At free comic day coming up in a couple of months, IDW has promised to launch a new book based on the Marvel continuity after it ended with issue #155. With the immortal Larry Hama penning the book, it sounded like a dream come true for Marvel fans, and now Newsrama has posted a very nice 5-page preview.
I’ve been hopping around online and I’m already seeing some serious negative buzz. I really don’t get it. Have people already forgotten how campy and over-the-top the Marvel series was at the point of it’s end? I dunno… I wasn’t bowled over by the 5-page preview at all, but I do think it definitely continued the tone of the Marvel series as it came to its end. Certainly I would prefer it to come back down a bit and be a bit more serious as the series goes on, but this does seem pretty faithful to the 90’s era Marvel book. We’ll see how it all goes. I’ve mirrored the preview below.
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Negative buzz? Re3ally? I haven’t seen any buzz, but I really liked what I read. It’s certainly not the COBRA book we’ve been gifted with from Gage, and while it does make the DD run moot, (which I really liked, BTW) I think this is a fun way to go.
I guess I’m happy to have multiple and contiguous continuities in my Joe stuff. It’s like everyone is playing with the toys differently, and we’re just dealing with different ways of viewing the archetypes. Like Gundam. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t work in the same way, but it’s still Gundam. That’s how I view Joe.
Plus, I just read Spin Doctor’s stuff on Checkpoint Alpha, and I’m stoked.
as soon as it starts to majorly contradict the DDP stuff Ill drop it but it does look good so far!
This seems about right as far as the Marvel end to me.
I was kinda hoping to see more Detonators and Desert scorpions manned by the ’94 Vipers in the art already. (Recolored vipers, of course.)
Seeing those ’90’s things many people didn’t see the first time around is something I’m looking forward to.
Now, why is Zartan already back to the usual look, instead of a biker look? A little recoloring would have made this more Dreadnok looking.
I dubbed thee “Looking Thru Rose-Colored Glasses Marvel run.” Too bad IDW didn’t have the balls to do a true continuation from the 90’s where the series left off instead of a soft reboot. Blaze orange mohawk Zartan FTW!
Still, I’m looking forward to this “what if?”
While I think the art is an improvement over where 155 left off (somewhat) and compared to the crappy art in the other Joe stuff from IDW (Atkins’ notwithstanding), I do hope that a good bit of the hokiness is left behind. No Transformers or Ninja Force, etc., just good old cool stuff like pre issue 100 (mostly), cool but fun. Bring in Destro and his Iron Grenadiers, another Serpentor story, hell even Cobra-La, maybe let us see the Red Shadows operating in there, more Oktober Guard, but no giant robots from space, and since this is comics, no reason we can’t get stuff from JvC or VvV later on either, if it fits the story being told.
However, I see that so far, Hama is already beginning to blunder through this version, as is the artist. First off, if Zartan is going to slip into CC’s quarters so easily, it doubtfully would be in the guise of a Crimson Guard soldier, more like either Tomax or Xamot. Secondly, on page 3 panel 4, when Zartan shifts, that is NOT a Crimson Guardsman, it is actually a HISS Driver, who most definitely would not make it that far into CC’s area. (Maybe someone should let IDW know before they embarrass themselves further in print?)
If these guys at IDW are going to hire people to do pencil art for them, they could at LEAST make sure they know a little something about the characters they are drawing. The colorist either knows a little something about Cobras, or just got lucky because CG’s and HISS Drivers both wear red. Aside from that, CC looks a bit like Zorro the gay blade in that little night mask of his, lol. Sheesh.
Also, I wouldn’t call that Cobra crap a gift from Gage. He was throwing out the trash and ended up with that book of toilet paper…careful not to get papercuts. The bad part is, you can’t tell if you’ve wiped with it or not because it already looks…”used”… The entire reason for this “departure” is that apparently enough people didn’t like Gage’s departure from what Cobra actually always has been. Hence the “relaunch”, aka picking up where Hama left off of the Marvel run.
As for this continuation making the DDP series invalid, we don’t necessarily know this to be fact, as the DDP series is set 10 years AFTER this, so it could easily still be in place for the most part. Or if it isn’t, and this rendition sucks as much as the rest of what IDW has been serving, we can always toss it out and stick with DDP’s run up until AE, when they started sucking and messing things up (except for the Serpentor story).
Hopefully, Hama will decide to live up to his reputation with the classic Joe and start giving us some good stories to rival the Cobra Island, Serpentor/Springfield, Zartan/Pitt, stories that so many actually enjoyed. I’m doubtful after his performance over the last year since he worked on the Joe movie though. This book isn’t something he wanted to do, it was the fans who wanted it, and now I have no doubt he’ll pull some BS on this book out of spite and make it just like the other IDW mash.
Love to see him prove me wrong though…