[Mainframe77]

Issue #226 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!

Cobra Nation. First appearance of Dawn Moreno.

[Sean_C]

Cover showdown...zzzz....closest to an official o-ring reissue of CC v1 is a alternate comic cover.

An obscure lobster monster reference on food truck.

Old CC is a great guy when he isn't kicking puppies! I prefer the puppy kicking to this.

CC won't even call them Freedom Fries...

"John Dommery, I think he works the night shift." Geez, if Hama is just gonna make the jokes about his own dialogue, I really will quit.

Lacrosse team try outs. This is what the comic has come to.
Everything is fair except for Tomahawks...well if GI JOE copters show up you got more to worry about than a lacrosse game.

Dawn Moreno hits one guy so hard he turns white!

The day when CC realize his best trooper is a 15 year old girl.

No one will be seated during the thrilling GI JOE CSI scene. "Look here's what the reader already saw and knows but the Joes are instantly able to figure out because they just that damn good."

Fake-Eyes gear update.
Fake-Eyes throw daggers, ask question later.
Ninja guy doesn't have a name but he important. He's the scroll man...scroll man...

Hama really sells Crystal Ball's hypnoshield...about 30 years too late to move those pegwarmers.

CC loses control of new Springfield instantly. That's record new fail.

Super Cyborg Destro!

Dawn in martial arts garb...did I miss something? CC likes her lacrosse hustle so now she's Cobra-Kai?

Overall: It's the Dawn of a new age. Yay.

[vxc961]

Man, I had quit collecting ARAH around the 170s...the revanche robots were too much for me, but I wish I'd have stuck it out to participate in this. I'd started re-reading, got up to issue 200, and then jumped ahead to this. So...

I liked it more than I thought I would. If anyone else had done the Hama-exposition ("Snake-eyes kept is Fairbairn-Sykes dagger, but upgraded..") I would have hated it, but I did get a warm fuzzy knowing it was Hama writing that. I like my GI Joe a bit more grounded though, so I did groan a bit with the upgraded magic nigh-vision goggles and air-breather though.

I liked seeing Dawn on the lacrosse field, and I get he was trying to show us what a bad-motor-scooter she is, but it was a bit too much for my tastes. I do like the idea of Springfield, the town where even the Lacrosse team wears the cobra sigil on it's uniform.

I like discord in the Cobra ranks, but it seems too easy for Crystal Ball to roll in and mind-control everyone. I wish it was a bit tougher to pull off. I feel like in the Marvel days, Larry would just write and let whatever happened happen. This seemed more like "I need these guys to get the whole town to flip on CC and I don't have time for more than an issue...OK, Crystal Ball can now do that via TV waves!"

Looking and writing a bit about this issue made me realize how tough a job Larry must have. A big part of me wants to re-live the nostalgia of reading GI Joe in 6th grade, but another part of me is like "man, I have seen all this before!" If Larry's trying to please his fans, it's probably a bit like naming his dog "Stay".

Overall though, I'd still give the issue a thumbs up. I've found that sometimes I have a hard time following the action with Gallant, but I do think the art is great, especially when I compare it to the old Marvel run. I know where the arc is going, and I wish we could focus on anybody Snake-Eyes/Fake-Eyes/Dawn, but I had fun seeing the character interactions between both the Joes and Cobras.

[Mainframe77]

Place holder

[Mainframe77]

Issue #227 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!

Cobra Nation.

[Sean_C]

Cover: Cobra Nation? more like Cobra Humiliation. Alternate cover is quite the opposite, an homage to a famous painting. CC crosses the Alps like Napoleon. This is the CC of his own fantasies, as his moments of intended glory seem to backfire usually. It has nothing to do with the issue, but still I like it better than the newsstand cover.

"Business is war without shooting..." Why is everything "war"? Why isn't war "business with shooting?" I mean, really.

Dawn gets the drop on Destro. Oh, to be a fly in that room...ha-ha.

Baroness risks Destro's life with a warning shots. For all of Hama's knowledge, he must know that warning shots are B.S., but this is a licensed comic. And Baroness has to take Dawn under her wing *urge to vomit growing*

LAW-VIPERS...funny...except what the heck are Crimson Guards but white collar folks like lawyers.

Oh, great, the Arashikage Mindset. Now with ASTRAL PLANE and ninja magic force field. What. The. Fudge?

Another painting homage in Springfield with the diner. That's a common homage...THE SIMPSONS DID IT.

Grease 1 and 2, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Sound of Music are playing Springfield cinema. That selection might say something about the quality of Cobra's personnel.

Baroness is a cruel teacher. Gee, who'd have thought that a woman who dresses in tight leather all the time is sadistic?

Claire Hauser is an ISIS sleeper agent?

Overall: Umpteenth time to reset the Cobra status quo with everyone working together again but not really because they all plot against each other. Damn, they all suck. Why does Destro need CC at all? Dawn is POOCHIE. Bombstrike does something because we need some non ninja Joe in the issue? And NINJA ENERGY SHIELD. LOL.

[vxc961]

Opening...man, I feel like Larry Hama is close, but not quite there. He's showing us that Dawn is bad-A$$, but not trained or up to her potential. But somehow I didn't feel like the scene had any tension. Again though, I like Gallant's art--I appreciate the detail he put into Baroness' luger, and even the fly. I'm OK with Baroness doing the warning shot, but what I don't get is why she's interested in training Dawn? I know thought balloons aren't a thing, but I'd like to see her twirl her proverbial mustache and say "she could be useful to my plans..." or something like that. I just didn't buy that she'd want to take on an apprentice. I thought the training was fine, but certainly not riveting by an means. I did enjoy the movie theater. I enjoy Cobra being a tad more whacky, and I can forgive a bit more absurdity when it's Cobra.

I don't know if I ever read anything with Bombstrike in it, but I like the idea of JTAC and another women. She seems competent, and I like these kind of missions.

Finally, I've kind of skipped a few issues to get to the read-along thread, but I didn't know Duke was married, and it seems a bit too much playing the Homeland-thing with her (I think?). I'm not sure where this is going, but the tone seems a bit different than the rest of this arc. I'll keep my fingers crossed that Hama can pull it off.

Overall: I'd say it's worth my $4, and I'm interested to see what's going on with Cobra, Dawn, and Bombstrike (but could care less about Snake-Eyes).

Ninja stuff. I've been on record, I just want a break from it. It's turned into magic and I find myself just skimming through it.