The final issue of GI Joe came out today. You may have noticed it wasn't The Best Comic Book of the Week. I have my reasons.
Back when I was a kid I read two comic books: The Transformers and GI Joe. Both series ended before their time, and now both have been finished decades later by IDW. I was very glad that both books came back, but the GI Joe one was better. It was great to see the adventures of these Joes in their neverending struggle against Cobra. Some months it dragged, but many months (especially recently) kicked ass.
I thought this might be the end of an era, and that was the plan going into this GF column for about a month now. But there is a reason why it wasn't the best this week. Because . . . well, I suspect it's not the end of the series. If you haven't read it, from this point on there are spoilers.
So the action continued heating up as Snake-Eyes, now "resurrected" by Dr. Mindbender and his lunatic experiments, sets about killing just about every bad guy on Cobra Island in the bowels of Cobra Casino. Meanwhile the other Joes are in a heated battle trying to save those who had been trapped during the resurrection of Serpentor in his new form, Serpentor Khan. And the battle keeps going and going, building into a fever pitch, and I genuinely had no idea how Larry Hama was going to tie up this entire story in just a few pages.
And then it became very obvious. Because the last panel says TO BE CONTINUED?
So yeah. If I had to guess, Hama still has a job. I'll bet he's working on the new Joe book for Robert Kirkman. This might be the last IDW Joe book, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Skybound's first Joe issue will be numbered 301.
I'm not complaining. This is a great story, and I'm glad I'll have more of it. But at the same time it was kind of a letdown that I didn't get the ending I was expecting. Then again, one of my rules is that you should never blame a piece of art for not being what you wanted it to be. So I guess that's on me.
I was originally going to call this The End of an Era. But I think I'll have to take my cue from Brian Pulido: The End is the Beginning . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment