Image Comics reviews 7/16/25 – GI Joe 9, Battle Beast 3

Redcoat #13

Redcoat 13 dropped today, which puts it ahead of Geiger as the top Ghost Machine book — at least for a few more weeks.

Writer Geoff Johns and artist Bryan Hitch have been cooking up an incredibly special book over the last year culminating with this issue.

Simon Pure still doesn’t know what to make of The Northerner, but he’s starting to believe the strange mysterious man’s claims of being a time traveler. A main character progressing through time unable to stay dead was a fascinating concept and now the introduction of time travel is even more intriguing.

The Northerner is trying to stop The Cobbler from giving the Confederate Army weapons from the future, which would turn the tide of the Civil War in their favor.

Simon gets a vision of this altered future with black people being bullied and harassed by police and threatened with deportation. Quick check, this is still just a comic and not a breaking news depot, right?

The twist is this isn’t Simon’s vision, but one he’s able to see via The Northerner. Johns keeps introducing this really compelling directions for Redcoat to go, but stopping dangerous history altering butterfly effects can take the series in an endlessly entertaining path for many years to come.

Hitch, with inker Andrew Currie, is delivering some of his career best work in this title. He’s giving smaller, dialogue-heavy moments a strong sense of significance. The action scenes similarly have the highest of stakes. Colorist Brad Anderson provides a wad, color palette that is such a smooth fit for Hitch’s style. Letterer Rob Leigh always incorporates a unique script font for Simon’s letters to some reader in the future.
Redcoat #13 plays out like a very important issue in the series with major repercussions for Simon, The Northerner, The Cobbler and a war destroying the Union.

Next issue kicks off what looks like a new arc with ramifications that could impact the entire Unnamed Universe timeline.

Rating: 10 out of 10