GI Joe #1 preview

IDW is adding a new GI Joe book to the line, first issue out this coming Wednesday, 9/18.

They've got Paul Allor on writing. He's done some GI Joe stuff for IDW before, plus TMNT and fun Clue mini-series. Chris Evenhuis is on art, Brittany Peer is doing colors.

Looks like the direction they're going with is that Cobra has occupied most of the world, and GI Joe is more an insurgency than a formal unit. Some familiar characters - Duke, Stalker, Scarlett, Hawk, etc. - are still military, the head organizers of the resistance. Others - like Roadblock and Jinx - have been reimagined as civilian resistance, along with a few new characters. Interestingly enough, we've gotten no hint of the status of two of the bigger names in the franchise, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, though Allor has said he has plans for both.

There are a couple of early reviews up - one at [URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/gi-joe-1/"]Multiversity Comics[/URL] and another at the [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mwi06Sy_z0&t=3s"]Comics Burst!! podcast[/URL] - and both are pretty positive.

I've just gotten into the ARAH comics and I've been enjoying them, plus Allor's previous work has been solid. So I'm curious to see what his take on the franchise will be.

Preview pages:

[IMG]https://www.previewsworld.com/SiteImage/CatalogImage/STL129652?type=1[/IMG]

[IMG]http://northstarfan.com/gicomics/preview01.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://northstarfan.com/gicomics/preview02.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://northstarfan.com/gicomics/preview03.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://northstarfan.com/gicomics/preview04.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://northstarfan.com/gicomics/preview05.jpg[/IMG]

I'll probably check it out, but I'm not exactly excited or optimistic. The preview doesn't read particularly well, and I don't recall finding Allor's previous JOE series to be all that memorable. But who knows? I don't have a lot of confidence in IDW's ability to handle anything that isn't [I]My Little Pony[/I] or [I]Dungeons And Dragons[/I] nowadays. Not after their Hasbro shared universe killed everything it touched.

I'm also checking it out even though the preview does not impress me. I just wished that with the format of previews, more care would be taken to pace the story better, someone should look at this and wonder if this is satisfactory for the first 1/4 of the book.

Isn't this IDW's 4th G.I. Joe reboot? I hope this one works out.

I wonder how long before Major Bludd loses an eye...

[QUOTE=Frontier;4570009]Isn't this IDW's 4th G.I. Joe reboot? I hope this one works out.

I wonder how long before Major Bludd loses an eye...[/QUOTE]

Third I believe. It relaunched enough times to make it very confusing however. Most of them seemed to conceivably be connected to one another, but even before the shared universe attempt it was pretty fuzzy.

[QUOTE=Personamanx;4570662]Third I believe. It relaunched enough times to make it very confusing however. Most of them seemed to conceivably be connected to one another, but even before the shared universe attempt it was pretty fuzzy.[/QUOTE]
I think there was the first run with Chuck Dixon, then Fred Van Lente, then the one where Scarlet was in charge back when they had all the Hasbro comics starting to tie-in to one another, and now this.

But this seems to be the pretty clearest "reboot" of the brand.

[QUOTE=Personamanx;4567977]I'll probably check it out, but I'm not exactly excited or optimistic. The preview doesn't read particularly well, and I don't recall finding Allor's previous JOE series to be all that memorable. But who knows? I don't have a lot of confidence in IDW's ability to handle anything that isn't [I]My Little Pony[/I] or [I]Dungeons And Dragons[/I] nowadays.[/QUOTE]

I've enjoyed their Star Trek and TMNT. The ARAH stuff is the only GI Joe I've been interested in before this (which was disappointing; I liked Karen Travis' novels). Too much sense that their ideas for D&D begin and end at Baldur's Gate these days for me to care very much. I'd like it if they could get Rogers to do some more Fell's Five stuff.

But I've enjoyed Allor's previous work, so I'm going to give this a shot.


[QUOTE=Frontier;4570740]I think there was the first run with Chuck Dixon, then Fred Van Lente, then the one where Scarlet was in charge back when they had all the Hasbro comics starting to tie-in to one another, and now this.

But this seems to be the pretty clearest "reboot" of the brand.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, this one's supposed to be completely stand-alone.

Wow.

So page six was not what I was expecting. Yikes.

I really like the choices the creative team made here. The cell-shaded look of the art really doesn't lead one to expect how grim things are going to get, and Allor's one-two punch with regard to Duke and then Hawk's bombshell were really unsettling. Also, big thumbs up for the new POV character not showing up to save the day. He's eager and willing and I like him, but he shouldn't be making better tactical decisions than trained soldiers.

Eager to see where this goes, definitely.

[QUOTE=Anduinel;4575676]Eager to see where this goes, definitely.[/QUOTE]
I will give it another issue just because I am willing to support the mission of bringing the franchise into a current setting and all that, but this first issue needed to do more, a lot more, to convince me to keep paying.

I'm another one that's intrigued to see where this goes. I give props to IDW & Hasbro for doing something different with Cobra already in control of the world and the Joes being a hopelessly outmatched resistance. What they did with Duke was a surprise and I kind of like what they're doing with Scarlett here. Seems like this book will have notable character moments, IMO. First issue definitely came across as a first act with bigger things to come later though.

[QUOTE=Cel;4581882]I'm another one that's intrigued to see where this goes. I give props to IDW & Hasbro for doing something different with Cobra already in control of the world and the Joes being a hopelessly outmatched resistance. What they did with Duke was a surprise and I kind of like what they're doing with Scarlett here. Seems like this book will have notable character moments, IMO. First issue definitely came across as a first act with bigger things to come later though.[/QUOTE]

[spoil]Agreed. I think an even bigger shock than the (arguable) face of the franchise getting a bullet in the head was the reveal that the story opened not on an established insurgency, but the last gasp of official resistance. Things are probably going to get worse for the Joes before they get better, and I'm looking forward to it.[/spoil]

Also, solits for issue #4 are out, and I'm digging that cover:

[QUOTE]Journey into the heart of Cobra as Major Bludd searches for the hidden truth behind Cobra high command! What will Cobra’s new vision of America mean for G.I. Joe? [/QUOTE]

[IMG]https://66.media.tumblr.com/4d8a9b7eb9922f84012509e2a7384218/tumblr_py5c63hApQ1qe27noo1_1280.jpg[/IMG]