| (June 1, 2005) New Comics and Update - Last week I had stuff going on and wasn't able to get my comics so I just got the new G.I.Joe issues this week. As an update for the commentary and a sort of review of those issues, I decided to make a post: G.I.Joe Issue #43 - Visuals were cool as far as character drawn design goes. The story sucked. Killing Lady Jaye just to get an extra book sold? That's pretty lame. It's like all but admitting that they just don't have it in them to attract new readers based on how good the comic could be. Instead it's the shock value idea to get new readers. Yeah shovel out the long time readers to get maybe a couple of new people to get an issue or 2. They'll probably not even read it, just tag and bag it thinking it'll be worth money someday. A ratio of 10 new issues sold but maybe 25 people that dropped the book. Yeah way to go! All through the issue you have action sure, but you can get that in a Captain America or Superman book. Who cares. Story? Yeah there's a story there but you just really can't get into the book to care. It's too face value. You can take in everything just flipping through the comic. It screams "Please new reader, buy me!" You've got people getting shot in the back, in the gut, caught in explosions, and all that sort of thing, yet Lady Jaye died from a knife stab in the gut? Male and female alike are taking hits all around and Lady Jaye is just offed rather fast. I don't care that stuff is very stupidly passed off as saying the characters have on armor. That's lame too. Again, I gotta say it, very very fan fiction like. This one almost borders on that gay fan fiction junk that people seem to have a compulsion to write. I'm not meaning slang for "gay" either, I'm talking Duke and Cobra Commander being together type of junk. The Red Shadows seem like a forced group of character thrown in because nothing better could be thought up. Sort of like General Grievous instead of Aurra Sing or Asajj Ventress in the new Star Wars movie. Just something out of nowhere that really could have been done better. Sure they do have a cool character design look. They'd make cool action figures with a new Larry Hama filecard written. But they suck as a Devils Due comic character. I'd say for the remainder of Devils Due contract, let them write out all the characters they haven't messed up yet (if there are any) and do something they feel they want to do. It's obvious they want to have a book with nothing but characters they have created themselves, so why not just let them. The people still holding out and reading the book will still probably keep reading. It might would even bring in new readers this way because long time fans would feel they're characters are now safe and won't be destroyed just to gain a lame extra sale. I just say this, please start writing a better book and stop going after shock value. Shock value will not keep readers and it almost always chases off readers you already have. G.I.Joe Master & Apprentice 2 #4 - Well there's nothing here to say. It's like Brandon Jerwa got bored and threw something together to get it done. There's what appears to be the death of Slice and Dice. It's not really well defined, but then what really is in this issue. Maybe it's that this mini-series over-stayed it's welcome. - Joe |
| (June 1, 2005) Previews June 2005 -
PREVIEWS JUNE 2005
PG 203
PG 269
PG 270
PG 446
PG 1 - Promo ad for G.I.Joe:Snake Eyes vs Storm Shadow bookends. PG 267 - Full page ad for Snake Eyes Declassified. PG 268 - 269 - 2 page splash ad for Snake Eyes Declassified and listing. PG 445 - Full page add for the Snake Eyes vs Storm Shadow Bookends. - Joe |
| (June 13, 2005) Marvel Superhero Showdown - If you didn't already know, Toy Biz is making Marvel figures as 4" scale. These are very easy to fit into your G.I.Joe ideas! Some have heard the news and some have seen the Toy Fair picture. Now we get a first look at Captain America right along side G.I.Joe figures! Check out the link:
There's also a link in that article showing Wolverine and Hulk. These figures should provide some really great ideas as soon as they hit the store. It isexpected to start seeing them in July, but I'd say August. To be on the safe side, keep your eyes open because we really can't be sure with Toy Biz. At any rate, I will be picking these up! - Joe |
| (June 15, 2005) G.I.Joe America's Elite - Newsarama had a post of an interview with Joe Casey about the new G.I.Joe comic. It's being called America's Elite, but most are calling it G.I.Joe: L33T (computer slang for leet, which if you know what that is, you know why it's being said). I won't go much into my thoughts until I see the comic, but for those interested in the interview and a 3 page preview, head for the following link: http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=cba6833fb60ce45f76b0de00336155d4&threadid=35891 Seeing those pages, all I could think of is how bad the art looked. G.I.Joe looks like a bunch of wrestlers. Shipwreck looks like Machoman Randy Savage, or looks exactly like his name. There's not a one of them that I couldn't associate with a wrestler. It's very poor quality. A wrestling theme dialog kept popping up in my head when I looked at it too. I couldn't resist putting some word balloons to it, so the following is what I put together: http://g-i-joe.50megs.com/elite.html Tell me that doesn't fit! It might even fit more than what will be printed. It's sad to see a gimmick writer (he even knows that and says so) and bad artwork being put to this comic and this is suppose to be Devils Due's idea to revitalize the comic. Unless that issue is actually good or Devils Due finally realizes they need to step it up the right way, this run of the comic is done for. Guess we'll see soon. - Joe |
| (June 15, 2005) G.I.Joe America's Elite Issue #0 - I picked this up today. It is actually a good move for $.25, I'll give Devils Due that. Anybody that has thought about getting the comic in the past will go ahead and put a quarter down to check it out. Saying that, Devils Due should have been pulling out all the stops. Joe Casey should have wrote the best book of his career. I don't think that happened here. Now the book might, and I want to be sure you know I said "might", pick up a few new readers. The trouble is that they have lost some of the core readers that had been reluctantly buying the book. Devils Due now has a mountain to climb to get those fans back. In that process these "new readers" will no doubt leave the book. It happened on the relaunch already when Devils Due first got the license. They can't keep doing these pop sales either and expect the book to stick. Focus on the project and most of all focus on the writing will be the saving factor. Now on the book it's self. It starts out with a satellite crashing into Chicago. From there you get the story of the president talking with Joe Colton about putting the G.I.Joe team back together and making them covert again. We have various character interactions and some action shots through the issue as one would expect. By issues end though you reflect on what actually took place. Frankly nothing did. Maybe it's due to this being a $.25 comic and they didn't want to put so much into it. It's this issue though that should have been the best one. I don't know if it was just me but it was like the satellite crash was there to take your mind away from what you'd be looking for. I'll admit that I'm very critical and have high expectations. I just expected this single issue to be everything. This was THE issue that was to show the world what G.I.Joe the comic is about. Joe Casey was hauled out as the writer to get it done. Now I can't be fully critical of the issue. The book was on par with others on the shelf right now. It holds the same entertainment value as issues such as Captain America, Iron man, Superman, or Green Lantern. There were some cool elements there such as seeing the G.I.Joe Stealth plane used (although Scarlett was the pilot!?!?). The Sky Hawk was in there too. We even saw the HISS tank, but the design of it was weird. Even the Skystriker was shown. I'm on the side that likes seeing Storm Shadow back with G.I.Joe. There are those fans that prefer him with Cobra, but there's just too many ninjas running around and having that setup ends up with the stories those very fans complain of. By having Storm Shadow away from Cobra you can focus on other things instead of the over done rivalry. Besides a cool ad for some Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow sword coming soon from Museum Replicas and Atlanta Cutlery that's about all I can name that I liked. Besides the last page that you'll have to read and see yourself, that's really all that happened through the comic. For the cover price it will sell. I'd even tell anyone not picking it up that they should go ahead and do so. It's the only G.I.Joe comic you're going to get, and it does have enough entertainment to read it. I don't know if Devils Due will believe their own hype and think the relaunch really did wonders for them, but things will go back to slow and steady around issue #4. They'll see the drop of readers again and it'll probably be back to where it was by issue #10. The drop will be more drastic this time around than before. If Devils Due does it again, it'll be even quicker. Too many times and nobody will care. So go ahead and give it a shot. You can find a quarter laying on the ground somewhere even if you're not wanting to put your own money on it. Just don't have too high of expectations. Nothing new was brought to the table. It's the same old Devils Due idea of government conspiracy, forced "hard edged" characters that you have a hard time beliving, plenty of 1 dimensional characters that you want to slap a personality out of, and the feel there's a story there but the writer doesn't want it to be known. - Joe |
| (June 24, 2005) Hasbro Comes Through! - This weekend is the G.I.Joe collector convention. I won't bother linking to info on it now because you missed it if you didn't know. As expected Hasbro is showing off new stuff. Man, and what a bunch of great new stuff it is! There's several things that just wasn't expected. All fans have been wanting to see some mind blowing things and unless you're cunical or just have a severe hate for new sculpts, we've now had out minds blown! The figures alone are just beyond what was expected. We already knew the 6 that will be on Hasbro's online store, but now we've seen 6 more! Salvo, Major Bludd, Footloose, Barrel Roll, Snow Serpent, and Range Viper! These make up wave 2 and look amazing! See Hasbro, we've been telling you that it can be done! Hehe. There's new comic packs being shown also and these look great. We've seen bits and pieces here and there already, but now we get full pictures. Also present is the Devils Due fan choice set. Check out Cover Girl! Spirit is just a repaint of the one we've already seen, but who cares since it's a nice figure! Then there are the vehicles. WOW! They out did themselves based on what we were expecting. Nobody was thinking that we'd get full out new sculpt vehicles like this so soon if at all. Anyone who claims they knew, a majority of them are telling a fib. The ROCC and Rhino both have a concept idea that seems to come straight out of MASK. I'm liking them both. The new HISS tank has a few flaws such as the gold parts needing to be either black or smoke grey or the missle system that might look better with a gun station, but I still like it. Now we're down to Sigms Six. Everyone keeps putting it down just as I have even done so. Now we're getting shots of new stuff. The Cobra BAT alone answers every problem that has been stated (aside from the size of the figure). The joints are beefed out and proportions are looking good. What's sad is that this figure alone could have been made with the thin Xevoz like bodies while the main figures should have been beefed up. maybe if these survive Hasbro will tweak them? I don't know, but anyway you look at it, the joints need to be tweaked. I did notice that Duke and Heavy Duty appear to have had some stuff done. I'll keep an eye on it and check it out when it hits the shelves like the rest of us. Now for the part you were waiting for. Here are places to get great images of everything being shown. I'll add more to the list if more are found: http://www.mastercollector.com/neat/gijoe/minneapolis/hasbro1.cfm http://www.mastercollector.com/neat/gijoe/minneapolis/index.cfm http://www.silentcastle.com/cobracommand/con2k5.shtml http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=9&itemid=7521 - Joe |
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