Operation HISS #4 *SPOILERS*

[Phil Kost]

Operation HISS #4.JPG (26.76 KiB) Viewed 291 times

Brian Reed (w) • Agustin Padilla (a) • Joe Corroney, Padilla (c)

With G.I. Joe captured and held prisoner, Major Bludd puts his master plan into action... and makes sure that the Joes take the fall!

[HELLSTROM]

Preview is up.

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/ ... firsts.htm

Edit: More readable text here...

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... disp=table

[caboose]

Honestly??? Am I the only one reading this? Go grab the first three issues, really they're not bad, and they're definitely the best of anything in the movie universe.

So... even though I just plugged issues 1-3, this issue walked off the reservation for me. Somebody, please tell me, am I missing something? At the end of last issue, we see Duke shoot Ripcord. Plug him right in the chest, with the obvious intent that we're supposed to think he's proving his loyalty to the Major. I didn't believe it back then, and issue four opens to show us that Ripcord's vest stopped the rounds, and he's OK. Let me pause, because it's not often I'll refer to the cartoon as the right way to do something, but here we go. In Joe Reloaded, the Duke-as-a-traitor plot was good (better than this), but I didn't buy it. We never really, REALLY understood why he did it, we never saw him as conflicted about the decision (not convincingly at least), and I just never bought it. This series, it's even worse, since for the rest of the book Duke fights alongside Major Bludd, who sort of questions Duke's loyalty but doesn't really do anything about it either way. Honestly, if you were Bludd, who is doubtful that Duke's COBRA job-application is legit, are you going to just set of let him do his thing until the chips settle? Duke hasn't convinced us, so how could he convince Bludd? We've seen what a psycho he is, I kept think he'd just cap Duke on the spot and be done with it. The North Koreans are basically terrorists (sorry if I've offended any North Koreans reading this...). What do you think would happen if a ROK commando snuck across the DMZ, infiltrated the DPRK's ranks, was exposed and then said "I did it so I could join you"? "Oh... well, in that case I'm not sure what to do."

So, that brings me to the cartoon. In "The Traitor" by Buzz Dixon, but the one where Dusty turns traitor. What Buzz Dixon did there was show us what made Dusty tick. We saw that he loved his mom, that she was in bad shape, and then we saw Cobra exploit it. Dusty didn't jump sides immediately, he gave some minor information that didn't get anybody hurt, and the Cobra leveraged THAT against him. After he had on the Cobra uniform, he was miserable, but (apparently) in too deep and had burned his bridges with the Joes.

I think we're supposed to believe that Duke's switched sides, or least that Bludd is open to the option, but we have no idea what motivates Duke, nor does Bludd. Is it some sort of ideology? Is it strictly greed (tough to buy with the Duke we now), is he getting squeezed like Dusty was? This was a great series, but this plot turn is driving me insane.

Even though I think it's sloppy writing in some respects, I liked it when Bludd shot the colonel. He goaded Hawk by saying he probably didn't know the rank and file soldiers, and Hawk (without thinking it through), gave their names and ranks. When the "POW" happened, I could feel for Hawk--a moments lapse in judgement cost a man his life. I thought Bludd's response was a bit theatrical, but then I thought maybe Bludd *wanted* it to be theatrical, and it worked for me.

If you're out there, let me know if you enjoyed the first few issues, if I'm missing something about Duke, or whatever.

[Brandon]

I liked the first 3 issues, but my LCS didn't get this one in. My Comic Book Lady says she orders all Joe books, but hasn't received any for 3 weeks, any one else having this problem. Luckily the only 3 shops in the city are all in my side of town - but the other 2 don't order the Joe movie books.

[scryptic]

So far so good. I also liked the SE mini. For me it's a toss-up, SE dealt with some moral issues, but this one has more action and intrigue.

[Antarctica]

I am reading them. And agree they aren't half bad. And the art is the kind we are going to be getting on Hama's 156 series, which I very much like.

And to answer your question Major Bludd makes jokes about it.


Padilla's fight scene between SE and Duke is a really great example of what we are going to get when Storm Shadow is totally unleashed.

[The Doomworm]

It's really dragging for me. I can afford to keep buying it, but I don't really know if I want to. It just feels like the shallowly written movie licensed tie-in that I'm afraid it won't ever transcend.

On the positive, as soon as the goal was revealed as the freeing of Destro and the Commander, my ears perked up and I said "Ah-ha!" Suddenly it felt like it maybe had something to do with anything, and now I DARE the writers to influence the movie continuity in some way which will actually matter, and stop throwing these weird out-of-character stories at me.