GI Joe A Real American Hero #208

Written By: Larry Hama

Art By: S L Gallant, Brian Shearer

Colors: J. Brown

Published By: IDW

Our intrepid heroes are back in issue 208, and all the suspense building is coming to a head. The scene starts off in Dublin and doesn’t waste time getting to the action. GI Joe has a fair representation of its female characters, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed to see Jinx and Scarlett lead in the first major fight. Cyborgs and robots and ninjas, oh my! Roadblock’s conversation is humorous as always, keeping the heavy action from being overbearing. We get a little more in depth with Fred 172 and a fun appearance by some other Cobra players.

Previously, Pale Peony was killed in action. I was somewhat surprised that at the end, more emotional emphasis wasn’t placed on her death, especially by Jinx and Scarlett, since she was killed right in front of them. Snake Eyes and Stormshadow had the most concern for the remains, the rest of the Joes seemed to move past it a little too quickly. I would have thought that Jinx would have wanted to take care of the remains personally, but there’s no further mention of her after the main action is done.

There are obvious steps made to continue the main plot line, but you’ll have to read it for yourself! This issue is definitely worth picking up, even if you have not been subscribing to Real American Hero, I believe that it’s a fun issue to jump in on if you’ve been looking to start reading this series.

My favorite cover for this issue is the regular cover, though the subscription cover being a blank sketch cover is certainly not a bad thing. The art in this issue is pretty classic, however I noticed that the backgrounds in the fight panels seems to be overly simple. For how detailed the other scene panels and the detail in the foreground of the fight panels are, this lack of detail definitely stood out to me. However, I especially enjoyed Snake Eyes in this issue, and keep an eye out for a great little nod towards another IDW title towards the end.

Overall, this was a fun, action packed issue. I was definitely able to set aside my complaint about the fight scene backgrounds and thoroughly enjoy reading this.

Overall Score: 8/10

PS: If you haven’t seen it already, make sure you check out the official announcement for GI Joe Con 2015!