Bottalk Reviews

Story : At a junkyard, Duke meets up with an old childhood friend of his, Lance "Clutch" Steinberg and Duke explains the events from last issue to him. Clutch helps Duke by cleaning up and bandaging his wounds and then looks at the device Dr. Adele Burkhart had left him and is able to activate, which shows a map with a glowing dot. After that happens, Destro, sitting in his office, is notified of something. Before Duke and Clutch can leave, they are fired upon by Craig "Rock 'N Roll" McConnel, who uses drones to lead them to Lonzo "Stalker" Wilkinson (which Duke is aware of both men). Duke and Clutch are captured and held in "The Pit", an old decommissioned base, where another prisoner (with a female with glasses and long, black hair) mentions that maybe the three of them can work together. Writing : I like how this story is going. Duke knows, by reputation, who some of these (assumed to be future) G.I. Joe members are. After all, the G

Co-BRAAAAA? Yup! This is Cobra Commander # 1, a brand-new comic series published by Skybound Entertainment and (shockingly) starring the guy who Destro once referred to as a world-class buffoon, Cobra Commander! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s new Energon Universe, G.I. Joe is the second Hasbro property to take its place in this new world after Transformers. Rather than a typical G.I. Joe team book, they’ve opted to do solo Cobra Commander and Duke books to lead it off. This first issue is a ground-up origin tale for Cobra Commander, written by Joshua Williamson (who is also writing Duke), penciled by Andrea Milana, and with colors by Annalisa Leoni. The Energon Universe version of Cobra Commander is a take on the character that draws more heavily from the Sunbow cartoon than the Marvel comic, but contains elements of both portrayals. Oh and also, there might be some minor tie-in to Transformers in here too… Co-bra-LALALALALALALALALALA??? That’s right, the

Creators : Larry Hama (Writer), Chris Mooneyham (Artist), Francesco Segala (Colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (Flatter), Pat Brosseau (Letter) Plot : On Cobra Island, Revanche meets with the mutated Serpentor and wants to team up and offers their services to upgrade the mutants into cyborgs. At the Pit, Duke realizes that the Revanche/Serpentor team will end up attacking the Pit so he has Spirit up the defence. In Springfield, a girl named Dawn returns to her family, though all may not be as it seems. Back at the Pit, the Joes are counter-spying on some of Serpentor's new, enhanced, troops as they are spying on the Pit and they debate on what to do. Meanwhile, at Snake-Eye's cabin in the Rockies, some more of Serpentor's forces attack Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, though find them to be difficult opponents. Back at Cobra Island, Alpha-001, Dr. Mindbender, and Serpentor watch a final broadcast from the troops, showing Scarlett and Snake-Eyes down, before it cuts out. Story : Events a

Creators : Joshua Williamson (Writer), Andrea Milana (Artist), Annalisa Leoni (Colorist), Rus Wooton (Letterer) Plot : At a snow-cover truck stop, Cobra Commander walks in, demands a vehicle and follows a man out, kills him and takes his ride. In a flashback, we are presented with Cobra-La and its citizens are storming a science hall because the scientists are dealing with non-organic research. One scientist tells the others to retreat, but is killed by (the yet unnamed) Cobra Commander who tells the others to fight back. However, one of his fellow scientists fails to throw a grenade and it explodes, injuring the Commander. He is healed but is scarred and is retrieved by Pythona, who tells him to wear a mask. They meet with Golobulus, the leader of Cobra-La, who hints at Cobra Commander's origins while explaining Cobra-La's views and how Cobra Commander brought "blasphemous" technology into the city and accusing Cobra Commander of leaking what they were doing to th

Yo Joe? Uh… not yet. This is Duke # 1, a brand-new comic series published by Skybound Entertainment and starring the non-ninja frontman of G.I. Joe, Conrad Hauser AKA Duke! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s new Energon Universe, G.I. Joe is the second Hasbro property to take its place in this new world after Transformers. Rather than a typical G.I. Joe team book, they’ve opted to do solo Duke and Cobra Commander books to lead it off. After making his debut in Transformers # 2, Duke’s all set to go on his own adventure. He witnessed Starscream transform and kill his comrade Tyler Frost in that issue, but now finds himself the victim of a cover-up as the US government flat-out denies the existence of transforming alien jets! What’s a Duke to do but go rogue and try and uncover a conspiracy that has coiled its way deep under the surface of America? Yo… Larry Hama? Nope, Larry Hama’s doing his own thing, so if you’re looking for more traditional Joe fare, go chec

Creators : Joshua Williamson (Writer), Tom Reilly (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colourist), Rus Wooton (Letterer) Plot : We get a brief history of Duke's exploits in the US Army while he's talking to Colonel Hawk, who is concerned about Duke's recent change due to an event where he saw a friend of his killed by a transforming jet but the government is covering it up and Duke just wants answers. He eventually meets up with Dr. Adele Burkhart and together, try to find some answers about possible aliens or high technology. With her help, he infiltrates M.A.R.S. Industries and sees the high-tech war machines that they are producing. He fights Mercer who, along with the other guards, kicks Duke out after ruffing him up a bit. Duke returns to Dr. Burkhart's house to find it ransacked and she is near death but passes what "whoever did that to her" was after to him. After a run in with the police, Duke runs off. Colonel Hawk decides to find Duke and wants the best to do

Creators : Larry Hama (Writer), Chris Mooneyham (Artist), Francesco Segala (Colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (Flatter), Pat Brosseau (Letterer) Plot : Serpentor begins his plans with his new, mutated, forces, to invade Springfield. In Arlington, the Joe team buries one of their own (killed in the last issue) with full military decorations. In Springfield, Cobra Commander addresses the citizens and prepares them for Serpentor's eventual invasion. In New Jersey, Revanche is monitoring the Serpentor/Cobra situation. Back at the G.I. Joe headquarters, they too are monitoring the Cobra situation and explain why their fallen ally was given such a burial (due to his history with Stalker, Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes in Southeast Asia). At Snake-Eye's cabin, Timber's wolf pack drops off a puppy for them as they talk about the future. Story : This is another set-up issue. We get to see what the major story-arc is going to be going forward (Cobra vs. Serpentor's mutated forces) and h

Creators : Larry Hama (Writer), Chris Mooneyham (Artist), Francesco Segala (Colourist), Pat Brosseau (Letterer) Plot : The G.I. Joe team is engaging in a two-pronged attack against Cobra Island – one group in the C-130 Hercules and another in the WHALE. Wild Bill and Duke are attempting to keep the C-130 from crashing as a missile had hit and damage some of the hydraulics. Within Cobra Island, Serpentor unleashes a Mutant Virus Bomb to turn everyone within the blast radius into cannibalistic monsters, against the suggestion of Dr. Mindbender. But Serpentor would rather do that than be captured by G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe is able to discover what’s going on and turn around to escape. The C-130 encounters the Cobra Cruise Ship with Revanche’s BAT’s on it, which attack the C-130 but they are able to escape. The WHALE also turns around and Laura and Wade Collins are guarding Cobra Commander but he’s able to overpower them and escape on the Jet Sled. The C-130 (after ditching the vehicle

Spoilers! Spoilers!  The merciless Starscream ices soldier Frosting, this pisses off Channing Tatum... oops, I mean Hauser so much so that he will start his own secret military science fiction unit: G.I. Joe. Conrad is calling his Ninja croupier friend in Vegas: Snake Eyes, right now. Starscream squished his best friend, now a sober, somber Sparkplug Witwicky wants retribution. Could Starscream be correct? Are the Autobots actually pure evil? Yes! They want to dominate the human race? Yes! The malevolent Optimus Prime kills a fawn, oh dear, and does not bury it! The hypocrite leader of the Autobots clearly cries bogus tears for the baby deer and the fallen Bumblebee. Crocodile tears from the one also called Alligaticon! Never forget that Prime murdered Teletraan One (see last issue), to stop it from reviving more upstanding and decent Decepticons, but also to keep it quiet, naturally, loose spaceship lips sink ships you know. The foul Cliffjumper fakes that he's afraid and unaware

We’re back in business, huh? Yep, a brand-new Transformers comic series after nearly ten months of no new Transformers comics! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s new Energon Universe, noted writer/artist rolled-into-one Daniel Warren Johnson takes the reins on what will likely be the linchpin of this new initiative. In this second issue, Optimus Prime and his functioning Autobots must quickly adjust to the new world they’ve awakened into, while Starscream and the active Decepticons cause even more havoc! The larger world takes notice of the giant robots running amok and musters a response, but can anything prepare anyone for a threat on this level? So thrill me, now that the Big Ark Nap is over, it’s balls-to-the-wall action, right? Well, yes and no… this issue mostly focuses on the Autobots and Optimus in particular getting more acquainted with their new settings and human friends Spike and Carly. Meanwhile, the Decepticons continue their rampage as they try