Comics / Comic Reviews / More Comics

GI Joe: Special Missions #1

By Geoff Hoppe
March 25, 2013 - 15:26

In issue 1 of IDW’s new GI Joe: Special Missions, the Baroness eats a kitten, Scarlett wears a tank top, and war-torn Libya is,  again, a lousy vacation spot.

GI Joe: Special Missions #1 is the first issue of one of IDW Publishing’s new triad of Joe series. Where the regular GI Joe title seems to be adapting the old cartoon show’s approach, and the upcoming Cobra Files will probably continue the Costa/Fuso legacy, Special Missions looks like it will fill the semi-realistic niche abdicated by the last emanation of GI Joe (if this paragraph gave you title vertigo, welcome to the world of comics).

Special Missions hops between Scarlett’s still secret Joe team getting out of a hot spot in Libya, Serpentor’s machinations, and the now exiled Baroness’s attempts to build her own group after her exile from Cobra. The resource-laden Cobra ship Snake Eyes sank a few months ago is now the target of both the Baroness and the Joes, though neither knows the other is interested.

Not a lot of new tricks in this issue. The settings are the usual IDW Joe book fare: seedy third-world dives, equatorial war zones and posh cityscapes. The dialogue’s also standard issue, with the villains threatening, the heroes bantering, and a lot of military jargon thrown in for authenticity. Dixon continues the wry, clipped dialogue of the last Joe title. Unfortunately, there are no clever lines yet, and the majority of #1 is pure exposition. Not that it’s bad exposition: real locations and believable military action raise it above generic. The trouble, though, is that Gage and Costa, who relaunched IDW’s Joe books, cast their shadow over everything in this franchise.

Gage and Costa’s use of first-person narration lent the globe-hopping stories character, as well as credibility. They raised the bar. It’s no longer enough to set a plot point in an actual smugglers’ den. Costa and Gage did that, and their protagonist’s cynicism gave those places extra dimensions (“The whiskey tastes like it was distilled in a pig trough. But that’s what you get at 10:30 AM in Estonia,” their protagonist quips on the first page of Cobra #1). Dixon’s undoubtedly talented, and IDW’s Joe playbook is a solid one, but Special Missions #1 offers no new plays.

Gulacy’s art is serviceable, but his style isn’t the rough, photorealistic look that works well for this emanation of GI Joe. Also, the layout’s too busy.  The mix of heavy inking and numerous panels makes some panels indistinguishable from others. The perspective is often too close to the characters’ faces. If your title depends on international locales for atmosphere, the reader needs to see more of those locales.

Worth the money? As a fan of IDW’s take on this series, I’ll probably keep it on the pull list. Casual readers, though, probably won’t be that impressed. 

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 - 16:51