Writer: Larry Hama
Artist: Brian Shearer
Colors: James Brown
Lettering: Neil Uyetake
Cover: Brian Shearer
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Spoilers
G.I. Joe issue #253 is a perfect mix of realistic action and what I would call “GO JOE!” action.
I really liked this issue, I wasn’t too sure what to expect after hearing negative reviews on one of the previous writers but I’m happy to say this was a great war comic. Realism when depicting war is important to me, I’m a fan of history and I try to write my comics with a grain of history and story to them. Issue #253 was about as perfect as you can get for a war story with flair, Larry Hama is a great writer and he knows his military jargon. Everything seemed to be in place if you know what I mean by that, sometimes you’ll see things in comics depicting wars and they depict something a bit off like weaponry that wouldn’t be realistically used by a certain enemy or allied troop. This comic seems to be pretty straight and narrow for what it uses at its disposal.
This issue is part three of SPECIAL MISSIONS, where we get to see Duke in what seems to be pre G.I. JOE involvement story. It’s a tense, action comic book that didn’t disappoint or didn’t seem cheesy, it was fun and that’s what I think G.I. JOE has been in the past, a fun comic book. I’ve only read a few JOE comics and they’ve been from the 80’s or 90’s era so I can’t speak for how the JOE comics have been as of late. I did love the cartoon from the 80’s and believe me I had some awesome JOE action figures growing up from the Cobra Commander to the big Tomahawk helicopter and the Night Raven aircraft.
The art by Brian Shearer is great a suits the action very well. Overall this was a great comic, I didn’t want to spoil anything when it comes to the action and story, I’ll leave it to the JOE fans to experience it for themselves.
Overall: 8/10
Canadian indie comic book writer, self publisher of scribbles and former managing editor for a small comic book company.
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