The Comic Box #21!!!

[General Scarlett]

Welcome to The Comic Box. This is a discussion thread for the GI Joe comics. We start at Marvel’s #1 and move thru the series every Wednesday. It’s a chance to give your thoughts, opinions and remarks about the comic in question.


#21. Silent Interlude

~Short Summary~
Snake-Eyes rescues Scarlett from Destro's Cobra stronghold.

~Notes of Interest~
Arguably the greatest Joe story ever told. Written and drawn by Larry Hama, but without a word in it. Various comic book writers have said that they received inspiration from this issue. The first appearance of Storm Shadow. It also hints at a link between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes: they both have the same tattoo.
-summary from yojoe.com-


http://www.yojoe.com/comics/joe/joe21.shtml


http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o47/PrncsLeia/DSC02067_edited.jpg
-photo from yojoe.com-



Discuss away!

[maxtype]

Arguably the greatest COMIC STORY EVER!!! This silent story manages to be completely clear and engrossing with No Words save for the title and a Cobra computer display or two..............

Scarlett quickly proves once again that she's no 'damsel in distress'.........and Snake-Eyes showed what a COMMANDO can do!!!My favorite part is when the Red Ninja gets all 'Darth Maul' with the twin Sai-so Snake-Eyes simply gets 'Indy' with a M66 Fragmentation Grenade..............That HADDA Hurt!!! :p

Besides his excellent script-Larry Hama also did the pencil breakdowns for this issue,something he unfortunetly didn't have time for often enough...........along with Steve Leialoha's finishes.........the art is always exciting,detailed,and never unclear!!!


Can you tell I love this issue?? 11 out-of 10 Stars!!! :)

[lehsreh]

[COLOR=Red]i remember these issues. when i first got it i thought it was awesome. a whole story without a word anywhere. but now i wish they had made a story to it. being a want to be comic artist i know its true the art can carry a story, in rare occasions. but for grown ups and die hard readers we need a good story with depth. i would buy a book by jim lee even if the story sucked, but the comics that i still go through are the ones with great stories.[/COLOR]

[Flint]

This was a cool Issue, different because it had no words, but if my memory serves me, I remember hearing that there was a script written by Hama, but it didn't get to Marvel in time and they sent the book to print without the script!!! ;)

[yorktownjoe]

I agree. This is the best issue ever. I'm hard pressed to think of another issue that was quite so cool and unique.

[Outrider]

Maxtype pretty well said it all. Larry Hama's genius for storytelling is on full display in this superb issue. I didn't have this issue for a long time, but I had heard great things about it. When I finally did obtain it, I instantly saw that all the hype was justified. This issue, probably more than any other, was the beginnings of Snake Eyes becoming the single most popular Joe ever. Still one of the highlight issues of the Marvel run.

[Self-Modifier]

[QUOTE=Flint]This was a cool Issue, different because it had no words, but if my memory serves me, I remember hearing that there was a script written by Hama, but it didn't get to Marvel in time and they sent the book to print without the script!!! ;)[/QUOTE]

I heard that too, though I've never seen it confirmed by anyone.

As for my feelings on the issue-- I just read it for the first time about three years ago when Marvel put out the trade collections of their first 50 issues. Like Outrider said, the hype was definitely justified. Hama's art is fantastic, and it's really a shame he didn't draw many more issues.

I have a trade paperback of "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD," with an introduction by Larry Hama. In the intro, Hama explains that this issue was an homage to the first few pages of Nick Fury #1. Those pages are entirely silent and feature Nick infiltrating an enemy castle or tower or something. You can definitely see where the influence came from!

[Sonneilon]

I never thought much about this issue. I mean, it was cool that SE put Cobra in their place and all and the lack of text as just fine with me. HOW it got the recognition and love and... Hell, it's overrated in my eyes. It's a comic. Not the best, not the worst of the series but groundbreaking???

[Sonneilon]

For the record...

It was more than just Marvel not printing the text and whatnot. Comic books are under time crunches and Marvel (and DC) are far stricter on timeliness than, ahem, Image in the 90s. So... there wasn't TIME to do the text! They threw down what they had and BAM, it became a classic amongst the old folks.

[Lava Boss]

My family moved inbetween issue 19 and somehow I missed a few issues...this was one. (why didn't we just subscribed?!) So I didn't "read" it until years later, after the hype...yes, there was hype even then...letter's pages, etc.

Why did Cobra kidnap Scarlett? Didn't really serve much purpose other than to have Snake-Eyes go to the castle. Plot wise, the addition to the greater saga is is the intro to Storm Shadow and the reveal that they are somehow connected via a tatoo. By Hama's standards that not much....so this issue is pretty light overall, even if it introduces a key character.

Oh, and that damn castle that would be ignored for 100 issues, only to be overused in the last 30 or so.

Issue #21 was a neat idea...thankfully though, Hama used the silent issue concept sparingly. What is groundbreaking once can become tired if overdone.

Score: 6/10 (Ii just can't reconcile my dislike of the endless Storm Shadow-Snake Eyes storyline.)

[Sonneilon]

I totally agree, LB. For someone to purposely do a silent issue, that's lame.

What this DOES prove is that Hama comes from the generation where the pictures can tell a story w/o us needing to know much. THAT is something a lot of current-gen artists can't do. Yeah, YOU DREAMWAVE!!! Comics are so text oriented, it really can bog things down.

I think it's the next issue where Grunt says, "hey scarlet, what happened to ya? You were doing your parajumping yearly thingy and BAM, you're gone..."

I wondered too WHY she was captured. But at the same time, it was a way to intro the red ninja which I could care less about. Shoulda left THEM back in #21, DD!!!

[General Scarlett]

[QUOTE=Sonneilon]
.......I wondered too WHY she was captured....... [/QUOTE]



Sometimes a girl just has an 'off' day................even when she's me.......... ;)

Besides, us women know that sometimes, SOMETIMES, we have to let you menfolk 'rescue' us............... :p

[Stormer]

I first read this as a reprint in Marvel UK's Action Force Weekly title. It was bookended by a couple of UK-originated strips dealing with Scarlett's abduction and the aftermath with Cobra Commander, Destro and Storm Shadow. Those had dialogue as usual and I barely noticed the lack of speech in the #21 part -- I guess that shows how good Hama's visual storytelling abilities were and how naturally the action in that issue flows without the need to speech.

For the most part, I liked the SS/SE connection -- the mystery and soap opera gave the book a continuity to follow that went deeper than the Joes foiling Cobra's world domination plots. This was a relatively subtle way of starting all that and for those reading it when it came out I can only imagine the level of intrigue that last page brought up!