Okay, before we start I must say that when I was growing up there nothing more important to me than Ninja Turtles, He-Man/She-Ra, and G.I. Joe. I’m passionate about my '80s cartoons.

Is it too soon to start anew? 25 years of history just tossed right out the window into a wood chipper and blown out to sea, all gone, bye bye. I’m not so sure this was the right time to do it. The last series just ended and my ears are still ringing from the 21 gun salute. It ended in the way we all knew it would end, but we never wanted it to end. The G.I. Joe team, as we know them in the comics, started in the '80s when the U.S. was involved in the Cold War. G.I. Joe was there keeping the American home front safe from those damn commies for years, and Cobra was just a face given to the turmoil the world faced at the time. When most of the hostilities waned, G.I. Joe was retired, only to be called back to duty when 9/11 happened--COBRA had resurfaced after years of hiding contentedly. G.I. Joe is our American comic safety blanket--when the real world gets too scary, like the theme song says, “G.I. Joe is there.” The world is still in trouble, so why did we get rid of G.I. Joe? Why re-do it so soon? Is it because chronologically the Joe team would be in their sixties by now, and no one wants to see a bunch of old guys kicking ass? I know that’s not the case because Clint Eastwood is still making movies. No, towards the end there, G.I. Joe had lost its way, COBRA got too big for its britches. and the only way to stop it was to practically blow up the world. Where’s the fun in that? The series got too ambitious, imploded and came to an end. Okay, all’s well in comic book land, Cobra Commander went to his underwater jail, but our world is still struggling and we need our Joes back.

So here we are, G.I. Joe 25 years later, day one.

Chuck Dixon has some big shoes to fill seeing as Larry Hama stuck with his G.I. Joe for the full run back in the day at Marvel, so this will be like going up against the godfather himself. How will Dixon make this G.I. Joe his own and not seem like a direct copy of Hama’s? I’ll say it again, 25 years. In 25 years it’s all been done. All the Joe fans are stuck in the niche that has been carved. What I say now I say on behalf of all: We don’t handle change well. We like Scarlet and Snake Eyes together, we like Hawk as the leader with Duke at shotgun, Roadblock will always come before Heavy Duty, and Destro was never really a part of Cobra – he was just the arms dealer who was trying to manipulate his way to the top. Such things are cement, and if you fuss with them people get mad and angry blogging will ensue. Now, I am a fan of Chuck Dixon. I’m maybe one of the 30 people who have the six issues of El Cazador. He’s worked on G.I. Joe before with G.I. Joe: Reloaded, so he can be trusted with the title, at least in my eyes. I don’t doubt him as a writer, I just don’t want to see the Joe team go through something crazy. Like, I don’t know, killing off Lady Jaye, again. Yeah, you know what happens when you kill off main characters like that? G.I. Joe: America’s Elite happens. I’m not trying to be mean, and maybe I’m a little bitter, but the America’s Elite series just wasn’t up to snuff with the material that came before. The team got reinvented at that point and it wasn’t working. Everyone was gone, Flint was a jerk, and Scarlet was back to being the only girl.

Now, with our redone G.I. Joe, we get a new team, and some familiar faces show up. Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlet are all in their regular forms, and by regular forms I mean they are recognizable as themselves. Snake Eyes is a good cross of his ninja self and the original commando, and Scarlet looks much better when she’s not wearing a hideous mustard yellow leotard. Seriously, no self-respecting woman would have worn that ugly yellow one-piece over a blue body suit, not even in the '80s. But for every pro there is a con. Dusty looks like a greaser from New Jersey, Beachhead doesn’t have his mask, and Dial Tone is a chick. I can look past Dial Tone being a woman, but I was a little put off to see Beachhead’s face. From what I remember he never took the mask off, but what really rubbed me wrong was this little gem from Duke: “You’re a danger junkie, Beach. You need a check-up from the neck-up, bro.” Bro? Bro? Duke doesn’t say bro. Dumb white guys who drink too much Gatorade and wear Puma sweats say bro, not boy scout Army Ranger paratroopers. See what I mean by not handling change well?

Robert Atkins, I like you. You’re excused from my tangent for the day. This is the first issue, so not too much action going on, but we get a little taste of Robert’s fire power. There’s this one panel (I’m looking at it right now and I think it’s Wraith, but I could be wrong) where Wraith is firing his guns and the classic “bam bam bam” is going off as sound effect. It’s got this certain John Woo look to it. I kinda want to make it my desktop wallpaper. Great smoking gun color too. Actually the coloring is really good throughout. Andrew Crossley gets an A for the day. Just one little thing though--not about the colors, but about what’s coming up in the next issue (besides the most awesomest character of all, The Baroness!). On the next issue promo page we get a glimpse of the Cobra troopers, and they look like Nazi SS. Really? We’re taking the Nazi route again. How many times has that been done? Yeah, the Nazi army was the most notorious enemy army, but they weren’t the only ones to grace the pages of evil military fashion monthly.

25 years (one more time for redundancy) of cannon gone. Will this one last two and a half decades? Who knows? It could, as long as things don’t go spiraling out of control, like killing off main characters just to prove no one is safe. It’s a comic--everyone is safe and death is like the flu in comic books. Get plenty of rest and we’ll see you next issue. Time to sum it up. Yes, G.I. Joe is back in action, but is it the G.I. Joe we all know and love? Could be. There is a lot more to come, including two completely separate comics. One is being written by the godfather himself, Larry Hama, which will probably rock the socks off of this one, but this wasn’t bad, just different in its own way. If you’re a G.I. Joe fan, you’ve already read the issue before reading this review, and you’re probably making space in your storage boxes to house the rest of the series. Although if you haven’t totally nerded out over the quick return of our American heroes, it’s almost like they never left and you shouldn’t be afraid of the change. It may miff you, you may do a few double takes and re-read some parts to make sure that does say “bro,” but we all have to accept it’s not 1985 anymore. White Snake posters have been taken off dorm room walls, acid wash pants really did look ridiculous, and G.I. Joe isn’t fighting the Reds anymore, but at least they still have Cobra. Yo Joe.

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