Comics Review: GI Joe – Cobra Civil War #1
I love the concept of this series. The book starts out with a bang – Cobra Commander has been killed and there is a not so civil war erupting in the ranks of Cobra to determine who will take the reigns. This particular book had a preview of of the collection of different covers available for the first issue. Cover A has a great picture of the Baroness, hip canted to the side holding an auto pistol in one hand and the fallen Cobra Commanders mask in the other hand. Cover B has good ole’ crone dome Destro, holding up the same mask in an almost Shakespearian poise (alas poor Yorick, I knew him well). Cover C has Krake holding a smoking Beretta 92 and the dearly departed’s mask. The finial cover labeled RI has bullet ridden photos of Duke and Scarlett held to a pock marked wall by sundry bladed weapons. Minus the RI cover, all of the covers read I am (insert bad guys name here), I am Cobra Commander. The cover art was outstanding! Covers A,B and C were drawn by Zach Howard and colored by Nelson Daniel. The RI cover is credited to Javier Saltares. Of the covers I was most drawn to cover C featuring Krake. I am hoverer not sure if I should praise IDW for the verity of covers or be pissed that they are trying to get loyal readers to buy a $3.99 USD book four times.
One of the problems with the GI Joe franchise as a whole is the amount of story lines out there. When reading these stories, you have to make sure you know what time frame the story is taking place in and where it may or may not fit into Joe cannon. Based on uniforms and discussions about the MASS device, I assume this story line occurs earlier in the story line. Not to early as the PIT is now in an isolated compound in the middle of nowhere. The authors could have and should have done a better job of letting the readers know when this is happening and how it fits into the overall GI Joe story. I have read many of the older issues and started on a few of the newer story lines, but I will admit based on the lack of info I am still not totally sure on this one.
Here is the premise of the book: the person who kills the most Joes wins. Not a bad way for an evil organization bent on world domination to pick their next head honcho. We are given the “short list” of candidates and the book moves right into the Baroness activating a sniper team loyal to her in Panama. This is where I started to have a few problems with the book. I was in the Army for 12 years so I will admit I notice things that might not matter to other people.
The Cobra Sniper team consists of Blacklight and an unnamed spotter (gee, you might as well put a red shirt on the guy!). Here is where for me the book fell apart, but just a little. Backlight and his “Red Shirt” spotter are not wearing any type of camouflage to break up their outline, if Blacklight is a trained sniper he would be wearing some type of Ghillie suit to hide himself. Then as the GI Joe patrol moves through an open field, that’s right and OPEN field. Backlight sights in on them. Now, if GI Joe is an elite counter terrorist force, why would they be bunched up, one of the with his rifle slung, carrying a briefcase walking through an open field? I was no where near being in any kind of elite unit and I know better than that!
Blacklight the sniper is smart as he chooses to engage the last man in this gaggle of a GI Joe patrol. Rather than hitting the ground or spreading out to take cover the patrol bunches up in the OPEN without laying down any suppressive fire. While the Joe team is standing around trying to achieve cranial recital separation and watching their teammate bleed out on the ground, the Cobra sniper team moves to it’s 2nd hide position. This movement causes the Joe team to finally put some lead down range towards the enemy.
As you can guess the sniper team, shoots two more guys which pro pmts Leatherneck to lay on his back (the first sort of tactical thing he has done during the entire “fight”) and proceeds to point his M-4 carbine with an M203 Grenade launcher attached below the barrel and fire almost vertically into the air. That kind of trajectory would have the 40mm grenade landing within lethal range of the Joe team! There were some other tactical flaws, but you get the idea.
This book wasn’t very long, it clocked in at around 22 pages of actual story. I’m still unsure about the amount of covers that are being offered for issue one, but the art was enjoyable for all of them. I love it when the artists get a chance to showcase their stuff on a cover. I give this book 4 stars for art and 2.5 stars for bad tactics and a jumpy storyline. Overall it is a recommended 3 star book. I am interested to see where this story goes and how they get there. YO Joe!
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