Reviewer: Tim Sheridan
Story Title: N/A
Written by John Ney Rieber
Pencils: Javier Saltares
Backgrounds: Jason Millet
Inks: Andrew Pepoy
Colors: Transparency Digital
Letters: Dreamer Design
Editor: Mark Powers
Publisher: Devil’s Due
When this series was announced, I was all about it. I thought it was such a cool idea. When they restarted the original Joe’s story in 2001, I was excited about that too. I was a kid in the ’80s so of course I was jazzed to see them all together. But I had never followed the comics, so I was a bit lost. I gave up. Anyways, when I heard they were doing sort of an “Ultimate” take on the GI Joe story, I thought it would be a great time to get reacquainted with them. So I was on board with them for a few issues, and then I got bored again. I was just not a fan of Ney Riber’s work. But then I heard Chuck Dixon was going to start taking over the book as of issue #10, and as a big Dixon fan, I was tremendously happy. So I thought I could stick things out with this writer for a few more issues.
Well, it’s been rough. The art is very inconsistent, and the story is slow and quite dull. This issue tells us the backstory of the Baroness, and actually, it’s sort of interesting. We all know she is a bad guy (err…girl) but we actually get a little sympathy for her now. Unfortunatly, that’s the only interesting part of this issue. There seems to be some movement on making Hawaii “Cobra Island” but not much. And there is a traitor within the ranks of the Joes, and they promise to reveal that next issue, but there is no real reason not to reveal it this month. It’s not terribly engaging, so it’s not much of a cliffhanger.
Anyways, GI Joe still remains a cool concept. An elite squad of armed forces is very cool. But this book is just not up to that. I really am hoping that once Dixon takes over, he can bring this book up a few pegs, because for some reason, I’m really pulling for it.
Final Word: Not awful, but just not very good at all.
