Snake Eyes #11
Publisher: IDW
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artists:Alex Cal & Beni Lobel
Cover: Robert Atkins
This is part 8 of Cobra Command, and Storm Shadow is seeking the aid of Snake Eyes to kill the man that murdered his master. Their target will be the new Cobra Commander, and Storm Shadow wants him to suffer for his betrayal. The problem seems to be that Helix views this as a betrayal from Snake Eyes and doesn’t trust his sword brother one bit. While this is taking place, the rest of the Joes are trying to survive an attack from B.A.T.s and a missile barrage in Nanzhao as Cobra continues its annihilation of the country.
Dixon must know that there is no better way to start off a ninja fight scene than by setting it up with as little dialog as possible. This also allows the artists to take full advantage of each panel to tell the story and set up some dramatic moments in the fight. As Dixon switches over to the other Joes, he begins to wrap up the events of Cobra Command and it’s been an interesting event. He’s been showing the Joes in a more vulnerable state and established Cobra as a very credible threat to the entire world. Maybe he’ll have the Joes pull out a victory at some point, but this is actually an exciting chapter in the G.I. Joe franchise with them not coming out on top.
Artist Alex Cal does a fine job with this issue in terms of pacing and action. Everything looks intense, even though some of the panels are excessively dark at times. This was an issue during the fight scene in the Temple of the Bells as it interfered with some of the action. Though in other panels later in the story, it definitely helped set the mood for the characters and situations. With there being little to no dialog during the ninja fight, it really falls on the artist to effectively carry the events to tell the story. Cal does this quite well, and having Snake Eyes use that giant bell as a weapon was fantastic! I’m going to assume the last page was done by Beni Lobel, since it’s the only page that looks nothing like the rest of the book. The visual story there was a bit confusing and probably could have benefited from some dialog. Aside from the art looking great, what brings it all together would be the colors of J. Brown.
Dixon having Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow join together should make for some exciting stories in the upcoming issues. The relationship between these two has always been an interesting one, and it would be nice if there’s some in depth focus on them along with the Arashikage ninja clan. With their goal being to kill the new Cobra Commander, you have to wonder if Dixon would have this guy killed off after coming into power so soon. Whichever way this goes, Snake Eyes is the Joe title that you should be picking up on a regular basis!
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