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G.I. JOEversity: G.I. Joe Special Missions # 1 [Review]

By | March 25th, 2013
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

The second title in IDW’s G.I. Joe relaunch, “G.I. Joe: Special Missions” #1 hit comics shelves and Comixology last week, and with it, the return of a handful of Joes who aren’t quite finished dealing with the fallout from the previous ongoing series.

Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Paul Gulacy

A NEW BEGINNING! The legendary team of Chuck Dixon and Paul Gulacy lead the G.I. Joe team undercover and into action! The BARONESS tries to get back into COBRA’s good graces—and it’s up to SCARLETT to assemble a team to take the villainess down!

There are missions and then there are special missions. And considering we’ll soon have three ongoing G.I. Joe titles shipping each month, it’s an important distinction to make. So what’s so special about this mission? Well, to be honest, I’m not quite sure. In fact, there’s almost no reason this first issue of G.I. Joe: Special Missions couldn’t have just as easily been G.I. Joe (Vol. II) #22, as it picks up pretty much where longtime G.I. Joe scribe Chuck Dixon left things back in December.

It’s never specified how much time has passed since we saw Scarlett and the Joes last, but it hasn’t been long. When we catch up with the newly formed “snakehunter” unit in Southern Libya, they’re right in the middle of a firefight with a small group of Cobra insurgents, and, as always, the Joes are in a pickle. But a few well placed grenades, a hot-wired truck, and one C-130 touch-and-go movie stunt later, and everything’s coming up Joe, and pretty soon they’re back home and planning their next operation. And while Scarlett’s team debrief, in another part of the world, the Baroness is putting together an oceanic expedition to salvage the Neptune Bonanza, the riches filled ocean liner that Cobra lost and Snake Eyes went down with at the end of “Target: Snake Eyes.” She’s thinking that getting the ship and the forty million inside should be enough to put her back in Cobra’s good graces… and she’s probably not wrong. Coincidentally, that next operation for the Joes? Raiding the Bonanza before Cobra can do it themselves. And with that, suddenly (finally!) the Joes have their first “special mission.”

But even though Special Missions pulls heavily from the past, it definitely offers up a very different G.I. Joe than the almost Avengers-like team found in “G.I. Joe” — “G.I. Joe Special Missions” is a military comics, through and through, and doesn’t try to hide it. If Duke’s team is about holding press conferences, and making public displays of National defense, the Special Missions team are all about  “Charlie Mike”-ing (continuing the mission) and doing what they were recruited to do before Cobra exposed the Joes to the world. Albeit on a slightly smaller scale, but they’re all about getting the job done with none of the “celebrity soldier” B/S afforded the other guys.

Here, Dixon’s doing what he does best, and what we’ve come to expect from him on the title. As someone who’s been all-in on G.I. Joe for a while now, I enjoyed the first issue, but mostly because I’m already familiar with the set-up and cast. A man of his word, Dixon stated in our interview last week that he’s firmly committed to closing off hanging story threads from his old book, and he wastes no time getting to it. But Special Missions #1 runs the risk of being too steeped in Dixon’s own continuity for an all new first issue, especially when compared to Fred Van Lente and Steve Kurth’s purposefully new reader friendly “G.I. Joe”. I think an entirely original mission for these Joes with no ties to the past would serve this book much better. Instead, the issue relies entirely on readers’ previous knowledge that it never even bothers to fully introduce the team — we’re just expected to know Scarlett, Beachhead, Tripwire, Hard Drive, Iceberg, etc… without any help, from the creative team or the characters in the story. I can imagine the approach would keep someone picking the book up cold form appreciating about 75% of what’s going on, and that’s it a real shame, because it’s such an easy fix. Roll call page, anyone?

Continued below

On art, we have Paul Gulacy, who is, of course, one of comics greatest talents — and if you don’t know why that is, then shame on you. But admittedly, I would never put him in my “Top Ten Artists to Draw G.I. Joe” list (and you can bet I’ve got one). but what he does with Special Missions proves again that he can draw just about anything, and that’s what makes him one of the best. In particular, the opening scene with the Baroness is right up his alley, and here, he does an incredible job of introducing her as both a) dangerous and b) an ostensible sexual force to be reckoned with. As good as he is, Gulacy isn’t perfect though, and his work starts to feel just a little sloppy by the end of the issue. Since he’s on Special Missions for the first arc only, it should be interesting to see if his work evolves over the course of this story as more Cobras start showing up, and the action shifts from the surface to underwater.

This is a tough one. Where there things I’d like to have seen done differently in G.I. Joe Special Missions? Absolutely. Foremost, this book needs a roster page or something that clearly identifies who all the players are. Beyond that, I wish it wasn’t struggling so much with being a new book or a continuation of the previous series. That said, none of what we get makes this a bad comic. In fact, for guys like me, who’re carryovers, it’s a damn fun comic and delivers what we’ve come to enjoy about Dixon’s particular brand of G.I. Joe storytelling. Is it for everyone? Probably not, but if you’re someone who’s not entirely sold on the new G.I. Joe yet, it’s got plenty of what made the franchise so popular in the first place, and that’s all you need to know.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10 – If you’re a die hard, buy hard.


//TAGS | G.I. JoeVersity

Chad Bowers

Chad Bowers has been reading comics for most of his life. His transition from fan to professional is a work in progress. He’s the co-founder of ACTION AGE COMICS, creator of the webcomic MONSTER PLUS, co-creator of AWESOME HOSPITAL, THE HARD ONES, and DOWN SET FIGHT (coming soon from Oni Press) with Chris Sims. He reviews comics, writes G.I. JoeVersity, and co-hosts The Hour Cosmic for Multiversity Comics! If you've got nothing better to do, you can follow him on Twitter or Tumblr.

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