GIJoe

[Tom Foolery]

Awww...GIJoe:Cobra Files ends with issue 9. No word on what, if anything, will replace it.
Costa and Fuso's various Cobra ongoings have consistently been the best of the bunch for the last few years. Hopefully they have something else lined up. I'd love to see their take on a Stormshadow/SnakeEyes book. Or perhaps go back to a straight up Cobra villain series instead of this Joe Secret Ops thing they've been doing.

[anarky]

Damn, damn, damn.

I read the Van Lente book, and then this week the first Cobra Files. And I thought, "I'm glad I'm keeping up with all these other titles so I can appreciate this book more. Because it's so much more awesome than any other non-Hama, non-classic Joe title."

Fuck me. So we're going to have Special Missions by Dixon, who really shows his ignorance on this title for some reason, and a continuation of Van Lente's Joe likely with someone else trying to ape his style? And no Cobra Files. This makes me sad.

[Tom Foolery]

It's possible IDW is just rejiggering a new Costa/Fuso book for a relaunch and a sales bump in January.
No need for alarm until they say they're moving on or cutting back the Joe titles or whatever.

[anarky]

Honestly, although it's not exactly bad, I don't know that I'd miss the mainline IDW book. Trim it back to just Cobra, and leave it at that.

Right now, Cobra in the IDW-verse has the most schizophrenic backstory of any character or organization in any comic, and that's saying a shit-ton.

My big problem is that even the basic Viper goes from a combatant who can almost kill Snake Eyes one-on-one to the same stupid cannon fodder trooper we've seen in every other incarnation.

[anarky]

Wait, wait, wait a cotton-fucking second.

In G.I.Joe #11, we're supposed to get the secret origin of Roadblock, because it can't just be "he was a great soldier."

It will involve Sigma Six. The Adventure Team was already confirmed to exist. (And Van Lente wanted to write future stories with Sgt. Savage and G.I.Joe Extreme, which may or may not happen under another writer.) So there have been other teams in the past that shared a name with this (formerly) super-classified counter-terrorism group.

Why keep using the same name over and over for unrelated teams?

If none of these teams ever knew about Cobra, who the hell did Sigma Six fight?

And, more importantly, we're told we'll learn about Roadblock's relationship with his cousin from Sigma Six, Heavy Duty.

Only HEAVY DUTY WAS ROADBLOCK in the early issues.

Congratulations, IDW. You just created a continuity fuckup even bigger than All Hail Megatron.

[jjreason]

I save them up & read in chunks. I just read the first arcs of (latest) GI Joe, Special Missions & started Cobra. GI Joe is absolutely, by far, the worst it's been since IDW took over. I'm fine with the "out" concept, but it's not good reading.

[anarky]

Two unrelated thoughts on IDW:

1) Duke is a fucking man whore. According to the latest reboot, he was engaged immediately before he was recruited. Hawk approached him at the hospital. We know from an earlier issue that Hawk basically said, "Join us, or I'll kill you," so it wasn't like he had any choice.

And the early issues of both the main title and Origins made clear that Duke and Scarlett had had a relationship very shortly after the team was founded. And he's currently fucking Cover Girl on a regular basis, even though he won't admit it's a relationship. And we just found out he's still in love with his fiance. (Fiancee? I can't keep those straight.)

2) There must be a lot of masturbating at whatever the current headquarters is at any given moment. Like enough to flood the place in jizz. (I thought of this while writing the TVTropes post in the other thread.) Until very recently, these guys lived in the middle of nowhere, were believed to be dead, could not maintain ties with anyone, and got extremely limited leave time. All the women have been involved with male teammates. But, though no firm count has ever been given, it looks like the ratio of men to women is at least 20-1, and that might be generous. Also, homosexuality has been frowned on in the US military until recently, so it's unlikely too many dudes were going that route. This leaves us with a couple hundred men who have no sexual outlet at all. Some might be going to prostitutes on their extremely limited leave, since the Pit was in Nevada, where it's legal, but who knows how many hookers are nearby, or what the Joe members attitudes are toward paid nookie.

So, yeah, Cobra, if the MOBAT starts shooting white goo, retreat the fuck out of there.

[jjreason]

Cobra Files is the best of the books, and it's set up for an awesome conclusion after the most recent issue I read (whether it was 6 or 7 I can't recall).

Special Missions & GI Joe I'm not thrilled with. I'm kinda at the crossroads about continuing to buy, and have been pushing towards NOT since the latest restart on GI Joe. I'll give it some time.

My store guy tossed me an issue of ARAH, either by mistake or trying to get me hooked I can't be sure, but I haven't looked at it yet.

[Tom Foolery]

Reading ARAH is like finding back issues to read that you didn't know existed. It's the equivalent of eating whatever comfort food you enjoyed when you were a little kid.

[jjreason]

I only read the main title up until about the half way point, so I missed so much - just not sure if it's something I can (or even want to) jump into or not. I'll read it & see though, might as well.

[Ran]

2) There must be a lot of masturbating at whatever the current headquarters is at any given moment. Like enough to flood the place in jizz. (I thought of this while writing the TVTropes post in the other thread.) Until very recently, these guys lived in the middle of nowhere, were believed to be dead, could not maintain ties with anyone, and got extremely limited leave time. All the women have been involved with male teammates. But, though no firm count has ever been given, it looks like the ratio of men to women is at least 20-1, and that might be generous. Also, homosexuality has been frowned on in the US military until recently, so it's unlikely too many dudes were going that route. This leaves us with a couple hundred men who have no sexual outlet at all. Some might be going to prostitutes on their extremely limited leave, since the Pit was in Nevada, where it's legal, but who knows how many hookers are nearby, or what the Joe members attitudes are toward paid nookie.

So, yeah, Cobra, if the MOBAT starts shooting white goo, retreat the fuck out of there.

When real soldiers are deployed for 4 months at a time or when sailors are out at sea for months, guess what goes on.

And I know I saw guys cheating on their wives when I was in.

[jjreason]

With other dudes or gun turrets or lady sailors? All 3? I know when I was at police college for 6 months I tried my best to keep that shit bottled, but I'm telling you once you break the dam, it's all over but the mopping up. Ain't never seen s'much whackin', to quote from the Beavis & Butthead movie. ><

[Tom Foolery]

And I know I saw guys cheating on their wives when I was in.

The wives cheat on them too. I was at a party when I was a younger lad in my 20s. After everybody else had left, this chick gave me a lap dance and then said she's be in the bedroom waiting for me to fuck her. I declined. It didn't sit right with me to fuck a dude's wife while he was serving our country. But if she'd been single(or maybe if the guy had been in prison or something) I would've banged her like a judge's gavel.

Given the fact she wasn't wearing anything besides a flimsy robe and a pair of panties, I'm am to this day extremely proud of my restraint that day.

[jjreason]

It was likely the dark side of the force telling you she had the HIV. Still a good call either way.

[Tom Foolery]

That may have occurred to me after I left, that I probably dodged a VD bullet. But in the moment it was the other thing.