I had to smile when I saw the cover to this issue, featuring a jungle camouflaged version of the Cobra Deviant Mech barreling through the jungle, facing off against Snake Eyes.  I can’t really explain it, but for some reason when I see my toys in movies, cartoons, or comic books, I absolutely love it, and I really dig seeing the Cobra mech’s being used in the IDW universe.

Part of me does wish they stuck with the original paint scheme, but that red and black would have stood out quite a bit in the jungle foilage.

To see the full review, click the Read the Rest of this Story link below.

G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes #9

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Alex Cal

Speaking of the cover, I really love that Robert Atkins has continued to do the covers even if he’s not working on the interiors.  I love the artwork on this cover with the Mech and Snake Eyes facing off.  Great stuff.

As for the interior, we continue the already awesome Cobra Command storyline, with Alex Cal doing the art chores.  I really love the continuity of the artwork with Cal doing the art for each Cobra Command issue, that’s an awesome touch.  The layout and art style all works very nicely for the issues I’ve seen so far, and I’m really glad Cal has agreed to work on all of the issues comprising the Cobra Command run.

Whether he’s drawing folks standing still, marching through the jungle, or in pitched battle, he does fantastic work on each one.

You know, I’ve complained sometimes, too about artistic license, but I really like some of the artistic choices Alex Cal is making here.  Seeing the Cobra mech in that specific camouflage scheme is pretty cool, and I love the idea of the machine gun mounted Stinger jeeps.  He also threw us some curve balls with Jungle Vipers and threw in the Resolute styled HISS Tanks as well.  Crazy.

As for the story, we continue along the Cobra Command path, this time focusing on Snake Eyes, Helix (sporting a great camouflaged uniform), Iceberg, Alpine, Flint and Beachhead.  Now I can appreciate Chuck Dixon’s desire to keep the unit cohesive, but I’m kinda struggling to figure out what Iceberg is doing here.  Aren’t there enough jungle Joes that we can get someone else involved?  Sure, Iceberg has been a part of this team since Snake Eyes #1, but I don’t think they’re inseparable enough that he has to be shoe-horned into an op that doesn’t match his specialty.

This issue is essentially action sequence after action sequence, and not only does Dixon pace it well, but Cal is perfectly suited to the fluid sense of the martial arts action and firefighting that we get here.  We also see a shift in G.I. Joe leadership from Scarlett to Duke, and a bit more insight into the new Cobra Commander, too.  I can see a clear progression in the story here, Dixon is doing a great job with it so far, and the art has been rocking, too.  So far, so good.  Looking forward to seeing a little more Storm Shadow involvement as well, which is what we should expect based on the last page of the issue.

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