_{Please check out my review of the Zero issue that I wrote when it came last year, and check out my interview with Chuck Dixon that’s really Joe heavy. The review above will cover a lot of the framing of my history as a fan of Joe that continues to this day. This edition of Jan-ken-pon will just be a review of 1st issue, released today!}

Issue #123

January 14th, 2008

There are a couple of aspects about issue#1 that makes me feel really excited about the series and it has to with some answers we get regarding the sensibilities attached to the series by the editorial and creative teams. One has to realize that there is a natural comparison to other iterations of the line a reader may be aware of, even as this is a brand new series with no continuity ties with any other G.I. Joe product. You could always pick out the peculiar oddities of the Marvel run – still one of my favorite comic runs ever through around 80 issues – that at the time were undoubtedly decisions made with the presentation of the toy line in mind.  Let’s get this out of the way: in G.I. Joe #1 you will see Dusty, Torpedo, Frost Bite, Air Tight, Deep Six and Shipwreck and none of them are dressed in a manner that takes you out of the story. No Snow Job on a sea mission in the Gulf of Mexico, wearing polar gear!  Because of this, you finally get the impression that Joe is global, able to be deployed in and out of any locale or theaters in the world, and have specialists that can, and will be utilized.  Not only that, but they can be in several places simultaneously, and the fronts Dixon and Atkins could showcase, using our favorite characters is rather exciting.

We see two missions in this issue alone and get a mini-tour of the Pit. Kudos to the penciler Robert Atkins – it’s damn sweet, and looks reasonably functional in that we see the depth that the base resides in.  At first, there is a comfort level or aesthetic value that seems unmilitary-like,  but I suggest people take a look at some of the newer installations in our own world – I’ve seen Five Star hotels that look homely compared to Air Force bases.  We see the command structure again, as both Hawk and Duke make an appearance, but even more interesting is that we immediately can tell that Scarlett is a major player in the hierarchy of the unit, and that Dixon is already introducing the tension between her and Duke.  There is personality, not just occupation, and we see a team that is unsurprisingly sure of themselves.  From the confidence of a dive team to a restless Beachead, we see Dixon lay down the groundwork of the professional confidence that has to be shaken as he ominously reveals Cobra more and more in the future.

You can’t relaunch G.I. Joe without Snake Eyes. For us diehards who have been down since the ’80′s there are admittedly times we kind of get sick of the guy, but his absence would be intolerable to the fan base you need to be viable.  One of the elements that I felt plagued the original run was an 80’s fascination with ninja, and the first impression that I get of the this Snake Eyes is what his original (and subsequent) file card led off with: COMMANDO. Don’t get is twisted though, it’s apparent that he’s still quick to cut somebody, though his appearance was upstaged.  Snake Eyes arrives in a home that had just been attacked by an agent – presumably a Cobra agent – that I can’t identify for sure (I emailed the artist for clarification and received a friendly, yet ambiguous answer). I want to say that it is Wraith, which would be an interesting addition in terms of revealing the degree that IDW will reach into the mythos to saturate this series.  I kind of dig it, even as I would say I have not been a fan of the character in the past, it makes sense if it is him – if not him, it’s a great little mystery for me, as I’m just not used to not recognizing characters!

As of the first issue we have a G.I Joe that exists with no knowledge of Cobra beyond that the term ‘Cobra’ is being used in communicae in unsavory corners (though perhaps at a certain level they do, as will be seen – I think – in the G.I. Joe: Cobra series by Christos Gauge, Mike Costa, and Antonio Fuso debuting in March).  We do know that G.I. Joe is not a mystery to Cobra at all, which leads me to the Tomio stab in the dark.  At the back of the issue there is a promo for the second that remarks that it will introduce the classic COBRA operative, The Baroness. I might be a nut, but I’m going to say that the Baroness appears in this very issue as the character Dial Tone, already  infiltrating the Pit already.  Dial Tone is originally a male character to begin with, and the character in this issue is almost unique in deference of her abilities.  Or, I can just be full of shit and Mr. Dixon just wanted to make Dial Tone female – we will see!

I was on board after a nicely conceived and constructed preview in the zero issue, and minus some issues with the coloring, the first of the three G.I. Joe titles IDW intends to launch in the next couple of months has me firmly on board.

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. He knows what the other half of the battle is and he isn’t telling. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}