G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (2001 Series) #23

November 15, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Last Stand Part Two

G.I. Joe regroups as Serpentor makes his play to retake Cobra.

Writer: Josh Blaylock with Brandon Jerwa
Pencils: Brandon Badeaux & Tim Seeley with Mike Norton
Inks: Andrew Pepoy
Colors: Brett R. Smith of Color Fusion with Ben Hunzecker
Letters: Dreamer Design
Cover Art: Brandon Badeaux, Andrew Pepoy & Hi-Fi (Cover A); Tim Seeley, Andrew Pepoy (Cover B)
Publisher: Image Comics/Devil’s Due Studios

Review: While not quite as good as the opening issue in this story arc, this book does pretty good as the second act in a high-powered action tale. Serpentor’s return last issue took the team by surprise, tearing them apart and taking a few members down for good. (The interesting thing about the G.I. Joe comic books, as opposed to the TV show, has always been that in the comics, people can die.)

Faced with this resurrected threat, Hawk re-activates every G.I. Joe, summoning them to battle. This was perhaps my favorite scene in the book, giving me a nice chill of anticipation, hoping that next issue we’ll be treated to a scene like Kurt Busiek’s Avengers #1 – one massive assembly of heroes coming together to take out the common threat.

The scenes with Serpentor explaining his evil scheme, what he’s been up to since he was “killed,” felt a bit cliché – it was like the scene in every James Bond movie where the villain has to explain his master plan just in case the audience hasn’t pieced it together yet. It was quite satisfying, however, to see threads left over from Jerwa’s recent G.I. Joe: Frontline arc start to pay off. Blaylock has really been great at guiding the Joes into the 21st century, but with him leaving, I am quite relieved to know he’s got a capable successor.

The artwork suffers a bit. Ordinarily with three pencilers on an issue I would think that their styles simply don’t mesh, but I really can’t tell where one penciler ends and the next one takes up. It all looks a bit rushed, a bit sloppy. Not quite as clean as it usually does. And darn it, I still really, really hate Serpentor’s new armor. It looks like it belongs on an early-90s X-Men villain rather than the leader of a deadly, evil militia.

This isn’t a good place to come in if you haven’t been reading the title – a brief recap at the beginning can probably bring you up to speed if you’re even vaguely familiar with the G.I. Joe property, but who likes walking in a half-hour after the movie started?

If you’ve been reading the book all along, this is a solid installment, that gives promise of a slam-bang second half.

Rating: 7/10