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.
3. The Joes need a charisma injection. – Man…..Cobra is a MILLION times more interesting that the Joes. If I were an impressionable 20 year old, would I want to join GI Joe where they’ve spent the last year getting slaughtered, losing their fancy equipment, having their “secret” bases exposed and where all the hot women are fascinated by a celibate ninja OR would I want to join the team that is kicking ass, has cool red and black helicopters, everyone has a snappy costume and features the open-minded Baroness? Is it any wonder that Cobra seems able to recruit? Seriously, I know it’s just part of drama to grind the Joes down so that we can enjoy watching them “win” at some point, but they look so wimpy an ineffective right now whereas Cobra has a very appealing swagger.
4. Alex Cal steadies the art. – I’m a complete art snob (and art collector), but GI Joe is one series of comics that doesn’t need to have glorious art. This is a comic where I’m mostly here for the word balloons and the art just needs to be competent sequential storytelling. Unfortunately, IDW may have gotten TOO cheap with some of the artists they’ve used recently because in some cases you couldn’t even tell what was going on with the action. I wasn’t previously familiar with Alex Cal’s work, but he does a great job. I wish the coloring was a little less highlighted, but otherwise it is a very attractive book and I never had a difficult time telling what was happening.
Conclusion: Cobra Command kicks off with a pretty solid issue. The only real complaint is that the Joes look so pathetic and ineffectual that I find myself cheering for Cobra and their cool uniforms and equipment (and the Baroness). But, this issue lays out an intriguing conflict and I’ll be very curious to see if the Joes develop some competency and fix the problem.
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
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