Volume 1 is an interesting way of framing a book that starts with issue #301!
Larry Hama has been writing GI Joe comics on and off for over 40 years. His first run started at Marvel in 1982 and ran until 1994. The series went on hiatus and was picked up by IDW in 2010 with Hama writing again and ran until 2022. This third iteration began at Image/Skybound in conjunction with Robert Kirkman’s Energon Universe endeavour in 2023, so, if the pattern holds and Hama lives until he’s 86 (he’s currently in his mid 70s), there’s another 11 years of Hama/GI Joe comics to follow! Gawd help us…
I feel like I read at least one Hama/GI Joe comic at some point over the years - a free issue from Comixology (RIP) or something - but never a full book. So, even though that comic did nothing for me, I was curious to see what a Larry Hama GI Joe book would be like. If it’s been running for this long, with this same writer, it must be ok, right?
… Eh. No. It’s a bit like Todd McFarlane’s Spawn or (I imagine - I’ve never read it) Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon: a writer can write a series indefinitely and that series can start, remain and continue at the lowest quality ever, for some reason. But unlike McFarlane and Larsen, who own their crap characters and the company that publishes them, I don’t understand why Hama has this connection with Hasbro’s property GI Joe.
Nostalgia has to be the only reason, unless those ‘80s comics were so damn good, which I don’t believe. Is there a single Hama/GI Joe book that people point to as a classic, in the same way people point to Dark Knight Returns for Batman? Nope. And that’s probably because, in those 40+ years, Hama didn’t write anything that great.
Obviously I haven’t been reading the preceding comics to #301 so I have no idea whether this storyline continues a previous one, but it’s not like Hama’s reinventing the wheel: it’s still GI Joe vs Cobra in their perpetual war against one another. A GI Joe character dies (I already forget which one), some people are turning into zombies for reasons, and the whole book is basically one long mindless, disconnected, completely uninteresting action sequence.
Honestly, this was the most unimpressive comic I’ve read in quite some time. It’s like a McDonald’s meal - I ate something but I don’t feel like I ate at all; I read a comic but I don’t feel like I read anything at all. Or a Rock movie where you know things went bang on the screen and The Rock stared stupidly at nothing for an hour or so but you can’t recall a single detail about it.
The one thing I did notice was that the scene where Cobra Commander is introduced is similar to the scene that ends Joshua Williamson’s first (standalone?) Cobra Commander book. Does that mean Hama’s GI Joe is part of the Energon Universe or is it entirely separate, existing in its own world? Dunno. Don’t really care either!
Chris Mooneyham’s art is cool and skilful but indistinct - it could be any of a dozen different artists’ work. If I didn’t know the artist’s name and you told me Paco Medina, Valerio Schiti, Kyle Hotz, Ivan Reis, or Mike Hawthorne (to name just a few) drew this book, I’d accept it.
It was recently announced that Joshua Williamson would continue his GI Joe streak at Skybound by writing his own GI Joe series, with Hama’s neverending GI Joe series running concurrently alongside it. And while I also don’t rate Williamson that highly as a writer, his GI Joe is almost certainly going to be head and shoulders above Hama’s.
Much like James Roberts’ unfathomably popular(ish - it went for a great many issues despite nobody talking about it) yet impenetrably dull Transformers series at IDW, Larry Hama brings his brand of bland to Skybound with his GI Joe, a zombie comic that lurches on despite not having a pulse. This book was one of the most pointless things I’ve ever read and I’ve read the New 52!
I don’t know who reads Hama’s GI Joe: A Real American Bore to justify keeping it on life support (possibly just the one that matters: Robert Kirkman) but those are the only readers who’re going to get anything out of this one - I expect everyone else, once they awaken from their stupor, will be as baffled as I am at its longevity.
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