G.I.Joe Comics Review

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I found I enjoyed the second issue much more than the first for the reasons you discussed, more touches of character and some nice twists.
 
Endless Flight said:
No, because the original origin story is perfect and they cannot improve on it.
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The smartest thing the Raimi Spiderman and MCU did was stick close to the origin stories from the comics. Often why the first film in the series was the best (only Winter Soldier is the exception for me).

The one GI Joe film I saw was very mediocre, reminds me of that first wave of supes films in the 90s where they seemed ashamed of the source material and tried to make it 'dark and gritty.'
 
I know that it’s probably not fair to ask them to make it a period piece (even if that’s my preference) and set it during the Vietnam era. They can still stay close to Hama’s story. I actually think it would be a two-parter. The first movie is 1968-1975. The second movie would be 1975-1982. Then you go right into the first G.I.Joe movie.
 
eh, I had no expectations

But to have him bantering, trading witty one liners? Blllleeeeech
And the action doesn't even look fun. Like, they could have done a full on martial arts film without CGI. But all I see is mid-tier, Black Panther-level CGI.
And the CGI mask thing? No, just, OMG, no.

Plus, uh, Snake Eyes is a blonde American...

You wouldn't think a GI Joe film would be so hard to pull off. Paramilitary special forces unit fights pseudo-Nazi snake-themed terrorists. Not really asking for much there. Take one mildly clever terrorist plot, mix in gratuitous action, maybe some intrigue, and a bunch of colourful characters. How do they keep messing that up?
 
This looks like it is making the mistakes of the new Mortal Kombat movie. While they aren't inventing an all-new protagonist, they are so completely rewriting the lead that he might as well be cage fighting Cole Young.

Initially, I thought it might be fun to have a ninja movie, since they've had such a hard time making the military angle work in these things. But after that trailer... No. No thanks.
 
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TristramEvans said:
You wouldn't think a GI Joe film would be so hard to pull off. Paramilitary special forces unit fights pseudo-Nazi snake-themed terrorists. Not really asking for much there. Take one mildly clever terrorist plot, mix in gratuitous action, maybe some intrigue, and a bunch of colourful characters. How do they keep messing that up?
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My guess is that this film will have all that. The problem is that it won't be the specific versions of those things that fans of the original material are expecting. Like the connection to Vietnam, or the fact that Snake Eyes is actually a blonde haired American.

The challenge with adapting GIJoe is in somehow meeting fans' expectations, while also appealing to new audiences. A period piece might work in that regard, but Hollywood always seems reluctant to do that except when the period is inherently part of the story/aesthetic. This is only made even trickier by the existence of the other GIJoe films, which were pretty awful, generally speaking. Wait, there's a Baroness? I thought she was Duke's brainwashed ex-fiancee (WTF)?

And I'm open to reinterpretations of characters.....the Punisher series no Netflix did a good job of placing Frank Castle into a modern day setting while keeping the important things intact. Seems like they should be able to do that for Snake-Eyes. I don't mind their choice of actor or the change in ethnicity because there are other elements that matter far more. And it's pretty unclear if they'll incorporate those well.....if they'll pull off what Punisher did.

I'm in the same boat with you that I have no expectations for this movie. But if it was called anything other than Snake-Eyes.....it'd be easier to look at it as a potentially fun if forgettable action movie.
 
hawkeyefan said:
My guess is that this film will have all that. The problem is that it won't be the specific versions of those things that fans of the original material are expecting. Like the connection to Vietnam, or the fact that Snake Eyes is actually a blonde haired American.
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I dont mind it being updated to modern day. The ethnicity of Snake Eyes is kinda irrelevant, but is just sorta indicative of an overall trend these days that I'm not a fan of. My biggest problem is that Snake-Eyes is not Spider-man.
 
TristramEvans said:
I dont mind it being updated to modern day. The ethnicity of Snake Eyes is kinda irrelevant, but is just sorta indicative of an overall trend these days that I'm not a fan of. My biggest problem is that Snake-Eyes is not Spider-man.
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Yeah, GIJoe has always pushed into sci-fi and superheroics to some extent, but they tend to overdo it in the films to keep up with Marvel and other franchises like Fast & Furious and the like. So everyone's doing backflips on top of motorcycles and all that. Or havingrobotic Halo looking super suits or whatever was going on in that first movie.

Probably my preference would have been to ground it a bit by leaning into the military angle.

Also, I didn't mean to imply that you specifically may have any problem with any of the updates, so much as that's a challenge with the franchise.
 
hawkeyefan said:
My guess is that this film will have all that. The problem is that it won't be the specific versions of those things that fans of the original material are expecting. Like the connection to Vietnam, or the fact that Snake Eyes is actually a blonde haired American.

The challenge with adapting GIJoe is in somehow meeting fans' expectations, while also appealing to new audiences. A period piece might work in that regard, but Hollywood always seems reluctant to do that except when the period is inherently part of the story/aesthetic. This is only made even trickier by the existence of the other GIJoe films, which were pretty awful, generally speaking. Wait, there's a Baroness? I thought she was Duke's brainwashed ex-fiancee (WTF)?

And I'm open to reinterpretations of characters.....the Punisher series no Netflix did a good job of placing Frank Castle into a modern day setting while keeping the important things intact. Seems like they should be able to do that for Snake-Eyes. I don't mind their choice of actor or the change in ethnicity because there are other elements that matter far more. And it's pretty unclear if they'll incorporate those well.....if they'll pull off what Punisher did.

I'm in the same boat with you that I have no expectations for this movie. But if it was called anything other than Snake-Eyes.....it'd be easier to look at it as a potentially fun if forgettable action movie.
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I thought it was really smart that they set Cpt America in WWII, it gave the film a look that was distinct and fun.
 
I had a chance to read issue #3 on my midnight lunch break (gotta love night shifts).

It was fun enough, with the giant robot confounding the Joes at every turn, but them just able to prevent it's escape.

However, it felt like an unused script penned for a different title. Was it something Hama wrote for a SHIELD title or Fury Force then repurposed for this? Not to say it's bad. Just... I can't shake the feeling it started life elsewhere.
 
Larry never wrote a SHIELD book, as far as I know. Fury Force was just an idea he was working on, mostly characters, and these wound up as part of the original 13 Joes.
 
I think, just like any new book, it took a little bit to find it's own voice and identity. The GI Joe comic wasn't based on an existing property, recall, Larry was defining the mythos himself (he also wrote all the file cards for the action figures). The cartoon came later.
 
That makes sense. I mean it isn't "what the hell" weird like the early UK Transformers stories were.

But three issues in, there is absolutely an element of the title finding it's feet. Again, not saying it's been bad. It's been a lot of fun. The early 80's Marvel style is something I enjoy immensely. It isn't when I started reading them (aside from Transformers), but working backwards from the early 90's, this style was a lot more enjoyable.

But as someone who mostly knows G.I.Joe from crossovers and vague awareness of the action figures, it's all new to me!

Yeah, I didn't even see the cartoon. I honestly couldn't tell you I've ever seen one full episode.
 
It took Larry about twenty issues to find his footing. What came after is some of the best stuff that came out of Marvel at the time. G.I.Joe was one of the top three selling comic books for about six or seven years.
 
Honestly the parody PSAs are the best thing to come out of the GI Joe cartoon.
 
I like the 80's hand-drawn Japanimation going on, but that song is horribad!
 
Things really all came together when Cobra-la showed up.
 
It’s really comical how bad it was...and there are plenty of fans who prefer the cartoon continuity to the comics.
 
Even the worst Marvel GI Joe was better than the best of the cartoon.
 
Wow, I didn't realize this was such a heated issue...

Again, as the outsider coming into this particular fandom, I have seen only a few scattered minutes of the cartoon and read three issues (excluding crossovers) of the comic. My experience is with the G1 Transformers, where there is certainly a divide, but less pronounced between comic/cartoon, and far more with everything that came after.
 
The Transformers fared better in both the animated interpretation and the music
 
The Transformers is kind of the flip of G.I.Joe. The cartoon continuity takes precedence over the comic books amongst most fans.

It’s a testament to Larry that fans throw a fit if the G.I.Joe movies don’t follow his continuity and character details.
 
TristramEvans said:
The Transformers fared better in both the animated interpretation and the music
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The animated show is really all over the place quality-wise, but the voice acting (for the 'Cons, at least) is great and the music was top-notch. The animation itself was almost always shoddy. It was notoriously cheap and full of errors, but there is just something about watching jets and tanks turn into robots to punch each other...

Endless Flight said:
The Transformers is kind of the flip of G.I.Joe. The cartoon continuity takes precedence over the comic books amongst most fans.

It’s a testament to Larry that fans throw a fit if the G.I.Joe movies don’t follow his continuity and character details.
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The cartoon has what most fans see as the iconic portrayals of the popular characters, but the comic has the better storylines by far.

Looking at the G.I.Joe bios, they seem much more consistent than the Transformer tech-specs ever were. Wave 1 wasn't too bad (the seeker mix-up aside), but once Omega Supreme and other oversized 'bots arrived, the 1-10 scale fell apart.

...That, and later they just stopped caring about it them making any sense by wave 3.
 
I prefer the Marvel Transformers comic book to the G1 80s cartoon, but both were enjoyable.

Though in both cases I think Transformers has had better media later (Transformers Prime being my favorite cartoon, and the IDW G1 Comics being my favorite incarnation as a comic).

GI Joe though, Marvel Comics were and have been the best iteration of the property. And pretty much none of the cartoons have been good. (Though I do like some of the IDW comic run too).
 
Malleustein said:
The animated show is really all over the place quality-wise, but the voice acting (for the 'Cons, at least) is great and the music was top-notch. The animation itself was almost always shoddy. It was notoriously cheap and full of errors, but there is just something about watching jets and tanks turn into robots to punch each other...
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Yeah, I didn't mean the animation itself, just...the animated series and the animated film were better than the GI Joe counterparts. The animation quality of the G1 cartoon was atypical Saturday Morning cartoon fare in the 80's and even Beast Wars, which many TF fans swear by to this day as one of the best cartoons of all time, had that really janky, primitive CGI of the 90's.

That theme song though, it's an earworm to this day.

 
EmperorNorton said:
I prefer the Marvel Transformers comic book to the G1 80s cartoon, but both were enjoyable.

Though in both cases I think Transformers has had better media later (Transformers Prime being my favorite cartoon, and the IDW G1 Comics being my favorite incarnation as a comic).

GI Joe though, Marvel Comics were and have been the best iteration of the property. And pretty much none of the cartoons have been good. (Though I do like some of the IDW comic run too).
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There was a GI Joe animated miniseries in (I think) the early aughts that I thought was good. Can't remember the name of it now. Think it was only three episodes
 
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