Snake Eyes: Kicking Butts, and Not Even Bothering to Take Names.
Ok, I’ll admit it. I have not read a single G.I. Joe comic since Marvel’s G.I. Joe Yearbook #1 (1985). So I had no Idea what to expect when IDW’s Snake Eyes #12 landed on my desk. Written by Chuck Dixon, with art by Beni Lobel, and colors by Zack Adkinson, this mostly stand alone issue features everybody’s,1 favorite Joe visiting his former master, and helping out a friend in need.
At its core, this book is quite close to nothing but 22 pages of Snake Eyes doing what he does best, making bad fellows regret their life choices. Quite often a brief period of regret, followed by a short stabbing sensation, then the feeling of the floor racing up at them before they no longer have to worry about which decisions they make in life.
It really takes a gifted writer/artist team to bring life to a silent character on a printed page, and Dixon and Lobel are up to the challenge. Dixon’s taut script (which makes me wonder why other writers waste so much time using more words than absolutely necessary), keeps the action flowing from page to page, and even when said page is just the Hard Master watching Snake Eyes slice a peach, one can still see the writer’s craft driving the story forward.
Can YOU see the pissed off ninja? No? Neither can this guy.
Then comes the artwork of Lobel and Adkinson. There is very little light in Snake Eye’s world, and this team really knows how to pull this off. The dark shadows that permeate this world are everywhere. Snake Eyes is only seen when he wants to be, and even if you can’t see him in a panel, you know that he’s just beyond your vision, hidden in the darkness. Lobel’s pencils and inks are amazing and when you add Adkinson’s color, the effect is breathtaking. Personally, I would love to see what this pair would do with a bat-book.
As long as this creative team is in place, this book is going to become one of my regular reads, and I suggest it become one of yours as well.
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1Well, almost everybody’s. I had friend who swore up and down that Shipwreck was the best of the Joes. Looked him up on Facebook the other day. Guess the Shipwreck thing was a pretty big sign. But what did I know, I was 11 at the time.
About Mark Driscoll
When not ranting about the current state of his favorite comics or working on L33t, Mark spends a majority of his time renovating his newly purchased, 120 year old Victorian house. Badly. He is very bad at talking about himself in the third person, as he thinks it make him sound pretentious.
