letting the train pass over him OR was he diving to catch the back of the moving train?  Did Quick Kick throw both ends of his nun-chucks at the Dreadnoks?  These are quick-reading action sequences, not slower parts of the comic where you should be slowing down to see what happens.  There’s really no point in writing action sequences into a comic if the artists can’t do better; if the action has to look this poor, we might as well just have an extra serving of the political themes in the comic.

I really wish that IDW would get better with the art on the two “main” GI Joe books.  The Cobra-themed comic from Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso is fine, but the two GI Joe comics have been troublesome artistically for several years…..and this is at a time when the storytelling has been top-notch.  All the other IDW licensed comics from TMNT to Transformers to My Little Pony to Judge Dredd seem to have good art……I just wonder what GI Joe fans did to piss off some editor that we get this treatment.  It really baffles me.  I almost wonder if someone in the IDW-Hasbro licensing relationship is unhappy with the current state of the licensing contract and is burdening the comic series with poor art to force a renegotiation.

Conclusion: Story is great.  Art is not.   It would make a better audiobook than comic book.

Grade: C

– Dean Stell

GI Joe #8 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Steve Kurth (pencils), Allen Martinez (inks), Joana Lafuente (colors) and Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: Mad Monk continues playing games with GI Joe.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): This issue would be so much more enjoyable with better art.  The story is good enough to merit a higher grade, but this series will never reach great heights with art that is this problematic.  THAT could be the whole of the review, but read on if you want greater details….

It’s a shame because there is a lot to like about the basic story concepts that Fred Van Lente is using.  I really like the idea that Cobra is using a Myers Briggs-type personality test on it’s key employees to evaluate their leadership potential.  The (new) Cobra Commander basically buried the needle in the “natural born leader” range, but Mad Monk (who has just been appointed to run the NY office of Cobra) scored at the absolute bottom of the scale.  A jealous Baroness and Destro have a minor laugh at Mad Monk’s expense, but we’ve come to see over the last couple issues that having a low score in this area doesn’t mean that Mad Monk is an idiot…..he’s just not a leader.  In fact, he has no use for any sort of leadership structures at all.  He’s kinda an agent of chaos.  It’s a nice little spin to show that just because people are weak in some areas, they can be strong in others…..kinda like the continuum from severe autism to severe attention deficit disorder: Both ends of the scale have strengths and weaknesses.

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.

The X-Files: Season 10 #2 – Review

By: Joe Harris & Chris Carter (story), Harris (writer), Michael Walsh (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: With Scully kidnapped, Mulder enlists some old friends to find her.

Review (with SPOILERS): The first issue of X-Files kinda snuck up on me with how good it was.  I was just expecting some derivative product that was low(er) quality and designed just to get X-Files fans to plop down a few dollars.  But, when I read that first issue, it was almost like we had the TV show back on again.

Even if this second issue didn’t sneak up on me (since I expected it to be really good), it keeps that magic rolling right along.  The most important thing is how effectively creators are able to capture the look and feel of the actors who played the characters in the series…..it really does feel like you’re consuming The X-Files and not just some story with that name on the cover.  I guess a good example would be to compare to those X-Files novels that came out in the mid-1990’s when the series was in its heyday.  I will admit to having actually read a few of those and they were entertaining enough, but you didn’t hear Mulder’s and Scully’s voices when you read the novel.  The novels felt more like someone telling me a story about Mulder and Scully (“Once upon a time, the was an Agent Mulder and an Agent Scully and there were alien honeybees that spoke the Navajo language….”); this comic feels like you’re experiencing the story yourself.  A lot of credit needs to go to Michael Walsh.  He has clearly spent a lot of time watching the series because he just knows what these characters look like.  It isn’t like he is watching X-Files and just pausing the action to draw the face that he sees, it’s more like he is just a fan like us and remembers what they looked like almost 20 years ago.

So, when we get introduced to Agent Doggett in the opening pages, it looks like the guy who came on the X-Files ~2000 and not the fat, gray-haired guy who plays a werewolf on True Blood.  When we see the Lone Gunmen, they look just like the dudes we remember.  I mean, I’m not sure I WANT to see what the actor who played Frohike looks like in 2013.  It’s just really good art that perfectly captures the look and feel of the series.

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.

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.

Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1 – Review

By: Mark Waid (writer), Chris Samnee (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors), Shawn Lee (letters) & Scott Dunbier (editor)

The Story: Cliff Secord has to manage his relationship with Betty and villains both nefarious and common.

Review: This is a splendid comic that does everything you’d want in a first issue.  If IDW can keep the quality of the Rocketeer comics at this high level, they’ll get no complaints about playing around with the late Dave Stevens’ characters.

Mark Waid does a great job of introducing all the characters and showing us what they’re like.  Of special note is how well Waid nails Cliff and Betty.  They come across very much as Peter Parker and Mary Jane: earnest, good, decent, heroic guy who’s a little bumbling and clueless and drop-dead gorgeous girl who ALL the guys in town love but is smitten with her guy even if she’s always slightly annoyed by him.  That’s just about the right dynamic for this relationship and and just as Peter and MJ have intrigued readers for ~40 years, Cliff and Betty are equally enticing.

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.

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.

Cobra #8 – Review

By: Mike Costa (writer), Antonio Fuso & Werther Dell’edera (art), Scarletgothica (colors), Shawn Lee (letters) and Carlos Guzman & John Barber (editors)

The Story: Now that the new Cobra Commander has been named, how will the remaining high-level Cobra operatives organize themselves in the new organizational chart.

Five Things: 

1. Fuso is doing the best art on the GI Joe books right now. – With the exception of whatever book Robert Atkins works on and Fuso’s art on Cobra, the GI Joe books have had some really problematic art.  It isn’t even a question of, “I don’t care for the style.” but more of a “What the hell just happened?  I can’t tell with this storytelling!”  Fuso has no such problems.  His style is simple and angular and I don’t think anyone would ever call it “beautiful”, but the storytelling is perfect and his characters tell the story that needs to be told.  Sometimes it’s easy to overlook those basics, but given the problems that some of the other GI Joe books have had, I really appreciate what Fuso is doing in this issue.

2. Cobra is a much more interesting book than GI Joe. – It’s just more fun to watch the bad guys as their plans are so much more interesting than anything the Joe’s are up to.  Even though there is a new Cobra Commander, you wouldn’t expect that the other A-lister Cobras would just mindlessly fall into line behind the new guy.  No sir, they’re all got their hopes and dreams and schemes.  All the plotting makes for a very interesting read (especially now that the art is telling the story so nicely).

3. This issue is kinda between major events. – This issue feels a little like it’s killing time.  We just hit the climax of this Cobra Civil War event with the naming of the new Cobra Commander (after the various A-list Cobras were duking it out to be the new Commander by killing as many Joes as possible).  But, we aren’t quite into the next story cycle yet.  So, this issue is between story beats.  For what it’s worth, Costa does use the time to establish the major baddies like Major Bludd and Baroness in the new status quo, but there still isn’t a lot going on.

Kill Shakespeare #9 – Review

By Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col (writers), Andy Belanger (art), Ian Herring (colors), Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: This is the issue that all dedicated Kill Shakespeare readers have been waiting for since the very beginning…Hamlet finally comes face to face with the wizard Shakespeare. Will they fight? Ally? Betray each other? Not say anything at all? We’ll see. (Also: IAGO! *insert fangirl grin.*)

What’s Good: Kill Shakespeare has been a good, smart comic since issue one. The writing has been solid, the Shakespeare-geek in-jokes appropriate and not overwhelming, the art has been very nice (if not always entirely consistent), and the story has been intriguing and very well paced. (Information is dolled out maddeningly slowly from a pure “what’s gonna happen next month dammit!” point of view, but from an overall storytelling perspective, especially once all the issues are collected, I think it’s brilliantly done.)

I told you all that to tell you this: THIS is the issue of Kill Shakespeare I have been waiting to read. Not just because we’re at the point in the story I have most anticipated–we are–but because here, in this issue, I think this book has finally started reaching its true potential and is starting to soar. McCreery and Del Col’s writing continues to be extremely strong (no shock there), but the fine line they walk when writing Shakespeare (the comic character’s) voice deserves special praise: he’s threatening, crazy, mystical and scary as hell–sometimes all at once. That’s no small feat to pull off effectively (and it works particularly well when contrasted with Hamlet’s much more stoic character.) The intercutting between Hamlet’s conversation/confrontation with Shakespeare, and the rest of the Prodigals desperately trying to beat what they need to know out of Iago, is another similarly fantastic contrast and foreshadows the bloodshed and violence–on a much larger scale–that is inevitable to come.

Now: the art. I’ve been hot and cold on Andy Belanger’s work on this series, and pretty harshly critical of a few issues. While I stand by those critiques, this issue acts as an absolute showcase for what he (and colorist Ian Herring) can do, and the results are absolutely beautiful. My absolute favorite moment has to be the two double page-spreads (with panel inserts) in the Globe Woods. More like that, please! Lots and lots more! Herring also gets a specific tip of my hat for the lovely coloring, not only in the Globe Woods scene, but in the interior of Shakespeare’s shack. It straddles a very fine line between warm and inviting, and sickly pale. It’s a deeply unsettling combination, and perfectly hits the nail on the head for the mood of the scene. Well done!

Doc Macabre #3 – Review

By: Steve Niles (writer), Bernie Wrightson (art), Tom Smith (colors), Shawn Lee (letters) & Tom Waltz (editor)

The Story: Doc Macabre gets to the bottom of the hauntings plaguing his town.

What’s Good: What a great little 3-issue story this was.  I’m not sure I’d call it horror, because it isn’t scary or gory.  It’s more like a Ghostbusters with great art.  Over these three issue Niles and Wrightson have worked as a solid team to develop a precocious monster hunter by the name of Doc Macabre and his personable robot assistant Lloyd (who looks like a lamp).  In this issue they come to deal with an appropriately creepy bad guy who has been causing all these hauntings and zombie infestations in their town and take him down.  It is just a cute and fun story that I urge you to seek out whenever IDW collects these three issues.  Let’s support original material, folks!

The big lure for me in trying this series in the first place was the Wrightson name on the cover and he doesn’t disappoint.  As comic fans we’ve grown accustom to seeing our favorite creators of our youth just kinda lose it.  Sometimes their quality actually goes downhill and sometimes they just fail to adapt with the times, but Mr. Wrightson is still just knocking it out of the park.  Based on his lifetime body of work and this series where he demonstrates that he’s still at the top of his game, we should all be buying anything with his name on it.  There is nothing to find fault with in the art for this series: great layouts, incredible inks, useful panel designs, good use of background (or lack thereof).  It’s all just wonderful stuff.  Well executed coloring too!

Mystery Society #4 – Review

By: Steve Niles (writer), Fiona Staples (art) & Shawn Lee (letters)

The Story: The heat ratchets up for the Mystery Society as one of them is captured while others continue the quest to find Edgar Allen Poe’s skull.

What’s Good: Fiona Staples’ art is really something.  She uses a very fine line that makes her characters look alive and emotive it a way that is hard to do with some of the darker styles out there.  And, since she is also coloring her work, the coloring is really part of the artwork in a way that is hard to have happen when there is a separate colorist.  That isn’t to say that a separate colorist cannot shine, but Ms. Staples is able to use her knowledge of how she wants to color something to inform her pencil and ink work.  She also accomplishes the feat of drawing attractive women who (a) do not have DD chests and (b) are not nudes with spray painted on costumes.  Some comic artists can’t draw clothing worth a damn (think of how many trench coats we see???), so we should applaud when we see a character who looks like an attractive person you’d see on the street.  It is very nice…

From a story standpoint, this is issue #4 out of 5.  You know what that means: the story is going to stall a little as the creator maneuvers story elements into their positions for the grand finale.  So, Steve Niles does a smart thing and plays up the humor a little bit.  That’s smart.  The real story stars of this issue are Secret Skull and Jules Verne as they chase the skull of Edgar Allen Poe.  It is just a visually silly pairing: zombie girl in skull mask teamed with famous “dead” author in a Johann Krauss suit.