Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #20 Review


Closing off the the Target: Snake Eyes arc, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #20 delivers what the title has been promising and teasing for 19 issues now, a fight to the death between the two ninjas.

First, the official description from IDW:

TARGET: SNAKE EYES ends the only way it can—in the mano y mano, ninja to ninja battle that G.I. JOE fans have been waiting for! SNAKE EYES versus STORM SHADOW in a fight to the end—with the fate of the Arashikage clan at stake.

As you may expect, this issue is very focused on Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Storm Shadow plays the typical bad guy. The writing does its best to add depth and reason to his motives, but the final fight is inevitable.

As for Snake Eyes, its hard to write for a character that doesn’t talk and doesn’t show his face. As such, the writing does its best to write around this through the Joe’s themselves. Specifically, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #20 changes between the actual fight and Scarlett’s attempts to find them. Whilst its effective, certainly adding depth to the commotion, I sometimes think it might of been better to lengthen the fight between the ninja.

This is because the fight itself is over rather quickly. The action is supported by everything around it, such as the Joe’s attempts to get out of the sinking base, yet it almost makes the fight feel drowned by other scenes at times.

Furthermore, one could easily argue the long-term affects of this “fight to the end”. After all, can one of the ninja really die or leave? The title is called Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow, after all.

All in all, however, its an issue that delivers a very strong impact. More than the fight itself, the issue teases out some of the implications near the end of the issue. Things certainly feel shaken up. Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow is a very tight issue, focusing on one key conflict. Given some of the international locations and wide plot lines of the franchise, this narrow storyline and small cast certainly benefits from the added attention.

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