I must confess, G.I. Joe #19 left me a little bit disappointed.
Maybe my expectations were too high. At the end of the “Dreadnok War” arc, we knew the secret of General Hawk. We saw Duke find out about the Autobot named Hound who was hiding amongst the Joe team. Duke was ticked, and ready for a conversation at gunpoint. I was expecting something like The Conversation, or at least the famous diner scene in Heat.
That’s not what we got.
All About the Energon
After last issue’s detour to bring Roadblock into the covert Shadow Force unit, we are now right back where we left off at the end of issue #17. Zartan needs Energon, and thanks to his position, he knows everything that both G.I. Joe and Cobra know. So, before the Joes can even say “R&R,” General Hawk is sending teams back out into the field. Before that occurs, however, there is the little matter of Duke holding the giant robot named Hound at gunpoint while demanding answers. There is some infighting amongst the team, and finally, Duke orders Hound, and Clutch for hiding him, to be arrested.
We get a flashback showing a brief encounter between Clutch and Hound and one Matt Trakker, who immediately goes off the grid once they depart. If you know your old Hasbro lore, then you know that Trakker is one more thread, following Miles Mayhem over in Transformers, that will eventually lead to M.A.S.K. For now, Matt Trakker is the only person who can fix Hound’s transceiver so that he can contact the Autobots, and Duke can finally meet Optimus Prime.
The team will just have to save Trakker from Scrap-Iron before he can do that.
Speaking with the Enemy
As I have said before, maybe I expected too much from this issue. In my head, I thought we were going to get a whole issue of Duke and Hound. I wanted to see Duke unloading his hatred of the robots and why, while Hound explained the differences between the Autobots and the Decepticons. We did get that, but it occurred across a couple of panels at most. There was more focus on Zartan’s machinations and Matt Trakker’s dilemma than on the confrontation promised by the cover.
There was a point in this issue where the Joes are being given their abrupt new assignments, and Stalker comments that they need to expand their roster. This is something I have commented on multiple times now; there are simply not enough members of the Joe team. Not only do they get basically creamed in every fight, but there is the same pool of characters to focus on, and so they start to wear down. We need more bodies. It looks like we are going to get at least a glimpse of Snow Job, so that is a small step in the right direction. I understand that there is an in-story reason for the small team, as Zartan needs to keep the member count low so that he can keep track of everyone and maintain his cover, but that does not change the storytelling issues with such a small team. Something needs to change soon.
I was not sure how I felt about it when they brought Miles Mayhem into Transformers, and I am equally unsure about Matt Trakker in G.I. Joe now. When I, and the characters are already grumbling about how few Joes there are, is that really the right time to bring in another character who will ultimately lead to a whole different team altogether? I feel like the more connected G.I. Joe gets to the overall Energon Universe, the more it is losing its own identity. That is not a positive development. The promised meeting between Duke and Optimus Prime in the next issue had better deliver and make this increased interconnectivity worth it.
Team Leaders
Mission reports are delivered once again by Joshua Williamson, who is still keeping the pacing tight and the characterization strong. However, as I said above, it feels like the more he tries to interconnect with the overall Energon Universe, the more this book loses itself. I am not sure if the blame for that should be pinned on him, or if that is simply one of the perils of a shared universe like this.
Art duties are handled by Andrea Milana, who seems like a regular member of the alternating art team at this point. His style fits in perfectly with the standard look of the book. All of the cast members look as they should, and there is no confusion about who anyone is. Although there is not a lot of action in this issue, he manages to keep the visuals interesting by playing with perspective and panel layout throughout. All in all, it is a strong effort on the art side.
Lee Loughridge does the colors, and it seems like he is a regular in the creative rotation now as well, being paired with Milana frequently. He maintains some of the coloring affectations that regular colorist Jordie Bellaire uses, but everything is a bit more subdued. It still has a bit more of a retro or “nontraditional” look to it than your standard book, but it is much less in your face about it than a Bellaire issue would be. It is a bit more to my taste, if I am being completely honest.
Smashing the Toys Together
G.I. Joe #19 is a good issue, but it is also a big letdown from what was promised at the end of issue #17. The promised conversation happens quickly, and mostly off-panel, as there are more pages devoted to the scheming of Zartan and the introduction of Matt Trakker than there are to what was shown on the cover. I am glad one of the characters calls out that the Joe team is too small and that they just keep getting their butts kicked in every fight, but calling out something like that does not mean anything if you do not do something about it.
There are a lot of dominoes being set up in this book right now, and I am a bit concerned about how many of them do not even pertain to the Joe team at all. At the end of the day, the name of the book is still G.I. Joe, not Cobra or M.A.S.K., and so the team should always be the primary focus. I do not want the creative team to stray too far from that, and it feels like they are doing so a bit. In the end, G.I. Joe #19 brings the book further into the wider Energon Universe, but at the risk of losing its own identity. Hopefully, future issues can help the book reassert itself and get back a bit of what was making it work so well up to this point.