GI Joe: World War III
Aug. 9th, 2008 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dunmurderinSo, I picked up the GI Joe: World War III trade paperback yesterday and read it last night at work. This collection has the last of the Devil's Due issues and wraps up the last of their storylines since the license has since gone to IDW (bringing with it hopes of a Spotlight: Metal-Head *fingers crossed!).
Non-spoilery stuff: I'm glad I got this as a trade paperback because really, this is a storyline that deserves to be read all in one chunk rather than in bits and pieces, month by month.
In a nutshell, the storyline of the last year or so of the DD run is basically Cobra more or less literally declaring war on the rest of the world.
Having gotten control of M.A.R.S. by trading it for Destro and the Baroness's son, Cobra Commander is using it and Alexander, Destro's elder son by a youthful indiscretion, to flood weapons to various global hotspots. The Joes end up scrambling to try and defuse the resulting flare ups.
There's a lot of death in this book. A lot of it is of minor characters like Sky Creeper and Rip-It (once again, DIC era characters take it square in the nuts) and some of it is off-screen (alas poor Monkeywrench, I knew him well, Horatio...). Cobra Commander has a final confrontation with his son Billy that ends badly, for Billy that is. While it kinda sucks that Billy ends up dead, I gotta admit that his death at least shows how monstrous Cobra Commander has become.
Speaking of which, Cobra Commander pulls a Starscream near the end of the series, instituting a scorched earth policy -- he plants nukes in Antarctica and the Amazon, attacking two of our more fragile ecosystems under the theory that if he can't have the Earth, ain't NOBODY gonna have the Earth.
I love the fact that we got to see a lot of minor characters in this book -- Metal-Head showed up TWICE. Okay, he's in the background and technically one appearance only half of him is on the screen but damnit, this still gives him twice as many appearances as he had in the Marvel comics!
Cover Girl/Shipwreck get my bid for best Joe canon couple. Nice to see a pair who aren't all about the angsting and who can actually make jokes about having sex! Y'know, like grownups might?
Snake-Eyes and Scarlett get a nice scene with Scarlett's dad where some of their issues were resolved. But events later in the book make it pretty damn clear that the REAL pairing there is and always will be Snake-Eyes/Storm Shadow. Who does Snake-Eyes always drop everything for? Yeah, it ain't the redhead.
Duke, who has never been one of my big favorites, actually gets some much delayed character development in this book. We finally meet his dad, who turns out to be a big ol' liberal, peace-symbol Hawaiian shirt wearin' peacenik hippy who worked two jobs and wanted to send Duke to art school (Duke, as it turns out, is a talented artist -- who knew?). The fact that Conrad "Duke" Hauser's folks called him "Connie" just made me squee with delight 'cause, y'know, parents are embarassing.
I did like the fact that Duke's dad's liberal leanings were portrayed as his father's way of combating injustice and Duke's joining the Army and ultimately the Joes was his way and that neither choice was portrayed as wrong. That and Daddy Duke wears some freaky-cool shirts.
A downside was that there were a lot of confusing side plots that I didn't quite get, but I'm not sure how much of that was a failing on the part of the writer and more to do with the fact that I haven't read the lead up to this for over a year.
Overall, as far as wrap ups go, I think this was a good effort and it did end on a definate high note -- the Joes are being given permisison to be fully active rather than being mothballed like they were at the end of the Marvel series. It'll be interesting to see what IDW does with this franchise and how much, if any, of the DD storyline will be carried over.
'Course, Larry Hama is apparently writing the IDW title and I'm personally giving him three issues before the fannish squee about having him back turns into fannish bitching and moaning that he's not simply reproducing the Marvel issues line for line.
Non-spoilery stuff: I'm glad I got this as a trade paperback because really, this is a storyline that deserves to be read all in one chunk rather than in bits and pieces, month by month.
In a nutshell, the storyline of the last year or so of the DD run is basically Cobra more or less literally declaring war on the rest of the world.
Having gotten control of M.A.R.S. by trading it for Destro and the Baroness's son, Cobra Commander is using it and Alexander, Destro's elder son by a youthful indiscretion, to flood weapons to various global hotspots. The Joes end up scrambling to try and defuse the resulting flare ups.
There's a lot of death in this book. A lot of it is of minor characters like Sky Creeper and Rip-It (once again, DIC era characters take it square in the nuts) and some of it is off-screen (alas poor Monkeywrench, I knew him well, Horatio...). Cobra Commander has a final confrontation with his son Billy that ends badly, for Billy that is. While it kinda sucks that Billy ends up dead, I gotta admit that his death at least shows how monstrous Cobra Commander has become.
Speaking of which, Cobra Commander pulls a Starscream near the end of the series, instituting a scorched earth policy -- he plants nukes in Antarctica and the Amazon, attacking two of our more fragile ecosystems under the theory that if he can't have the Earth, ain't NOBODY gonna have the Earth.
I love the fact that we got to see a lot of minor characters in this book -- Metal-Head showed up TWICE. Okay, he's in the background and technically one appearance only half of him is on the screen but damnit, this still gives him twice as many appearances as he had in the Marvel comics!
Cover Girl/Shipwreck get my bid for best Joe canon couple. Nice to see a pair who aren't all about the angsting and who can actually make jokes about having sex! Y'know, like grownups might?
Snake-Eyes and Scarlett get a nice scene with Scarlett's dad where some of their issues were resolved. But events later in the book make it pretty damn clear that the REAL pairing there is and always will be Snake-Eyes/Storm Shadow. Who does Snake-Eyes always drop everything for? Yeah, it ain't the redhead.
Duke, who has never been one of my big favorites, actually gets some much delayed character development in this book. We finally meet his dad, who turns out to be a big ol' liberal, peace-symbol Hawaiian shirt wearin' peacenik hippy who worked two jobs and wanted to send Duke to art school (Duke, as it turns out, is a talented artist -- who knew?). The fact that Conrad "Duke" Hauser's folks called him "Connie" just made me squee with delight 'cause, y'know, parents are embarassing.
I did like the fact that Duke's dad's liberal leanings were portrayed as his father's way of combating injustice and Duke's joining the Army and ultimately the Joes was his way and that neither choice was portrayed as wrong. That and Daddy Duke wears some freaky-cool shirts.
A downside was that there were a lot of confusing side plots that I didn't quite get, but I'm not sure how much of that was a failing on the part of the writer and more to do with the fact that I haven't read the lead up to this for over a year.
Overall, as far as wrap ups go, I think this was a good effort and it did end on a definate high note -- the Joes are being given permisison to be fully active rather than being mothballed like they were at the end of the Marvel series. It'll be interesting to see what IDW does with this franchise and how much, if any, of the DD storyline will be carried over.
'Course, Larry Hama is apparently writing the IDW title and I'm personally giving him three issues before the fannish squee about having him back turns into fannish bitching and moaning that he's not simply reproducing the Marvel issues line for line.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-10 01:22 am (UTC)Hama...I dunno. I read several of the original Marvel series, but I was really more into the cartoon, so I can't claim to be a fangirl or anything. But I think you're right about how there will be a group of people upset at something, because there always is.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-10 05:59 am (UTC)I just really didn't like the art in 36. Most of the pages seemed to be just a sketch, and I had a hard time identifying people and things in the background.
I do give kudos to DD for their run, and tying up the loose ends quite nicely, but I'm not sad to see their canon end. I am really excited to see the Joe/Cobra comic start fresh.
I'm going to be a little more optimistic about Larry Hama. Most fans that I see commenting on the comic books consider him a god, and have been awfully forgiving with everything he writes. Although, this is a bit of a minefield for him as he starts over because there will be people complaining that the new story is too similar to the original at the same time that people will complain it is too different.