Weekly Comic Book Review

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

The Story: Cobra has taken over a SE Asian country.  The Joes want to stop them and the new Cobra Commander’s lieutenants are fighting amongst themselves.

Three Things:

1. The story is really kinda rocking. – There’s a LOT to enjoy about the “story” aspect of this comic and the overall Cobra Command story-arc.  For one thing, we readers don’t know what to expect at all.  That is so rare in comics.  Not only is IDW’s GI Joe universe pretty new (~40 issues) since they completely rebooted it a few years ago, but to say that the naming of a new Cobra Commander ushered in a new status quo would be a huge understatement.  In comics, “classic” villains become less frightful the better we get to know them.  Sure, some writers are still able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and make Joker scary, but having a villain who is still 90% unknown is WAY more effective.  I love that we have no real idea what the new Cobra Commander is up to; he clearly has a plan, but he isn’t sharing it with us yet.  And, all the other classic Cobras like Baroness, Destro, Major Bludd, etc. are new enough that we don’t really know what to expect from them either.

2. Shame about the art. – I’ve been mostly complementary about the job that Alex Cal has done of the last few GI Joe issues he’s drawn, but this was a big step back.  Large chunks of the comic are still solidly “competent”, but there are a few other places where the sequential storytelling just falls apart.  Basically, if the panel consists of a head or a person talking, the art is fine.  But if there is action, there are problems.  One arises during a big Snake Eyes and Agent Helix fight where I couldn’t tell what the hell happened because a few panels were unclear.  IDW has been putting some inexperienced artists on these Joe titles and I think they’d be better served by going back to a 8-panel grid as the basic storytelling tool.  Gotta walk before you can run!

3. Flat colors would be better. – Along the lines of keeping to basics, it really wouldn’t hurt this title to ditch the highlighted colors and go back to something flatter.  With the exception of Destro’s head and Cobra Commander’s faceshield, I challenge you to show me one panel in this book that is improved by the highlights.

4. Well written. – It’s easy to lose sight of this while appreciating the cool over-arching story or being disappointed in the art that isn’t holding up its end of the deal, but Mike Costa writes very nicely.  There isn’t a lot to say about it, but the dialog flows nicely from panel to panel.

Conclusion: This is a really good story that is being let down by below-average art.  It’s a shame, but it shows how hard it is to do a high quality comic book.

Grade: C+

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

Filed under: IDW Tagged: | Alex Cal, Carlos Guzman, COBRA, Cobra #9, Cobra #9 review, Cobra Command, Dean Stell, IDW, J. Brown, John Barber, Mike Costa, Neil Uyetake, review