Review: ‘G.I. Joe’ #1 Finally Makes The Real American Hero Relevant Again

G.I. Joe has been one of the ultimate nostalgia properties that has struggled to gain a foothold in our modern pop culture landscape. With the launch of Skybound’s take on the spy-fi military heroes, we may finally have a take on the Real American Heroes that feels relevant again.

Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire, and Rus Wooton bring the Joes to 2024.

Duke’s team is barely holding it together. Rock’n’Roll, Stalker, Cover Girl and Clutch are hardly a team, and the Baroness is making it even harder. But when Cobra Commander launches his master plan, the G.I. Joe team needs to spring into action. It may all be at the cost of one Joe’s life.

Honestly, the worst thing about this issue is the last page, and that’s only because it was a little bit predictable. After the past year has built up the Joes and Cobra with the solo miniseries, we come to this story understanding the characters and their motivations and goals well. Instead of jumping straight into Joe versus Cobra though, Williamson continues to build up the conflict, both within the Joes and from Cobra. This isn’t a well-oiled unit, it’s a group of skilled individuals who have no idea how to be a team.

Williamson’s take on Cobra is great though. They’re also a group of skilled individuals, they’re united much better than the Joes. This isn’t the incompetent supervillains of the cartoon or even the back-biting evil bureaucracy of Larry Hama’s comics. It’s a group that has been able to get their shit together thanks to a series of common goals, and it leads to the Joes’ first loss.

Reilly and Bellaire also do their part to knock it out of the park. The opening training action sequence isn’t just a fun way to get a little bit of action without jumping right into Joe versus Cobra. Reilly is able to capture the personality of each hero in just a panel or two- we know Stalker is competent, Rock’n’Roll is having fun, Clutch is still getting his legs back underneath him and Cover Girl is cool under pressure. Williamson’s script and Wooton’s captions enhance it, but it’s honestly not all that necessary. It’s all through how Reilly puts them on the page, and I love it.

He also is able to shift between the quieter moments- such as Duke contemplating his failings to Cobra beginning their machinations- and the more action-y beats quickly. The talking heads are just as engaging as the beat-em-ups. And in one particular highlight, his take on Cobra Commander oozes personality, creating the best take on the Commander since the original Marvel Comics.

I love Bellaire’s colors. With the Joes, she uses a lot of cool blues to help us feel comfortable and at ease with our heroes. Cobra is much darker colors, but still a lot of blue. The shadows make them much more foreboding though.

G.I. Joe #1 is available now from Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment.