Therein lies the paradox at the heart of the experiment: The comic is at its best, art-wise, when it’s most like a comic book and least like a cartoon.įor all its faults though, this is still a fun issue. The action in that sequence takes full advantage of the (comic book) medium to present the action more dynamically and with a greater diversity of “camera” angles than was often the case with the action in the cartoon. Somewhat ironically then, the art is at its strongest when it steers into more traditional comic book layouts and sequences, such as the battle between one of the giant B.A.T.s and a fleet of Skystrikers. But that fidelity, combined with some of the panel layouts, has the unfortunate effect of occasionally making the issue look too much like a Fumetti photo comic, as if the comic is simply the result of screencaps from the cartoon with dialogue bubbles pasted on. Colorist Luis Antonio Delgado certainly captures the brighter, bolder palette of the cartoon, while Dan Schoening faithfully renders the broader character designs of the cartoon (which were easier/cheaper to animate than more detailed comic book art usually is). The art, however, isn’t quite as effective. Similarly, at one point Cobra Commander and Destro snipe at one another (over what Destro charges Cobra Commander for B.A.T.s, no less) like a bickering married couple in an exchange that feels right at home alongside the time Destro dismissively referred to Cobra Commander’s plan to carve his face into the moon as “cosmic graffiti.” The banter between Alpine and Bazooka, for example, reads exactly like the characters sounded on the show. The plot might be trying a bit too hard, but Burnham is more effective at capturing the voices of the characters relative to their cartoon counterparts. Using his wishes to make giant Battle Android Troopers (and then put force fields around them) instead of something far more practical that still doesn’t reach the level of “ultimate power” (which the genie says he cannot bestow) is also pretty in character for Cartoon Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander acquiring the services of an actual magical genie crosses the very narrow line between acceptably over-the-top cartoon villainy and outright silly villainy, but it’s not too far a cry from the Cobra Commander who tried to take over the world by mounting rockets on Roadblock’s parents’ drive-thru restaurant. Plot-wise, writer Erik Burnham does a decent job of crafting a Cobra scheme more tonally consistent with the cartoon which, compared to the (relatively) more grounded plots of the comic book series, tended to be a bit goofier and more outlandish. The end result though, in terms of both the writing and the art, is a bit of a mixed bag. To call it a noble experiment seems a bit much, but it certainly is a curious one. It’s not just a comic story featuring cartoon characters, but an attempt to recreate a cartoon in comic book form. But this series takes a slightly different approach, presenting a story not just featuring the cross-media GI Joe characters but a story specifically aping, via the plot, dialogue and art, the tone and style of the 1980s GI Joe cartoon. Adapting stories and characters from other mediums in comic books is hardly something new much of IDW’s current output does that with a variety of properties.
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