Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Joe Ng
Publisher: Devil’s Due
Price: $2.95
You might want to put your brain into neutral for this one. Not that I mean that comment in a bad way, heaven forbid, you just want to make sure you don’t notice the plot and concentrate on the action sequences. Yes, G.I.Joe vs. The Transformers is back for a third volume courtesy of Devil’s Due, holding the Hasbro crossover fort single-handed until IDW invariably produce something with these licences. Moving away from the time-travelling antics of the last volume, this first issue picks up a couple of plot points as the basis to launch straight into the new storyline.
Those foolish humans open the book messing about with the dismembered parts of Decepticons with the express intention of creating “Sentient Mechanical Weaponry”. Guess what? This wonderful advancement for bettering humanity is obviously hijacked by the rather naughty Cobra, leading to big fight scenes between Cobra Commander’s amassed army and G.I.Joe and the Autobots. If you’d like one word to sum up this little skirmish, then I give you: “Cobratron”.
Ahem, yep, I don’t think Alan Moore is considering coming out of semi-retirement just yet. Again, I do not see this as a negative point, the bad dialogue and ridiculous situations are the main attraction. Let’s face it, giant robots and men with purple handkerchiefs as headwear do not Doctor Zhivago make. Bring on Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Grimlock and smash as many things as possible. Job done.
The artwork is perfectly adequate, having to deal with large scale warfare and individual human characterisation. The Transformers themselves are lovingly drawn, coming somewhere between Pat Lee and Andrew Wildman. As I’ve already mentioned with the dialogue, the writing is perfectly acceptable as long as you aren’t hoping for something that involves a lot of depth. The G.I.Joe characters could probably have been left out with the run-out they get in this first issue, the best human characters simply being Cobra Commander and the sarcastic Zartan. I’m sure the characters lined up here will all get their chance in the remainder of the 5-part series. Overall, the True Lies of the comic world, big, dumb, and all the better for it.
James Dodsworth - Born and raised in Yorkshire, residing in London since 2000, James has a Law Degree and works for the Fraud Prevention Office of a high-street UK Bank, where he has experience in combatting financial crime and working with the police and legal institutions. He is a writer and editor for FractalMatter.com.
But his main claim to fame is living next to the pub where Shaun of the Dead was conceived.