It's an interesting choice for IDW and Larry Hama to present a re-start of the original Marvel storyline and continuity. It's even more interesting to start that re-launch on Free Comic Book Day and give away an issue with absolutely no GI Joes in it! I liked the issue, I love the way Hama writes dialogue for all the big Cobras like Storm Shadow, Destro, Billy, and especially Dr. Mind-Bender. I think there's great potential with Dr. Venom somehow embedded in the brain-wave scanner too. It's really great seeing Billy playing a prominent role so early, he was so important to the original run, and putting him in the scanner does a nice job recapping some big events in Joe history. Best of all, I forgot how much I missed seeing Hama's old countries like Trucial Abysmia... ah the memories.I'm having a hard time trying to remember what the status quo was in the last of those Marvel issues. Re-starting this story basically renders the whole Devil's Due run invalid, since that was originally a pick-up of the Marvel continuity. DD's stuff wasn't great, but it was entertaining. I'll definitely be getting these books, after all, GI Joe was one of my first comic series, but I'm going to have to brush up on my old back-issues so I can remember who's alive and who's dead. Like, Mainframe and Lady J are alive, but Doc is dead, right? Firefly is around, but a bunch of baddies died in that freighter on Cobra Island, correct? Joe fans, we have our work cut out for us.
The art is solid enough, although some of the masks seemed off. For example, the Crimson Guards' helmets looked strange, but the tele-vipers and Cobra Commander looked fine. I'm going to hold out hope that a "classic" Marvel artist might actually be able to come back and contribute. Surely Rod Whigham or Andrew Wildman are available to do some Joe stuff these days?
Good
No comments:
Post a Comment