Comic of the Week: G.I. Joe #13

December 21, 2009

I grew up in the 80’s. G.I. Joe, to me, will always be about red and blue lasers, people who can’t successfuly hit anything smaller than a tank, and a dude with a towel over his face named Cobra Commander. The comics, as a universe all to itself, shows the Joes in a different light. The comic universe is what I primarily consider canon, though.

Words and story by Chuck Dixon
Drawn and brought to life by Robert Atkins on pencils, Clayton Brown on inks, and Andrew Crossley on colors

G.I. Joe #13 seems to be a one shot with bits of backstory that you have to fill in. Easy enough to do, but it doesn’t insult your intelligence with too much exposition. It’s a cool jump-on point for anyone who wants to ride the G.I Joe train. The story isn’t anything to gush over, even though one-shots need not be so linear in plot. Despite having only two main Joes (Beachhead and Tunnel Rat) and a new guy (Tripwire), the story didn’t open up so much character development. Well, for Tunnel Rat, maybe. He was given this whole facet of abilities, which I find cool.

Beachhead is, by far, my favorite G.I. Joe. This is because of two things - the first G.I. Joe fig I ever owned was Beachhead. He had a backpack and a rifle, and that green mask? Effin’ cool. Oh, I’d like a Beachhead action figure for Christmas please. The other reason would be just because he’s an insane hard ass, kinda like Soap, from the Modern Warfare.

Here are a few things I like in the comic better than any other media of G.I. Joe.

They use bullets, not blue and red lasers.

People actually get shot and die.

Ah, but then again, some things never change.

I think the newly launched comic series is sort of the history of G.I. Joe and Cobra. G.I. Joe already exists, but they still think the existence of Cobra is a myth. Dialtone becomes this conspiracy theorist and slowly uncovers some evidence to prove that they exist. Pretty cool, right? This issue has nothing to do with that whatsoever.

 

Because it has a non-existent plot and it lacks some drama, it only gets 3 out of 5 25th anniversary Cobra Commander action figures. Beachhead still rules, though.