Man, IDW is really covering all the bases with their G.I. JOE line up. What idea haven’t they done yet? Just as long as they don’t end up in space with a talking monkey, I’m good.

This time it’s Chuckles, everyone’s favorite Hawaiian shirt wearing, B-side Joe wiseass! Wouldn’t have picked him to star in his own comic, but hey, it can’t always be the Snake Eyes and Scarlet show. We find that our boy Chuckles gets the boot from the G.I. JOE team for being a smartass mercenary, for which there is no room on the team. Hawk, however, changes his mind and doesn’t want Chuckles working for anyone but him, so he logically sends Chuckles undercover as a double agent. Chuckles gets paired up with Jinx. I guess we have to give all the under-used Joes a chance. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Low Light showing up. Chuckles and Jinx tour the world, setting up Chuckles as a merc. Eventually he gets an interview with a Cobra operative. After a fake shootout with a small Joe team, Chuckles gets “invited” to the Cobra HQ where we are left with a “To Be Continued.”

It will be cool to see where Cobra comes from in this version. Since we’re getting a G.I. JOE Origins comic, I see it as only fair that we get a look at the inner workings of our favorite evil organization. I hope it’s better than a pyramid scheme this time. With the changing of decades, I’m sure Cobra Commander has upgraded to corporate fraud and allocating multi-million dollar bonuses to the Crimson Twins and the Baroness.

We’ve finally gotten a taste of all the new G.I. JOE comics, and our final opinion is that Chuck Dixon’s re-vamp is the best out of the three, but this one ain’t so bad. I like the use of Chuckles. Again, not the character at the top of anyone’s list, but a good dark horse pick, and he’ll be allowed to shine a little brighter here. I like the story, but the dialogue was a little wooden. Well, maybe not wooden, more like cardboard really. I felt like some lines were a bit forced, and Chuckles’ bad jokes were really bad. Jinx does, however, get a good Duke zinger in there. Liked the art, loved the inks, coloring was a little lackluster. It just wasn’t doing it for me.

Everyone’s a critic I guess. I’m looking forward to the next issue though, so it’s got a good hook, and it ended at the right spot. Enough was given to us to spark our interest, but there’s so much more to be told. G.I. JOE fans will undoubtedly pick this up, and they/we don’t have to worry about it being a waste of time or money. All in all, it was a solid, average comic. It’s not going to spawn a revolution, but I think it’s the second best so far.

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