Chronic Review: Infestation GI Joe # 1!

Infestation: GI Joe # 1

IDW

Script:     Mike Raicht

Pencils:   Giovanni Timpano

22 pages for $3.99 (although probably more for the incentive cover pictured)

I did something really stupid and ordered this book without ordering the opening Infestation chapter by Abnett & Lanning.  I'm not sure why anybody would order the one without ordering the other, because the first chapter contains vital, need to know information about what actually constitutes the infestation, which seems, in the grand scheme of things, fairly important.

There's an opening paragraph that explains that there's a zombie hive mind that infected a vampire named Britt, who decided to share this infection with as many worlds as possible.  Somehow this infection is spread both magically and technologically.  Having read both the GI Joe and Ghostbusters Infestation books, I can tell you that this infestation acts entirely different between the two.  Like, no apparent way they could be the same thing.  Does any of this make sense?  Probably not.

Here's what I do know - The Baroness and a team of Eels are interested in a tiny sailboat carrying three Joes and absolutely no technology.  Their thinking is that if the Joes were to secretly transport something big, they'd protect it with a well-armed ostentatious convoy.  But if they wanted to skulk around with something really important...they'd transport it without a whisper or a footprint.  So whatever is in this sailboat must be of paramount importance.

Things do not go well for this guy.  Trust me.

Turns out that the Joes are in fact carrying a global level threat on that sailboat - a severed arm infected with Britt's bug.  If it gets any where near tech, it takes it over, determines its attack capabilities, and then opens up on everything with extreme prejudice.  So if this arm gets hold of something like say...a Cobra or GI Joe database?  That could be a problem.

So the threat in play is suitably large, which creates tension, and that's all well and good.  You could say it's "half the battle" if you were an asshole.  And I am.  The juice is always in the characters, though, and the good news is that Mike Raicht made sure that to pepper the bigger picture with delicious little character bits.

My safety word will be-- ahh, screw it, I don't need a safety word

Baroness is an iron-plated stone cold psycho bitch, and I think I love her.  Some women overcompensate because they're trying to swim in a "man's" world.  They're simply protecting a gooey center in a harsh environment to survive.  That works.  Baroness is a dangerous, heartless witch in this comic.  That's just infinitely more satisfying.  I want her to punish me.

She's got two worthy opponents in the comic: Psych Out and that severed arm.  You wouldn't think a removed limb could really cause that much trouble.  Well this lonely appendage just needs a wheelchair-bound scientist, some faulty robots, and a pack of pissed off experimental lab animals to tip the whole planet on edge.  This is a lump of flesh going places, my friend.

I'm not convinced that this story works particularly well as a seamless crossover entry.  But as a stand alone story with some drama and punch?  It does kick a healthy sum of ass.  But I'm kind of a sucker for this kind of trope, mind you.  I love it when a small band of misanthropes are in way over their head and somehow need to not only survive, but find a way to neutralize the threat so that the whole world isn't flushed.  If you're like me and you dig stuff like Carpenters Thing, or Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight - this is perfect.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: GI Joe # 156!

GI Joe # 156
IDW Comics
Script: Larry Hama
Pencils: Agustin Padilla
22 pages for $3.99

Look, I don't know the guy, but Larry Hama seems like an interesting cat. I read as many interviews as I can about the Marvel bullpen in the 1980s, and it really seems like the place to be in those days was in Hama's bunker of an office hanging out with Christopher Priest. They were crazy, edgy, and very probably awesome.

Larry Hama knows about samurai swords and archery. He served in the Army from 1969-1971, and he learned a lot about guns and blowing shit up. This is not a guy who grew up a damn nerd wishing he could be Matter Eater Lad and hooked into comics as the next best thing. This is a guy who has probably booby-trapped his home and has a rocket launcher resting in his trunk. You know, just in case.

All of that cool shit is coming to bear in this IDW incarnation of GI Joe. I'm not suggesting that there was no military jargon or tactics in the old Marvel stuff Hama was producing. There was some of that, but let's face it - the Marvel run was campy, and by design. Those were children's toys at the time, and the property was aimed at 12 year old boys. Probably with good cause.

And to be fair, camp-infused as the Marvel GI Joe was, it still represented a monumental leap in sophistication compared to that insipid cartoon. You can still sit down with an old issue of Marvel GI Joe and enjoy it. I bust out my Classic GI Joe trades and do it all the time. But just try and watch that animated series...I dare you.

The point (finally!) is that now it's 2010, this comic knows very well that its audience is in its thirties, and there's more room for Mr. Hama to instill more technical military stuff into the book. He does it with obvious joy, as well.

So you get scenes where Hawk shoots a Cobra operative in the face, and nothing really happens outside of some bruising as the shell slaps into his mouth. All part of the plan, my friend. He's using M406 high explosive grenades, of course. They don't arm unless the round travels 30 meters. Duh! He did it to slow the driver down so that he could create the space necessary to fire a grenade that will arm before impact. BOOOOM! Down goes Cobra! And you just learned a little something about M406 high explosive grenades, didn't you? Double score!

Now, is that cool? Well, yeah, it kinda is. This comic is loaded with little nuggets of military minutia that Hama has rattling around in his brain, just waiting for an excuse to manifest in a scene of testicular prowess. Mainframe maneuvers a guy into a microwave beam to cook his ammo into exploding. Stalker exploits the reflective optics of an opponent to put a round through his eyeball. Snake Eyes sets his own goddamn house on fire to neutralize the infra red tech of his assailants. And then he does a bunch of awesome ninja shit after that.

If you like Tom Clancy books, (does anybody read those any more?) military tech/strategy, or spy stuff like Burn Notice, you're going to have a party with this new version of GI Joe. It's just a collection of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things with extraordinary equipment in extraordinary situations. Isn't that what a GI Joe book should be about?

Nothing much happens here in the way of advancing a plot, and I'm actually OK with that. The hook here is very simple and pure. Cobra has basically taken over America from the inside, almost like an expanded version of Blackwater. They've put out a secret contract on all members of the Joe team, and now the action centers on getting word out for a rendezvous and a counterstrike. Simple. Pure. Fun!

The craft on the narrative is not on the level of say...Neil Gaiman. Fine. What is? The dialogue is all fairly well-travelled tough guy territory. But it isn't horrible, either. Hama has demonstrated the ability to create juicy little character bits in the past, as well. (remember all the Snake Eyes mythos with the hard/soft master, and all the drama with Stormshadow and Billy?) There really isn't time for that sort of thing in # 156. But I'd wager it's coming.

What I enjoyed so much was the fact that this is a comic book that knows what it is and sticks to the plan. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read something so clear in its purpose and so joyfully executed. Larry Hama has a gajillion little pieces of military "trivia" rattling around in his brain, and every last one of them is going to transmute into a scene where a Joe shows what a badass he or she is.

To be honest, the book isn't for me. I enjoyed reading it, but the whole military testosterone thing is just not in my wheelhouse. I just don't respond well to posturing jarheads yelling "take them down!", no matter how cool some dude's laser scope is. A lot of the juice is lost on me, and I can't justify dropping $3.99 a month on something like that.

But there's a lot of people out there that do like that kind of thing, and I'm here to tell ya - GI Joe is going to be Christmas every month for you!

- Ryan