IDW G.I. Joe Revolution #1 (One-Shot) Review
Thursday, November 17th, 2016 5:01am CST
Categories: Comic Book News, Reviews, Site ArticlesPosted by: Tigertrack Views: 26,839
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G.I. Book Blurb:

CREATIVE CREDITS:

Presently: It’s a clandestine mission to our favorite Transformers playwright’s old hideout… BIKINI ATOLL for an extraction that maybe you wouldn’t predict…
TRANSFORMERS STUFF
Besides BIKINI ATOLL, and the mention of what has been going on with Optimus Prime, Autobots, and Decepticons, there isn’t much here for Transformers fans except a little gem at the end that I want to hint at with a very vague image below. Next issue of REV should be of much more interest to Transformers readers.

REVOLUTION STUFF
It’s pretty obvious, it’s a REVOLUTION title so it’s going to be about all the main players and continuing that over-arching story-line. It’s the GI JOE ONESHOT though, so mostly, we get Joes. A handful of them to be precise. And a whole island full of zombie-like Dire Wraiths.
Yo Joe…

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!!! Big Hat, Parrot Guy, Nose Man, Darryl, and The Rock
Joe Colton’s death was not a shock to most people keeping up with the series. The fact that he was a Dire Wraith, also not a shock at all. And indeed like the body snatchers of old, and any number of newer horror, sci-fi related movies and materials; this revelation involving several shape changers has sown the seeds of distrust, nervousness, anxiety, and even panic amongst the humans who have been infiltrated: mainly the government and GI JOE.
Who do you trust? How far? With what? The handful of Joes chosen for the mission by Scarlett meant that she could, hopefully, trust her crew and they could trust each other. Whoops…

The only Joes to go on the mission with Scarlett are Rock ’N’ Roll (machine gunner/infantry), Quick Kick (silent weapons), Road Block (Heavy weapons support), Shipwreck and Polly (naval command infiltration/extraction), and Wild Bill (air combat commander/pilot). Seems like a pretty solid group- but to me it does feel lacking-. Seems we have no Mainframe, who featured previously in REVOLUTION and who had ties to ACTION MAN, and the EDC. I think I might need to do a re-read to see if he got lost somewhere and I missed it, but I think, Myles ‘Mayhem’ Manheim may be the culprit, if my memory is doing its thing correctly.

It's really no surprise, when we find out one of this inadequate group is a traitor, a Dire Wraith in disguise, and this traitor looks to take out the group and end the mission tout suite (Who do you take out of that group as traitor? There’s no ‘C” level member, no red shirt, or green shirt...). The result is a nice little bit of horrorfest, which would have been perfect, if distributed about two weeks ago around Halloween. But now is good too.

Friend, Foe, or alien?

Definitely, alien.
MY TAKE
It was a somewhat morbid, despairing story that I thought really read well as a tale of deception by the alien Dire Wraith element and the mind-twisting, gut wrenching consequences, with another decent enough twist at the end that won’t pay off until later. Lots of gun play and action, albeit featuring about 6 Joes that have never been listed amongst my personal favorites, but certainly are popular among lots of the Joe fandom. The story becomes most relevant at the end for TF fans, but may not be worth a purchase for those not into GI JOE, or who aren’t collecting all the individual issues of REVOLUTION. Ask your Joe collecting buddy, or REVOLUTION collecting roommate to see the final page, and then wonder about what happens next…
The art was enjoyable, and while a scratchier, lots-of-line-work, somewhat detail-heavy style, it was still pretty slick and appealing. While Scarlett stuck out as seeming a bit to manga/anime-ish at times, and faces lacked eyes or even entire faces in some panels, I did not find it to be off putting or even bad -somewhat adding to the horror and unsettling storyline-. Action scenes were well-executed and very upbeat, if not unrealistic at times (it's a comic, so...). The lettering and colors played well to create the creepy, overall dark feeling that the story pervaded. The dialogue was pretty clear military jargon when it needed to be, but also was able to help you to understand more about their personalities and relationships. Like Rock 'N' Roll is a bit of a jerk.

The comedian or just a jerk?

What does this face mean?
YOUR TAKE (Recommendations, or not)






No crossbow for this zombie killer!
**GI JOE toy fans might find new reason to buy those new two-packs of Zombie Troopers at TRU, if you can find them. They could make great stand-ins for the Dire Wraith zombie people that are found on BIKINI ATOLL, standing in the way of our heroes and their goal.**

GI JOE toy image credit to site sponsor BigBadToyStore
Credit(s): Tigertrack, IDW
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Posted by Va'al on November 18th, 2016 @ 5:13am CST
LAST STAND IN AUTOBOT CITY! It’s all come to this—TRANSFORMERS vs. ROM vs. MICRONAUTS vs. G.I. JOE vs. M.A.S.K. vs. the ultimate evil! The futures of Earth, Cybertron, and the Microverse will all be changed forever by the decisions made this day.
Posted by steve2275 on November 18th, 2016 @ 5:22am CST
Posted by Kurona on November 18th, 2016 @ 5:24am CST
And what is Snake-Eyes' deal? I'm really confused, nothing about him has even been attempted to be explained since he first showed up. He's just here now because icon!
Posted by Big Grim on November 18th, 2016 @ 6:23am CST
Kurona wrote:Oh dear... I obviously always should have expected a battle like this to be one, but this is just a mess. I can barely make out what's going on and the proportions and scale are all messed up.
And what is Snake-Eyes' deal? I'm really confused, nothing about him has even been attempted to be explained since he first showed up. He's just here now because icon!
I couldn't have put it better.
Posted by Randomhero on November 18th, 2016 @ 7:00am CST
Posted by Va'al on November 18th, 2016 @ 8:22am CST
Randomhero wrote:I haven't had a problem with revolution at all. It's been a fun story. Just harmless fun.
That's cool!
Can I ask a question, then: did you find anything that impeded the enjoyment at all, or did you just take it in as it came, as you say, harmlessly? I just ask because in my case the art sometimes just distracted me too much from the story, and once I got to the latter, I was already annoyed.
Posted by Randomhero on November 18th, 2016 @ 10:14am CST
Dr Va'al wrote:Randomhero wrote:I haven't had a problem with revolution at all. It's been a fun story. Just harmless fun.
That's cool!
Can I ask a question, then: did you find anything that impeded the enjoyment at all, or did you just take it in as it came, as you say, harmlessly? I just ask because in my case the art sometimes just distracted me too much from the story, and once I got to the latter, I was already annoyed.
I find the story to be fun. It's not amazing but most events are not. Comics are my thing. Not just transformers but entertainment in general. I read a lot of comics and I've read a lot of event books. I was an 80s kid, it's fun to see my toys that arnt transformers coming out the box again. This is IDWs first really big event that spans a shared universe. There's pros/cons, ups/downs whatever you call them but it's taking many different franchises and doing its best to pu them together and John is a very talented editor and writer. Probably one of the few editors to come out of Marvel that cared.
The art is fine, I've seen way worse and I've had zero trouble following the layouts and story telling. I have not followed every Revolution tie in, just Transformers and Mask and haven't had trouble following the story. I'll admit I should have read Micronaughts because it is needed before issue 3 but i didn't read it till almost a month later and it didn't ruin my enjoyment not having read it before.
Posted by BumbleDouche on November 19th, 2016 @ 6:27am CST
Posted by Va'al on November 19th, 2016 @ 4:30pm CST
A DATE WTH DESTINY! After years of doing very little, Krok, Crankcase, Fulcrum, Spinister, and Misfire think they can wriggle out of anything—but not even they can avoid a heavily-promoted multi-franchise crossover. It’s the Scavengers Versus Your Childhood in a story that exposes all other art for the sham it is.
Posted by Kurona on November 19th, 2016 @ 4:35pm CST
Loved the third page though. Beautiful. ... well. Aside from the dumb-technology-obsessed-teenager trope. JRO tends to subvert tropes and play with them rather than just using them.
Posted by Insurgent on November 19th, 2016 @ 6:18pm CST
Posted by Ultra Markus on November 19th, 2016 @ 9:35pm CST

Posted by ScottyP on November 20th, 2016 @ 10:58am CST
Posted by That_Guy on November 20th, 2016 @ 11:05am CST
Posted by Big Grim on November 21st, 2016 @ 9:32am CST
ScottyP wrote:MP3 is the most interesting GI Joe in Revolution so far.
Harsh!

Posted by Kurona on November 21st, 2016 @ 9:35am CST
Posted by Optimizzy on November 21st, 2016 @ 9:56am CST
Posted by Va'al on November 23rd, 2016 @ 4:48pm CST
A DATE WTH DESTINY! After years of doing very little, Krok, Crankcase, Fulcrum, Spinister, and Misfire think they can wriggle out of anything—but not even they can avoid a heavily-promoted multi-franchise crossover. It’s the Scavengers Versus Your Childhood in a story that exposes all other art for the sham it is.
Posted by Deadput on November 23rd, 2016 @ 4:55pm CST
I thought it was just a mad max version of G.I.Joe with transforming weaponized vehicles.