Well, I didn’t have a chance to get the 5-page preview posted yesterday, but I did have a few minutes to type up a review for the latest issue of the main G.I. Joe title, issue #22. To avoid spoilers, I’ve posted the full text of the review after the jump.
While G.I. Joe: Cobra, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and even G.I. Joe: Origins all pound along at a great pace, it seems the main title has hit somewhat of a stumbling block once again. Over the past few months I’ve lauded the G.I. Joe title for coming into it’s own after such a dragged out storyline, yet once again we seem to be firmly stuck in a morass of slow-paced narrative and somewhat uninteresting events, mostly following the same group of uninteresting characters.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of Cover Girl or Shipwreck, and when Devils’ Due tied them together I thought it was forced and silly (I mean, seriously, does every female Joe only exist as a mate for a mainstream male Joe?) and while the two of them are certainly not romantically linked here, I wasn’t especially ecstatic to see such a focus put on them already. In fact, Cover Girl’s treatment in both Devils’ Due and IDW makes her seem like more of a fanboy dream and less like the hard-nosed armorer she’s always been.
I mean, that is what she is. She’s a tank driver. Yet in America’s Elite especially, but also here in IDW, she’s suddenly a martial artist, a skilled marksman, and all around G.I. Joe bad ass.
That’s fine and good, but how about spreading the wealth a bit? Don’t we have a whole roster full of special ops troopers? Why do we need to shoehorn a tank driver into the role just because she’s a hot blonde?
Regardless, as nicely as the story was flowing for a little while, we seem to be in the mud again, as we find ourselves still at sea with the two groups of Joes as Cobra is apparently repeating actions from the Marvel Universe and blowing a fault line to create Cobra Island. I’m reading a lot of this into what I’m seeing on the pages, so my hypothesis might be incorrect, but that certainly seems to be where we’re going. If I’m not mistaken, Larry Hama told this timeless tale in a pair of issues (mostly) #40 and #41. It was a fantastic, action-packed story that introduced a ton of characters tied up a lot of loose ends, and was a joy to read from start to finish. Here we’ve spent 3 months reading, and we’ve just barely seen the nuclear explosion go off, and we don’t even yet know the circumstances or results.
One storyline that did get moved along, at least somewhat, is the (re)introduction of Destro, this time as a member of Cobra elite. It only took nearly 2 years, I suppose, but here we are.
Beyond that, while there is a ton of action with Cobra attempting to take back their massive underwater fortress, I still felt like the story failed to move either emotionally or chronologically. The one-syllable nicknames continue to be a bit tiresome, I was somewhat disappointed at how non-iconic Cobra’s underwater troopers looked, and really, while I loved the machine gun fire and battle sequences, it simply looked like so many generic soldiers in wet suits with goatees…I could barely even tell them apart. There certainly wasn’t a real feeling of character to distinguish any of them. Honestly, I’m not one that’s married to nostalgia, but taking a great leader and character like Admiral Keel Haul and regulating him to a wet-suited ground-pounder seems a bit out of left field as well.
I’m not trying to pick the book apart, and I really have been trying to give it it’s due, and I was quite pleased with the latest run of issues, but for some reason, I just found some things to dislike about issue #22. It certainly wasn’t the art, as Alex Cal continues to produce some amazing artwork, but I think I’m about ready to move on. We’ve seen glimpses of great military characters like Flint, Recondo, Stalker, Gung Ho, and even Leatherneck…how about we explore those guys a bit more, and let the spotlight move away from Cover Girl and Shipwreck for a change?
Judging by the last page, (and the fact that IDW has stated that “Season 1” terminates with the next issue) I feel like the title might be ready to make a jump, and I certainly hope it does. Storm Shadow will make for a great ride next month. I only hope in another 22 months I’m not singing the same song.
no images were found
Justin, I’d love to hear your perspective on character development in thsi title.
I would argue with anyone that pacing of a story is irrelevant as long as you care about the characters and what they are doing/going through. As an example I’ll put forth that many TV shows occassionaly have “day off” episodes where characters just hang out and you spend some time getting to know even more personal details about them, and the whole episode goes by without some big action event, or plot reveal.
Dixon’s problem is that after 22 issues, we still have no idea who these charactesr are, besides what we already brought with us coming into the series. He hasn’t yet made these characters his own, they just are. This is normally a sign of bad writing and causes all sorts of problems but with GIJoe I would argue it causes even more problems. With so many different takes on GIJoe already out there and the audience coming from all sorts of GIJoe experiences it is even MORE imperative that the author define the characters early on.
I will concede that a really good story will keep me hooked for a while. But ultimately, if I don’t care about the characters, let alone really know who they are, do I really care about how things turn out? And what keeps me spending my money on such a title every month? Not much.
Hearts & Minds has even amplified how lacking the main story is in character development, and even simple identification.
We also now have the original GIJoe title back and we have 155 prior issues to tell us who those charactesr were and are. Suddenly the main IDW GIJoe title seems extraneous and irrelevant.
Hawkwinter, my simple thoughts on character development are… “what character development”? Seriously, as far as I’m concerned these guys all seem like cardboard cut outs in military fatigues. While it’s cool to see familiar faces, you really don’t know the characters. Things started out interesting with Scarlett, but honestly, she is pretty much the only character that has any depth so far.
We know about Beachhead’s amnesia, but how does that impact him? Does it? I dunno, he’s been forgotten for 6 months.
We know about Mainframe’s paranoia and his “they’re out to get me” attitude, but has that affected his ability on the team? No idea, he barely even speaks and only really seems to exist as another guy with a goatee in a wet suit.
I dunno. I was starting to come around, but the title has lost some of its mojo again. Hopefully it can find its way back. I love the look of the characters as much as the next guy, but ultimately what uniform someone is wearing is only as important as who the person is, and so far, the only way I’ve been able to identify any of these guys is because they’ve been directly named in the book.