Customer Reviews

Classic G.I. Joe Vol. 6

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of the stories in this volume are among the best in the Marvel G.I. Joe canon. It shouldn't be missed. The Joes' underground base is destroyed, romance flickers with Flint and Lady Jaye, Cobra Commander begins a new life and the long-term plotline with the Cobra Terror-Drome launch bases continues. As usual, Larry Hama does great things with Hasbro's directives ("we have to sell this toy this month", basically) and then-regular artist Rod Whigham provides cinematic style. (Todd McFarlane filled in on the last issue; since someone else inked his pencils, it's not as "hatchy" as McFarlane's work often is.)

IDW did an very good job with this reprint collection. I've seen some of their other volumes and often the reproduction is terrible, looking like it was shot directly from printed comics (fuzzy lines, dot-patterns from the old coloring processes, muddiness), and/or it's been badly recolored. The coloring here is top-notch. Some lines are a little fuzzy tho -- this is worst on issue 54 -- which probably means they worked from scans of the comics, instead of original art like Marvel's reprints (volumes 1-5) (IDW also printed 1-5, but I haven't looked at them, because I own the Marvel editions; I assume that since those books used modern printing that IDW would have been able to get the digital files to print from for their editions). I knocked off one star for the fuzziness of the scans.

This book collects issues 51-60. Unfortunately, the story in #56 concluded in that year's GIJoe Yearbook, which isn't included, and apparently won't be in the next volume, either. Issue 60 could easily have been pushed to the next volume (#59 wraps up well and 60 is a filler before the next big story arc) and the Yearbook story inserted, but oh well, hopefully a collection of the four yearbooks is forthcoming. Volume 7 is also expected to skip Special Missions #6, which falls between 61 and 62.

Classic GI Joe Vol 6 reprints issues 51-60 (1986-7) of the Marvel GI Joe comic. We get blazing combat in Central America, Scotland, the Mideast, Staten Island and the Jersey Shore. New toys are introduced and promptly blown to smithereens. The Pit is destroyed, Destro unmasks and Cobra Commander dies (but gets better). So yes, you're getting everything you could ever want in a GI Joe comic.

Larry Hama's scripts are as solid as ever, a wild mix of military terminology, humor and outright crazy ideas. By the admittedly weak standards of this book the art is solid throughout, mostly by Rod Whigham but with a fill-in issue by a young Todd McFarlane.

My one complaint is the reproduction. Most comics from before the 90s have to be recolored for modern printing, an expensive and often unprofitable process. According to their website publisher IDW has been trying a new computer process for these volumes and it's obvious they were still working the bugs out. The art look scratchy and faded, colors are muted and some background are almost colorless. Letters are changed in some of the dialogue creating embarrassing typos that were not in the original book. It's not the worst reproduction job I've seen but it certainly feels sub-standard.

Despite the problems I bought it anyway, and enjoyed the heck out of it but buyers should be aware of these issues.

There are some brilliant stories in this collection and the amount of plots and subplots running at the same time is masterfully crafted by Hama. The art is classy except for McFarlane's but it doesn't hurt too much. A couple of stories are obviously directed by Hasbro to sell toys but Hama works them in well for a story purpose. For old & new GI Joe comic fans these collections are a must simply because they are the definitive GI Joe stories & world.

It's great to finally have all of these issues collected together. I was too young to read the comics when they were originally released, so I'm playing catch-up with all of these great collections that IDW has re-released. Hopefully, people will keep supporting these books so we can get all 155 issues eventually.

Great stories, great action, great artwork. The only complaint that I have is with the final issue. I know Todd McFarlane is a genius for creating Spawn, but his art in issue 60 is really bad compared with the rest of the art in the book. Other than this point, great collection.