IDW Publishing 2015
Written by Larry Hama
Illustrated by Paolo Villanelli
Coloured by J. Brown
After an unsuccessful attack from Cobra’s Night Creeper units, Sean Collins—the new Snake Eyes—infiltrates Cobra Commander’s inner sanctum and sends a very direct message… while in Seattle, Fred 172 agrees to meet with Fred 191. At the Pit, Duke orders the underground hidden base to be sealed and classified until further notice. Meanwhile, Hawk assembles a coalition of international military specialists to start looking into Revanche and Cobra’s business dealings.
It’s been awhile since I’ve visited this series. Larry knows these characters inside and out and he’s been able to keep this remarkably fresh and interesting for such a very long time and now our classic G.I. Joe characters are finding themselves in a new event Cobra: Rising. We’ve seen allegiances change with Storm Shadow leaving Cobra and joining the Joe’s and most recently the death of Snake Eyes and a young man paying homage and taking up his role, Sean, so it’s time for something big and new to happen to keep shaking things up.
G.I. Joe always seems to work better when you have these large sweeping arcs with major changes or developments that can set them on a new path or direction kind of renewing their resolve and purpose. I love the fluidity of these characters because no one is ever really what they appear to be on the surface and for a perfect example of that is the conversation between Storm Shadow and Zartan.
Ah the Fred saga deepens and honestly I kind of like the idea of these guys all being kind of cut from the same cloth as it were it makes for controlling your ground troops easier and that they all seem to be Crimson Guard makes sense. After all with the same name and same face with the same job you have this “unlimited” supply of men to do the job without worrying about training and names. Though as we learn here what happens when they are being systematically eliminated by other Cobra against well I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
I love seeing Psyche-Out and Duke talking about Cobra and what’s going on with them during what seems to be a full blown encounter only to discover it’s really a simulation. We’ve seen them have these talks in the field before so honestly I thought it was legit and what Psyche-Out brings up to Duke’s questioning yeah it makes sense from what we’ve seen thus far and the whole Cobra: Rising story arc.
Cobra is in a reconstruction phase and it’s interesting because no one seems to know where the usual suspects fit into the new regime or if they do at all. Destro and Baroness seem to be on the outs along with Zartan and with Cobra’s current affiliation with Revanche well it just makes the Joe’s harder to figure out and intel even harder to come by. So many questions so little answers make for gripping and interesting reading.
With the classic cartoon sensibilities and a more modern take to storytelling the Joe’s are as fresh, fun and interesting today as they were when they first hit airwaves.