Creators: Joshua Williamson (writer), Andrea Milana (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)
Story: Risk and Crystal Ball continue their fight and we discover Crystal Ball's background and a bit more on Risk. Destro and Baroness work together to free Stalker and Chameleon, which allows Risk to win the fight. Both Joes and Cobra are able to return with some valuable prizes. Cobra Commander plans to use the D.I.R.E. (Dread-Inducing Responsive Energy) tech while the Baroness witnesses something she shouldn't have.
Writing: Williamson keeps the action flowing in the first half of this issue. Crystal Ball gets a pretty decent background while keeping some of his original ("7th son of the 7th son). The last half wraps up a few other plot points (Scarlett's return, Duke's mission with Clutch) and sets us up nicely for the next issue. I do wonder if Williamson will "rewind the clock" a bit so we get some more details of what happened elsewhere before continuing.
Art: Milana gets to have some fun with Crystal Ball's monsters, which is something we normally don't get in a Joe comic. The fight scenes look great. However, I feel some of the characters don't look as good as previous issues; they seem more rushed.
Overall: Williamson keeps the story moving while providing good action. He also starts to provide us with some different character interactions that will be interesting to see how they play out (Risk and Mercer getting some good moments in). He's also taken a classic "joke" character in Crystal Ball and turned him into something pretty cool, along with the "energon monsters" he can create.
