Preview:

http://issuu.com/idwpublishing/docs/gij ... al-preview

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"The only way to bear the snakes is to become one." - Cobra Commander, Cobra Reborn

I was quite pleased with this issue. I mean Hama was laying on Ted pretty thick, but it really did add a few great new things to the mythology while spinning a damn good yarn where the only thing preventing the Joes from being on domestic terrorists like white on rice ... was the affiliates of those said terrorists being a thousand times more devious than these would-be militia men with delusions of grandeur think they are.

Zartan and the Big 3 Dreadnoks were utilized perfectly. Zartan as the world's premiere undercover "fixer", and Buzzer, Ripper and Torch as his friends who he knows exactly when and where to deploy for maximum effect.

Nice three-man team of Joes, two of whom we definitely don't get enough of in the main series lately but who are absolute standbys and classics.

A logical Cobra Commander who is both ruthless, and clearly playing some kind of long-game for power that won't tolerate petty acts of terror.

A second series of Siegies, basically the crappy series that came out before Fred perfection.

All that, and it felt like a Special Mission or a Yearbook. NICE.

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2013, NEW SPRITES!

Fun issue. Great use of Zartan, Mutt and Junkyard, Mainframe, the Dreadnoks, and the Crimson Guard. So, there is a Ted series, too, huh? That was a fun reveal. It was also interesting to hear how Cobra Commander deals with internal problems like this. He was actually OK with just letting some Vipers "rough Ted up" but let him live, until he found out Ted was planning a big terrorist act in Cobra's name. Then it was send in Zartan to kill Ted dead.

I like Cobra Commander at rest. This Broca Beach Commander who has leisure time for boardwalk "strolls" and marksmanship practice.

The rickshaw driver should become a character. We see him a lot.

Interesting trying to place this in the timeline. This must have just happened, right before Tommy and Snakes dropped off Billy for a stay. That means a huge focus on the Crimson Guard, considering the (spoilers Sean E.) preview for the new RAH I just read somewhere.

I loved the fact that this story jumped back and forth between so many groups, and that the chaser, so often, became the chasee. Lots of sleuthiness, silly though it was.

I agree with Ant and Todd. There was really nothing to this issue. I enjoyed the Yearbooks back in the day, so perhaps my disappointment stems from my expectations and not the issue itself. I also like the idea Ant mentioned of calling it Yearbook 5. That would have been nice. But $8 out of an already tight comic budget doesn't make me happy.

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TheDoctor: "Restricted access, no unauthorized personnel." Hmmm... [opens lock with sonic screwdriver]
Amy: That's breaking and entering!
TheDoctor: What did I break? Sonic-ing and entering,totally different
DoctorWho-The Hungry Earth

Yeah, something was missing here. Kind of wish Hama had put in a "beg reveal" or something, so that the price would justify picking this up. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I own it, but it could have been shortened to the regular 22 pages, and would still have had the same amount of "punch", because it was more of a "Special Missions" vibe than anything else. It does appear to happen right before the next issue of RAH, because the end page shows the cover of that comic and announces it as "next issue"... I don't think there will be anything that interferes with that since most of the tale's events here happen within a matter of a couple days.

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"The first rule about Punisher Club:
nobody talks about Punisher Club..."

silly question, but does this make reference to this new continuity ? or is it a complete stand alone issue ?

I mean, if you wanted could you fit this in between issue 154 and 155 of the original marvel run if you wanted to , or not ?

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GI JOE EXTREME, ACTION FORCE, ACTION MAN forums :
http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/phpBB2/index.php

At some point CC says to Mindbender: "I have to figure out a new plan to counter what Destro and Baroness are up to about disrupting our deal with Darklon."

So it would have to be after Mindbender's resurection and before Darklon's death. And you'd have to come up with a reason why Destro and Baroness were trying to counter a deal btw CC and Darklon.

Anyway, I thought it was classic Hama to set the action in an amusement park, but since Cobra has been in Broca Beach, we've been seeing a lot of this kind of scenery, so I would have hoped for something diffrent, like a SM type covert op in the jungle or something.

Was wondering if anybody else caught the references to the Norwegian killer from last year. This Ted CG was going to blow up part of the park with fertilizer bombs and shoot other people on an island. Striking similarity. Plus he had an anti-immigrant thing going and chose Ellis Island, how creepy.

Then he blames the students for taking minimum wage jobs.

The background of it all was great.

My least favorite thing was how all this coincidences allowed the Joes to stay on his tail. Oh, luckily Mainframe cracked Cobra's codes recently. Luckily Zartan wrote Bergendorf's name on that scratchpad. Luckily Zartan chose to ride his motorcycle. Luckily Mainframe caught the police call on this. Luckily Mainframe was able to backtrack all the calls from Bergendorf's phone.

Overall it was ok, but not an absolute must.

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䷾ scryptic
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"The only way to bear the snakes is to become one." - Cobra Commander, Cobra Reborn