Even with the nostalgia backlash beginning, G.I. Joe vs. Transformers is pretty much a license to print money. Though this pairing happened during the original G.I. Joe/Transformers heyday, it's really something of a nonsensical match if you step back and think about it, and so Blaylock had his work cut out for him in making it a believable story (or as believable as you can get when you're talking about cartoon military taskforces and giant transforming robots). As it turns out, he's got kind of a neat take on the premise, much the same as Dreamwave's Transformers: Generation One, positing a use of the robots by an immoral human force that doesn't fully understand what they've got. The writing style is much more in tune with the cartoons than the comics, meaning that it's OK for kids, but it also means that it feels a little too safe and even cutesy at times.
This is an alternate world type of continuity, where G.I. Joe and Cobra basically don't quite exist yet. So Blaylock gets to start from the beginning, with Cobra a nascent terrorist organization and G.I. Joe the response to that organization. Blaylock can't quite resist the temptation to make cutesy in-jokes referencing the mainstream versions of the characters, though, which mostly fall flat. References to the mute Snake-Eyes being a chatterbox or overly labored references to a Scottish arms dealer feel forced rather than fun, and just about every time a G.I. Joe "code name" shows up it's presented in something of a groaner fashion. It's like having someone jabbing you in the ribs saying "Get it? Get it?" with increasing intensity.
Leaving aside this kind of forced cutesy reference, though, the story is pretty interesting. The Transformers are presented as the weird science-fiction element that they should be, and it's interesting to see the reactions of the soldiers the first time they realize they're facing giant robots. I also like the general setup of the piece, which sees G.I. Joe as an answer to dangerous new technology rather than just a terrorist threat.
Artists Mike Miller and Armando Durruthy provide solid artwork, with some impressive panorama shots that introduce Cobra Commander and his troops or the first view of the transformed robots. Miller fumbles a couple of important story points, going in too close on the reveal of Optimus Prime's first transformation so that we never really see his vehicle form or failing to provide enough context to give a sense of the "impossible" maneuvers in the air, but in general the storytelling is decent enough.
What the story lacks for my taste is a bit of an edge. Blaylock definitely makes this kid-friendly, but I can't help but imagine what the book would have been like if he had approached it from the same sort of place that Larry Hama approached the original G.I. Joe series. It's an alternate continuity, which means he should be free to kill off characters and blow up Transformers, and little cheats like Ace escaping his fighter with a well-timed parachute and clumsy quip left me feeling like Cobra and its allies really weren't much of an actual threat.
