Image Comics reviews 4/15/26 – GI Joe 21, Redcoat 17

Redcoat 17

Last issue, Simon Pure was thrilled to reunite with his longtime friend, Albert Einstein and was shocked to see fellow immortal Benedict Arnold return. Not in search of revenge, but with a new purpose — finding love like Simon has with his family. In a show of his new magnanimous mindset, Benedict offers to make Simon’s family immortal as well.

Naturally, Albert doesn’t want Simon to have anything to do with the repeat offender traitor but the idea of keeping his family forever is enough of a lure for Simon to at least hear Benedict out.

Writer Geoff Johns and artist Bryan Hitch keep the action to a minimum this issue with Benedict seemingly being on the up and up as he shares the story of Paul Revere. Revere was chosen to be among the immortals by Washington, but the other founding fathers couldn’t trust someone who didn’t need something. Johns definitely makes the founding fathers out to be significant villains and a present concern for Simon since he’s already revealed some are still active.

Einstein and Arnold sniping back and forth with each other makes for some spicy dialogue while Hitch (with inker Andrew Currie) conveys the emotion of these exchanges with tense expressions and a brewing desperation mixed with hope with Simon. Colorist Brad Anderson utilizes a vibrant color palette into the mix while letterer Rob Leigh prevents the dialogue-heavy issue from visually being too cluttered.

This wasn’t the most eventful installment of the series, but the slow burn approach plus this issue’s cliffhanger strongly suggests this arc is about to heat up quickly.

Rating: 8 out of 10