The Energon Pub

Amazon has posted a pre-order for Classic G.I. Joe Volume 14. This is of interest to Transformers fans because it also reprints the 4-issue Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover (139 - 142) that served as a prequel to the Transformers Generation 2 comic and debuted Megatron's new tank alt mode. The book is scheduled to release on March 13th 2012, retail priced at $24.99, but Amazon priced at $13.15.

Classic G.I. Joe Volume 14 (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels)) [Paperback]
Larry Hama (Author), Eric Fein (Author), Vic Sutherland (Author), Andrew Wildman (Author), Chris Batista (Author), Steve Lieber (Author), William Rosado (Author), Jesse Orozco (Author), Tom Mandrake (Author), Phil Gosier (Author)

Classic G.I. Joe Volume 14 continues the newly re-colored run of A Real American Hero with issues #135-145. Is Scarlett joining COBRA? What are Megatron and Cobra Commander up to as they join forces in the 4-issue Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover and take a look at the early days of some of the JOE''s careers and lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
  
• Publisher: IDW Publishing (March 13, 2012)
  
• Language: English
  
• ISBN-10: 1613771533
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1613771532

Awesome! I remember how ecstatic I was when I saw new blue-faced Megs holding Cobra Commander in the palm of his hand when I stumbled across #139 at the end of a family road trip. For Tranfans who never let go from the beginning, '93 was about the only year in our darkest decade that left one feeling optimistic instead of depressed. From that moment in the Spring of '94 when I read in the letters page of TFG2#8 that the series would end at #12, there was a sinking feeling that Hasbro might just let the whole franchise keel over dead, and even the awesomeness of Beast Wars could never entirely shake that off. But for a few months, Transformers was once again a media triple-threat, firing on all cylinders! (Well, okay, the nature of the G2 cartoon technically only made it a 2-and-a-half threat)

I believe this is the only major chunk of Marvel US TF continuity that hasn't been reprinted yet. Thankfully the crossover occurred right before the final year of Joe issues whose prices really skyrocketed on the secondary market, but for any younger Transfans looking to brush up on their comics history, this is LONG overdue!

Granted, I've never read the Joe book all the way through, and from what I understand this sort of derailed Larry Hama's final arc, so to Joe fans, I sincerely apologize for being so happy about this. I will gladly buy all of IDW's G.I.Joe trades and see for myself.

Now bring on the Action Force crossover!

There's no real reason for them NOT to be included. Only question is whether or not this means we're getting an Omnibus of G2 soon.

Darth Bombshell wrote:There's no real reason for them NOT to be included. Only question is whether or not this means we're getting an Omnibus of G2 soon.

If we are, those four Joe issues should be included.

...Even though I didn't like the G2 comics.

Though, the G1 TF/Joe crossover Marvel did hasn't been reprinted, so... who knows?

Sabrblade wrote:Though, the G1 TF/Joe crossover Marvel did hasn't been reprinted, so... who knows?

They're redoing the Marvel stuff. You never know.

I'll be buying it, but I wish they had put G2 #2 in there.

IDW should do a G.I. Joe/TF omnibus with the material they have the rights to, like the first Marvel crossover, the Dreamwave crossover and maybe the Action Force stuff.

Sabrblade wrote:...Even though I didn't like the G2 comics.

The Transformers: Generation 2 is Simon Furman's best American Transformers work. IMHO it ties with Target: 2006 as his best overall work. It's a dark, brooding, and has plenty of memorable dialogue and humor and it makes the Transformers more of a sci-fi war comic (which is what it should be IMHO). In short it's everything that his G1 IDW run should have been and wasn't.

Now if Furman and IDW wanted to pick up and continue G2 from where it left off, now that is something I would gladly support, in fact I would easily take G2 #13 over #81 because G2 is the story that demands to be finished.

Cyberstrike wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:...Even though I didn't like the G2 comics.

The Transformers: Generation 2 is Simon Furman's best American Transformers work. IMHO it ties with Target: 2006 as his best overall work. It's a dark, brooding, and has plenty of memorable dialogue and humor and it makes the Transformers more of a sci-fi war comic (which is what it should be IMHO). In short it's everything that his G1 IDW run should have been and wasn't.

See, Furman's G1 stories were rich in plot, character, mythos, and a more epic scale than the Budiansky G1 material. But when Furman shifted into G2, a lot of that was gone. Instead, we get some shallow doom and gloom war story that was dark for no other reason than the for sake of being dark, and which decided to see how many characters it could kill off for cheap dramatic effect instead of letting us explore these characters' personalities and come to like them for who they are (or were). There was no real heart or gravitas in Marvel G2. It was just bland grim and grittiness.

And Jhiaxus was... I'm sorry, but I could not take this guy seriously. Well, let me put it this way. Who does this guy think he is that he can just come in and take the role of villain away from the more prominent, more well established villains? Who was he to take away Megatron's importance as "Series Bad Guy Number 1"? The Cybertronian Empire was so overpowered that it felt like Furman was Godmoding them.

And the Swarm seemed to come completely out of the blue, as though we were expected to just accept it as a credible threat right when we first see it, yet all it did was make this story even more convoluted. And don't even get me started on the rushed cliffhanger ending with the Liege Maximo. Without reading the pseudo-canonical Alignment story, that guy makes little-to-no sense in this s\at all.

I tell ya, the best part of the G2 comics was when, in issue #5, Hot Rod and the others were playing a training exercise/game and actually having some genuine fun during all the moments of dread and dispair. Then the games were canned because they reminded us that the Autobots (and the Transformers comics of the time) weren't allowed to have fun anymore.

I loved G2 as a kid, but it goes off the rails after issue #4. Once all of Earth gets decimated, and, somehow, Optimus is TOTALLY FINE WITH TEAMING UP WITH MEGATRON, it just totally falls apart for me.

I'm sorry, but that wasn't my Optimus Prime. I know Prime felt he needed Megatron in order to stop Jhiaxus, but the guy just obliterated the planet Prime swore to protect. At that point, you go find other help and give Megatron the ass kicking he deserved.

Awesome, I'm looking forward to this!

I also can't wait for Generation 2 paperback/omnibus.

Supreme Convoy wrote:I also can't wait for Generation 2 paperback/omnibus.

If there is one, that is.

I won't get this because it has the other Joe issues in it. If they were to come out with a TPB that includes Joe #138-142 only, that would be great. I already have the individual issues to go with the Titan TPBs of G2, so I wouldn't be interested in an Omnibus.