By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Robbie Robbins (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)
The Story: As the Cobra Command crossover comes to a close, Cobra has just about cleared out the country of Nanzhao.
A Few Things:
1. Entertaining ideas, but… – This has been an entertaining and creative storyline, but it’s just too damn long. I really don’t understand this fixation that publishers/writers/editors have on making stories longer. When Cobra Command finishes, it’ll be NINE issues long. I don’t see any good reason this couldn’t be 6 issues and still have accomplished the same things. Let’s move onto what is next! I guess when it comes down to it, I like the ideas presented in this story (and issue), but the execution is lacking a little bit. Lots of the scenes are too long by a few panels. As an example, there surely there was some drama in Scarlet’s decision to shoot down a nuclear armed Cobra drone, but that decision shouldn’t take a full two pages. Comics aren’t supposed to read like a novel. Keep it snappy!
2. Cobra will be in an interesting place when this is over. – I’ve really enjoyed IDW’s view of Cobra as it emerges from the shadows. When this arc ends, they’ll have basically destroyed a sovereign country just to remove a competitor in the global drug trade. Scary huh? When you get down to it, this was all a big battle between two rival drug gangs; just like Marlo versus the Barksdales in The Wire…except that Cobra has nuclear weapons.
3. Cal does a pretty good job with the art. – I’m never going to be able to truly love a GI Joe book for its art because I’m not a big fan of realistic art. But I have to recognize the difficulty in illustrating these issues. There are a ton of characters and many of them don’t have obvious visual cues beyond Flint’s beret or Scarlet’s red hair. Then, on top of the basic GI Joe characters, there are random UN troops running around. Just drawing all the characters in the issue would be a major job. Then you have to draw all the hardware. Some comics are permitted to just have “random” guns (that don’t even look functional when you examine them up close), but GI Joe guns need to look pretty good. Ditto for the planes and drones. And then you’ve still got the random tie-ins to 1980’s toys that must be correct or else fanboys will roast you on the internet. This isn’t my favorite comic from an art standpoint and I’ve been hard on Cal’s art in the past, but he’s getting the job done here. Cal also mixes in a few really cool layouts with Snake-Eyes walking into a Storm Shadow ambush (his drawing seems better here too… maybe he likes ninjas?).
Conclusion: This story arc is almost over and it’s time. It has some interesting ideas, but we when a publisher screws up the length of the arc, you DO have to work to see the positives. Why must everything be long? How many times in comics have we said, “Gosh! That ended too fast!” and even if that DOES happen, the publisher can always revisit the material later. Still, I think the Joe books are worth checking out. They’re entertaining and have stakes and that’s enough for me.
Grade: C+
-Dean Stell
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