[Spoilers]

Well, there was again some good and some bad in the new GI Joe series today, IMHO. I think the best part was the escape of Cobra Commander from prison. Cobra Commander was appropriately menacing and mysterious in his confrontation with Duke. Zartan and his Dreadnoks were also well-done, though it is a surprise to see them replace Ripper with a new guy -- Machete. The voices for CC, Zartan and the 'Noks were all well-done.

Hawk's appearnace was a nice surprise. They even had a reference to the Valor vs. Venom CG movie. The introduction of his son is understandable to give kids somebody to relate to in the show. They never really did this in the Sunbow series and I am a little disappointed in it, but I can get over it.

The other disappointment is the continueing emphasis on robots and tech. Computers and robots are cool, but this show seems to be going a little overboard on them. There is more to the military than tech-geeks, but they seem to be pretty predominant so far. There were still no ordinary Cobra soldiers in action, just a few trumpeters when Cobra Commander re-entered his sub-marine headquarters (which is a great idea -- Destro made a sub his HQ in the DD comics recently). I'm not a fan of Overkill, but I should've expected heavy involvement with him in light of the figures that have been coming out lately.

And a few random thoughts:

Cobra Commander looks okay in his hood/helmet combo -- but I like him with just the hood better. They have combined his first three figures into one with the helmet, hood and battle armor.

I couldn't tell if Destro was being sarcastic or not when he welcomed CC back with such glowing praise.

Duke's voice is a little monotone and may end up getting on my nerves.

I'm looking forward to the Cobra Attack on the Joe headquarters.

Flying that Crimson HISS in to attack the school was pretty cool, even if a little unrealistic.

All-in-all, I give the second show a thumb's up and will definitely keep watching.

I have to disagree. While I did think Cobra Commander and the Dreadnoks were represented well, I have quite a few problems with the episode itself.

1. Where was the action? Very little fighting going on, tons of talking.

2. How in the world does a 16 year old get access to such high tech equipment for this DNA experiment? Completely unplausible and breaks the suspension of disbelief.

3. No Cobra troops. "Nuff said about that.

4. Hawk! WTF? He looked like a frail old man about ready to hit 60 or so. By watching this take on Hawk you would never guess he was the baddest of the bad frontline commanders.

5. The episode was entitled "The Escape", why? Cobra Commander's escape took all of maybe 3 minutes.

6. Hawk's son? They need to kill this kid off as soon as possible. If nothing else ruins this cartoon, Scott sure will.

In closing, I think the Valor vs. Venom movie was far better than this series will ever be. Sure the VvV plot was way out there, but it still allowed for a suspension of disbelief. And it had plenty of action with excellent hand to hand fight scenes. I will give Sigma 6 one more episode to change my mind, but the is gonna have to be alot of changes to keep my interest.

The introduction of his son is understandable to give kids somebody to relate to in the show. They never really did this in the Sunbow series and I am a little disappointed in it, but I can get over it.

"Hi Duke! Teach us about life lessons and such!"
"Babble babble. And now you know! And knowing is half the battle! YO JOE!"

Okay, you got me there. They did do it with the public service announcements, but not as part of the show.

[QUOTE=spect_spidey]

1. Where was the action? Very little fighting going on, tons of talking.
[\QUOTE]

I think many felt there was too much action and not enough story development in the first episode.

Maybe the writers tried too hard to pack in lots of new ideas, but at least it's good to see that the episodes will build from an ongoing storyline.


I can't say I know how Destro will fit into the new organization, since it looks like Overkill is going to be CC's nemesis.

Destro may end up joining Overkill's side.

After all, Overkill's gonna need guns....

anyone have this as a computer file for me to watch i missed it

I thought I read Somewhere that the first 5 episodes were going to conect to V vs V, but after that the were going to be on the writers were going to be on there own to develope more original stories.

I think what you mean is that they're gonna stop referencing VvV...

All of the eps are gonna be in the same continuity (since it'd be stupid to do five episodes that have to do with VvV and then completely reboot the show) and obviously some elements from the VvV storyline and the continuing of it will carry on (The communication gauntlets, Hawk being hospitalized) just because that's the way it goes.

For some reason i tuned in again but the show still sucks. If anything, it was actually worse this time around.

Some observations:

Love: Zartan, Buzzer, Torch, Cobra Commander. These characters felt "right", great voices and looks.

Hate: Machette :confused: Where's Ripper?? Hawk looks a little on the old side, I can deal with him being older but he looks like he's pushing 70. The overall Anime style doesn't do it for me either, espescially on the women.

Absolutely Despise: Scott & Spud. Just complete and utter C-R-A-P. It figures the majority of the show focused on this story angle. Call in Dr. Evil to dispose of "Scott" please. One order of angry sea bass coming up!

Red Sox, you summed it up perfectly.

I don't mind Scott for a couple episodes, but if he becomes a central character every time, I'm really going to hate this!

I have nightmares of this becoming Transformers Armada with those 3 whiney kids in EVERY episode...