G.I. Joe Reviews: G.I. Joe 134, G.I. Joe 135

G.I. Joe #134 (March 1993) – “Throw Down in the Citadel” – Larry Hama/Andrew Wildman/Stephen Baskerville

This one continues from last issue, with Firefly about to attack Snake Eyes with a bunch of red ninjas in the deadly scorpion configuration. Snake Eyes attacks the ninjas, disrupting the formation and forcing Firefly to retreat. The sound of battle inside the citadel brings the other Joes (Duke, Lady Jaye, and Roadblock) to back Snake Eyes up, but they’re confronted by waves of BATs. The Joes blast through the androids, but they do get slowed down. Firefly radios Slice and Dice to get back and attack the Joes from behind, but the two brainwashed ninjas are still pushing back against their programming. Inside the citadel, the Joes stumble upon the BAT refurbishing plant and decide to blow it to hell. Meanwhile, Firefly has sent some red ninjas and BATs to hunt down Snake Eyes, but he leads them into a trap. Snake Eyes uses a pile of C-4 to blast his way through to Firefly’s location. The Joes in the BAT plant are pinned down by Slice and Dice, who activate some newly-repaired BATs behind them. Firefly turns on some video cameras before taking on Snake Eyes, wanting to broadcast his victory. But Snake Eyes drops his sword and uses the Arashikage mind set. Firefly is immune to the technique, but Slice and Dice are watching on a monitor and it snaps them out of their brainwashing. They’re so pissed off about being mind-controlled by Firefly that they deactivate the BATs threatening the Joes. Snake Eyes leaves Firefly for the now-lucid ninjas to deal with. This was a pretty good issue, with what looks like a definitive end to this storyline (although I doubt they’d really kill off Firefly). Bu the Joes still need to get back at Cobra for attacking the Pit, so maybe we’ll see that in future issues.

G.I. Joe #135 (April 1993) – “Ninjas Own the Night” – Larry Hama/Andrew Wildman/Stephen Baskerville

This one starts with the Joe ninjas (Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Scarlett, Dojo, Tjbang, Jinx, and Nunchuk) practicing their fighting skills. Except Scarlett technically isn’t one of the Ninja Force and she’s kinda pissed off about it. She’s also pissed off that her relationship with Snake Eyes hasn’t progressed much lately. She throws a hissy fit and takes off, but we soon see the drama is part of some plan she’s cooked up with Hawk. At a superconductor research facility in New Jersey, scientists are testing a new Lexan bullet that can penetrate steel, but they don’t know the Night Creeper ninjas are breaking in to steal their tech. The ninjas kill the lab assistant and grab the doctor in charge as well as the technology before reporting back to the guy who hired them … Cobra Commander. (Who else?) And Cobra Commander’s not thinking small anymore. He’s got other teams out hijacking MIRV missile systems, chemical weapons, shipments of microchips, and even a commercial plane that just happens to have a high-level courier (carrying some corporate secrets) on board. We see Slice, Dice, and Zarana are working with Cobra Commander on this project too, although Zarana’s still pissed off that he abandoned her to Firefly so easily. In New York, the ninja training continues but gets interrupted when Snake Eyes realizes some Night Creepers are sneaking around Storm Shadow’s old water tower hideout. Storm Shadow figures they should confront the Night Creepers and find out what they’re up to. This issue is okay, but I’m not really looking forward to the ninjas taking over the entire book. I like ninjas as much as anyone … in small doses. But if they become the focus of the story to the exclusion of everyone else, they lose that mysterious edge that makes so cool in the first place, And this is supposed to be a comic about a military team, not a bunch of ninjas who are one step away from being superheroes. I know Larry Hama probably wasn’t given a choice and the ninjas were featured because they were so popular, but using them too much just makes me get sick of seeing them, kinda like the overexposure that happened with Wolverine, Cable, Venom, Punisher, and Deadpool. Small doses are better, at least for me.