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G.I. JOE: COBRA REBORN #1
Recommended (7/10)
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Devil's Due Studios
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Pencils: Eddy Barrows, Renato Arlem & Moises Damasceno
Inks: Jack Jadson, Wellington Dias & Andrew Pepoy
Colors: Lynx Studios & Transparency Digital
Letters: Dreamer Design
Price: $4.95 US |
"Ultimate G.I. Joe?" Honestly, it doesn't sound like a bad idea, although given that this property is based largely on a nostalgic fanbase, I'm not sure a continuity reboot was all that necessary to get people into the book again. At any rate, Cobra Reborn is a new, modernized start for the terrorist villain organization that plagues the G.I. Joe team, but it also bears a striking similarity to what has gone before. Destro is still a Scottish weapons dealer with a penchant for wearing metal on his head, Cobra Commander still started out as a used car salesman and Cobra is still built on the backs of American weariness about the state of their nation. However, there's a certain insidious and topical nature to Cobra's new philosophy, and while their methods mark them as the bad guys without question, Jenkins does make the organization seem alluring to those put out by the politics of "Fuck you, I've got mine" that have dominated the American scene for a long time, and even moreso in the last few years.
The whole concept of costumes and masks and goofy codenames makes G.I. Joe tough to modernize and make more serious, but this is a pretty good attempt, and it's certainly got my attention enough that I want to see the flipside of how the G.I. Joe team is formed. Jenkins worried me at the beginning when Destro was presented a little over-the-top (okay, we get it, he's a Darth Vader-esque villain who murders and maims at the slightest displeasure), but he soon settled into a rhythm I could get behind. The introduction of each villainous member of Cobra is a little methodical, but the members have nifty little scenes that introduce them and make them seem legitimately dangerous and skilled. I particularly enjoyed Firefly and Major Bludd, two of the mercenary members of the team, coming across as both mercenary in nature and skilled enough to make a living at firefights and assassination. One of the major changes in this version is that Bludd is no longer a bad poetry-spouting goof, a minor but very important change in terms of taking him seriously.
Jenkins's tale operates on several fronts, actually. On the one, we're introduced to the various characters who will make up the core of the Cobra ruling council and elite strike team. On the other, we're seeing the terrorist actions that Cobra Commander is putting out there as an audacious display of their power. And then, there's the reaction inside the corridors of power, which hint pretty strongly at the formation of the G.I. Joe team. Though Jenkins paints Cobra Commander as a megalomaniac, his desire to return power to the common man could almost make him an anti-hero sort, except that his actions mark him quite clearly as a terrorist and not a freedom fighter. The destruction of the Golden Gate bridge, mass murder and arson, corporate manipulation and theft of powerful military hardware... this is the kind of thing we rarely saw from Cobra in the old days, and Jenkins does a good job of showing us how terrible they can be rather than just telling us or hinting at it from behind the restrictive Comics Code.
In addition, though Eddy Barrows's artwork isn't as beautiful and realistic as Tim Bradstreet's cover, the interior artwork is pretty impressive and especially nice in terms of clear action sequences. I couldn't quite get a read on everything going on in Zartan's introduction, but Barrows does a particularly nice job on the horrifying after-effects of the dramatically named Black Omega virus and presents both Destro and Cobra Commander as men of dignity despite their Halloween costume attire. Also, though I'm hoping to see the classic Storm Shadow ninja gear show up at some point, his redesign as a Matrix-ized white formal wear attired bodyguard is pretty slick.
As with all the nostalgia-based books, you sort of have to have an affection for the characters going in, but if that affection (or curiosity) is there, Cobra Reborn offers up an intriguing and well-done new origin for the big bad guys of the franchise.
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