Comics

G.I. JOE #5

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G.I. JOE #5“Homecoming,” the opening arc of G.I. JOE, comes to a close in a way that can only be seen as a failure for the JOEs. Although the team manages to make it out alive of a town under the control of Cobra, and Cobra Commander is dissatisfied enough with the Baroness‘ performance to award a prestigious position to another lieutenant, the fallout of the bombed-out town must be laid at the feet of the JOE team that was unable to save it.

G.I. JOE #5 is heavy on action as the scattered team fight to stop Cobra from executing their back-up plan by bombing the town. Tunnel Rat is able to hold off Scrap-Iron and stop his detonation, but all late do the JOEs discover he wasn’t the only one with a detonator. The Baroness gets the better of Hashtag and gets away, however the team’s short-lived personal reporter has seen enough to sign-up as a permanent member of the squad.

Cobra’s victory and the return of the Mad Monk means the team will have to be even more vigilant in the months to come. We’ll also have to see what the negative public fallout means for the team. For fans.

[IDW, $3.99]

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #21

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #21While Starfire and Roy Harper fight among each other, with Professor Hugo Strange (who in the New 52 is Roy’s psychologist), and with The Untitled who make a dramatic entrance to break-up Roy’s latest session, the Red Hood flees from members of the League of Assassins who are chasing him down (but not for the reason he thinks).

Most of the Kory/Roy/Strange storyline can be ignored. The Hood story is far more interesting as we get the return of Cheshire as well as Lady Shiva and the introduction of the New 52 version of Bronze Tiger (which, like everything else in the New 52 is a pale imitation of the original).

After acquiring Jason Todd, the assassins take him back to ‘Eht Alth’Eban, the home of the League of Assassins, where the inform the Hood they don’t want him dead. What they actually want is the guy with no memory of how to assassinate anyone (or the hatred which drove him into that life) to become their new leader. Um… okay. I guess intelligence isn’t a prerequsite to join the League of Assassins. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Fables #130

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Fables #130For the month of June Fables writer Bill Willingham gives us a single adventure of a precocious young Junebug exploring the castle on the day she and her parents move into Fabletown. June’s adventures will take her all over including getting underfoot from time to time, and eventually discovering something the young girl wasn’t supposed to see deep with the bowels of the castle.

Willingham does a terrific job of presenting the entire comic from a child’s point of view including using what the adults around her say to her advantage and having them disregard her fanciful story of giant rat monsters when she returns later that night. As to what those scary rats are actually doing, we’ll have to wait and see how that story unfolds.

June’s delivery is perfect and her adventure, even when it turns dark and scary for the young girl, is a hell of a lot of fun. My only real complaint with the story is we only get one issue with the character before the comic moves on to its next arc next month. Best of the week.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

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Batman and Batgirl #21

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Batman and Batgirl #21Batman and Robin continues to cover an out-of-control Batman dealing with the death of Damian we aren’t seeing much of in the other Bat-titles. The latest issue brings in Batgirl, who has removed the Bat-emblem from her costume, to try and talk some sense into Batman whose ice-cold demeanor and brutality has begun to scare everyone, even her.

The first-half of the comic is more about Batgirl than Batman. We even get a full page of Barbara working through trying to tell her father what went wrong with James Jr. without having the courage to actually speak to him. Witnessing the ruthlessness of Batman taking down an group of armed robbers, Batgirl decides to confront Batman in the Batcave and try one more time to talk some sense into the man.

The confrontation between Batgirl and Batman in the cave is interesting, but isn’t hardly the tact someone as smart as Barbara would use. I do like her offer of wearing the Robin costume, but its stuck in the middle of an out-of-control argument that has no hope of reaching Batman. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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G.I. JOE: The Cobra Files #3

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G.I. JOE: The Cobra Files #3Without Duke‘s permission, who doesn’t learn until after the fact, Flint goes ahead and puts his plan in action by hiring the Tiger Team known as the Night Creepers to burgle the JOEs home base inside the Pentagon. The first-half of the plan goes off without a hitch, as the group find holes in the heroes security and get the job done. The second-half of the plan falls apart, however, as Flint is kidnapped by the team’s middle man when he meets to set-up a second job.

The latest issue does have much action, and actually give us Chameleon, Lady Jaye and Ronin doing nothing more than sitting around and waiting for Flint’s call when his plan goes south. When Flint misses their rendevous the deadly female threesome realize they now they need to plan a rescue mission as well as taking down the Night Creepers.

Although light on action there’s plenty of story here that sets up a big throwdown between the team and the Night Creepers to come. This issue also gives us Tomax continuing to play his mind games on Clockspring and turn one of Chameleon’s most loyal soldiers against her. Worth a look.

[IDW, $2.99]

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