GIJoe

[anarky]

Reading some of the interviews around the interwebz, it does sound like this might be a bit more thought-through than the clusterfuck that ruined Transformers comics (for at least two years--I'm assuming here you're right and it gets better).

I hadn't considered that Cobra was an old organization in IDW and "Cobra Commander" is merely a position, not a person. Haven't gotten that far in the Cobra series, and hints in other series are few and far between. Also, Schmidt repeatedly saying that there wouldn't be a wholesale slaughter and that he put the nix on "this figure sucked, so the character is going to die" makes me think he might be telling the truth.

The only thing that really concerns me is an ongoing Snake Eyes series.

[Rollo Tomassi]

The goddamn internet. C'aint nothin be secret for more than 12 hours no more. Feh.

I've been decidedly happy with everything IDW has done with their Joe books over the last two years. So there's no reason to think this relaunch and the Civil War Crossover will be anything but a continuation of awesome.

[anarky]

I'd be fine if it said "Spoilers Ahead!" and then had a bit of blank space, as common courtesy dictates. Putting such a massive spoiler on the very next line, especially as a paragraph unto itself so it's impossible to miss, is bad form.

I'm putting money on Baroness. IDW's Destro doesn't seem to have the history with the organization, and most of the other candidates have shown up so briefly, we barely know anything about them.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I'd be fine if it said "Spoilers Ahead!" and then had a bit of blank space, as common courtesy dictates. Putting such a massive spoiler on the very next line, especially as a paragraph unto itself so it's impossible to miss, is bad form.

I'm putting money on Baroness. IDW's Destro doesn't seem to have the history with the organization, and most of the other candidates have shown up so briefly, we barely know anything about them.

Despite their allusions to the contrary, I think this will be a 'Fred Series VII' kind of situation and the "Real" Commander will take over at the end. I think the reason they're protesting that kind of situation now is that if they admitted that's what they were up to from the get go it would deflate the entire story and idea. And as someone pointed out on CBR, its a not a real Cobra Civil War unless Serpentor gets an arrow in the beefhole at the end.

[anarky]

Maybe they'll make some of the overrated "Hearts and Minds" miniseries make any sense in the context of the IDW Joeverse. Seriously, was there a single character in that series that jived with the portrayal in other books? Major Bludd ran a gulag, which I'm sure didn't leave much time for a family who didn't know he was a terrorist. Tripwire didn't have a death wish in any of Dixon's books. Mindbender definitely isn't 100 years old. I'd go on, but I've pretty much forgotten the rest of the book, aside from the Cobra Trooper story, which would've been decent if it had been expanded upon.

[anarky]

Holy fuck, Cobra Volume 3 was a mindfuck. Scoop, Serpentor, Golobulus, Croc Master, Skullbuster, Venemous Maximus, the Coil, Cobra-La. Shit, aside from Hawk's involvement, this was almost an exercise in making incredibly shitty characters awesome.

Don't spoil it for me, but have they revealed what the hell is going on with Maximus? Why's his arm in a sling at some points, and looks like uncovered muscle at others?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Not to my knowledge. That story arc probably reads better in one sitting than it did over the course of six months.

[anarky]

I can definitely see how this is one story that would suffer from serialization. I only took one break (because I started reading later than I should've and couldn't keep my eyes open), and, even then, it lagged a bit with the asides about Skullbuster and Croc Master. As good as the book was, Croc Master's tale shouldn't have interrupted it; the frame about Venemous telling Scoop the story was a bit clumsy. Skullbuster's tale, though, at least was the reason the one Viper wanted to get the hell out of Cobra with Scoop.

Speaking of Croc Master, Venemous talks about his in the present tense. I didn't get any clues whatsoever that this story took place prior to or even during the two chapters of Chuckles' story that preceded it. Croc Master sure looked dead the last time we saw him. Didn't Chameleon (whatever her name was at that point) shoot him in the head and he fell in the sewer?

And (again, no spoilers, if you can help it), do they eventually address the relationship between Chameleon and Baroness?

[Rollo Tomassi]

I don't think they addressed it. And in my mind, that whole Chameleon/Baroness thing was confusing as hell. I couldn't tell who was supposed to be who and what the relationship was. I felt like I had missed a chapter in another book somewhere.

[anarky]

The hipper-than-thou haters at HisStank are complaining, but the preview for Snake Eyes #1 looks fucking awesome. Even if the entire special team that shall remain nameless bought it off-panel.

[anarky]

Is there an editor around?

The characterizations are so inconsistent between books. In the preview for the new GIJoe, there's a Roadblock. He was Heavy Duty in the early issues. Did he change his name? Are there two big gunners who are even more alike than they've been in any other version?

Characters like Tripwire aren't the same from book to book. In the uber-shitty (sorry) Hearts & Minds, Tripwire is a suicidal nut. He's not like that in any other book. Facial hair seems to come and go at will, too.

You'd think with the line becoming more integrated with the Cobra Civil War, the books would be more consistent, not less.

Also, really, even if the writing stomps the Devil's Due run, I'm getting the feeling more and more each month that they're simply axing people for shock value.

[Rollo Tomassi]

All the characters getting aced(well, MOST of the characters) aren't much more than a Codename they made up that sounds vaguely Joe-ish. Then they drop that name into the dialogue between a bunch of characters so the guy seems familiar. Then they kill him.

[anarky]

It occurred to me earlier that Larry Hama's continued RAH is subversive of Devil's Due in a way that's probably not even intentional:

Devil's Due kept bringing back their favorite characters. First, Serpentor came back. Then it was revealed the main SAW Viper wasn't dead. Both were supposedly killed in the DD run and came back again. Characters like Tomax and Xamot, they couldn't even decide if they were dead.

And now Hama is bringing back characters with little or no explanation, or in ways that just make your fucking head hurt. But they're the "shit" characters: Crystal Ball was presumed dead for ages (IIRC, even the cartoon sort of had him vanish in the destruction of Cobra-La and never be mentioned again), Darklon must have a legion of angels watching out for him to keep him breathing after having a long-range missile dropped in his lap. Even Sneak Peek was only a favorite for his poignant death issue. And now they're back.

[anarky]

Dumb question for Rollo:

I just read a preview for GIJoe: ARAH #172. Someone is remotely viewing the aftermath of an explosion, and sees Billy, Storm Shadow, and Snake Eyes. However, the thing that threw me for a loop is the guy saying that Snake Eyes isn't whoever they're looking for because he looks "too unusual" and says, "Is that a rubber mask?"

Did Snake Eyes get re-burned, did Hama make a huge honkin' mistake, or do you reckon it's sort of a joke that Snake Eyes, who always passed for "normal" when wearing his realistic rubber mask, is now mistaken for wearing a rubber mask?

[Rollo Tomassi]

It's been a long ass while since I read the old Marvel books but didn't he get re-burned at the end of the Snake-Eyes Trilogy? The three S&M guys threw the hot coals or whatever in his face and then he killed them and that's where he got his version 3.0 costume with the silver swim goggles and butterfly knives on the chest. It was piecemeal of the three assassins outfits.