G.I.Joe issue 12, by Josh Blaylock, Kevin Sharpe, John Larter, and Tony Atkins, 2002, Image Comics

Now G.I.Joe is back, with a new creative team at Devil's Due, and a new publisher, Image. It's not quite the same without Stan Lee at the helm, but man, this is some good stuff. Actually, the first few issues were pretty dumb plot-wise, but they moved beyond that and things have gotten much better. They're slowly re-introducing the old characters, and it's sucking me in bad. I love this stuff!

In this issue, the Joes are chasing after a renegade Battle Android Trooper (BAT) that Dr. Mindbender has created for Cobra Commander. Unfortunately, Cobra is chasing after it, too. You've got Urban Vipers in the sewers and Air Vipers on gliders making our heroes' lives difficult. To top it all off, you've got the Dreadnoks running around in downtown Chicago looking for this thing, too. We even get to see Mainframe, the Joe's computer expert, mix it up a little bit, with predictable results (he gets beat on pretty hard). As is standard for a G.I.Joe book, it's very heavy on the action, but that's why we read these things in the first place.

G.I.Joe issue 16, by Josh Blaylock, Tim Seeley, and Cory Hamscher, 2003, Image Comics

But enough griping. This issue starts a new story arc, and features Covergirl, Spirit, and Snake Eyes hunting down a missing person. We don't get all the details, but let's just say that there's a reason the military is getting involved in a missing persons case. I find the use of Spirit interesting, not because he doesn't make sense for the mission, but because he seems to show up all the time. Maybe he's Mr. Blaylock's favorite Joe. It's also good to see Covergirl get some action, even if she does get her butt kicked. It looks like it will be a pretty good story, though, so I'm looking forward to future issues, as should you!

G.I.Joe issue 21, by Josh Blaylock, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty, 2003, Image Comics

The main problem I had was that the story the writer and artists are telling is not very interesting. In the previous issue, Storm Shadow tried to break away from the control of Cobra Commander. Unfortunately, everyone's favorite hooded villian caught up with Storm Shadow and put him back under Cobra Commander's control. Then the good guys show up, and now we have this issue where they fight. That's OK; ninja fights are cool and all. However, the story ends pretty much where everything started; Storm Shadow works for Cobra. I get the impression that everything was set up specifically to get to a "silent" issue. Story-telling gimmicks are useful if they help tell a story, but writing your story solely to use a gimmick is pretty lame. So, this issue was boring. Maybe the events here will have something to do with the larger story arc underway, but I seriously doubt it. Unless you are a die-hard Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow fan, you can skip this issue and not miss anything.

G.I. Joe issue 41 by Brandon Jerwa, Tim Seeley, and Brett R. Smith, Devil's Due Publishing

And then these people nobody has ever heard of before show up and shoot all the Cobras (supposedly). Huh? What happened to the good old days where Cobra would come up with slightly too complex plans that would crumble under their own weight, but they'd all run away only to show up again next issue with another crazy plan? What happened to the Joes being a real team with identifiable characters that we all liked? I want Larry Hama back, man. These Devil's Due guys are too hyped up on caffeine or something for my tastes.

G.I.Joe: Frontline issue 5, by Dan Jolley, Drew Johnson, Tom Feister, Ray Snyder, and J.D. Mettler, 2003, Image Comics

This issue has some Joes heading deep into Norway to visit an old research base. A "bad thing" happened out there in '95, and nobody has heard from it since. Recently a distress beacon was picked up, though, so the Joes are sent in to figure out what is going on. It's interesting in that it shows some of what Duke did while G.I.Joe was non-functional, but I fear the story is going to fall flat. It deals with genetically-mutated super soldiers gone wrong, or something. Now they're, like, werewolves, or something. I'm kind of OK with it when Dr. Mindbender comes up with weird stuff, but when it's random scientists it just lacks a certain something. Maybe the next issue will actually be really good, but I'm not expecting it to be. We'll just have to find out, won't we?

G.I.Joe: Frontline issues 9 & 10, by Sean McKeever, Francies Portella, and Pierre Andre-Dery, 2003, Image Comics

I liked this story a lot. It's interesting to see how the "bad guys" got to that place, as most people don't grow up dreaming of international crime and terrorism. I thought that the story was well-written, had good pacing, and was flat out entertaining. I found it interesting that it was never Zanya's idea to join the dreadnocks, but rather it was the idea of her loser boyfriend, who dreamed of being a Dreadnock but never really had the cojones to pull it off on his own. Those two had an interesting dynamic, though it was no real surprise the way it ended up. If you have any interest in the greater Joe world, I can recommend these two issues to you.

G.I.Joe Cobra Reborn, issue 1, by Paul Jenkins, Eddy Barrows, and Jack Jadson, Devil's Due Publications

The first thing you'll notice about this book (outside of the kickin' Tim Bradstreet cover) is the length; this book is almost twice the length of a normal comic booklet. The price is also $2 more, but you definitely will get your money here. You get to see Cobra Commander recruit most of your favorite Cobra folks, you get to see a lot of the inner workings of how this terrorist organization is operated, and one of the scenes is even set in my hometown of St. Louis, MO. Add it all up and this was a great book to read. I believe that this will be a new ongoing series, though whether they will all be 48 pages or not I do not know. Whatever size it is, if the books are as entertaining as this one, it will be one great series.

G.I.Joe: Master & Apprentice issue 1, by Brandon Jerwa, Stefano Caselli, and Sunder Raj, Devil's Due Publishing

Unfortunately, not too well. The art is good, and the coloring is top-notch, giving the art an 'almost painted' feel that works well. Unfortunately, the pacing of the story, and the less-than-optimal use of visual frames, makes it hard to figure out what is going on. Let me give you some background. The main events here revolve around a special-operations team assigned to capture the mercenary Firefly. Snake Eyes and his apprentice (before Kamakura) drop in on events and then stuff happens. Seriously, I can not tell if Snake Eyes and his apprentice were also trying to capture Firefly, or if they were there for another reason. I also couldn't really tell you what happened to the spec ops team. I could guess, but the story didn't tell me what really happened. We see the team in the building, then some people running (the ninjas, I'm guessing), then part of the building blows up. The spec ops people do NOTHING. They just sit there and talk while Firefly runs away. I don't buy that. Maybe my copy was missing some pages? I may give this title one more issue before rendering final judgement, but it better impress me greatly or I'll skip the rest.

G.I. Joe: Special Missions issues 1-5 by Larry Hama and various artists, Marvel Comics

If you never read the Special Missions books, they came out in the mid and late '80s and featured stand-alone stories. In many cases Cobra was still the bad guys, but not always. In these first few issues the Oktober Guard, the Soviet Block version of the Joe team, made frequent appearances as well. I always liked the Oktober Guard, though I can't really say why; their captain was always a massive jerk. Anyway, I must say that these first five issues were a little uneven. The first issue (shown to the left) was a lot of fun, and involved a high-ranking Soviet naval officer defecting to the U.S. Other stories involve hijacking a jet plane from a third-world nation and retrieving poison gas from a WWII-era German bomber. A pretty varied group of stories.

Unfortunately, some of the plots are realy weak, such as the mission to steal the jet fighter. It was supposed to be poignant, with the sacrifice of the mercenary pilot at the end, but it just came off as hack-kneed. The issue with the river pirates was pretty bad, too, and has some hints of Deus Ex Machina, like Mr. Hama couldn't properly wrap things up in the page count he had, so things just magically worked out so that everyone survived, when that shouldn't have happened. Ah, well. Sometimes memory lane is much prettier as long as you don't delve too far down it.

G.I. Joe Sigma 6 issue 1, by Andrew Dabb, Chris Lie, and Ramanda Kamarga, 2005, Devil's Due

In this first issue, we get to see one member of Sigma 6 in action. Yes, the first book in a new series, one with lots of people on the cover, and we only get to see Duke in action. So Duke scouts out a secret Cobra base, fights Destro, and wins the day all by himself. Yeah, right. Oh, and he also rescues a cute science researcher, which would have resulted in all kinds of Captain Kirk moments if this wasn't a kids book. And Destro fights with remote controlled sharks! Seriously! So stupid...