As I mentioned in my review for Duke #1, the Joe franchise was a blackhole for me until recently. I’ve been doing more research ever since the Energon Universe was announced and have been thoroughly enjoying Josh Williamson’s stories, as well Larry Hama’s latest run on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. And while I can’t use first-hand experience of how past stories landed, I’ve read enough background and synopses to get a sense for characters’ backgrounds and histories.

So for me, it’s been a really fun time to jump on board with all this new content coming out at once. That’s especially true after the debut issue of Duke wowed me, and now Williamson followed it up with another slam dunk of a debut issue in Cobra Commander #1. From what I can tell, its a unique and fresh take on the iconic G.I. Joe villain. And as a n00b it came across authentic and menacing to see a kind of table-setting for Cobra Commander’s worldview and modus operandi.

Watching Cobra Commander be sacrificed, nursed back to health, and then marked for death to teach him a lesson was a gut punch and shouldn’t have induced as much sympathy it did! Its begs an interesting philosophical question around the impact of nature vs. nurture on some of the worst threats to society. We know what he will become, but could things have been avoided if event from his past had gone a different way? We’ll never know and we’re reminded by his present day actions that he’s fully entrenched in his bloodthirsty, world-domination mindset. And the surprise reveal towards the end of the book was a major “OMG” moment — something I hope stays secret for readers until they see it on the page for themselves. Well done to the entire team for keeping that under wraps for so long!

At first I was a little apprehensive about Andrea Milana’s art as it came off a bit too…fun? Don’t get me wrong, I love this style and Milana nails it. For a story about a murderous villain the designs were almost too pleasant to the eye, with a post-modern, sketch-book style approach. There is a heavy dose of dark shadowing along with some interesting usage of angles in the linework for characters and environments in certain panels. Other panels have some extremely complex and detailed linework. I won’t spoil anything but one of the sequences shows a medical procedure involving a three-headed snake — yikes! As I sat with the issue and want back to it for this review, I couldn’t help but appreciate the art for what it was. Milana’s art is complemented by a vibrant color palette from Annalisa Leoni. Leoni brings each page to life with a wide array of colors but always keeping a slightly darker shadow ever present. And of course the lettering work by Rus Wooton is sublime, with onomatopoeias allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in what’s happening on the page.

I’m simply in awe at how much Williamson has made me feel fully invested in these characters in my first real exposure to them. It’s an ode to his own fandom for the G.I. Joe franchise and the respect he has for the decades worth of work that has come before him. Not to keep lumping the two together, but I can’t think of a better way for these Duke and Cobra Commander series to have kicked off and all roads lead back to Williamson and the amazing team of artists who have joined forces with him. The Energon Universe is one of the most exciting developments in comics in a very long time (it also looks to be quite the financial behemoth which is great to see), and Cobra Commander #1 is a wonderful addition to it.

Rating: 10/10