General Information

Title: G.I. Joe Frontline - "The Mission That Never Was"
Author: Larry Hama
Illustrator: Dan Jurgens
Original Publication Date: The fourth and final issue in the arc (but not in the series) shipped Feb. 26, 2003.
Cover Price: $2.95US, $4.50 Can

Premise

The entire series is a set of stories that take place at various points in G.I. Joe history. Each story arc has a different creative team. This arc takes place in January 1995, just after the final issue of Marvel's first series. This series is by Image Comics.

High Point

The complexity of the mission plan in issue 3. It's more interesting than the normal shoot-em-up without cutting down on the typical action.

Low Point

Hawk's nearly inhuman recovery from his wound.

The Scores

This didn't feel original. Rather, it felt like another chapter in the G.I. Joe comics I read ten years ago. That's all I'd really expect from a nostalgia title with the writer who wrote the original series, but that doesn't make it original. I give it 2 out of 6.

The artwork was of the same quality I saw in Dan Jurgens' DC work. It's clean, it's clear, and it's detailed when it needs to be. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story was a series of battles with enough plot to string them together. I'd have preferred to see less gunfire and more of the relationships between Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Scarlet. I give it 3 out of 6.

The characterization was sparse. We know that Destro is the one of the most regal villains I've ever seen, and we know that the Joes are dedicated soldiers. Snake Eyes was the only Joe with a really distinct personality in this set, though. I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response was mostly nostalgia. Issue 3 is the only one that still brought a response from me on a reread, and that's mostly a positive impression of the capabilities of the Joe team given the amount of detail in their attack strategy. (Note: I haven't reread issue 4. I reread the others before reading #4 for the first time so I could sensibly review the entire storyline.) The rest was a bit of a let down. (The cheap jokes seemed so much funnier when I was ten. Now they seem so obvious from the setups that the punchlines are predictable and less effective.) I give it 3 out of 6.

The flow was harmed by wordy battles. There were a lot of wordy battles, too. (I think the mission briefings at the start of the first issue, as well as the brief epilogue, were the only non-combat scenes in the collection.) I give it 3 out of 6.

Overall, it's okay for nostalgia, but it's not a particularly interesting set. You're probably better off getting one of Marvel's collected trades of the old stuff, or Image's new stuff in the main title if you want nostalgia. The concept is interesting at first, but I don't plan to stick around for it. When you're fitting stories into an existing history, you're somewhat bound to avoid any lasting ramifications, which limits character development to practically nothing. If a story has no lasting implications, it's hard to hold my interest. I give the first arc 3 out of 6, and I suspect the rest of the series won't fair much better.

In total, the first story arc of G.I. Joe Frontline, titled The Mission That Never Was, receives 22 out of 42.

Additional Notes and Comments

I'll be reviewing the story arc through issues 5-8 as well, since I'm already committed to buying those issues, but then I'll be dropping the title in favour of Niel Gaiman's 1602 and J. Michael Straczynski's Squadron Supreme (the latter for Marvel's MAX line,) both of which are promised to ship this summer. A more complete list of all the reviews I'm planning can be found here.