would you be willing to pay more per issue?
Like a quarter more maybe?

No. Comics are too expensive now anyway.

Truthfully, I'd be more apt to drop it if Larry Hama was the full time writer. I've read Larry Hama doing G.I.Joe, and it was good. That was over ten years ago. I think his body of works speaks for itself, and I understand that he is very important to the franchise, but I feel that it's time for everyone to move on.

G.I.Joe shouldn't be exactly what it was ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't like to read a Hama issue every here and there, but not as a full time writer.

Or, another option, give him a history title. Frontline, Special Missions, Declassified, call it what you will. Let him write more stories about the Joes as he did before, and at the same time allowing a fresh take on the Joes in the main title.

I guess in my dream world, there'd be five, six or seven Joe titles, giving everyone a choice of what to read. The market won't support that, and if you want to read Larry Hama doing G.I.Joe, there's plenty of issues to choose from already published.

Now that I'm thinking about it, here's what I'd have if the market would support it...

G.I.Joe - Continue as is
G.I.Joe Frontline - Creators coming on for an arc, any time period
G.I.Joe Displaced or AWOL - Alternate realities, Transformer crossovers, whatever
G.I.Joe Reloaded - Continue as is, it's getting better
G.I.Joe Declassified - Larry Hama and an old school artist telling the stories that couldn't be told before
G.I.Joe Misfire or Ammo Jam - quarterly or twice yearly comedy book. we take ourselves too seriously
G.I.Joe - Spytroops, Venom vs Valor, whatever the theme of the year is - following the toyline (like Armada/Energon, changed in the middle of the series to reflect the toyline change). Self contained stories with a large annual every year adapting the movie, shoot for a younger audience and toy store distribution
G.I.Joe Yearbook - yearly

I'd also get rid of alternate covers so I could afford all these!

Am I missing anybody's preference?

More titles would be the only way to handle all of our wishes. But alas, who could buy more than the current three (including M&A) while also getting the figures, etc. Oh I know some could, but me I am on a budget (which I break all the time, but that is a different story). I think the world of the original Marvel run, but lets be honest, interest was slipping and that is why it was cancelled. No disrespect to Mr. Hama, but his story has been told. I read somewhere that GIJoe to him was the story of SE & SS (hence why everyone eventually became related, like on Days of our Lives). So if he were to come back, I fear that the comic would fall into the same rut that it did when the original run was cancelled.

Well, to answer the question, I would say "SURE!" Joe is the only comic I buy, so paying $3.50 or so isn't too much to ask.....but I am gonna support the line regardless, so I am a sucker! :)

If Larry was writing Joe, it would be cool to see what he woulld come up with without having to worry about including every new figure all the time.

But he would also probably care less about overall continuity. he probably wouldn't care about including old toys like Claymore or Overlord, or cartoon references...

Back before Devils Due got the GI Joe liscense, Hama almost wrote a joe series for another company. His proposal was to get rid of all but a dozen joes and concentrate more on small squad based missions than the "toy inspired" things. The contract never came through. (There was even some art created)

I do like the idea of giving Larry a "Special Missions" type book too.

As cool as it is seeing claymore and other rarely or never seen Joes, to me story is king and Hama has it all over Jerwin in the story department. I would pay whatever extra I had to for Hama's writing...Come on, Ace and Wild Weasel's incredible dogfight, the extraction team's harrowing rescue mission where they steal fuel from the russian Hind, the training of lightfoot, repeater and budo...how can any of the new stuff compare to these classic issues? Hama has the perfect blend of storytelling, humor and military expertise...I love the little touches, like Hawk, Beachhead and Wetsuit knowing that the torpedos don't arm until their safely away from the boat, or that hinds have self-sealing fuel tanks, or that general in the pit knowing that if you hit a detonator hard enough it either malfunctions or goes off...in a similar vein Jerwin seems to throw in the same acroynms that Larry did, but just for the sake of including them...just feels hollow for me with Jerwin, like he's a fan imitating a master. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact Joe still has a comic, but saying Jerwin is better than Hama in any capacity is like saying the cartoon was better than the comic....they are two different entities and people are entitled to their opinions on the matter, but the comic was complex and mature while the comic was a fun diversion where you could slide your brain into neutral.

Hama > Jerwin easily. I would have it the other way, Hama continuing the main continuity and Jerwin writing fun little stories with claymore and the likes in a frontline-type series.

Everybody loves Hama and that'sd fine. But I think Jerwa is doing a good job. He's better than the other DD guy...

personally I'd pay the extra quarter an issue. neither of the devils due writers have impressed me.

I am a big Hama fan. So I would pay two bucks extra for his return. However I do like Jerwa's work too. Two books is the solution. Jerwa and Hama get one each. They could intermingle their storylines or just make one a Special Missions book. Either way it would be a win win situation for Joe fans.

I'd have to say no. Its been said that every great writer only has a finite number of stories in them. There is only so much you can get out of one person. Its important to bring fresh blood in.

Not to knock Blaylock or Jerwa, because having met them I think they are both cool guys and both have done good things with the comic, but the new series just seems to rip off Hama's stories in about a million ways. I go into this in about every discussion I have about Marvel vs DD. There are way too many repeat stories.
DD has brought out a few characters that never saw love from Marvel, and has a bunch of new characters to choose from, yet in 32 issues we have seen:
Cobra Commander hire the Night Creepers to assassinate Destro
Cobra Commander betrayed by Destro and Baroness
Serpentor come back to life and try to take over the organization
Two Cobra factions fighting it out on Cobra Island along with the joes (maybe not a civil war, but come on...)
Cobra Commander shooting Hawk in the back
Destro trying to play both sides of fueding countries to sell them weapons
A European adventure where Flint and Lady Jaye must work together with Destro and the Baroness
A speedboat battle in the waters surrounding Cobra Island
the infamous Silent Issue (augmented by horrific art this time)
Snake Eyes battling an entire clan or Red Ninjas
and that's just from the top of my head.

The first 4 issues were good IMO from the standpoint of using the existing characters in a novel story, and I think the Wraith arc is promising, but recycling Hama's ideas over and over just doesn't impress me.

Having a "fresh" look at the characters should not mean

Larry is the best, but I'm not one of his "Widows"...

I thing the new series are great, even Reloaded (if you see it by the perspective of an alternative universe..)

The Frontline editions written by Larry Hama are a kind of recycled ones too.. but, wait a moment! is Hama recycling himself? Stuff like Hawk Being shot (my god, how many times the good General was shot?!) and some other things are still in high force at the Joeverse...

AndI thing very important new villains like Wraith (and I wait an Action Figure for him, too!)

Hama has the perfect blend of storytelling, humor and military expertise...I love the little touches, like Hawk, Beachhead and Wetsuit knowing that the torpedos don't arm until their safely away from the boat
I completely agree. Hama (though not exactly out of the game as far as GI Joe goes) really wrote some great stories. Something I've noticed in my recent readings of the early Marvel series is Not every story needed to wrap 3 issues or connect to make for a great adventure. How often these days are there good standalone one issue stories. Issues that at the end finish themselves off and you know the basic story is over? Not many. Sure there were plenty of multi-issue stories back in the day as well... but there were loads of issues that at the end... felt like you got your moneys worth. Of course as the series grew... expecially in the later issues... this formula changed.

I would certainly like to see more Hama writing in GI Joe. I've enjoyed much of what I've read of the Image/DD line of comics. So I'm not knocking them at all. But I'm not going to pretend its as good as the old stuff. It is good stuff though.. and that's enough to satisfy me.

I'd love to see Hama doing more stand alone Special Missions type issues. However, though this may seem backwards... I'd almost like it if the stories were meant to fit in with the original Marvel series.


Alternately, I wouldn't mind if Hama was given free reign over making a similar series to GI Joe. Basicly a special forces unit that fights terrorism.

Something I've noticed in my recent readings of the early Marvel series is Not every story needed to wrap 3 issues or connect to make for a great adventure. How often these days are there good standalone one issue stories. Issues that at the end finish themselves off and you know the basic story is over? Not many.


I was thinking about that earlier this week. Read a recent Green Lanter issue that involved him selling power rings to capture ....ah crap, that smart gorilla whose name i just forgot. Anyway, I thought it was a well-written issue with funny dialogue from other JLA members joking around about what they'd do with a power ring, ESPECIALLY Batman :)

I think Larry Hama returning to G.I. Joe books would be the worst possible scenario for the property. Half the comic fans would be screaming about how the book would be as good as ever, and the other half would be on him as to why the new stuff isn't as good as his Marvel run. Just what we'd all need... another divide in Joe fandom. *rolls eyes*

I think he's a little too smart to get caught of in a fight against himself. That's why he wrote his four (lukewarm) issues of Frontline, and hasn't tried to get on board the Devil's Due Joe train again since.

Just what we'd all need... another divide in Joe fandom. *rolls eyes*
I guess I'm too laid back since I've enjoyed both the classic and modern GI Joe comics and TV/Movie properties.

Maybe I'm a rarity and there is some fantasticly huge divide in Joe fandom? Maybe the divide is only an illusion?