IDW Special Missions 4

[skinny]

*****possible spoilers in thread******











not much to spoil here.
The Baroness is dealing with the mutiny started last issue and the Joes sneak on board.
DialTone pushes Red's buttons when she cuts her off and takes over the mission.
Serpentor's coil troops show up and it is a party.
Baroness takes off. Joes do what they set out to do and Snake Eyes is off on a beach somewhere getting a tan... oh wait that didn't happen.

[troynos]

I liked it over all but Gulacy's art is not good. Surprising because he used to be a solid artist. The Joes all looked alike. Didn't realize Lighthorse was part of the mission team until he was named (actually thought he died in #1). Tanglefoot??? Did he die?

Was hard to tell if the Joe's mission was a success. Yes, they tagged the money, but didn't it all fall back overboard again?

[Young Justice]

I've made a review for this arc. I will post here in this thread, because I think it's more appropriate. I will disagree on some OP opinions about Paul Gulacy's work. Although I think Troynos has a point about some faces he draw not being so much different between themselves, but I think this is a thing a lot of Comic Book artists do. When they are drawing two characters that have the same face characteristics, like same gender, color of hair, type of hair features on face, hairdo, body structure, they tend to be similar. I remembering how hard was to tell Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent (without glasses) apart from some comic book artists panels. Maybe Dixon and Gulacy should have talked over to choose Joes that look very different between themselves to help readers tell apart the characters during the story.

Anyway, here's the review:

G.I. Joe - Special Missions Vol.1 (IDW) Review - Crush Depth Operation - Spoilers



Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Paul Gulacy

The legendary team of Chuck Dixon and Paul Gulacy lead the G.I. Joe team undercover and into action! The BARONESS tries to get back into COBRA's good graces-and it's up to SCARLETT to assemble a team to take the villainess down!

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Here are my comments below. Of course filled with Spoilers.

IDW, what take you so long? I've always loved the concept of Special Missions for G.I. Joe back then on the Marvel and Devil's Due run. Smaller team, more focused stories. And this new incarnation of the concept on the rebooted continuity doesn't disappoint.

The writing of Chuck Dixon is very good as always. The plot is very simple, the mission is focused and then we have to time to get to know more about the characters. It is nice to see Baroness trying to get back her position on the Cobra and the relationship of Scarlett and Mainframe heading to a next level, even if Scarlett appears to have some unresolved feelings about her former companion.

I was surprised when Duke chose Scarlett and Mainframe to lead the "Special Team" of the renewed G.I. Joe formation after "Cobra Command". This is their first mission, and they worked well together.

The underwater part of the mission is a highlight, with a lot of thrilling moments.

The participation of Serpentor on the plot is very interesting, fundamental to the plot twist. It's always nice to see his Coil special troopers in action. I liked a lot the idea of his faction being the elite of Cobra, a bunch of religion brainwashed troopers fueled by blind faith.

I like a lot that concept of G.I. Joe, like a regular U.S. elite troop. Even when they are doing extraordinary feats, they look like regular military personnel. I liked that they went that road in this story.

The art of Paul Gulacy is amazing. The scenarios, the facial expressions, the action sequences. He worked well on the military theme. He was good at drawing uniforms, weapons and vehicles. I've always liked his work. I think now it's more stylized than when I first saw him for the first time in the 80's. I thought it was even similar to some recent Frank Miller drawings.

All in all, a very good G.I. Joe arc, simple, straightforward, satisfying. Recommended. 8/10.