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I haven't picked this up yet but I call "blasphemy" on anything "Joe" related being better than Hama's work. BLASPHEMY I SAY, BLASPHEMY !
For Christ's sake it has Chuckles in it.......................
Guess I better get over to the comic shop ;)
G.I. Joe fans get a peek behind the curtain of the world’s deadliest terrorist organization in this, the third book in IDW’s relaunch of the franchise: G.I. Joe: Cobra #1. Unlike the other Joe titles, this book isn’t all about crazy high-tech weaponry and state-of-the-art anti-terrorist tactics; it’s down and dirty undercover stuff. Seedy locales and even seedier people. It’s about Cobra!
As the story opens, we find G.I. Joe undercover operative Chuckles posing as a mercenary and meeting with a potential employer. In just five short pages, we find out just how skilled Chuckles is in reading people. The guy might’ve made a great detective if he had chosen that route. Anyway, just as the deal goes sour, the G.I. Joe team busts in and blows the joint up. Chuckles and his would-be employer manage to make their escape and Chuckles kills five people, including a couple of Joes.
Woah! Yeah, that was a bit of a shock. The rest of the book is primarily flashback, as we discover that Chuckles had been a member of the G.I. Joe team but he was considered a washout due to his smart mouth and inability to follow orders. Hawk figured he was more of a mercenary than a soldier anyway, so why not make him a deep cover agent? At least that way he’s on our side. It turns out that months of work have paid off bigger than anyone had expected: by the end of the issue, Chuckles has been kidnapped and taken to a top-secret lair decorated with big red snakes. He’s made it into Cobra.
Cover art to G.I. Joe: Cobra #1 by Antonio Fuso
© Mania
It turns out this was the G.I. Joe comic I’d waited my whole life for and I didn’t even know it. At no point does this book feel like a tie-in to a toy line. Actually, it doesn’t even feel like a G.I. Joe book! It felt more like something along the lines of 24 or The Departed. The issue had a lot of personality and backstory packed into it. After 22 pages, I felt like I knew Chuckles pretty well. We basically got to see his “origin story” in the flashbacks, but there’s still plenty of material left to the imagination and lots of clues to a bigger picture that will keep me coming back for more.
Antonio Fuso? Never heard of the guy. But his artwork is a perfect fit for a book like this and by far the best art I’ve seen in the new Joe titles. Sometimes comics based on toy licenses get a bad rap for having less-than-stellar artists assigned to them. Fuso blows that theory out of the water with this comic and Chris Chuckry’s muted color palette is a perfect fit.
I kind of thought that Hawk looked too much like Dennis Quaid. I guess I understand, since he’s playing Hawk in the movie, but I didn’t like it. Oh well. That’s the only bad thing I have to say about this book.
After the awesomeness of Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe: Origins, I figured the Joe relaunch had hit its peak. Obviously Hama is the Master, but it’s looking like the writing team of Mike Costa and Christos Gage are going to be strong contenders to his title and G.I. Joe: Cobra may even be the better book. I love Larry Hama so much, it actually hurts me to say that, but … wow.
I haven't picked this up yet but I call "blasphemy" on anything "Joe" related being better than Hama's work. BLASPHEMY I SAY, BLASPHEMY !
For Christ's sake it has Chuckles in it.......................
Guess I better get over to the comic shop ;)
I know, I thought the same thing... Chuckles! But it was good, man. It was really good.
Alright, I just picked it up at the local comic shop and read it. Although I will conceed that it is extremely well written it still doesn't hold a candle to Hama. Also that style of art is just a huge turn off for me, seems very sloppy. Check the background in a lot of the panels and see how poorly drawn they are.
I did read through the third issue of the main title today as well and although Dixon is still plodding along, I think I see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. Note to the editor, don't put Snake Eyes on the cover just to sell the mag and not have him make an appearance.....cheapness.
I like the artwork quite a bit (as I said in my review) but I'll take a second look at the backgrounds and see whether or not I agree with your assessment, darkheart00. As for holding a candle to Hama... well, it's apples and oranges. It's a totally different style book, but for what it is, I think it's on par with The Man. I wouldn't want to see the main book take this tone though. I don't want a dark, grim n' gritty Joe. But it works for a Cobra title.
That Snake Eyes stunt was as cheap as it gets. LAME. Dixon's book isn't great, but it's still good enough that I'll keep reading it. At the very least, I'll finish out this first arc.
I really dug the Howard Chaykin cover. It's a shame the interior wasn't even close to Chaykin's coolness. By the way that preview page at the end was pretty hot as well. The art is just too loose IMHO. It comes across as very sloppy. Not my "cup of tea" so to speak. I really enjoyed the story though so I'll be back for more.
Top interior panel offender:
1. Page # 9 panel 2: WTF? Looks like he's fighting physically challenged terrorists ;)
Sounds promising, maybe I'll just save these to read the day that "G.I.Joe" (I use quotations, as I consider that movie Joe in name only) movie comes out. If we can still get well written Joe comics, then why by all that's holy do we have that shitty looking movie dumped on us?????