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.
4. How much money does IDW save with these photo covers? – These photo covers that feature a photo of a GI Joe toy just suck (such as this one of a Cobra Commander action figure). I guess it saves money, but I took pictures like this when I was a kid by posing my toys in the back yard. It’s just a LONG removal from the old days when Dave Johnson was doing some of the first IDW GI Joe covers or even the nice ones that Robert Atkins has done for them recently.
5. The stakes still feel high. – This Cobra Civil War event has featured so much death that the stakes feel really high. Granted, most of the dead Joes have been C-listers at best (I honestly haven’t heard of most of them). But, just by giving them names and then killing them, it makes the world feel more dangerous for the “name” characters like Scarlet, Duke, Snake Eyes, et al. It isn’t that comics MUST feature death to be important, but it’s hard to take the Joes or Cobra seriously as “elite soldiers” when bullets are firing everywhere, but no one is getting shot and killed. It strains credulity because elite solider hit what they’re shooting at (usually right between the eyes). So, slap some names on the redshirts and kill them. I wish Marvel would do the same things with C-list X-Men like Anole or Husk.
Conclusion: A nice little issue with good art that is kinda between stories. There isn’t anything really wrong with the issue, but it isn’t ambitious enough to be “awesome” either.
Jumping on point?: This really takes place after the climax of the Cobra Civil War and the new Cobra Commander is in place. This isn’t a bad place to hop on to try the next story cycle.
Grade: C (with a smile)
-Dean Stell
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