This
is it! The final 10 issues of the original Marvel run of GI Joe. I must say
that this is the worst volume of the entire bunch. The art is worse than ever
before. Not only is the anatomy wrong, but the inking looks like somebody did
it with a dirty brush. There are ink stains and blotches everywhere. It looks
like the artwork from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas!
Not
only is the art poor, but the quality of the stories isn’t the best as well.
Before signing off, the Joes do end hostilities in the fictional European
nation of Borovia. That story arc was the best of this volume. How the conflict
is concluded is brilliant and is a sign of Larry Hama’s genius. Then Hama
devotes another tribute to the original GI Joe with an origin story in honor of
the iconic toy’s 35th anniversary. After being reinstated by the American
government, Joe Colton reflects on his beginnings as he’s whisked away to
Washington. His origin is neatly tied up though it appears that we’re not done
with the original Joe as the nature of this new mission and reactivation to
active duty is poised to be explored in the next issue. Yet after that
excellent story, it appears that things about Marvel or Hasbro went all to
heck!
The
next two issues aren’t even written by Hama. Instead, a substitute writer
crafts two solo stories; one focusing on Scarlett and an experimental Cobra BAT
targeting the redhead for death while the other has Road Block’s flight
overbooked and his alternative flight leaves him taking on an aircraft full of
Cobra operatives. Take about snakes on a plane!
Larry
Hama returns for the final issue. It’s a very poignant issue with Snake Eyes
finally getting his say as he writes to an army buddy’s son who has hopes of
enlisting after high school. While I like this issue very much, there’s no
closer to the Joes Vs. Cobra storyline. While the Pit is being mothballed and
the team is deactivated, there’s no mention as to whether Cobra was finally
defeated or if the Jugglers, the sinister cabal of Pentagon officials who seem
to have it out for the Joe squad, were behind the closure.
Truly,
I think that ending sucks! I expected the 155 issue plus series to come to an
end. I know there’s been other series published by other comic book companies
that delve deeper into the world of the Joes. Yet, I would’ve expected Hama to
be given a chance to tie things up. Heck, I expected Larry Hama to have tied up
these loose plots and give the loyal readers of Joe some closure. (A forward in
this volume by Hama goes on to explain that the decision to cancel Joe was a
sudden decision with only about 2 weeks given to write a final story. Why he
didn’t end the series on a definite note is beyond me.)
I
am sorely disappointed with this volume and how the series ended. Like I
mentioned before, there are other non-Marvel GI Joe comics out there and this
lack of closure has inspired me to search them out. It will take some time, but
I’ll get to them.
Not
Worth Consuming.
Rating:
4 out of 10 stars.
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