G.I Joe #14 Review

As a series, G.I Joe has been in need of a new arc and G.I Joe #14 looks to deliver. After some story-light issues recently, is this a return to form for the title?

The official description from IDW:

SIREN’S SONG! The G.I. JOE team goes toe-to-toe with COBRA’s newest agent! SIREN knows all of COBRA’s secrets—and with the eyes of the world on DUKE and the squad, how will they break her spell?

Maybe it’s too early to tell, but there is plenty of promise here. This issue builds on the last big arc and the consequences of Duke’s actions. Notably, there’s a sense of distrust and other more subtle signs that both suggest/foreshadow the future and link back to previous issues. As for the actual plot itself, it goes in a new direction and offers a potentially interesting set-up.

As for the writing itself, Paul Allor shows plenty of improvement, although that could simply be the result of a more significant plot line. As I’ve already said, this issue builds on the repercussions of previous events and this is best shown through the writing. Allor is getting to grips with this core cast and ensuring the relations and issues actually have a meaningful effect and reason for being in the issue – this is G.I Joe, after all, I wanna see some action as well.

Visually, we have the same old artwork from Steve Kurth (pencils) and Joanna Lafuente (colors). The style is the tried and trusted method, so regular readers know what to expect. This issue doesn’t introduce much in the way of new settings or characters until the second half, so there aren’t many opportunities for the art team to explore new grounds. The panels break up in a flashback sequence, so there’s still some decent experimentation going on.

All in all, it’s not a bad issue, but it’s still early days. So far the set-up seems rather small in scale, which can be a bit confusing as I would associate that more with Special Missions.