Someone was kind enough to send me the new G.I.Joe comics from the comic sets, since they were interested mostly in the figures and not the comics, and of course the reverse was true for me. So today in the mail I receoved #21B, #32-1/2, and #36-1/2.
#21B - Really should be read with the original #21 kept handy for reference. It's more or less a "second view" of the story, with something more of an emphasis on what went on leading up to certain key sequences in the original story. Not bad at all really.
#32-1/2 - A Day in the Life of Springfield - One sort of feels a little sorry for the kid, Adam, the primary character in the story. Although clearly willing to assist with computer technology on behalf of Cobra, and knowing full well what's going on around him, he doesn't seem to really want to be a part of it. Since he never turns up again, one tends to wonder what happened to him. The "origin" of Dr. Mindbender was interesting, though. As to the apparent "Scarface" glitch, who's to say there wasn't a second Cobra Trooper who ended up with the same name due to a similar battle injury, and we just never heard about him because all he did was play chauffeur for Cobra Commander?
#36-1/2 - An interesting way to introduce Tomax and Xamot to the ranks of Cobra, as well as provide a little background on them. The major continuity problem I have with this story is characters like Roadblock and Flint being referred to by their code-names before they technically had them, although I suppose it's possible these could have been informal nicknames that were simply carried over into official code-names.
Overall, I was pleased with the stories, and the artwork, while not spectacular -- well, I've certainly seen FAR worse in the comics world, including in a couple of instances in the original G.I.Joe run, so it was agreeable enough, although I do remain curious as to who did it. There were no credits in these books, and for some reason, that bugged me.
On the whole, though, these were enjoyable reads, and I look forward to reading more new adventures from the original days of the Real American Hero!
(And in the future, if anyone wants to keep their figures from future sets and not the comics, you know those books will have a good home here.)
