[stopdead]

@SquishyOH I agree with you 100%.

@turner I don't agree with Hama's politics either, so it can be a struggle when he goes there. And I agree that Snake Eyes' return was rushed in the end. His immediate and unexplained turn from Mindbender minion to good ol' Snake Eyes was silly as was the Joe's immediate acceptance of him. That said, I don't let it bother me.

[SquishyOH]

I won't be mad if the new publisher has two Joe comics at once. One with Larry Hama and one with a different team. Either in the same universe or two different continuities. A lot of the Devil's due stuff fit in pretty well and those earlier IDW series had good ideas.

Can't say that I like the way IDW ended their non-Hama run of GI Joe comics. The last couple of creative teams just were not for me and everything after the Joe/MASK/Transformer combination just went bizarre very fast.

The Larry Hama penned comics stuck with much more traditional GI Joe stories and we had a few dips into classic Special Missions type tales. Get the troops in, the grunts get left in the lurch through deals or bad intel, and the Joes need to figure their way out. Hasbro is still behind on making toys that resemble the current active duty soldiers which DoD now says is over 30% minority and 17% female, but a lot of the comic history is from the original 1980's figures where Larry had to fight to introduce the "comics only characters" like Kwinn, the Soft Master, Oktober Guard, and all kinds of others that it took decades for Hasbro to embrace. Getting a few new Joes that reflect the current armed forces seems like a natural progression. He's always kept the comic focused on the trials and tribulations of the men and women at the front line and how teamwork and trust wins the day (rather than a gang working dark-ops and claiming ends justify means). The Joes often have to hold their nose when higher ups send them to collaborate with some distasteful figures which are great parallels to the real US support of several dictators and criminals over the past 50 years.

I can enjoy a well-written anit-hero comic, and characters like Spawn, Harley Quinn, and Deadpool have lots of support, but it doesn't hurt to have a few characters out there who try to do the right thing and not hurt innocents. I guess that's why I've kept this title while letting all the rest of my monthly subscriptions go.

[Breakerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turner

the increasingly radical political messaging

I hesitate to even ask because it will probably open a can of worms, but what is the radical political messaging you found in the books?

[J James]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Breakerfan

I hesitate to even ask because it will probably open a can of worms, but what is the radical political messaging you found in the books?

It will open a can of worms and then this thread would be closed.

Larry's consistent drip-drip-drip of virtue signalling, strawman demonization, and capitulation to corporate trends has been dragging down this title for the better part of a decade. Ultimately he has become an elitist sneering at the common proles, and that may hurt the title more than his memory issues. That his support staff are even more radical in their public lives than Larry probably doesn't help any. On some level I feel that he is a follower and some of his help are pushing him, but that's just a gut-level feeling.

This would be deserving of it's own thread rather than detracting from conversation about #300, but I can sum up that entire hypothetical thread for you:
- "here is an objective reason I am turned off by this title"
- "that doesn't exist."
- "here is the issue and page where it happens"
- "that is for your own good and you are a bigot"

I just did the whole thread for you. You're welcome!

[J James]

Since several people have complained about how they don't feel like Larry Hama actually likes writing this title anymore, consider this:

In the 80s, Larry was writing from the point of view of a man who went to war based on ideals. To a large degree that influenced his paradigm and the feel of the title.

Now, forty years later, his ideals have become inverted from what they were at that time. He now has more in common with the people he was engaged against in combat, although I doubt he knows or realizes this consciously. He is a stream of consciousness writer.

That's probably a massive reason for the discontentment of the readers who date back to an 80s-era fanship. Again, I doubt it is conscious but he is a part of the entertainment industry and you can't survive in the mainstream unless you parrot the corporate tone.

[FunkyBunch]

Here it is! TALKING JOE 184 - ARAH 300 ALL IN PT5 review
Mark and Tim talk about issue of G.I. Joe ARAH # 300 released 23rdNovember 2022

Audio only podcast in usual places. Links to various podcasters at https://talkingjoe.co.uk/

Podbean direct link https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-jmwzh-15d00bf9

YouTube video will follow once I've made it. 😆

- It?s an overlength episode for an overlength issue!
- We look at the many variant covers, and hear direct from one of the artists, Ron Salas!
- What is the latest with the breakout star of this arc, Geoffrey the Technoviper
- Did the issue meet our lofty expectations? What did we make of the big reveals?
- Tim predicted with total confidence that Wade Collins was definitely dying in issue 300, so let?s find out how Wade ?Still Alive? Collins is faring.
- And as always, so much more!

For those of you asking what will we be doing while we wait for issue 301, we will be continuing our look at the Disavowed era (currently at the end of the Brandon Jerwa era), and have some cool interviews lined up too.

[FunkyBunch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Commander

SPOILER
it is not confirmed that his face is one way or the other but Scarlet says ?your face? when he removes his mask. He also says ?Scar?le?t.t? when he sees her.

Yes it is left open as to whether he is disfigured and mute. We dont see his face and the ragged way he says scarlett is a repeat of his one line of dialogue from the original marvel series.

[Dave in the Basement]

I was hoping for more from issue #300 than the cliffhangers we got. I'm a big comic fan, but I must admit I'm mainly reading this for the nostalgia factor, but I can only take so much bad writing (hello Spawn!). IMO, of course. I'll be picking up 301 or whatever they call it and hoping for better things, but if it is just more of the same, I'll drop the title.

I know some of you enjoy the title, and that's great. If I don't like the new direction, I'll just put more money towards Classified goodness.

[Sithlord13]

Wow. Just read the issue.
Before I start a disclaimer or two. I’m British so I started with action force but read gi joe as gi joe from early thirties issues. I read all the way thru to the end. I still have those issues. I loved gi joe for the most place but after issue 116 there is a decline that it never recovered from.

I tried the re boots. Loved dixons reloaded. Didn’t really like dreamwave or idws re vamps although the cobra book was interesting.

The return of rah started ok - the time line is wrecks thou because of the importance of Vietnam in the joe cannon.

I bailed when snake eyes died in a pointless and frankly shit way.
I did end up reading the title online. I sold all my ideas issues. I kept the marvel run.

The run up to and issue 300. In one word ? Crap.

This issue particularly had crap art. A crap story, a crap script and horrible layouts and no conclusions or excitement at all.
Seriously Larry. Wtf?
Not since the end of transformers regeneration one have I felt so little.

I would love to see a real sequel to the marvel run set in the 90s that actually concluded the story in a great way not a continuation of this becoming super heroes.


Snake eyes a clone? If the real one has been revealed to be alive I might have cared but this was shite.

[1982]

Been thinking about this today why would Cobra Commander not clone his brother Dan, and chose to clone the man he holds responsible for his death?