Into the Pit: G.I. Joe's 'Special Missions' #3 and 'Real American Hero' #190 Reviewed

Tyler Mager has written for CollegeMovieReview.com and the Scorecard Review and is a filmmaker based out of Austin, TX. He also happens to be an enthusiastic G.I. Joe fan and covers IDW's Joe comics right here in his regular feature "Into the Pit."

G.I. Joe: Special Missions #3 Review

After a ridiculously distracting previous issue, Chuck Dixon's Special Missions title is on the hot seat.  The continued focus on the underwater adventures of Scarlett and Mainframe is an odd choice considering the relatively interesting power struggle happening on the surface.  A three way battle is brewing between Baroness' mercenary force, the Joes and a scheming Serpentor representing Cobra.  So far, much of the story has been a slow build toward this huge moment that could potentially serve as a multi-issue spanning sea battle.  If Dixon can pull it off, maybe some of this unnecessary wheel-spinning will have been worth it, plot-wise.

Variant cover to G.I. Joe Special Missions #3. Hasbro/IDW.

It's sort of amazing how little the Joes have had to do so far in this title.  Sharks have been the biggest obstacle and that threat is smartly taken care of rather quickly in order to get Scarlett and Mainframe back up to the surface.  But wait, now they have to take time to decompress because they were too deep for too long.  Instead of seeing the Joes prepare for the coming action we get to see Scarlett giving orders through a headset while Mainframe chugs a soda. Why are the Joes so boring?  Dixon is typically good for at least a few solid action set pieces each issue but he really appears to be dropping the ball here.

While there isn't much in the way of action, there's lots of movement on the bad guy front with Baroness further asserting her control of the situation by quelling a potential mutiny from her mercs.  Watch out for this in the coming issues, I have a feeling instead of a triple-threat match for the dough, we might end up seeing a fatal four-way.  Speaking of threats, Serpentor finally figures out the Baroness' location through some scheming of his own and sends a team of his best soldiers to intercept the salvage ship.  I'm still not quite sure what Cobra's true play is in this besides just salvage recovery.  Before, Serpentor appeared to have some sort of score to settle with the Baroness, but now with the brief appearance of the Cobra Commander everything seems to be about the money.

Since the beginning, I haven't been a fan of Gulacy's art on Special Missions.  It's wildly inconsistent with the bigger scenes and action being fairly well put together but it's his faces that take me out of the story every single time.  They feel rushed and lazy with very little detail and an unfortunate reliance on shadows that make some of the dialogue scenes rougher than they need to be. If Dixon can deliver on the big action that's being hinted here, the tide could turn on whether this is a Joe title worth getting month to month.  It's hard to recommend Special Missions right now, considering the new Cobra Files title is great and Van Lente's main title gets better with each issue. 

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #190 Review

The locale-jumping of A Real American Hero continues with a new issue focusing on a different set of Joes in what looks to be the jungles of Southeast Asia.  Team leader Chuckles is joined by Jinx, Lady Jaye, and Lowlight in an effort to stop Major Bludd along with a local warlord named Generalissimo Tep from killing innocent village dwelling civilians.  It's the same plot from countless action movies and even features the damsel in distress, in this case Lady Jaye.  I'll give it to writer Larry Hama, he certainly is sticking to his old school schtick right down to the clichéd plot and dialogue.  Unfortunately it doesn't make for an interesting story with each beat even more predictable than the last.

Cover to G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #190. Hasbro/IDW.

With the previous issues, Hama has been able to coast on well-executed action scenes that move everything forward at a good pace.  Here it feels like chore going from panel-to-panel seeing boring characters spout hammy dialogue without much investment in anything that's going on.  We're sort of just thrown into the conflict without much context so when the Generalissimo starts going over the top with the razing of the village, you can't help but laugh and wonder just why in the hell any of this is happening.  Why is Lady Jaye so attached to this village that she'd be willing to risk her life to save it?  What's the bigger picture for the Generalissimo and why is Major Bludd so interested in helping him? Why is Chuckles wearing a ridiculous Hawaiian shirt? These are important questions!

Look, I'm all for a cheesy, old school action romp in the jungle fighting over the top warlords while saying hilariously campy lines like “To hell with the Pentagon, Generalissimo Tep just wrote his own firing order.” but you have to at least give us something interesting to have fun with.  Everything feels like it's on autopilot and Hama let a computer program to write the story.  Throw in a curveball, give us a great action scene, or focus on one character and their relationship to the events taking place.  Stereotypical jungle villagers, lame action and the promise of a better follow up issue just isn't enough.

Hopefully Hama can get back the spark that made the last few issues entertaining despite the problems.  The mini-arcs are doing their job of providing a fast paced, fun ride for readers that allow timely jumping on points to happen every few issues but please give the loyal readers a little more to grab ahold of.  For now I'll have to be content with the two titles that I actually give a damn about and hope better material is on the way.

Both Special Missions and A Real American Hero continue to be the weak links in the G.I. Joe chain of titles.  Veteran writers Chuck Dixon and Larry Hama have to step up their game and deliver something of interest in the coming weeks.  The level of quality here has been disappointing month to month considering the talents of all involved.  It's time to step up fellas and start producing the material that Joe fans deserve.

Transformer Roll Out: Review 'Transformers: Regeneration One' #91

Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's reviewing the latest book from IDW...

Transformers: Regeneration One #91, “Destiny” Part One

I don’t like where Regeneration One is going.

Really, I haven’t been entirely on board with this book since it came back from the depths of cancelled comic book purgatory, as excited as I was for it when it was announced. I think bringing the story into the present was a misstep, as opposed to having a Transformers book that picked up right where it left off in the ‘90s. With only nine issues left, my expectations for this glimpse back into the original comic book universe are quite low.

In the aftermath of Scorponok’s failed plan to remake Cybertron in his image, the Autobots are left picking up the pieces. Many of them can’t come to grips with what they did when their moral compass was removed by Scorponok, and guilt pervades this issue. It’s all very dour stuff, and I’ve come to realize that Simon Furman doesn’t have any characters in this book to lighten the mood, or really display any emotion beyond depression and/or guilt.

Hot Rod is trying to come to grips with being placed in charge, but his little trek into the bowels of Cybertron during one of the worst events to occur since Unicron’s attack leaves him in a precarious position. Meanwhile, Galvatron seeks to claim his promised bounty from the slain world destroyer. This issue specifically references the bleak alternate future story from issue 67, and that bothers me. I get that Simon Furman has always preferred to write stories about Hot Rod and Galvatron over Optimus and Megatron, but the simple fact is that these characters are less interesting.

With not much in the way of action and a story nearly devoid of friendly faces, the beginning of the end of Regeneration One looks dire. I guess the silver lining is, for better or worse, it’s almost over.

Transformer Roll Out: 'Robots in Disguise' #16 and 'Spotlight: Hoist' Reviewed

Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's reviewing the latest book from IDW...

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #16, “Heavy is the Head”

Whoops! My apologies, fellow ‘Bot fans, but somehow I didn’t catch Robots in Disguise #16 in my box. Considering what a momentous issue it is, I thought I’d go ahead and cover it, even though it’s a couple of weeks old at this point.

Variant cover for Transformers: Robots in Disguise #16. Hasbro/IDW.

This is the final story in the current arc of Robots in Disguise (which has really been going on since issue 1, to be honest), and it did not disappoint. I don’t know if I can recall a Transformers comic story where things felt so dire and hopeless, but that was the feeling that pervaded this book. I’d attribute that to the narration from Bumblebee who starts off by calling it a story of the end of a world.

He’s not wrong.

I complained about the end of the second Regeneration One arc because it didn’t have any interesting or lasting impact on the state of affairs for that universe. This issue of Robots in Disguise changes things in a big, big way, and the conclusion is something I never saw coming. Allegiances are changed. Loyalties are betrayed. On top of that, Megatron plays a card that has serious implications for the future of the Decepticon army. Well, provided that there is still a Decepticon army for him to command. Like I said, this is a big one, and I’m getting the sense that Robots in Disguise is going to collide into More Than Meets the Eye in the not too distant future, and I can’t wait to see what Rodimus has to say for Bumblebee’s leadership.

Transformers Spotlight: Hoist, “The Waiting Game”

Wow, another month and another great Spotlight issue that focuses on another underappreciated member of the Lost Light crew! This time, we have Hoist, a character that so fades into the background I didn’t even notice he was on the ship for the first dozen issues or so. He doesn’t have any interesting personality quirks, and in the words of Swerve all I really know about him is “he’s green, and he has a tow cable.”

Variant cover to Transformers Spotlight: Hoist. Hasbro/IDW.

This story plays out like a really great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You have a small crew of unlikely allies - Hoist, Sunstreaker, Swerve, and Perceptor, marooned on an unknown planet. The ship is running out of fuel rapidly, but the Autobots are forced to use their cloaking device to hide from Tarn, the head of the Decepticon Justice Department.

This is all about rising tensions, as the motley crew try to deal with the problem at hand while getting to know each other in the process. Even though the title of the book is “Hoist” this is really more a story about Swerve and Sunstreaker. Once again, James Roberts uses humor to wonderful effect, even as the book ends on a really somber note. It’s actually a bit of a head scratcher, to be honest, and I would have liked a little more resolution. Still, this is a great Spotlight that’s not to be missed.

A last quick note: Regeneration One Volume 2 comes out this week. While I still enjoy the novelty of Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman picking up where they left off 20 years ago, I can’t say that the “Natural Selection” storyline is very good. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next, but unless you’re a completionist you may want to sit this one out.

'Iron Man 3' Review: Stark Goes Full Downey

I'm never going to turn this into a movie site, but Iron Man 3 is certainly of interest, and my review is live over on Movies.com. Because of sneak previews and an aggressive overseas release, there's already some major fan backlash over the film. Although my review is spoiler-free, I'd recommend as little knowledge as possible going in and avoid the comments section on your favorite sites at all costs. If you simply want to know whether or not I liked it, I did.

Transformer Roll Out: Autobots Deal With Loss in 'More Than Meets the Eye' #16

Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's reviewing the latest book from IDW...

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #16, "The Gloaming"

Welcome back to the Roll Out! After a week’s hiatus I’m back with the aftermath of Overlord’s rampage on the Lost Light.

One of the things that have made the Transformers stand out for me over the years is the fact that they are machines with the capability to feel the same range of emotions that we have. This, I believe, sets them apart from most other robots in science fiction. More Than Meets the Eye #16 takes this emotion to a new level, as the entire story centers on how different characters deal with grief.

Variant cover for Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #16. Hasbro/IDW.

Simply put, Overlord did lasting damage to the crew of the Lost Light, and not everyone made it through. Writer James Roberts handles the survivors with care and really hits on their individual personalities. As expected, Swerve hides behind his humor, while Chromedome retreats within himself. The real standout though, is Tailgate. Easily one of my favorite characters in this series, I loved his perspective on the shocking events of last issue. Since he was out of commission for the entire 4 million year Autobot and Decepticon war he’s stunned at how he’s the only ‘bot freaked out by the pile of casualties from one battle. It really adds weight to an already somber story. This is one not to be missed.

Agustin Padilla doesn’t bring quite as much personality to the pencils as Nick Roche or Alex Milne, but to be fair he has to draw a lot of Transformers in this issue. He’s a new face in the Transformers universe for me, but if he sticks around for a few issues I won’t mind. Next month looks to be the start of something big, and I can’t wait.

Last week, Robots in Disguise volume 3 hit shelves. I...really don’t have much to say about this one. This trade opens up with a story revolving around Optimus Pri—sorry, Orion Pax, and it’s a jumbled and confusing mess of a story. This is compounded by one of my least favorite artists to grace a Transformers book: Livio Ramondelli.

Things pick up with the annual, which has some great flashback sections revolving around Nova Prime. These bits flesh out more of the IDW universe backstory, and the art is done in the old Marvel style from when the first comic was just starting off. I’d almost suggest this volume just for that, and if you wanted more information on the Metrotitans from More Than Meets the Eye vol. 3, this book has it.

Comics I Love: Daredevil

A lot of things kind of happened all at once that made me fall in love with Marvel's Daredevil aka blind lawyer Matt Murdock. Up until Mark Waid's run I'd really only followed the book once, more than a decade ago - when Karl Kesel and Cary Nord were the team on the book (though I'd given D.G, Chichester a few issues in the early 90's when Daredevil's costume got all gray and razor-y). I'd certainly read decent Daredevil stories, but he never quite clicked with me as a character. Like Superman, his super-powers (heightened senses) seemed to get him out of any situation that came before him, and, upon initial impression, his personality seemed more defined by who was writing him at the time than who he was as a character. Plus, he always felt like Marvel's Batman knock-off to me - a regular guy who used his fists and smarts to tackle street-level crime and the occasional super-villain.

I enjoyed Waid's run right from its start in 2011. It had a lot of the same qualities that I enjoyed in Kesel's short run (a more free-wheeling sense of fun; not bogged down being grim). Waid's Daredevil is always really good, but some issues reach beyond, up into true greatness (#7 springs to mind), and it's the kind of run you never want to end. I can't speak to Brian Michael Bendis's or David Mack's work on the character or how it compares to Waid's, but a part of me thinks that maybe they'd taken Daredevil about as far down the hard-boiled crime story path as they could, and it was time to reinvent. Daredevil is often my favorite monthly book from Marvel and there's a big pile of awards that it's accumulated to validate my opinion, if it needed validating.

So, while I'm enjoying Waid's take, you might remember that director Joe Carnahan tried desperately to get a rebooted Daredevil film project off the ground for Fox before the cinematic rights to the character reverted back to Marvel Studios and Disney. I cover Marvel news for Movies.com on a regular basis, and was asked by my editor to take a look at "Born Again," the classic Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli collaboration that would inform Carnahan's take. (The project died, by the way, and DD rights returned to Marvel.)

Cover for Daredevil: Born Again TPB, art by David Mazzucchelli. Marvel Comics.

Now, this was not my first experience with Frank Miller on Daredevil. I've read reprints of the classic Elektra storyline, which saw Matt Murdock's college sweetheart returning to the states as a lethal assassin after some years away. The story never really stayed with me, perhaps in part because its shock ending was already common knowledge among fans at the point in time in which I read it. Its outcome may have felt like a thunderclap in monthly bursts, but in one sitting, knowing what would happen and the fall out from it, it definitely lost some of its impact.

"Born Again," on the other hand, felt more like the crackling Frank Miller I knew - prone to lengthy, rich character monologues and a dun-dun-dun rhythm to his fiction that is as deliberate as a beating drum. It's an adult story, one where Daredevil's former lover-turned-druggie-hooker sells him out and the lawyer sees his entire life turned upside down by arch-enemy, the Kingpin. He loses his law practice, his friends, his identity, and his sanity, only to hit a personal rock bottom and rise like a phoenix at the end (albeit a broken one). Liberties would have to be made to adapt it properly to film, but the central conflict is certainly deep enough that it would make a great foundation for a killer DD script.

It was really good. I now started to get a sense of why Daredevil had his fans and what made Daredevil tick, and how Miller's Murdock and Waid's Murdock could be the same guy, but certainly at different points in the lawyer's complicated life. Murdock is defined as a fighter, a lot of times with quite literal symbolism whenever they flashback to anything involving his prize-fighting father. Miller took that will to fight to its extreme in "Born Again;" Waid plays with it as a kind of tenacity. When Murdock is faced with a challenge wherein any logical person would think, "this is too big for me," the thought never seems to enter Murdock's mind. He's going to figure it out, defeat it, solve the problem, or it's just never going to happen at all. Murdock probably doesn't even realize how motivated he is by the old saying, "If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself." It's an important variation on Spidey's "Great Power" philosophy, (but close enough to ensure that those two heroes get along very well).

These two things - Waid's monthly and "Born Again" - were important, but they weren't the clincher. I've talked about the Sidekick Store before. It's a place here in Austin that offers thousands of back issues for just a buck apiece, and it's a great way for a comic fan on a budget (ME) to feel like a king with just a ten-dollar bill. Over a couple of visits, I picked up a smattering of Daredevil back issues - Denny O'Neil's interesting, relaxed follow-up to Frank Miller's classic run and Ann Nocenti's super-wacko existential Daredevil run with John Romita Jr, on art (a run that teams him up with Gorgon from the Inhumans for several issues and eventually has Daredevil standing up to Marvel's version of Satan, Mephisto). They were never, ever boring. This is important, because when you're just choosing back issues from the 1980s at random from a box, you come across more stinkers than winners. Even as off-putting as Nocenti could get, she was doing stuff that was unpredictable and gonzo (as gonzo as Marvel got in their superhero books, anyway), but never dull. Daredevil quickly became a title that I could feel confident snagging from the discount bins and knowing I'd always be in for a good time.

Cover for Daredevil #1. Marvel Comics.

BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE! When Comixology did their big "every first issue is free" promotion, I realized I'd never read DD's first issue. I'd read almost every bit of the birth of the Marvel Age of comics, but not Daredevil's. It had somehow managed to escape me over the years, never being as heavily revisited as Spider-Man's or Fantastic Four's or Hulk's. Stan Lee's story, with surprisingly superb art by Bill Everett, turned out to be one of my favorite origin tales. It's a brisk, exciting read, even when Lee gets too heavy with his own concept (a blind superhero! Can you even imagine?!?!). In fact, considering that DD's handicap was the gimmick on which the entire book was built around, it comes across as even better as a first issue just knowing how much rich story mileage they'd be able to get from it. I read it on my iPhone and immediately ordered Essential Daredevil Vol. 1 the next day. It sits by my bed, where I read a bit of it every night before sleep.

And that is how I fell in love with Daredevil. I wasted a lot of time not knowing just how cool DD is, but I'm going to have a lot of fun catching up.