Image Comics reviews 3/26/25 – GI Joe RAH 315, Bitter Root: The Next Movement #1
GI Joe RAH 315
GI Joe RAH 315 plays out like an epilogue for the thrilling Cobra Civil War.
Destro has Cobra Commander shackled — his fate solely in the hands of a surgeon performing an emergency operation on Baroness. Writer Larry Hama has always played this dynamic with Cobra Commander, Baroness and Destro beautifully allowing for some high-stake drama. Still, it does feel like GI Joe RAH 315 could mark a turning point where Destro and Cobra Commander come to an agreement to unite and work against GI Joe again.
GI Joe RAH 315 features too much of the Ninja Force and Revanche’s cyborg army. The Joe Ninja Force always feels like it’s taking the series into a direction it’d be best to avoid. Hama writes the ninjas like superheroes who can’t be defeated in battle making for suspense-less action sequences. And this is even after killing off Snake Eyes. Another problem is the Ninja Force is too large for anyone to be unique. Early on in the series when the ninjas were limited to Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Jinx, there was a freshness to them mowing down waves and waves of red ninjas. Now, the Ninja Force is so massive there’s not much room for character development or a means for any of them to shine.
Chris Mooneyham’s art remains highly detailed with some terrific expressive portrayals of the characters even in an issue with limited action sequences. Colorist Francesco Segala utilizes bold colors to complement Mooneyham’s style while Letterer Pat Brosseau keeps the dialogue placement clean and uncluttered. GI Joe RAH 315 does feature an enjoyable subplot with a Joe squad attempting to bring Dr. Mindbender into custody. Sometimes it’s just that simple of having more Joes than ninjas running around for an issue to be enjoyable.
GI Joe RAH 315 is a decent cool-down issue after the previous epic arc.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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