‘G.I. Joe: Roadblock’ #1 Is A Successful Silent Superhero Story – Review

Continuing Skybound’s month-long celebration of G.I. Joe #21’s groundbreaking silent story, G.I. Joe: Roadblock #1 is another character-focused one shot lacking dialogue or narration focused on a specific Joe. Compared to the relatively-densely plotted Beach Head one-shot or the hyper-deconstructed real-time gimmick of Jinx #1, this is a much more straightforward comic. Yet what it may lack in innovation, it makes up for in the way it relies on superhero iconography to consistently portrays its title character as someone more akin to a character in a cape comic than one in a military-action series.

The plot here is pretty simple: Lady Jaye has been captured, and Roadblock traverse a snowy landscape filled with Cobra goons to rescue her. Right off the bat, the setup immediately evokes a classic “hero saves damsel” plot. Roadblock’s first action against the Cobra troops holding Lady Jaye isn’t to open fire with his massive machine gun, it’s to use his massive personal strength to push a tree onto the Cobra convoy.

Throughout the first five pages, writer/artist Andrew Krahnke and color artist Francesco Segala keeps Roadblock hidden, offering glimpses of his hands or face or showing him from behind, but saves the full reveal for a 3/4 page splash on page 6 as Roadblock emerges from snowy, wooded shadows in full glory. The whole sequence is staged like the opening of a superhero story – you could easily swap the setting for an urban one and the hero for Batman and lose little in the transition.

The superhero staging continues through G.I. Joe: Roadblock #1. Roadblock deploys his strength as much as his bullets, picking up Cobras over his head and tossing them aside. When he reaches the vehicle holding Lady Jaye, he simply rips the (metal) drop off its hinges barehanded. This is not a story of precise military action; Roadblock is essentially operating more like the Thing (or the Hulk), punching his way to victory.

It works because the art is supporting the action. Roadblock is a thick, well-muscled figure throughout, his visual dominance on the page underscoring his physical prowess in story. Though clad in his usual camofluage tank top and khaki pants, the largely-white snowy setting of the action further helps him standout on the page, in much the same way the superhero is often the most colorful element on a page.

At one point, he retrieves his beloved .50 caliber machine gun and deploys it against a Cobra Rattler, yet even here, the visual presentation is as much an evocation of the “big guns” superheroes of the 90s as anything (is this a direct homage to Rob Liefeld swiping Roadblock with his machine gun from a Michael Golden pinup in G.I. Joe Yearbook #2 for a New Mutants cover back in the day? Probably not. But it could be!).

When Roadblock reaches Lady Jaye, Krahnke is smart to pull back from the superhero staging and avoiding the outdated resolution implied by the initial “damsel in distress” narrative. Lady Jaye is no helpless damsel, a soldier in her own right, so of course, after Roadblock rips off the door, he finds her having subdued her guard, the only assistance needed a simple slice of Roadblock’s knife to release the bonds around her wrists. It’s a decision that maintains the presentation of Roadblock as a superhero and without sacrificing Lady Jaye’s established characterization.

All that said, there’s certainly nothing groundbreaking or revelatory in depicting Roadblock as a superhero. There’s always been a tinge of the fantastic to G.I. Joe, even in its earliest comics, when the series was likely closest to Larry Hama‘s take on the characters as contemporary military figures first and foremost.

Roadblock, certainly, has always been somewhat a larger-than-life character amongst the Joes, even without relying on the superhero iconography deployed her. But the little extra oomph that Krahnke and Segala bring to that depiction here nevertheless brings a fun and propulsive energy to G.I. Joe: Roadblock #1, one which shows the diversity in tone and style these characters can support.