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Numero99 · I'm kind of a big deal Joined: 19 Aug 2011 Posts: 105

A

B

RI A

RI B

G.I. Joe: Cobra #13

Creative Team:
Mike Costa (w) • Antonio Fuso (a) • Fuso x 2 (c)

Synopsis:
A NEW ERA BEGINS HERE! The critically-acclaimed COBRA series enters a new era! With the JOEs fragmented, somebody’s got to handle the dirty work. Who will it be? Find out here! When G.I. JOE goes underground, the world will never be the same!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
NEW CHARACTERS! NEW MISSION!
SAME CUTTING-EDGE STORYTELLING!
All the G.I. JOE titles this month have two foil character covers! Collect all six!

Click here for a preview of this month's COBRA #13

EDIT: Stickified. - Shane
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blackjax30 · Slayer Joined: 01 Sep 2009 Posts: 91

Voted for A. The art and action sequences were pretty good in the preview. I have been looking forward to this issue since the "solicitations" dropped months ago. The preview is promising.

shanecdavis · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 1:01 pm Post subject:

I surprised myself by voting for Cover A. I typically prefer action covers, but as it was with the Roadblock cover for the main title, this Flint cover is just well done. More surprisingly is that Fuso is the one that drew it! I cannot stand his interior work, but this isn't the first time I've liked one of his covers. Not looking forward to the interior work though.

It's a lot easier to resist the preview now that I don't have to wait weeks to make a trip to my NSLCS. Starting to wonder if I'll ever buy a floppy again.

Numero99 · I'm kind of a big deal Joined: 19 Aug 2011 Posts: 105

Love Fuso's work on COBRA. Him and Costa write the best Joe comic - hands down. Blacklight was looking like a boss in that last panel. I was fully expecting this line instead of "I always do"

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stoplis · Private Joined: 08 Dec 2011 Posts: 9

The main reason I'm glad the Cobra Command crossover is done is that Cobra can get back to Fuso's awesome art (which is reason Cobra is my favourite Joe book). Can't wait for this issue.

Mamu_Nestor · Transforumer Joined: 23 Feb 2011 Posts: 998 Location: TX

Oh wow! The issues started ok but finished with a bang! I like where this is going. Another classic character gets their IDW introduction.
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Numero99 · I'm kind of a big deal Joined: 19 Aug 2011 Posts: 105

I know right? I did a quick write-up of #13 and Costa's Smoke and Mirrors, but the fight scene with Ronin was very cinematic - Fuso's style is crazy, but the big reveal near the end...well, it wasn't too much of a surprise in retrospect, but as you're reading it you're like.."...the hell!?!"
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shanecdavis · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 10:47 am Post subject:

Not going to post my thoughts yet, but you can certainly guess what they would be when it comes to the interior art. Ugh. I had to re-read the opening scene FIVE TIMES in order to follow what was going on. Fuso's character renderings for Duke, Flint, and Lady Jaye are very hard to look at too. This book totally reminds me of DDP's Storm Shadow title. My apologies to Antonio and any that are enjoying his work. It's just not G.I. Joe to me. If only IDW would pair Costa and Robert together. The best IDWverse writer and best IDW artist, now THAT would be something!

I was totally floored by the ending though. Can't wait to see where this goes!

Antarctica · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 12:19 pm Post subject:

Just as he dies in one resurrected in the other.

The Cobra, despite the art which is totally hit or miss for me, just keeps throwing story curve balls that are so unexpected, every time is such an exciting read.

It really is a great comic.
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Crimson Guard Immortal · Slayer Joined: 04 Oct 2011 Posts: 55

Thanks to Costa and Fuso for a great issue. Cobra has become my all-time favorite comic book.

ER · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 3:43 pm Post subject:

Hmm. I read the preview to see if I want to pick this up or not, and at this point I'm not sure. It starts out interesting enough, but my problem is that what we saw in the preview should have taken two pages, and here we have it taking up 7 or so pages with these huge panels. A third of the issue is over, but content-wise it feels like we should be two pages into the story.

Sometimes the big, full-page panels can be nice if the moment in the story is dramatic enough to call for it (like the fabulous two-page spread in a previous "Cobra" issue of CC getting shot thru the head). Or if the artist has some serious artistic chops (Robert Atkins or Jim Lee, for example), sometimes the full-page panel can be nice, simply to show off the art work or establish an epic setting or something. Sometimes these factors can make for a fair trade for the less story telling we get when huge panels are used.

But here it just seems like a horrendous waste of page space and precious story-telling time. The "Jinx 2" fight would have been just as cool with smaller panels and Fuso's art style just isn't well suited for attempting big, epic panels anyway.

My question to those who have read this: Does it get any meatier?

I'm a huge fan of Costa's "Cobra" but at the same time I'll feel like a sucker paying $4 for 22 pages that could have just as effectively been told in 7 or 8 pages.
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Eagleyes · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 6:48 pm Post subject:

YES It gets much meatier

Buy it for another great read with awful art

shanecdavis · Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 6:03 am Post subject:

If I had seen the preview I probably would have had the same fears, and I do agree wholeheartedly those panels should have been half the size. I HATE having to decipher Fuso's panels. He is the only artist I have that problem with. His style of art is the only thing that keeps me liking ARAH more than COBRA. ARAH has a perfect blend of great story-writing and visually-appealing interior art. COBRA has superb story-writing and....and...superb story-writing. Costa and Atkins is the pair I want.

Machete Phil · Transforumer Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 750

Another great issue of Cobra. It really is the most consistently solid GI Joe title of all time… and I would even argue one of the most consistently solid titles of all time even OUTSIDE of the Joe franchise. With the Chuckles issue last month, I was beginning to wonder if perhaps the idea well had run dry in Costa’s head… but this issue has proven that this is not the case at all. Quite the contrary, actually. I am absolutely loving this new twist where the Joes have a double-secret black ops team that is funded and reliant upon a former high ranking Cobra agent. Just genius. And I loved the twist at the end, too. Will be very interesting to see what Costa does with this familiar character from the old ARAH days. Oh, and I am really digging the premise of their new base, as well.

As for the art… count me on the side that really enjoys Fuso’s work, and thinks that his style is an essential fit for GI Joe: Cobra. I can understand that other fans who are used to seeing a more “mainstream” style are wishing that someone like Atkins or Gallant would support the title instead, but I think this would be a big mistake. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the artwork of both Atkins and Gallant over on the other titles. But Cobra is a very different animal than the other titles. It’s generally more dialogue driven, and has the feel of a mature readers style graphic novel format than the other standard, action driven titles. I feel as though a title like Cobra demands a more gritty, impressionistic, and “artsy” style than the other Joe books. In fact, I don’t think it would work half as well without it. And I’m not necessarily saying that it needs Fuso specifically, but at least someone with a similar type of style. And I say this because although I absolutely LOVE Fuso’s work when he is drawing the dialogue or other-wise “slow” scenes (his covers have been great lately, BTW), I totally agree that his work is borderline un-followable whenever he’s trying to draw complex action scenes. Not always, but a lot of the time.

Anyways, my vote is to keep Fuso, with the hope that he can improve on his ability to portray action scenes.

Only gripes were that – as others have already said – the action scenes in the beginning go on for WAY too many pages for a writer and artist who aren’t super-talented when it comes to action scenes, and then also that it appears as though Costa is simply dealing with Hawk’s departure from the series by writing Duke almost exactly like Hawk. It doesn’t come off well, considering that Duke has never really behaved like Hawk at any other point in the other reboot titles to date. As much as l loved the way that Costa wrote Hawk, I don’t really want to see him write every Joe leader the exact same way.

But these are small gripes when compared to the overall awesomeness of the issue as a whole.

So, final grade:
First 5 pages = C
Rest of the story = A+
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Numero99 · I'm kind of a big deal Joined: 19 Aug 2011 Posts: 105