Customer Reviews

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Vol. 4 (GI Joe) (Marvel)

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IDW has been making an honest effort to do right by fans of the classic Marvel Comics GI Joe series. Where Marvel themselves made a weak attempt at reprints several years ago, IDW seems to be shooting for a reprinting of the entire series (plus Yearbooks), in addition to special collections that focus on specific characters. Then there's GI JOE: THE BEST OF LARRY HAMA, which collects the best stories from the writer who is rightly considered the architect of the GI Joe universe (as far as the "Real American Hero" goes). When I saw the list of contents, I considered this book a likely purchase, but upon seeing it in the store, I left it on the shelf. I honestly don't see how IDW could make this collection any more unappealing.

THE BEST OF LARRY HAMA is indeed just that: a collection of ten of Hama's most highly-regarded issues from the Marvel series, including his lauded Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow saga, the Ace/Wild Weasel aerial ballet "Shakedown!", and an appearance by the original GI Joe. The book's oversized format was a bit of a surprise, since, aside from the few issues Hama illustrated himself, the series was not known for having stellar artwork. While some stories have apparently been recolored, the others appear to be lightly touched up or scanned, and the oversized format makes them look absolutely horrible. For a fifty dollar oversize edition, the art should be cleaned up and completely recolored... or better yet, just release it as an inexpensive trade to give curious newcomers a taste of Hama's work on the Marvel series. This book is a poor presentation of quality material and definitely not worth the hefty price.

while the actual contents are awesome since it's Hama, I cannot justify this since the issues are being reprinted omnibus style in the other collections...

seems kind of obsolete, doesn't it? I feel bad saying that because there is simply no fault here on the part of Hama....

if you can get past that... it's fantastic!

What makes this book so awesome are the following: Its a solid collection of the best Joe stories by the master himself, Larry Hama, and while we can debate what is and isn't here it's only hard because Hama wrote so many awesome stories. This book is BIG, so big that I had to raise a bookshelf. Its hardcover with a sewn binding. The cover art is awesome. The introduction is really great with an amazing bit about Hama's Joe stories being influenced by the great Carl Barks of Scrooge McDuck and Donald Duck & his nephews fame. The Amazon discount price is great. So yeah, get all of the IDW trade paperback volumes which are compiling all of the master's work in 10-issue installments and get this awesome oversized hardcover for all of the reasons I noted above. Thank you IDW!!!!

As expensive "Best of..." hardcovers go, this volume definately is lacking of what one might consider to be the "Best of..." Larry Hama's lengthy tenure as writer of GI Joe. Several major omissions (such as the return of Cobra Comander in GI Joe #98 or any of the issues of the controversial, "Desert Storm" themed storyline from GI Joe #107-115) make this volume largely unworthy of the title "Best of Larry Hama".