G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (2001 Series) #27

February 28, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Paradigm Shift

Snake-Eyes oversteps his authority, and the G.I. Joe team is sent on a desparate rescue mission.

Writer: Brandon Jerwa
Pencils: Tim Seeley
Inks: Cory Hamscher
Colors: Brett R. Smith
Letters: Dreamer Design
Cover Art: Tim Seeley, Andrew Pepoy & Val Staples
Publisher: Devil’s Due Publishing

Eight G.I. Joes set out this issue to rescue an obscure member of the team sent by Snake-Eyes to infiltrate the Red Ninja Clan. This is a very interesting twist for the man who is, arguably, the most popular character in the entire franchise, the hero, the warrior, the model soldier. To see him overstep his authority goes down hard, not just with General Hawk, but with the readers as well.

After the last rather subdued issue, we’re right back into the thick of things with plenty of action. We get to see the usual stars of the book, the Ninja squad (Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, Jinx and Kamakura), but we also get a good showing from some of the members more suited for the mission in freezing Tibet: Alpine, Frostbite, Snow Job and Iceberg. If only Jerwa had told us how the heck to pronounce T’Jbang (the codename of the missing Joe), it’d be an almost perfectly well-rounded issue.

Our buddies at Cobra aren’t missing, although they don’t put in a big appearance this issue. We see the machinations of the villains to spring the Dreadnoks from jail, an interesting scene between Destro and the son that tried to usurp him back in the first story arc of this title, and a look at what the Coil is doing since the loss of Serpentor.

Jerwa is maintaining the same great balance of character and action that Josh Blaylock had in his 25 issues on this title. Showing us some of the heroes and villains that don’t usually get much screen time in this series helps mix things up a bit, and he manages to plant some seeds in this issue that will certainly spout into more and better storylines later on.

Tim Seeley continues to impress with the art chores. We get some wonderful fight sequences in this issue, really showcasing the martial arts skills of the heroes and the villains of the series.

Jerwa and Seeley are a perfect match for this title. They’ve got a handle on the characters and they’re finding ways to use them that I, at least, haven’t seen before. But they’re building on the characters, not tearing them down the way a lot of creators feel they have to do to put their own mark on a comic book. This series will continue to please any fan of G.I. Joe.

Rating: 8/10

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (2001 Series) #26

January 24, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Scott Sturgis is a Reasonable Man…

A new publisher… a new writer… a new member of G.I. Joe!

Writer: Brandon Jerwa
Pencils: Tim Seeley
Inks: Cory Hamscher
Colors: Brett R. Smith
Letters: Dreamer Design
Cover Art: Tim Seeley, Andrew Pepoy & Val Staples
Publisher: Devil’s Due

People worried that the quality of this title would suffer after Devil’s Due jumped ship from Image should have their fears quelled this issue – the quality is just as high as ever in all categories; story, artwork and production values. In fact, were it not for the absence of the “I” on the cover, you’d never know the difference.

The same great things can be said for new writer Brandon Jerwa, taking over after Josh Blaylock’s stellar 25-issue run. Jerwa did the best story arc in the defunt G.I. Joe: Frontline series, and he carries that story over here to tell the aftermath of G.I. Joe’s epic battle with The Coil. As the team buries their dead and begins the job of cleaning up Coil cells all over the world, a computer hacker is trying to chase down the secrets of America’s highly trained special mission force.

This issue is low on action, save for a singe battle scene where the Joes try to wipe out one of the last remnants of Serpentor’s army, but it doesn’t feel like filler. The best of it, in fact, is that it feels like a book about regrouping, pulling yourself together. Jerwa also uses the computer hacker character, the titular Scott Sturgis, to great effect, even using him as an excuse to do a roll call of both the heroes and villains of the title. Thanks to his perspective, this issue is an excellent jumping-on point for new readers.

With low action, we don’t get to see much of our villains this issue, but what we do see is quite good. Destro’s appearance in a surprising location makes him out to be a very honorable villain, and Sturgis’s realization that G.I. Joe may not be the only group looking for him comes across very well.

Seeley, over the last few issues, has become one of the best G.I. Joe artists. He manages to give each character a distinctive look (except for Duke and Hawk, but frankly, every G.I. Joe artist in history has had trouble distinguishing between those two for some reason), and he does a great job on storytelling, pacing and layout – all the hallmarks of good artwork.

Jerwa and Seeley are going to make their mark on this book, they’ve already started. It’s been high-quality since the relaunch, and now that they’ve left the big company that got them going, the G.I. Joe team looks as strong as ever.

Rating: 8/10

TransFormers/G.I. Joe #4

December 20, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Wolves

The World War II era battle of man and machine heats up.

Writer: John Ney Rieber
Art: Jae Lee
Colors: June Chung
Letters: Benjamin Lee
Editor: Roger Lee
Cover Art: Jae Lee
Publisher: Dreamwave

With two issues to go in this miniseries, I must admit, my enthusiasm is beginning to dwindle. John Ney Rieber is still serving up a good script, but it’s beginning to feel quite padded. The battle scenes are getting more drawn out and, while there is some development of the plot in this issue, it’s starting to feel like it’s taking too long.

This is not to say that the battle scenes aren’t good. The battle with Scarlett and Bumblebee versus Rumble was one the best bits in this issue – particularly the part where the robot begins to develop a little crush on the human woman – and the bits showing the friendship between Roadblock and Grimlock also worked very well. The scheming between Starscream and Destro makes for a very good use of the characters, and there’s a good spotlight in this issue on the two “combined” robots, Superion and Bruticus.

Other things aren’t working as well. The Storm Shadow/Snake Eyes fight has been going on for four issues now, and it feels like it could have been wrapped up in one. Lee’s art isn’t quite top-notch here either. While one appreciates the style he is attempting, there are simply too many shadows and sometimes it makes it difficult to tell one character from another. Particularly with the redesigns of the characters for the World War II-era, this is bad. You can get away with more of this if the characters were in their classic costumes and configurations — in unfamiliar ones, it’s more important to differentiate between them. In the aforementioned Storm Shadow/Snake Eyes battle, where there is no dialogue to differentiate one combatant from the other, the shadows make it hard to figure out who is who, and I found myself needing to look back at earlier issues to remind myself so that I even knew who won the fight. (Hopefully, it’s over.)

Zartan and Bumblebee are the standouts in this issue, with Zartan posing as a Joe leading up to his battle with Flint. Bumblebee is not only developed well, but we also get a great look at his new form in this alternate world, a clever alternate shape that suits the story well.

Like a lot of comics this days, this book seems to suffer from a desire to stretch out a story that could be told quicker. People may criticize earlier writers, but Stan Lee could tell more story in one issue than a lot of today’s crop can in four. This is a book that will almost certainly read better in a collected edition, where you won’t have to wait a month (or longer) between installments only to read a book where not much has happened.

Rating: 7/10