Written by Mike Costa
Illustrated by Alex CalThe blockbuster Cobra Command continues! Snake-eyes and Helix wreck a secret Cobra base, while the rest of the GI Joe team plays catch-up, doing their best to prevent the newest Cobra Commander’s master plan.
Last week, we looked at Cobra Annual # 1 and Snake-eyes #9, and told you all about the multi-part Cobra Command running through IDW’s three mainline GI Joe titles. This week brought us part 3 in the form of Cobra #9, and just like every chapter before it, the imaginary threat levels continue to escalate.
Check back after the jump to see if you should be worried or not.
Similar to Marvel’s The Ultimates — the earliest series, at least — IDW’s take on GI Joe is set in a world more realistic than we’re used to seeing in comics. Sure, the Cobra Commander still wears a crazy uniform and Destro’s mask isn’t all that different, but the world itself operates and adheres to a set of rules that’re a lot closer to our own than those of a Saturday morning cartoon*. And while I’m in no way demystifying the Marvel GI Joe of my youth, or the legendary Larry Hama, those comics weren’t even pretending to be in the real world. Well, as much as the Fantastic Four or Spider-man were pretending to be in the real world, but realism was never something those books were overly concerned with. And by and large, I’m not interested in comics that try hard to NOT be comics, but with GI Joe the “real” approach feels completely natural, and taking that realism to the next level is what makes Cobra, the comic AND the organization within the comic, extraordinarily effective.
What makes these books so thought-provoking, is that, in the world of GI Joe, Cobra’s a fully realized and highly-capable homegrown terrorist organization. By the time GI Joe knows about them, nothing is beyond their grasp — their hands are in everything, and they’re everywhere, and they did it all right under our noses. Really, this is where the current comic and the Real American Hero cartoon share something pretty great: the fact that Cobra’s already in the middle of taking over the world via subliminal rock n’ roll music or kidnapping the Statue of Liberty seemingly days before GI Joe’s even onto them. They ALMOST do it! While that kind of hilarious scheming made Cobra so much fun back then, the ridiculousness has been replaced with political and economic mind games and instigation of global war.
Cobra # 9 sees Cobra Commander’s plans in Southeast Asia take a hit from Snake-eyes and co., but it barely slows him down. Actually, it doesn’t slow him down at all, but rather his inner circle of Destro, the Baroness, and in particular, Major Bludd. Bludd tries to do what he does best, and mix the pot a little, but it backfires on him when Cobra Commander violently undermines him and opens the Major’s good eye to the truth that the new Commander is most certainly not the previous Commander.
The fact is, he’s far more hazardous, as GI Joe discovers when they realize the Commander’s plans for the Cobra occupied nation of Nanzhao.
Not only is writer Mike Costa Freakin Awesome’s fifth sexiest comic creator of 2011, he’s also the most unashamed writer-who’s-also-a-fan I can think of. I enjoy just about everything the guy does, and yes, that includes DC’s Blackhawks (which we all know is just another GI Joe book). Costa’s usually a fairly positive storyteller, too, but Cobra definitely offers him an opportunity to get in touch with his dark side, and it’s something he liberally explores.
And as I mentioned last week, Alex Cal is the workhorse of the GI Joe art crew. He’s a fine draftsman, and while he sometimes goes a little heavy with the photo-reference, he saves it by drawing just about the most dynamic Snake-eyes you’ll ever see. I can’t say for certain, but I would guess he works primarily in digital. So there’s probably not a whole lot of original Alex Cal artwork out there to be had, and that’s a real shame, as there are several pages in Cobra #9 alone that I wouldn’t mind owning.
Continued belowCobra #9 means that we’ve made it through the first third of nine-part Cobra Command. With an ending that sets up what might be the most monumental disaster in the book’s history, yeah, I’d be pretty stupid not to love it… or to come back next week.
Final Verdict: 8.75 — It’s the Egg McMuffin of GI Joe comics
*I know GI Joe aired on weekdays, but “Saturday morning cartoon” just worked better, okay?
