Welcome back, Joe fans, to another exciting review from your biggest Joe fan this side of the east coast, Michael Hopkins.
This week I’m reviewing G.I. Joe #17. With the Joe headquarters breached, it’s up to the remaining Joes to find a new home, and what better place than the USS Flagg. The book mentions that is was decommissioned in 1977, which leaves me a bit confused considering the Flagg was a mainstay in the 80s as a base of operation. Writer Chuck Dixon doesn’t disappoint this month, going as far as throwing in a cat fight between Helix and Scarlett among all the other action. If I had to bet, my money’s on Scarlett since she was trained by Snake Eyes. In the mean time, Cobra is still trying to turn the world against the U.S. and G.I. Joe by leaking information that the Government knew about the Joe unit. It’s still an interesting concept; however, let’s move it along and get to the Joes being the bad guys. I still feel like they are dragging this out way too long. Meanwhile, Duke is trying to turn a cobra agent named Copperback against Cobra and Destro by giving her the option of helping him or going to prison – typical “you will help us or else” plot device. This has been done over and over again, so it’s nothing new to me. Her taking the deal seems a foregone conclusion. All and all, it’s not a bad story. It just needs to be tweaked a bit by speeding it up, which is how I felt a month ago on issue 16.
The artwork, by Alex Cal is still interesting twist on the classic cartoon look, making my characters a bit more realistic and darker with tons of shading. A couple of panels with a couple characters, though, looked like they had “Napoleon Dynamite” faces, which gave me a chuckle as all I could think was “But my lips hurt real bad.” On a different note, I love the Cobra Commander he drew – there’s a totally bad ass splash page in here.
In closing, G.I. Joe #17 offers another solid story with decent artwork. I give it the ol’ 2 out of 3 Yo Joes. Please, Dixon, move the story along faster, and let’s get into the meat of it! I want my Joe’s fighting to save their reputation.
Yo Joe
