Posted in: Recent Updates, Review | Tagged: chuck dixon, gi joe, idw, Lying In The Gutters, snake eyes

Review: GI Joe #6 By Chuck Dixon And Robert Atkins For IDW Comics

Published Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:11:01 -0500

Last updated Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:55:11 -0500

I really get annoyed by bad Scottish accents in American comics. I'm not Scottish myself, but some of my best friends are. And I feel entitled to be offended on their behalf. It's the way it works. oh, and I have a Scottish surname, so that's as good as.

I don't know, maybe it's something along the lines of how no American can ever say the word "pub" without it sounding like some kind of affectation, a word that they have to run up to event attempt. Seriously, listen to any Amerfican saying "we're off to the pub." It just sounds wrong in every way. As if it's a brand name. It also ties into the way that Brits seem much more at ease buying drinks for a bunch of people, many of which they don't know. It's not a special effort, it's just what you do, and it's how I reckon so many Brits got work at American comic book companies during the eighties. Anyway, I'll talk about that some other time.

GI Joe 6 has got some bad Scots accent writing. Not much, and nowhere near Stan Lee's Banshee, but it's there. And it grates. The East European patois I'm not offended by at all. So I'm selectively xenophobic it seems. I am legion, I contain multitudes.

This comic pits good guys against bad guys against other bad guys who are teaming up with the first bad guys and a good gal gone bad against a good guy who might have gone bad and a bad guy who probably is a good guy in a bad place. And people say GI Joe is black-and-white morality, it's not, it's about conflicting loyalties, a complex web of relationships where the aim of saving the world is superseded by saving face. Oh and some seriously strong shoot-em-up scenes, with guns, teleports and lots of jumping in the air. It's much closer to 24 than most people would expect.

And there's lots and lots of Snake Eyes action. If you like this sort of thing, then you'll like this sort of thing.

The only really annoying bit is a piece of panel furniture, where a character stands behind a screen, but the panel above him cuts behind his head, and also in front of the screen. It hurts to look at, just look and see, ow, my head hurts, ow, ow ow.