By: Mike Costa (writer), Antonio Fuso (pencils), Emilio Lecce (inks), Arianna Florean (colors) & Neil Uyetake (letters)
The Story: GI Joe interrogates the former Cobra Commander’s son.
Review: Even if this issue was a couple weeks late, it is still showing why Cobra Files is the best of the GI Joe titles. What really sets Cobra Files apart is that it isn’t trying to thrive on fan-service. All the other Joe comics have some amount of characters referencing the past or or gadgetry having to look like 1980s toys or overt sexiness of the characters, but not Cobra Files. If the creators wanted to, they could totally go down that path. I mean, they have Lady Jaye on the team and we know from past GI Joe comic experiences that Lady Jaye can be drawn with an enormous, heaving bosoms–but not here. In fact, in Cobra Files you can’t really even tell that Lady Jaye has bosoms; she’s just another soldier with her own particular expertise.
Given that fan-service isn’t part of the equation, this issue/series has to thrive 100% on story and what’s being woven here is a pretty good one. The basic set-up is that you have a team of Joes led by Flint working out of a Las Vegas casino. Among the “team” are the mostly-trusted Cobra-defector Chameleon and the not-trusted-at-all Cobra defector Tomax. In the team’s custody is the dead Cobra Commander’s son, Billy. Billy seems like basically a decent kid and that his dad did his best to shield Billy from the horrible things that dad was doing, but the Joes still want to know whatever Billy knows about his dad’s activities. It’s an interesting wrinkle because it shows – posthumously – that Cobra Commander wasn’t entirely a cretin; he obviously loved his son enough to know that he didn’t want his son mixed up in his criminal enterprise. Perhaps he thought Billy was weak or perhaps he wanted a “better life” for Billy or maybe he just thought it was too dangerous (as Cobra Commander proved when he got shot). The point is that it adds a new dimension to a dead bad guy. By doing this, it shows a commitment from the creators to handle characters at a greater depth than is possible if you stick to the biographical information on those cardboard cut-outs that were on the back of the GI Joe action figures. Billy is a neat character and it’s hard to tell if he’s as much of a rube as he lets on.
The other clever item in the development of a serious antagonist for Flint’s team. Through Billy’s information they’ve learned about a group of mercenaries who need to be dealt with. Seeing Joes battling mercs is always fun, but knowing that Costa and Fuso will be at the controls, we know we’ll get something a little more nuanced.
A final thing I’ve really enjoying in this series is watching Tomax sow discontent within Flint’s team. He never does anything so overt that the Joes can shoot him, but he’s always there, whispering in someone’s ear, giving them access to things they shouldn’t see…..but really want to (like the security footage of Flint and Chameleon having sex). Tomax is fascinating because it’s impossible to tell if he is on an official mission from Cobra to mess with the Joes, or if he is on his own mission or if he’s just an agent of chaos and cannot help himself. He reminds me of Littlefinger and Varys from Game of Thrones….always scheming.
Add it all up, and you’ve got a great espionage series. There are so many characters with murky backgrounds and unclear motives. I do enjoy the regular GI Joe comics, but I’m glad to have this alternative. This is the adult, more-mature version of GI Joe.
None of it could work without an artist of Antonio Fuso’s caliber. His work is scratchy and rough, but it really matches the subject matter of the story. The other Joe books are getting screwed up art because the artists are drawing in a fairly detailed fashion, but making characters like The Baroness look different from page to page. Fuso is showing how to do it. He just doesn’t worry about the detail. He gives us enough visual cues that reader’s know, “This is Lady Jaye because it is a short-haired woman with a baseball cap.” No other detail is really necessary and if Fuso were to add it, he’d have to nail that same detail page after page. It’s very economical and I applaud him for it.
Conclusion: The best GI Joe book being published. It is totally devoid of fan-service and just tells a modern and mature espionage story.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
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