Comic Box #9!

[Sonneilon]

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.

#9. The Diplomat.

In this non-Larry Hama story, a chosen group of Joes are in charge of protecting a State Diplomat of the name, Brian Hassell. Clutch and Scarlet fight off the Cobra attacks against him but it’s all a ploy in the end! Brian Hassell turns out to be a Cobra assassin whose job is to knock off the ambassador of Al-Alwai!

Discuss away!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Sonneilon/Misc/Joe009.jpg
-image from yojoe.com-

[Sonneilon]

I thought this was a pretty cool issue. The whole trick of the duder being an assassin, that was beyond my comprehension back in the day. I know I never had this actual issue and didn't read it until the digests came out. My problem w/ issues 2-15 is that I found them to be remotely boring. I jumped from #1 to #16 so it would be the latter issue that carried a lot of weight with me. Sometimes, it's hard to go backwards when you are starting so far forward.

Course in some people's case, they started really late and imagine how archaic these old issues are in comparison!

[General Scarlett]

I've got to admit that it was with this issue, I got really into re-creating MY Joeverse. I love the storylines and all & the charater development, to me, was fleshing out really well. But with this cover, I saw something totally different as far as a story goes. But, all in all, I enjoyed this issue........


And yes, I have kicked @$$ just like on this cover.......and I still got to stay in the bar!!! hehehehe....... :D

[Self-Modifier]

As far as Joe fill-in issues go, I find this to be one of the better ones. Definitely better than the previous issue's effort by Herb Trimpe, to be certain. The twist is a good one, especially if, as noted, you're reading it from the perspective of a child.

Here's a fun bit of non-Joe trivia: The writer of this issue is one Steven Grant. Steven Grant is, completely coincidentally, one of the main aliases used by Marvel Comics character Moon Knight. During his career, Steven Grant has actually written a few Moon Knight stories. Thus, Steven Grant has written stories about a character named Steven Grant, who he did not create and who was not named after him. Weird, huh?

[Jay]

For a non-Hama issue, this was a surprisingly good read. The characters remained in character and Clutch and Scarlett had some good chemistry.
Cobra Commander was nicely portrayed as well, keeping his calm once the mission failed, which leaves him more threatening than a tantrum-throwing boob like he was in the cartoons.
The twist was a nice one.

My only problem is with the art... Mike Vosburg's art was very poor by comparison to Trimpe's...

[Lava Boss]

IS this where we had the Cobra troopers who appeared to be pumped up and dressed in tight uniforms?

Cobra's original weapons supplier (?) dies. I guess that would be foreshadowing if Hama had anything to do with the issue.

An okay issue, I suppose.

5/10

[Swindle]

Really, the moment Holo-CC revealed that the diplomat was his agent and in fact the assassin, the issue got stupid. Then the guy needlessly reveals himself to Scarlett and Clutch, when they surely wouldn't of been on hand for the actually meeting.

Ways to improve the story--- CC is bluffing. He's just messin with Stalker to get him to try to stop the State Diplomat from arriving. Or have the guy have some kind of bomb to blow up the ambassador of Al-Alwai, instead of the lame bullet proof vest gag playing out.

So-so.