GI Joe Volume X By Larry Hama

GI Joe Volume X

By Larry Hama

So we have reached Volume 10 in our coverage of the original Marvel comic run of GI Joe by the legendary but still underappreciated Larry Hama. This graphic novel collects issue 91 which was released in October 1989 to issue 100 which was released in May 1990. That's right folks we've hit the 90s so buckle up (For queer liberation.  Oh, wait…this is GI Joe, not the actual 1990s, which we seem to be reliving in a traumatic way.  Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here, trying to resurrect the Gay Liberation Front. {Considering you’re in Florida, you kinda need to}).

At this point, Cobra has been reunited under Destro's firm capitalist boot and he is vastly less interested in taking over the world than the old Cobra Commander was. Destro does instead take advantage of Cobra's legal status as a sovereign nation to provide a front for the activities of his own MARS corporation (As insane as it is, this isn’t even far off. So yeah, I’ll allow it!). MARS is frankly...  Well, imagine you took the worse parts of aristocratic tradition, Scientology, Blackwater, and Lockheed Martin. Then add just a dash of British Petroleum just to make sure the immoral disregard of anything besides profit is maintained. I mean, not only does Destro maintain a private army that he'll hire out but he'll push or even start wars to make a profit ending them(So, United Fruit, or US Steel? {A united fruit expy is actually one of the competitors that Destro tears down in this graphic novel}). He's also incredibly good at his job and will keep his word to the letter, which lets him build up repeat customers who will excuse his many sins. Because after all, it was only business.

Don't get me wrong, Destro is happy to further the Cobra agenda of destroying American democracy and rule of law from within and without but only to remove American industry as a competitor and turn the US into a possible market (*Snickers at the irony*). This has left the Joes flailing a bit as they were built to fight a fascist terrorist cult, not a slippery amoral terrorist corporation (*Laugh-Cries in Communist* {Look to fight someone like Destro you need a lawfare division and a PR Corps in addition to kinetic operations forces, the Joes simply don’t have that}). Still, they're able to check the greatest of Destro's ambitions and keep their forces in the field when everyone else has been crushed so that says something.

That's not all that's going on though. We also see the end of the Zartan and Red Ninja Vengeance arc here. Vengeance and the price of vengeance have long been a running theme in this comic series. Earlier we had the epic feud between the mercenary Kwinn and the Cobra mad scientist Dr. Venom, Kwinn's pursuit of vengeance led to his death and the fear of vengeance led to Dr. Venom's death. Learning to let go of vengeance is what lets Storm Shadow rise above his own base urges and become a better person. It also allowed Snake Eyes to start rebuilding his life and consider pursuing a future with Scarlet.

In this graphic novel, Zartan has to make a choice as to whether or not to keep riding the road of vengeance and lashing out at the Joes in fear of them taking revenge for his actions, accidentally killing one of Storm Shadow and Snake Eye's ninja teachers, or to move on and try to atone. Honestly, this is the strongest part of the graphic novel and it doesn't involve a single member of the Joe team unless we count Billy, Cobra Commander's son.

Ironically the weakest part of the novel also involves the same themes. In this case, with Snake Eyes deciding to no longer live in the past.  He travels to Switzerland with Scarlet to see a world-renowned plastic surgeon. While Scarlet might not give a damn about Snake Eyes' face, he wants to be able to walk down the street and feel the sunlight on his own skin without invoking horror and to some of us even worse, pity, from everyone who sees him. He and Scarlet have an on-screen conversation about this and Scarlet can pick up his point from just a few gestures. This speaks volumes about how deep and strong their connection has grown over the time of this series, as I don't think they could have had this conservation back in Issue 1. This is what I mean about Mr. Hama being underappreciated, he shows us the depth that has grown over time here through character actions in the story.  Snake Eyes basically wants a life outside the shadows with Scarlet and frankly, he's earned it a million times over at this point.

Sadly he is betrayed and while he's being operated on the remote mountain villa that the surgeon works out of comes under attack by Cobra operatives led by the Baroness. This is where we get into the part I don't like. See, the Baroness is here to score vengeance of her own because she believes that back in Vietnam that Snake Eyes killed her brother. He was a humanitarian who was bringing in medical supplies for the Vietnamese people and I'm going to keep the details under my Captain America Hat but suffice to say there was a firefight, Snake Eyes was the only one standing and Baroness has never forgiven him.  That hate drove her to become an internationally hated terrorist just to find and kill him (People in this comic seriously need therapy. All of them. {Stalker and Road Block actually seem fairly well adjusted honestly. I would happily point to them as role models}).

On its own, it's not that big of a deal but considering that Snake Eyes is also connected to Storm Shadow, Stalker, Zartan, Cobra Commander, the defector Crimson Guardsmen Wade Collins, and even more... It starts to feel like the planet doesn't revolve around the sun, it revolves around Snake Eyes. I mean am I going to find out that he's secretly related to Hawk, Gung Ho, and Roadblock as well as the secret heir to never-damned-enough Cobra-La as well? Why not make Snake Eyes father the true heir to the MARS corporation while we're at it!?! Dear writers, you can over-connect your characters. Just to throw out an example. It would have been more interesting if Baroness had a grudge against Scarlet since she was supposed to be in intelligence before joining the Joes. I mean it would let Scarlet have something that had nothing to do with Snake Eyes right? (That would be nice, yes.)

That said the battle between Scarlet defending a Snake Eyes who is down under medical anesthesia from around two squads of vipers and the Baroness is tense and exciting, and the end result is something you’ve got to read. I also did enjoy Snake Eyes' reaction to this and the humanity he shows to Baroness... Eventually, there's a lot of Snake Eyes burning her world down around her ears going on at first but in all fairness, she did try to kill him. I just wish we didn't have yet another character whose entire motivation and origin were wrapped up with Snake Eyes. I mean, at this point we could have prevented the whole series by just having Snake Eyes arrive home one day earlier or later, and then Cobra never gets founded, the Hard Master is never killed tearing Storm Shadow's world apart and the Joes remain normal soldiers who likely serve their time and go home.

The story is still very well written and I really like the characters despite my annoyance at the over-focus on Snake Eyes. Don't get me wrong, I like Snake Eyes but there are other Joes on this team! Oh, there's also a huge surprise in this volume, which means I'm going to tell you not to skip it but I don't want to spoil it. So I'll wait until we review Volume 11, where the return of a long-missing character kick-starts a huge pile of fecal matter hitting the old rotating blade. Until then Volume X by Larry Hama is gonna get a B from me.

We hope you enjoyed this week's review which was chosen by our ever-wise patrons. Our patrons vote every month for upcoming reviews as well as have discussions about theme months and new directions for the review series. For example, our patrons voted on a project I’ve been working on that should be ready for release this summer.  We’re gonna keep that project between us and the patrons for now though.  If you’d like to join us for as little as a dollar a month, head over to https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads hope to see you there.  Next week is Magus of the Library Volume 3.  Until then, stay safe and keep reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders