G.I. Joe Comics Appreciation [IDW, Devil's Due, Etc.]

[Bl00dwerK]

Cobra World Order begins this October! Can't wait!

[Bl00dwerK]

IDW tweeted this out yesterday:

[Cel]

I grew up with ARAH (I remember hunting down the first issue as a kid--got it at a Target store of all places). It really wasn't until maybe after issue #17 or so that I began to collect it regularly at various newsstands--so yeah, I'm pre-direct market and pre-comic book shops. But I kind of drifted away from G.I. Joe comics towards the end of the original Marvel run and after missing the boat with the Devil's Due era, I came back full-time when IDW got the license.

I followed the IDW continuity up until about issue #7 of the current series, but I started to gravitate back towards ARAH as it seemed to be the more fun series. I know there are people who love Karen Traviss, but her take on G.I. Joe wasn't working for me and I eventually bailed. Coming back to ARAH has been like coming home to me.

[Bl00dwerK]

I know there are people who love Karen Traviss, but her take on G.I. Joe wasn't working for me and I eventually bailed.

I liked her writinig but it feel very G.I. Joe, if you know what I mean. I would like to see her take on a similar series, maybe something more espionage-related, like a Mission Impossible kinda thing...

[Cel]

I liked her writinig but it feel very G.I. Joe, if you know what I mean. I would like to see her take on a similar series, maybe something more espionage-related, like a Mission Impossible kinda thing...

Yeah, I actually think that was where she was taking her G.I. Joe series, towards a more cloak-and-dagger series with blurred lines within both the Joes and Cobra. I give her props for doing that, even if it wasn't my cup of tea.

But I actually didn't know until after I wrote my initial post that IDW had ended Traviss' book with issue #8 (I thought the reason I hadn't seen it for awhile on shelves was due to it being simply late or something).

[Bl00dwerK]

There's a preview up for the next issue of ARAH...

[K. Jones]

I'm a dutiful Joe reader. Well, Hamaverse reader. I've been working on a little study into the last 60+ issues to get some insights - challenging with Larry's seat-of-his-pants writing style, but it does feel pretty organic the way things are building toward something big. Even with the weird bits, it also feels like a pretty natural extension from the latter half of the Marvel run, as androids mimicking people were actually present way back then, too (like in that story where Scrap-Iron uses BATS mocked up to be people to do an inside job in Silicon Valley, or that non-Hama issue with the android duplicates of politicians). Factor in some of the embarrassingly 90s cybernetic stuff from the end of the run and frankly, cyborg ninjas were kind of the obvious next step. (That goes ditto for military Metal Gear type things - in fact if I squint real hard I can pretend the Transformers arc from 135 to 145 was just mechas) I'm just glad he tied all that weird advanced tech into like, Darklon as a middle-man, and the classic seedy dealings with dictators, usurpers, and rogue nations. Essentially though, even if its a smidge more grounded than a superhero comic, I can usually buy anything that you might find in a Captain America, or obviously a SHIELD comic. Joe is at its heart, after all, a sort of riff on SHIELD vs. HYDRA. So evil scientists keeping their minds alive in computerized form? I can dig it. Clones and body doubles? I can dig it. Advanced warfare stuff? Yep. Brainwashing? Yep.

Still, it's been the smaller 'special missions' type arcs that geek me out every time. That pair of two-parters - Chuckles' small team versus Bludd and General Tep. The sea raid to stop the Kalingi pirates introducing the hardcore Red Shadows. And third, the Olliestan failed rescue of Lady Doomsday that gave Long Range a hell of a good spotlight.

I've also been counting the ongoing mysteries, and boy, there's a few.

As for the IDW stuff, I tried it all when it started and thought Dixon was decent-to-good, and I stuck with Costa's Cobra stuff for ages, but I sort of just fell off after a while. I'll probably grab up all the Costa stuff I've missed at some point. His was the winningest, to be sure.

[Bl00dwerK]

Upcoming cover for G.I. Joe. Looks awesome...

[Dylan Davison]

I have a few questions, if I may ask.

Ok, who are the current leading lady heroes in G.I. Joe, and how often do they appear in the series? Also what is a good starting point for me to start at? As I only know the base basic of the series. I am tempted to start reading Joes.

Thanks!

[CraigTheCylon]

I have a few questions, if I may ask.

Ok, who are the current leading lady heroes in G.I. Joe, and how often do they appear in the series? Also what is a good starting point for me to start at? As I only know the base basic of the series. I am tempted to start reading Joes.

Thanks!

With rare few exceptions, the unquestioned leading lady of G.I. Joe is Scarlett (real name Shanna O'Hara), and she's a pretty constant fixture of the ARAH series right from the start of the Marvel run. On the downside, she is all too often present purely by virtue of being the key love interest for Snake Eyes, who is/was the most focused-on protagonist no matter how large the cast gets, and there's some wince-inducing material involving her in some of the earlier issues. But on the whole, she comes off well, being one of the more tenured and dangerous Joes, with clear intelligence and leadership skills.

Behind Scarlett, the next two on the ladder of importance are Lady Jaye (Alison Hart-Burnett) and Jinx (Kim Arashikage). Jaye is, again, typically presented as one-half of a Joe 'power couple' alongside Flint, although in this case it's more of an even relationship, as Flint isn't presented as some kind of superhuman badass - in fact, most of his appearances in the Marvel days highlighted his flaws (overconfidence, easily-provoked temper etc.), with Jaye usually being the one to stop him from getting himself killed on a regular basis. Jinx, on the other hand, has never had a boyfriend, but she's part of the same family as Storm Shadow and so is usually deployed as a unit with the other Joe ninjas, and participates mainly in the ninja-centric story arcs, of which there are quite a number. She did get to strike out on her own in some of the IDW-published issues, though. The only other female Joe of consequence is Cover Girl (Courtney Kreiger), who was a catwalk model before joining the military, hence the name. She doesn't get nearly as much spotlight as the others, though she is usually presented well when she does get to show up. Also, she's a tank commander by default, which at least gives her a role unique from the other women.

There have been other women involved with the Joes during the ARAH timeline, but they generally aren't part of the actual team. The main ones worth mentioning are Dr. Adele Burkhart (Nobel prize-winning scientist turned pacifist campaigner, frequent hostage of bad people), Lola (girlfriend/wife of Joe retiree Grunt, used to be a CIA operative), Jane Martelle (a.k.a G.I. Jane, field nurse and partner of Joe Colton, the 'original' Joe, became a particle physicist after retiring from active duty) and Daina Janack (lone female recruit of the Oktober Guard, a Russian-spawned Joe equivalent, and one of the longest-serving members of said unit). Cobra has remained largely a sausagefest organisation with the obvious exception of the Baroness (Anastasia DeCobray), whose history dates all the way back to #1. She's a ruthless terrorist, but her loyalties to Cobra are often tested or broken by her tempestuous relationship with steel-masked arms manufacturer Destro, and she's been shown to have at least some noble leanings over the years. All things considered, she might actually trump Scarlett for leading lady status, both for being a more recognizable face of the brand and having a more in-depth personal history.

Of course ARAH (meaning 'A Real American Hero', which basically denotes all issues belonging to the single Joe comics continuity chiefly explored by Larry Hama) isn't the only Joe universe. IDW's own continuity has featured all the female Joes previously mentioned (although Jinx didn't last long) as well as a few others, such as Dial Tone (a gender-swapped replacement for one of the classic toyline's tech/communications guys), Doc (field medic and daughter of the earlier, male Doc), Agent Helix (superhuman gunslinger of unspecified origins), Ronin (a very reluctant ninja) and Chameleon (Cobra turncoat, bitterly snarky spy/interrogator).

If you're trying to get into ARAH...well, there's a lot of it (the series is up to #216 at time of writing), however Hama rarely makes his continuity so dense that a new reader would be lost. I'd advise maybe going back to #212 or so, just so you can get the whole 'Death of Snake Eyes' storyline, which is kind of a big deal and will no doubt shake up Scarlett's status quo for the foreseeable future. IDW has already reprinted all of the Marvel-published run (up to #154, if memory serves) in trade, under the label G.I. Joe Classic if you're gonna go looking. As said, there's a lot of it. I'll skim through things later to try and find the really worthwhile ones.

The IDWverse is newer, but still has been around for a few years. It's currently on hiatus after Karen Traviss' take on the series ended after 9 issues, which I think have been collected across 2 trades both titled The Fall of G.I. Joe. I'd personally advise you go back a little further to Fred Van Lente's run, which is collected in the Homecoming and Threat Matrix trades. He gave everything a very tidy relaunch after years of muddling with Chuck Dixon's continuity without actually deleting anything, and gave Cover Girl a real starring role for the first time in...ever, possibly. That can then be followed by the Paul Allor-written Siren's Song trade, which stars a new female Cobra operative and heavily features the Baroness and the Joes' communications/blogger girl, Hashtag. Yes, there's a Joe codenamed 'Hashtag'. Don't ask.

Oh, and there's the Cobra series, also part of the IDWverse, which is generally more of a spy book than a military one. It's pretty great across all incarnations. You can start with the Cobra: The Last Laugh maxi edition for the full Chuckles story, though it's only after those issues that the book becomes properly Chameleon-centric. But really, if you see any issues titled 'Cobra' or 'The Cobra Files' consider it a guarantee of quality. Mike Costa never let the side down.

Hope that helps!

[Dylan Davison]

With rare few exceptions, the unquestioned leading lady of G.I. Joe is Scarlett (real name Shanna O'Hara), and she's a pretty constant fixture of the ARAH series right from the start of the Marvel run. On the downside, she is all too often present purely by virtue of being the key love interest for Snake Eyes, who is/was the most focused-on protagonist no matter how large the cast gets, and there's some wince-inducing material involving her in some of the earlier issues. But on the whole, she comes off well, being one of the more tenured and dangerous Joes, with clear intelligence and leadership skills.

Behind Scarlett, the next two on the ladder of importance are Lady Jaye (Alison Hart-Burnett) and Jinx (Kim Arashikage). Jaye is, again, typically presented as one-half of a Joe 'power couple' alongside Flint, although in this case it's more of an even relationship, as Flint isn't presented as some kind of superhuman badass - in fact, most of his appearances in the Marvel days highlighted his flaws (overconfidence, easily-provoked temper etc.), with Jaye usually being the one to stop him from getting himself killed on a regular basis. Jinx, on the other hand, has never had a boyfriend, but she's part of the same family as Storm Shadow and so is usually deployed as a unit with the other Joe ninjas, and participates mainly in the ninja-centric story arcs, of which there are quite a number. She did get to strike out on her own in some of the IDW-published issues, though. The only other female Joe of consequence is Cover Girl (Courtney Kreiger), who was a catwalk model before joining the military, hence the name. She doesn't get nearly as much spotlight as the others, though she is usually presented well when she does get to show up. Also, she's a tank commander by default, which at least gives her a role unique from the other women.

There have been other women involved with the Joes during the ARAH timeline, but they generally aren't part of the actual team. The main ones worth mentioning are Dr. Adele Burkhart (Nobel prize-winning scientist turned pacifist campaigner, frequent hostage of bad people), Lola (girlfriend/wife of Joe retiree Grunt, used to be a CIA operative), Jane Martelle (a.k.a G.I. Jane, field nurse and partner of Joe Colton, the 'original' Joe, became a particle physicist after retiring from active duty) and Daina Janack (lone female recruit of the Oktober Guard, a Russian-spawned Joe equivalent, and one of the longest-serving members of said unit). Cobra has remained largely a sausagefest organisation with the obvious exception of the Baroness (Anastasia DeCobray), whose history dates all the way back to #1. She's a ruthless terrorist, but her loyalties to Cobra are often tested or broken by her tempestuous relationship with steel-masked arms manufacturer Destro, and she's been shown to have at least some noble leanings over the years. All things considered, she might actually trump Scarlett for leading lady status, both for being a more recognizable face of the brand and having a more in-depth personal history.

Of course ARAH (meaning 'A Real American Hero', which basically denotes all issues belonging to the single Joe comics continuity chiefly explored by Larry Hama) isn't the only Joe universe. IDW's own continuity has featured all the female Joes previously mentioned (although Jinx didn't last long) as well as a few others, such as Dial Tone (a gender-swapped replacement for one of the classic toyline's tech/communications guys), Doc (field medic and daughter of the earlier, male Doc), Agent Helix (superhuman gunslinger of unspecified origins), Ronin (a very reluctant ninja) and Chameleon (Cobra turncoat, bitterly snarky spy/interrogator).

If you're trying to get into ARAH...well, there's a lot of it (the series is up to #216 at time of writing), however Hama rarely makes his continuity so dense that a new reader would be lost. I'd advise maybe going back to #212 or so, just so you can get the whole 'Death of Snake Eyes' storyline, which is kind of a big deal and will no doubt shake up Scarlett's status quo for the foreseeable future. IDW has already reprinted all of the Marvel-published run (up to #154, if memory serves) in trade, under the label G.I. Joe Classic if you're gonna go looking. As said, there's a lot of it. I'll skim through things later to try and find the really worthwhile ones.

The IDWverse is newer, but still has been around for a few years. It's currently on hiatus after Karen Traviss' take on the series ended after 9 issues, which I think have been collected across 2 trades both titled The Fall of G.I. Joe. I'd personally advise you go back a little further to Fred Van Lente's run, which is collected in the Homecoming and Threat Matrix trades. He gave everything a very tidy relaunch after years of muddling with Chuck Dixon's continuity without actually deleting anything, and gave Cover Girl a real starring role for the first time in...ever, possibly. That can then be followed by the Paul Allor-written Siren's Song trade, which stars a new female Cobra operative and heavily features the Baroness and the Joes' communications/blogger girl, Hashtag. Yes, there's a Joe codenamed 'Hashtag'. Don't ask.

Oh, and there's the Cobra series, also part of the IDWverse, which is generally more of a spy book than a military one. It's pretty great across all incarnations. You can start with the Cobra: The Last Laugh maxi edition for the full Chuckles story, though it's only after those issues that the book becomes properly Chameleon-centric. But really, if you see any issues titled 'Cobra' or 'The Cobra Files' consider it a guarantee of quality. Mike Costa never let the side down.

Hope that helps!

Wow, that is helpful haha! Thanks! So the IDW universe is different then the ARAH universe? Who is the publisher of that one? Also if IDW is taking a break, then what is this Cobra World event? Sorry, I am way new to G.I Joe.

Which universe do you think is better for a fan of strong female leads? It's not needed of course, it's just something I tend to enjoy read, no idea why haha. Mode of my pull list has female characters.

Thanks for your help! I am trying to give comics I would not have normally read a chance, since it has worked out well for me lately, and G.I. Joe keeps popping up.

[Dark-Flux]

/\ IDW publish both continuity's. Its IDWs own rebooted continuity thats currently on hiatus.

[CraigTheCylon]

Wow, that is helpful haha! Thanks! So the IDW universe is different then the ARAH universe? Who is the publisher of that one? Also if IDW is taking a break, then what is this Cobra World event? Sorry, I am way new to G.I Joe.

Which universe do you think is better for a fan of strong female leads? It's not needed of course, it's just something I tend to enjoy read, no idea why haha. Mode of my pull list has female characters.

Thanks for your help! I am trying to give comics I would not have normally read a chance, since it has worked out well for me lately, and G.I. Joe keeps popping up.

As Dark-Flux said, all current Joe books are published by IDW, but the Hama-written ARAH comic is in a separate universe/timeline from the others. The recently-teased 'Cobra World Order' event is strictly an ARAH thing.

Taking all issues into account, I'd say IDW's own continuity pulls ahead for female representation, if only for Chameleon, who was never less than engaging across the various iterations of Cobra. She's not always presented as 'strong' in the most simplistic sense - she actually starts off as a non-combatant and it's a clear struggle for her to adjust to manual violence as a day-to-day thing - but her development is brilliant, and the earlier vulnerability makes the moments when she takes agency all the more rewarding. Plus she's usually got some more conventionally badass ladies around her, like Lady Jaye and Ronin. And Firewall, who I forgot to mention in my earlier post. Chameleon factors into the entire run of Cobra, but if you want to skip to the parts where she takes over as the main/lead protagonist, start with the Cobra Civil War tie-in trades.

All that said, I wouldn't say the ARAH books are lacking in representation. It's more a case of Larry Hama's writing style not lending itself so well to such a deep level of characterisation, plus his roster of in-use characters at any given time is massive so there's not much space to go around.

[Bl00dwerK]

I'd say IDW's own continuity pulls ahead for female representation, if only for Chameleon, who was never less than engaging across the various iterations of Cobra.

Chameleon is probably my favorite Joe character who isn't named Baroness. I backordered all the COBRA stuff w/her and Chuckles and loved it. I'm glad she continues to be a big part of IDW's continuity...

[CraigTheCylon]

Question for you all: while we're waiting to see what comes next for the 'IDW-verse' Joe comics, what existing plot point would you most like to see brought back? There's been a fair few story beats raised and ignored - or at least not explored in as much depth as they deserved - over the years, and I'm curious to know which one bugs you most often.

Personally, I'm hoping for the Oktober Guard to return. Apart from just being a very cool update of that squad's core cast, their story in COBRA ended on a tantalizing note, with their C.O. dead and the Russian government convinced they'd turned traitorous, and their only choice for survival being to throw in with Major Bludd.