Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

GI Joe Cobra #4

GI Joe Cobra #4 of 4
IDW Comics
Costa, Gage & Fuso

The first arc in the GI Joe Cobra series ends in a fast way. All of the plot elements dovetail in this issue making for a true climatic ending. Perhaps the drawback of the issue is that last issue ended in such a horrifying and surprising way. However, this arc still delivered a good story with a complex plot. It’s a good comic.

Chuckles is still trying to deal with the awful events of the previous issue. He basically killed a loved one and a teammate for the mission. This opening picks up all the right emotional threads as you’d expect Chuckles to be pushed to the breaking point. He no longer cares about anyone or anything. He’s clear about his intentions but he does have that suicidal look to him as he goes through the plan in his mind. The question becomes whether he can fulfill the mission with a clear mind or will his self-destructive mindset spoil everything he’s worked towards.

The plot is accelerated when we learn what Chuckles has been working on within Cobra. He’s making the robot warriors called Bats. However, they are basically killing machines with no idea who to kill or when to stop. This is the first real glimpse that reader gets into some of the inner workings of Cobra and its important for the ending of the story.

The issue ends in a rush though. As Chuckles busts in to confront his bosses he enacts a plan to take everyone down. The problem with his plan is that he’s not ahead of his enemy. The ending has a couple of problems that made it less than great, but in the interests of not spoiling the ending I’ll just say that the mission didn’t seem to achieve much and probably wouldn’t be viewed as more than a bump for the overall organization. Needless to say I was expecting a big bang of an ending and I felt a touch cheated.

The comic has very good art again. It has a light feeling to it, almost unpolished but it works here for a few reasons. First of all, the story is dealing with scumbags. These aren’t likable characters so the art portrays them in an uglier light. Secondly, the scene is a warehouse out in the desert. It’s a grim existence working for the bad guys and it works well here. Finally, Chuckles is a depressing character and you kind of wish he would just get killed and put out of his misery. The art brings out a lot of emotions from Chuckles.

The comic is a good story. It’s not a GI Joe comic though. I know the character’s names tell you differently but this story barely grazes any element that would be familiar to a follower of GI Joe. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s important to know. You should expect a comic that is at the deepest level of espionage where the characters should probably all die to make the story come to a true happy ending. I liked this ending issue but I wish the climax would have held more of the realism that the previous three issues seemed to contain.

3 out of 5 geek goggles