In a world-shattering move, the comics world of GI Joe has killed off its main antagonist: Cobra Commander. In this most recent book, GI Joe: Cobra #12, he is shot down by an assassin’s gun. I know this whole thing is a huge spoiler, but skip the next paragraph until after the picture unless you want to know the gory details.
Still here? Great. Chuckles, a Joe in deep, deep cover who the Cobras thought they had turned and who managed to infiltrate their upper inner circle, shoots CC right in the head. And, oh yeah, you’d better believe he yells “YO JOE!!” after doing it.
“Yawn” you say? Deaths of major comic book characters have been done to… death, you say? So this is why we pressed IBW, the current publisher of the GI Joe comics, is he dead? Or just “comic book dead” like so many before him: Superman, Supergirl, Hawkeye, Captain America, and most recently, Batman. Yes, yes, they’re dead– and they’ll be back! As soon as we reboot the comic!!
“No. He’s dead.”
That is the definitive word we got from IDW– an exact quote. As in, according to them, as far as the run of comics goes, he will never be back.
He’s toast. He’s wormfood. So, in comic book terms, he’s more Gwen Stacy than Jean Grey. But it doesn’t end there…
Let me interject that I hope you got your comics yesterday. If you were unfortunate like me who goes on Wednesdays during my lunch break, your local store’s shipment got delayed (even by a few hours) from the MLK holiday, and you’ll be hitting the store today (Thursday). And in that case, make sure you pick up the newest GI JOE. It’s even worth a return trip (who doesn’t love going back to the comics store? Come on!!!)
So with GI Joe you’re going to want to add them to your pull/hold, too– and here’s why. Again, according to our sources at IDW, Cobra Commander’s death creates an enormous power vacuum, the effects of which reverberate through the JOE universe. Essentially leaderless, how will Cobra survive?
Well, the Cobras figure out that rather than killing one another to prove who can lead, it would be better to compete by seeing who really has the chops to lead… by seeing who can kill the most Joes. YES! That is badass!! And it probably means we will see even more deaths in the near future, but this time on the Joe side.
In the coming months the current GI Joe and Cobra titles will wrap up, and coming in April we will have Cobra: Civil War #0 (fingers crossed– Free Comic Book Day! Free Comic Book Day!) In May we’ll have three new books, a Cobra book, a GI Joe book, and a monthly Snake Eyes book.
If you haven’t been reading GI Joe, now is the time to start. It’s a much grittier, real world take on the franchise. It’s a GI Joe that could exist more in the world of Jack Bauer or even the real world. Instead of stupid twins Xamot and Tomax finishing each others sentences like babbling fools in the cartoon or a hissing and spitting Cobra Commander, we get someone if not realistic, at least somewhat plausible. And instead of the screaming cartoony CC, this one was a secretive, manipulative but charismatic sociopath. Truth be told, I’m sad to see him go.
Cobra Commander, we hardly knew ye.
