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10-20-2020, 02:01 PM | #3031 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Iowa
Posts: 4,267
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Cover showdown: The standard cover is the winner. I guess.
Throwdown was burnt and his vocal chords fried, but he can still see. Sounds familiar. Hawk proposes Sean become a SE impostor because the rest of the team is so weak that Cobra cannot know Snake-Eyes is dead. Everyone will think Sean died and SEAN IS COOL WITH THIS. No, Sean is not cool. There's no noble sacrifice (he already made that). This is being a cruel a-hole to his family and friends. It's deplorable. Suddenly Cobra has competency to figure out Joe identities. Why not just do that all the time and murder their families? We have to recap the Hardmaster's murder at the old dojo. They just left the arrow in the post. After that day, everyone just quit. Except Granny. Cobra Commander knows it was Sean Collins, he orders his family killed, because that won't invoke any retaliation. Invoking a kill order on Scarlett and (whom he thinks is) Snake-Eyes is just adding to CC's death wish. Sean's got third degree burns, should be in ICU for awhile, but he's already out there posing as Snake-Eyes. He's got SE's superhuman stamina. "Leather personnel carrier". Drinking game fans...take a drink. You'd think Sean's biological mom would be more upset than his stepfather. Also, "Twiglets" Nice undercover op, ice cream trucks but operated by uniformed Cobras. Also, we have to drive home that Sean is Snake-Eyes by having his family all die, except his Borovian foster sister. She's probably a ninja somewhere. Night Creepers are so useless they can be killed by regular Joes. Also, why sneak up on the cabin then kick the door in? The best part of the issue the tribute to the late Herb Trimpe. Interesting the guy who first illustrated Snake-Eyes in a comic passed away around the time the character did. Overall: Hama must've had this story since the 90's because that's when the whole death/firing/replacement of comic heroes was in full swing. Some of those were decent storylines but here it's not a good idea. Instead of less Snake-Eyes now it's more Fake-Eyes. G.I. JOE isn't Snake-Eyes. It can soldier on without him. Instead, the more things change, the more they stay the same. |
10-20-2020, 11:39 PM | #3032 |
Bald Master
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Wolverine Lake, MI
Posts: 15,131
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Nice write up (I read every one). Total wasted storyline plot; killing SE, only to end up with Fake Eyes. Nothing at all gained, and any compelling result of his death was squashed, as a collection of readers turned from shock to uttering “whuh...?!”
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"Once got busy in the back of a Buzz Boar!" FEEDBACK: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...ck-thread.html CUSTOM WORK: https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...s-customs.html Last edited by ozzie92; 10-20-2020 at 11:41 PM.. |
10-24-2020, 01:40 PM | #3033 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,577
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issue 214
Funeral for Snake-Eyes I love the use of the coyote coming in to the PITT grounds during the ceremony. I appreciate that we start out in the middle of the situation, America flag at half staff, a handful of team members representing. 75 members standing at attention. Rock and Roll makes me sad, but Stalker breaks my heart here. Spirit is comforting. Then we begin the long procession of land vehicle drivers. It's a strange procession, isn't it? Does our military have vehicle parades during funerals generally? 22 drivers / occupants of ground vehicles. The (empty) casket comes out. As far as I'm concerned, this is an empty casket. If there's a body for either Snake-Eyes or Serpentor, I am explicitly unaware of either having ever turned up. I assume Larry intended for this to be an empty casket and would be surprised to find out otherwise. Bill, the most iconic Joe pilot, will transport the casket. But who drove the APC? 10 pilots are representing. Present are the Vector and the Sky Raven (!) which is awesome. Perhaps not in the script. In all, 107 Joe's are visible at the funeral. More ostensibly in some of the vehicles. This issue is touching, it's a great calm mourning issue. It's one of the better silent issues of the many silent issues in the series. Ending with Spirit Iron-Knife, which is a fantastic choice. He's close to Snake-Eyes in spiritual focus and mental clarity, without being too personally close and emotional for the reader. This issue could have worked less well, however it shines. I've made no secret of my strong approval of the death of Snake-Eyes since it happened. This issue demonstrates why I feel that way. The next also does so. I was gone from the boards and this re-reading thread for apparently 13 issues worth of reading. It was because I was planning my wedding and everything else fell by the wayside. So I'm back on a weekly basis now. I haven't read 201 to 213 a second time yet, only the original times. In the coming weeks I'll read them on my own time and keep those comments to myself. However I would like to remark that it appears that the entire giant eyeball storyline takes place in only about a year's worth of stories. Much shorter timeframe than I remembered. A lot of the cooler storylines from 156 to 200 which I remembered very fondly actually took much much longer to tell and to re-read during this second reading than I expected they would. So, the eyeball was just a giant weight in the middle of this "second half of ARAH" which minimized the cooler stories in my memories, and took on more of a weight in the timeline in my head than it actually deserved. That's my 201 to 213 synopsis from memory, maybe I'll update it in a single paragraph in the future.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
10-24-2020, 01:51 PM | #3034 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,577
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issue 215
Burned Sean Collins, recuperating in the hospital ward. Lifeline had been at the funeral, so Sean must have been stable at the time. It seems important to me to point out that Sean was not in fact at the funeral, as was important for the plausibility of this issue and the nostalgia of the funeral. We don't know how much time has passed. I suggest a week at most based on the Cobra dialogue. Okay I've been consistent in my approval of the death of Snake-Eyes, however here is a point which has always stood out to me. Why would Cobra suspect that Snake-Eyes is dead? I love the deception, but what's the rush? Serpentor wasn't a Cobra or in contact with them during his revival. The robot which came to the PITT wasn't Cobra's robot. Maybe the Toxo-Vipers carry a broadcasting body camera or something, that would fix this situation for me. Serpentor is quickly forgotten and Cobra never learned about his resurrection. The breakdown of the "most formidable Joe we have encountered to date" is somewhat interesting. I had forgotten this conversation. This reminds me of how Dawn was earmarked as being highly advanced even before she had a clear role as well. This helps the case for Sean being as good as he eventually becomes, although Sean being less capable than Snake-Eyes is important to me. He can never be able to measure up to the legacy, and in my opinion he never has. I am fairly confused by Sean’s aging-up for the role, however it makes me want to contrast his number of issues aging-up and training to Billy's number of issues. And Raymond's perhaps too. Learning more about the Arashikage compound is cool with me. So Granny lives in the decrepit old farm house from way way back. Seeing Tommy recalling these events is pleasant for me. His narration makes a lot of sense when considering Raymond's presence. This same dialogue radically shifts our understanding of Jinx's history and depth of experience within the clan however, which is very interesting to me. She's a highly trained combatant, but apparently spent little time at the classic compound. This may even be her first trip there. No Joes are at Sean's funeral. This baited trip to the Sierra's makes this one of my favorite issues of the second half of ARAH. Props to Larry for remembering that the cabin isn't the original one, although I suppose it hasn't really been more than a few years of stories since the new one was placed. Okay we have an Ice Viper as an undercover driver of an ice cream truck. Funniest driver cameo since the two Astro-Vipers were used as common pilots. Further evidence of the financial problems that the shrinking Cobra organization is experiencing. These are some well-drawn Night Creepers. This version of the Leader is a cool design, significantly better than the orange bandanna version and I think similar to the cartoon one? I've not watched the show but I know what he looks like. This sequence is stellar. Stalker, Muskrat, Tunnel Rat, Low-Light, Outback: some of the scariest most cut-throat Joe's on the team. These are the dudes you really don't want to run into for any reason in the dark dark woods. I would have picked Leatherneck instead of Muskrat, but this scene just serves to make Muskrat more cool to me and I'm down with that. This whole setup is great. It demonstrates many things to the reader. Sean is not Snake-Eyes. He's not on his level despite Mindbender's comments. He isn't healed. Sean isn't at his own highest performance level. They sent a whole squad of the scariest Joes to masquerade as Snake-Eyes in an ambush. This is so clever, and so out-of-the-box. Larry starts "life after Snake-Eyes" strong with this issue and (most of the time) his stories regarding the loss of Snake-Eyes only get more creative and interesting from here.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
10-27-2020, 10:08 AM | #3035 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Place holder
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10-27-2020, 10:11 AM | #3036 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Issue #216 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!
Cobra Rising |
10-27-2020, 06:44 PM | #3037 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Iowa
Posts: 4,267
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Cover hoe-down: Cover B has nothing to do with the story. Hama's sketch cover is much different from Gallant's. Baroness toy cover is just why? Other Baroness cover is fan arty. So standard cover A, Gallant wins (and who cares?)
Artist change to Paolo Villanelli, Vipers look odd. It's okay art. I guess. Night Creeper Leader is just some white guy in his twenties? How did he not hear two helicopter's crashing nearby? You cannot stealth crash copters. And then New Snake-Eyes kills Cobra Commander, really shaking things up. Oh, no he breaks his nose. I'm sure the villages from issue #1 feel that's justice. Or Magda and the White Clown or Tyrone and Captain Minh... All that to send a message and get away. Yay, tax payer money wasted on that operation. Bury the Pit below the Pit that we introduced because RESET. DUKE dismissed giant robot, forgetting his Star Brigade mission. Jerk. Seattle Fred plot that everyone forgot about. And still seems to go nowhere. Malta meeting that seems silly. "I'm Bob and I head up security for Bumfudge Egypt and I think Cobra is..." Collinses alive? Twiglets for everyone! No cover for the escape tunnel, so when they find the basement they'll find tunnel to the PIT BELOW PIT...I mean the garden shed. Overall: For "Cobra Rising Part 1" Cobra seem to be as pathetic as ever. Just saying. Again, the only reason CC is alive is because GI JOE fears someone competent would replace him. That's the only logic I see. What happens to that Night Creeper Leader now? Brought Fake Eyes right in. The Collins family being alive is fine but also, another fake-out. And burying the previous plot Pit line literally. Giant eye died on the way back to its home planet. Let us never speak of it again. Last edited by Sean_C; 10-27-2020 at 10:32 PM.. |
10-28-2020, 07:52 PM | #3038 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,577
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issue 216
I kind of feel like the Night Creeper leader should be blond, since he's (ostensibly) from Norway. "Ellucidate!" - this is good Cobra Commander. Unfortunately the Night Creepers really aren't as good as they used to be, circa issue 108. I'd like to believe it's because the scarier ones were killed earlier, and later ones were trained up too swiftly from being skillless bank tellers. The Leader is carrying a rifle instead of a crossbow so maybe there's something to that. All enemy armies in this title get steadily weaker though, excepting perhaps the Iron Grenadiers. I would have liked to see what the Night Creepers helicopters looked like before they were wrecked. "Do something Mindbender!" This is bad Cobra Commander. At this point it should be said that the continuing repeat of Snake-Eyes assaulting Cobra Commander and letting him live is tiresome. Is Cobra Commander a CIA asset or something? Is there a strict "no-kill" order out on him from his influencers in the Jugglers? Something needs to be said by Larry about this topic. "Did they find the bodies?" Sounds like a Serpentor / Snake-Eyes foreshadowing. For the record, if Snake-Eyes DOES come back from the dead, the only reasonable explanation I would accept for it would be that he and Serpentor have been secretly alive at the bottom of that hole all this time. Similar situation to CC and Destro surviving in the original PITT, and perhaps similar to the freighter survivors. We're like a week from finding out if Larry's going to use the brainwave scanner to merge Dawn and Sean somehow and that would be super dumb. If he's been surviving in the hole and dug his way out though, I'd be disappointed without being angry about it. Flash's minor redesign is nice. Strange that they would just pour concrete into the secret base hole. It just seriously feels like Larry washing his hands of the Transformer fiasco. Still, he kept the cameras on. Oh, if I remember right this is the beginning of the Fred conspiracy for a little while. I don't actually remember what they do together. Here's that other group who starts working together. I also can't remember their story either. Hawk, Simone Calleju of Malta, Gerry McCarthy of Ireland, Jorge Argiz of Spain, Marie Fournier of Canada, Carlos Espinosa of somewhere, and Brit Russ Sheath who I think is a recurring ally character. Lots of new, more grounded plots starting up now that all the wackiest plotlines built up into a crazy implosion of wacky plotlines large enough to kill the unkillable man. This issue is a major palate cleanser.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
10-29-2020, 05:39 PM | #3039 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Iowa
Posts: 4,267
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NLC from Norway? Whaaaaat?
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10-30-2020, 01:19 AM | #3040 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,577
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Wait, no. I'm wrong. It's Zurich Switzerland I think. The home country of the Night Creepers. They're Nordic.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
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