IDW Publishing 2016
Written by Aubrey Sitterson
Illustrated by Giannis Milonogiannis
Coloured by Lovern Kindzierski
Lettered by Chris Mowry
G.I. JOE IS BACK! Thanks to the events of REVOLUTION, the G.I. Joe team led by Scarlett returns to the fray, leading the charge against invading TRANSFORMERS and other aliens. But when a US military defense base goes dark, Scarlett has reason to suspect that these enemy forces may have infiltrated G.I. Joe. It's up to her, Roadblock, Rock ‘n Roll, Quick Kick, Wild Bill, and Shipwreck to move in and root out any traitors before the facility falls into the wrong hands!
I’m a fan of this line-up. While the Joe’s have a rather large cast of characters to choose from and any given mission will require certain specialties I think this blend as chosen by Scarlett is a very diverse and interesting group. Aubrey chose well I think and you can tell based on what they are good at why they were chosen to make a pretty complete core team. Also considering the circumstances of this new merged world that she feels she can trust this group is another bonus though if that’s a mistake or not we’ll see.
I’m not so sure i’m a fan of the interiors however. Giannis has this really kind of unfinished feel to his work and it has this old cartoon mixed with manga vibe going on that that for me doesn’t gel. When he shows us that sub you’d never know it was underwater it feels like it’s just there to me. There’s a moment that Wild Bill looks more Sgt. Slaughter which threw me completely off and then Scarlett’s manga face just I dunno too many contrasting styles that are just plain flat on the page. Maybe i’ll warm up to his work as time goes on, maybe not we’ll see but for now i’m not a fan.
I do like what Aubrey is doing with the story here. After learning about Joe Colton and being kind of left out of what else is going on this team finally gets to encounter face to face some Dire Wraiths. This finally let’s the confirm other reports and be able to take that stance and have some backbone with it. That what Scarlett is having them do here, rescuing a valuable asset, really is the right course of action to be taking at this time.
Also the way the fight scenes are written shows off some of Aubrey’s strength’s and willingness to show that not all Joe’s will come out unscathed from any altercation. I was a little sad that Shipwreck stayed with the sub while the rest went onto land, he’s one of my two favourite Joe’s (Lady Jaye being the other) but that’s okay so long as he’s a part of this core team and doesn’t end up a Wraith i’m good.
The characterisation and story development are strong and lead this group into the future where they will have to learn to work with the Transformers, plus the other agencies, against the Wraiths as well as Cobra, whom I cannot wait to see how they’ve been infiltrated, nicely. Aubrey does a great job establishing the possibilities to come while keeping the characters true to how we’ve always seen them.
I’ll give the ongoing series a go in December because of Aubrey and hope that Giannis’ interiors improve.