While at JoeCon 2015 I noticed a huge problem among the G.I. Joe action figure collecting community. It seems a lot of us are not currently reading IDW G.I.Joe Comics, and for the most part have tried and gave up, or just not reading at all. So in an attempt to get people back into the swing of reading IDW G.I. Joe Comics, HISSTANK.com will be posting up articles that center around updating the community on what to read from past series, and issues leading up to current IDW G.I. Joe content.
First up is the powerhouse series G.I. Joe: Cobra written by Mike Costa and Christos Gage with artist Antonio Fuso. For any seasoned G.I. Joe fan and collector, the G.I. Joe: Cobra series offers a great starting point to get back into reading G.I. Joe Comics. This series is the best written G.I. Joe comic series of the modern collecting time frame, and of IDW’s ownership of the G.I. Joe brand. This book should also be looked at for Movie Script consideration, or at the minimum, a “Netflix Daredevil” style TV series.
We did a little research and noticed that we are in luck. The first issue of G.I. Joe: Cobra is currently sitting at the low-low cost of FREE! That’s right the best G.I. Joe series of our time, has the first issue up for free, and the next 3 issues of G.I. Joe: Cobra that round out the first mini-series, will cost you a grand total of $2.97 to finish reading. For the record I prefer floppy copies, but who can argue the cost of downloading the series, versus going out and tracking down individual issues, or a trade copy.
G.I. Joe: Cobra #1
“His name is Chuckles. He’s the Joe’s top undercover agent. And he’s just infiltrated a top secret, highly organized terrorist organization… one the Joe’s aren’t familiar with… one with a snake motif. As Chuckles is pulled deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of Cobra, where one misstep means death, can he pull off the ultimate deception and bring them down from within?”
Start reading by downloading your first G.I. Joe: Cobra issues for free here:
G.I. Joe: Cobra Issue #1 Free Download
G.I. Joe: Cobra Full Series Link Issues 2, 3 and 4 on sale for .99 cent each.
G.I. Joe: Cobra Full Series Downloads .99 Per Issue
We are going to give everybody one week to read the first 4 issues of G.I. Joe: Cobra before we start posting “special spoilers” and moving on to our next selection on the front page. For those of you who are reading this story for the first time, spoilers will be allowed in the thread attached to this post, so it’s best to stop by after issue #3 and beyond. Please join us after the jump and take part in our poll as well as joining in on the discussion of IDW’s G.I. Joe: Cobra Series!
Full Read Order for IDW’s G.I. Joe: Cobra Comic Series.
- G.I. Joe #0 Optional
- G.I. Joe: Cobra Issues #1-4 Mini Series
- G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1
- G.I. Joe: Cobra II Issues #1-4 Mini Series
- G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #2
- G.I. Joe: Cobra Ongoing Issues #5-13
IDW G.I. Joe: Cobra The Best Written G.I. Joe Comic Of The Modern Era
IDW G.I. Joe: Cobra The Best Written G.I. Joe Comic Of The Modern Era - HissTank.com
Correct read order for G.I. Joe: Cobra
G.I. Joe #0 Optional
G.I. Joe: Cobra Issues #1-4 Mini Series
G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1
G.I. Joe: Cobra II Issues #1-4 Mini Series
G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #2
G.I. Joe: Cobra Ongoing Issues #5-13
I just noticed you can also get Issue #0 for free, here is the link.
https://idw.comixology.com/G-I-Joe-0...al-comic/15788
I enjoyed both the IDW series and the IDW ARAH series, but I had to make some cuts in the budget recently, and Hama's stuff is canon to me, so I just stuck with that. If things even out a little, then maybe I'll pick the other IDW line back up. I enjoyed Cobra, but the whole IDW series got confusing as there were several titles and the story crossed several of those titles. The art was good and the story was good, overall. I'm just loyal to the ARAH universe first and foremost.
Ive read all of the IDW GiJoe books. I still read the ARAH by Mr. Hama, and all the books that Mike Costa and Chuck Dixon did plus the Snake eyes book but after they left and change writer it ended for me. I did not like the new writers or the new artist. So now I only read and collect the Larry Hama book.
I also understand where you are coming from with the read orders. If you follow the link we provided, a read order for the G.I. Joe: Cobra series is provided and we will continue to do so with every G.I. Joe comic series we focus on.
To me, GI Joe has always been a family-friendly title. Larry does a great job by not putting too much gore in his comics, but he also keeps bad language and sex out of it. This is what GI Joe is supposed to be. It started out as a kid's title, and although the kids that read it in the 80's have all grown up, we have kids of our own now, and many of us are probably trying to get our kids to have a similar love for GI Joe. I don't know about anyone else, but I was very disappointed to find the "GD" word in one issue of Cobra. The other IDW titles (except for Larry's ARAH) have bad language and some sexual content, as well as some graphic gore and violence. Although I'm still reading some of the titles out of curiosity to see where they're going, I've written to IDW to complain about their "adult content" in their comics.
Larry's writing, as shown by the other comments, is far superior to a lot of the IDW titles. He proves that profanity is a short cut to thinking, and a sign of a lower intelligence.
Oh, and while I'm on a rant, what the heck is up with the new GI Joe/Transformers crossover? The art is terrible, the random words trying to describe what's on the pages, and the page-by-page commentaries in the back, actually praising how "wonderful" the art is? Give me a break. The story is mediocre at best, and the art is terrible.
I know I'm probably not going to be popular with my views above, but that's how I feel!
I think Joe fans get a little bogged down because there are so many Joe titles out there. It seems like one just ends, and another begins. You don't want to start a comic mid-stream, if you know what I mean. The Hama-verse is what most fans are familiar with, and tend to stick to.
I'll be the first one to tell you I love Hama's stuff over all else and I'm not a fan of gritty, overly realistic GI Joe stories where main characters get killed... (I'm still in denial about all the Joes that died in the Marvel run.) But that series was a breath of fresh air.
Loved it.
I also liked the origins series, but as soon as it was handed off from Hama, I didn't like it.
The Cobra series, for all it's critical and fan acclaim, was also the lowest selling title consistently of all the Joe titles.
As much as I liked it, that tells me that it didn't resonate with the comic reading Joefandom as much as we thought it did.
As much as I liked it, that tells me that it didn't resonate with the comic reading Joefandom as much as we thought it did.
That's exactly what we are trying to change.
Like i have said before the IDW Cobra series was what i wanted to read as this age i have now. We have ARAH if we want to indulge our inner 10 year old and that's not bad at all, i like those stories and the new ones made by Larry Hama. But this was a different, more adult take, more risky, and given the way the whole joe/cobra thing was first built in the IDW continuity, being Cobra a secret organization, CC a title not a person, the joes another totally secret unit ruled by a ruthless hawk was really good stuff, was a new ground where to build things, maybe it was too much for joe fans but for that there was the main gijoe series. Sadly editorial mishandling killed the third volume of this series wich could have been a good continuation of what was setup in the first two volumes.
Keep reading: G.I. Joe: Cobra The Best Jump On Point To Start Reading G.I. Joe Comics Again! - Page 2
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