Image Comics reviews 1/15/15 – G.I. Joe #3

January 15, 2025 Jeffrey Lyles G.I. Joe, Image Comics, Jordie Bellaire, Joshua Williamson, Rus Wooton, Skybound, Tom Reilly

G.I. Joe #3 plays out like most of the series and earlier mini-series — it’s such a wild and fun ride that it goes by far too quickly.

Writer Joshua Williamson is clearly having a ball establishing this new, completely wide-open continuity.

In G.I. Joe #3, Clutch has managed to get into Cobra’s inner workings disguised as a Viper. Now the least disciplined Joe is trying to fit in long enough to tip Gen. Hawk and the others into Cobra’s plans.

Williamson mentioned how much fun he’s been having writing Clutch and it shows. He’s proven to be such a welcome wildcard to the more structured soldier dynamic even on a team with The Baroness. Williamson is channeling the start of Larry Hama’s legendary run in numerous ways, which should be music to longtime Joe fans’ ears. With G.I. Joe #3, Williamson shows that knack for refreshing the past as Cobra Commander is juggling various schemes to the point he’s not throwing a temper tantrum and is cooly in control no matter what the Joes do to deter his plans.

The new one has Cobra going after Dr. Monev, who’s currently in federal custody after experimenting with his brainwave scanner. It’s exciting to see Williamson tapping into the early days of the Real American Hero lore bringing Dr. Venom back into the fold. Venom was an awesome villain and fit in with the early Cobra inner circle perfectly. He had to get phased out with the arrival of big names like Zartan and the Dreadnoks, Storm Shadow and Firefly, but his legacy endured in the comic long after he was written out.

With G.I. Joe #3, Williamson establishes Venom again as a major player who could further stack the odds against the Joes should Cobra get to him first. And from a purely selfish action figure collector standpoint, his appearance in these last few issues should hopefully jumpstart a GI Joe Classified Series figure of the longtime Cobra operative.

Williamson also makes the point to show this assemblage of Joes is not a smooth well-oiled machine yet. Even better, Williamson doesn’t portray Duke as the perfect leader. He gets into a brawl with new team member Risk prompting another team member to forcibly make them get on the same page. And it’s not General Hawk. As seen in the Energon Universe special, there’s at least two other team members the other Joes don’t know about and knowing is…well, never mind. It’ll be interesting to see when Williamson has Hawk make that reveal and how dire the circumstances will need to be for the other Joe squad to enter the battle.

On the Cobra side of things, Mercer is annoyed that Duke showed him up in their latest encounter. Worse, from Destro’s perspective is now Duke knows there’s an alliance between MARS and Cobra. So far, the Joes have been on their heels as they were gathered to combat the threat of the Transformers — not this secret enemy army that they knew absolutely nothing about.

There’s also a great moment that teases Cobra-La is not done with Cobra Commander just yet. This also reinforces just how truly bada$$ the Energon Universe version of Cobra Commander truly is in G.I. Joe #3.

Artist Tom Reilly gets plenty of strong scenes to play with here from the Duke/Risk brawl, Clutch’s desperation to stay hidden within Cobra and the battle to get to Dr. Venom first. Reilly has been a revelation since serving as the artist on Duke and as Williamson’s scenarios get even bigger and wilder, Reilly’s art seems to only get more impressive.

Colorist Jordie Bellaire always does impressive work. The coloring in G.I. Joe #3 was outstanding from the dark recesses of Cobra Commander’s base to the bright and sunny backdrop of the chase for Dr. Venom.

Letter Rus Wooton continues to bring excitement to character tones with his dialogue and font size choices. The sound effects also add to the presentation.

As it feels like the normal case (in a good way) this issue ends just as it’s elevating to the next level.

G.I. Joe #3 is a superior issue of a top three comic currently on the stands. The adrenaline rush and wholly unpredictable scenarios helped make issue an early standout in an already outstanding series. Now the one bad thing that’s associated with every issue of this series. The long wait for the next installment, which won’t arrive until Feb. 19. Might as well call that a belated Valetine’s Day present as there remains so much to love with G.I. Joe.