G.I. JOE #3

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Friday, February 01, 2002

The Joes who went into the Everglades to fight Cobra have been infected with the nano-mites which Cobra plans to use to throw the world into chaos. Trackers have been sent to find Cobra Commander's son, while the Joes' new computer specialists try to find some way to stop the nano-mites. And finally, Scarlett and Snake-Eyes are being held prisoner by the man they think is Destro, but he's actually the illegitimate son of the original Destro, who's been stricken by a mysterious ailment. Got all that? No? Neither did I.

This latest incarnation of G.I. JOE started out extremely well. Even non-fans would be impressed by Blaylock's reimagining of the Joe team as a realistic military organization and Cobra as a real terrorist organization of the kind that certain terrorists only wish they could be. But only three issues in, in the third installment of a four-part story, the book is already going all over the place. There's simply too much plot here, so much that this issue really needs one of those "Story So Far" inserts that I normally despise in comic book series. Perhaps an issue focusing on one or two of these plot strands might have felt less...busy, somehow. But an issue trying to pack everything in, as this one does, simply feels wordy, overcrowded, and, ironically, underdeveloped.

Underdevelopment is always a possibility when there's a seeming cast of thousands such as this one. The original G.I. JOE comic series and the television series that spawned it tended to avoid the problem the same way that other ensemble titles like JLA or LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES do: the story either focuses on one individual or team and attempts a bit of character development for just those people, or the story throws everyone together and ignores character development in favor of action. This issue attempts to do both and thus manages to do neither very well. The scenes between Scarlett and Snake-Eyes could have worked even better, for example, had they not been sandwiched in between a talky scene introducing yet another four Joe team members and another talky scene explaining (in a completely unrealistic manner) who the new Destro is. The effect leaves you adrift, hoping for more action or more character development and never really delivering either.

Even if you go back and reread the first two issues to get some idea of who's who and what's what, it won't do anything to save the uneven artwork by Kurth and Larter. Most of the time, the imagery is just as busy as the plot-a good asset to have during an action sequence, not so good to have during an expository sequence. Unfortunately, the largest part of this issue is given over to exposition, and even the slickest layouts won't move those along any more quickly. Not that Kurth and Larter won't try, anyway.


Perhaps if this storyline were given eight issues instead of four, Blaylock and company would have the leisure to explore these characters, or to provide action sequences that didn't leave us wondering what the hell happened, or to make the tripartite threat of the nano-mites clear without the need for lengthy scenes of technobabble. But they don't have that leisure-and neither do we.

GI-JOE

Grade: C

Issue: No. 3

Author(s): Josh Blaylock, Steve Kurth, John Larner

Publisher: Image

Price: $2.95