‘Cobra Commander’ And ‘Duke’ Review – Joshua Williamson Pens A ‘G.I. Joe’ For The Young Fan In Every Gen Xer’s Heart
Marc Clair
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While my Bounding colleague Matt Battaglia watched the Transformers animated movie many times as a kid that the video store eventually just gave his mom their copy, I spent so much time watching G.I. Joe: The Movie that you could practically consider the film a member of the household.
I loved the Transformers, but with G.I. Joe, I could semi-realistically imagine myself someday being a Duke or a Hawk, whereas it was a little more difficult imagining myself growing up to be a giant robot that shapeshifts into a truck or a fighter jet.
Not only was G.I. Joe more relatable, but it also held a surprising amount of nuance that extended beyond the standard ‘good vs evil’ framework. Within the ranks of the villainous COBRA organization, there was almost a Game of Thrones-esque political power struggle between Cobra Commander, Destro, Dr. Mindbender, and eventually Serpentor.
In G.I. Joe: The Movie, Cobra Commander even becomes somewhat of a sympathetic figure, as he is turned on by the entire organization he founded. It’s revealed that he was used the entire time to further the plans of Golobulus, and he even teams up with a blinded Roadblock. This type of nuanced portrayal of the formerly lead villain captured my imagination as a 7-year-old.
Growing up as essentially an only child (my older sister went to college when I was five), I often found myself creating my own entertainment, which more often than not meant creating grandiose scenarios featuring star-studded casts consisting of toys that included some of my favorite Transformers and G.I. Joe characters mixing it up in all-star battles only a child’s mind could dream up.
The war cry of the inhabitants of Cobra-La (“Cobra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!!!!!”) still springs into my head whenever I think of G.I. Joe.
It was some time last year that I found out there was currently a real-life adult who had the same idea in the form of Robert Kirkman — best known for his work on The Walking Dead and Invincible. Unlike 5-year-old me, Kirkman had the means to pull it off, as his Skybound label at Image acquired the rights to publish both Transformers and G.I. Joe comics from Hasbro.
When I first learned of Kirkman’s plans for the Energon Universe, I was intrigued to say the least, especially when I found out that the Transformers book would be written and drawn by the great Daniel Warren Johnson. This is the same Daniel Warren Johnson who last year released the greatest love letter to professional wrestling in comic book history in the form of Do A Powerbomb, far and away my favorite book of 2022-2023.
So far that book has delivered, while Kirman’s Void Rivals has laid an intriguing groundwork for the entire backstory of the Energon Universe.
But all the while, I’d been waiting for the real test: How would Kirkman handle my beloved franchise? Despite having dipped into some previous G.I. Joe runs written by Larry Hama and Chuck Dixon, I was never able to get into them entirely. They were just too steeped in backstory, with an intimidating number of back issues to catch up on. But the Energon Universe offered a fresh start for the Joes — one that would be penned by DC stalwart Joshua Williamson.
I had mixed feelings about hearing that Williamson would be taking the helm on the initial two Joe offerings in the form of mini-series for Duke and Cobra Commander, arguably the two most important characters on the Joe and Cobra sides of things, respectively. I was familiar enough with Williamson’s work at DC, as he has become seemingly DC’s most relied-upon writer of runs on The Flash, currently Superman, and the massive crossover events like Dark Crisis.
While I can’t say I necessarily loved any of Williamson’s DC work, I do think it’s fair to say that the books of his that I have read over the last several years have been decent enough. His current Superman run is one of the few DC books I’ve been keeping up with.
If we had to snag a mainstream writer to handle these G.I. Joe books, there are certainly many names that would have caused genuine concern. I was intrigued to see how Williamson’s writing would come across outside of the shackles of DC editorial, all the while a bit trepidatious about whether the Joe books would meet the standard rapidly set by DWJ’s Transformers.
After having now read the premier issues of both Duke and Cobra Commander, I can now confidently proclaim that not only has Williamson met that bar but — for this particular Joe fan — he has exceeded it.
In Duke #1, Williamson teams up with artist Tom Reilly to introduce us to our titular character, a brave soldier and “one of the finest assets of the United States of America,” as we learn through dialogue with his superior Hawk. We quickly learn that Duke is not in Hawk’s office to be praised but rather to be admonished for his insistence that he encountered an ‘evil transforming robot fighter jet’ (as seen in Transformers #2).
It’s clear his superiors are more than aware of what Duke saw but don’t want it getting out. This leads to Duke launching an investigation of his own; one that leads to a tease of a well-known Joe villain and their ties to the technology being derived from the arrival of the Transformers on Earth — a fact still confined to the opinions of conspiracy theorists in this world.
Williamson nailed it with Duke, and while Reilly’s art didn’t enrapture me at first, by the end of the book, his style really grew on me and felt appropriate for the style and pace of the story. His art can seem overly simplistic at times, but I found that it made some of the more detailed panels shine even more.
While more than satisfied with Duke, the ‘Final Boss’ for Williamson’s quest to prove himself to me — whether he knows it or not — would be his handling of Cobra Commander. I’m not sure what it says about me. I would always ‘play along’ and root for the good guys while watching cartoons, but when it came to crafting my own storylines via action figures, I would always end up spotlighting the bad guys.
In Transformers, it was the conniving Starscream who captured my heart. When it came to the G.I. Joe, I always had a soft spot for good ol’ Cobra Commander. Perhaps not coincidentally, they were portrayed by the same voice actor, Christopher Collins.
Needless to say, I opened the pages of Cobra Commander #1 with a mix of excitement and more of that trepidation. How would Williamson treat a character that was portrayed in the cartoon as cunning and deceitful at best and as a downright sniveling, pathetic oaf at worst? The answer is that Williamson delivered the most badass version of Cobra Commander I could ever dream of.
This Cobra Commander is not a fighter like his cartoon predecessor, but he is certainly no pushover. He takes what he wants by any means necessary and does so with a frightening combination of cunning and violence. This is not the meek Cobra Commander I felt sympathy for in G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Fans of that film will be rewarded galore with what amounts to a whole darn basket of easter eggs. It’s taking just about all of my willpower to refrain from describing them all here, but I’m aiming to keep this as spoiler-free as possible in the hopes that fans like me will be just as surprised and pleased as I was reading this for the first time.
In this issue we learn the origin of both Cobra Commander himself as well as the formation of COBRA — and how all of these events are again tied into the arrival of the Transformers on Earth. Unlike in G.I. Joe: The Movie, this Cobra Commander is not merely a pawn as part of a grander scheme.
He is the engineer of the events we see unfold that lead him to venture to the surface world from his home in Cobra-La on a special mission fraught with more violence and depravity with some well-known Joes entering the fray in the next issue.
The art by Andrea Milana — an artist I can honestly say I had zero familiarity with — really fit the tone of the book in every way. The ability to portray emotion on the face of a character wearing a metallic face shield is an impressive feat in and of itself. By the end of the book, I couldn’t imagine another artist doing this.
In the letters column of Cobra Commander #1, Williamson proclaims his own love for G.I. Joe: The Movie when he was growing up, before going on to discuss his view of Cobra Commander as follows:
“I’ve always loved villains. I’ve always gravitated toward them, and they always seemed to have the most fun. And Cobra Commander was no different. Cobra Commander was one of my favorite characters growing up, and it’s an honor to write him. I wanted to be respectful of what has come before, but…give him a different angle as we show how it creates Cobra. That he is not a joke. I wanted to take the iconic voice and tweak it to be more confident and scarier. Less of the cowardly heel and more of the deadly despot who will kill anyone who gets in his way.”
Mission accomplished! My shared affinity for this character with Williamson explains why this book connected with me so much. This did a lot more than pay respect to what came before; it improved upon it and upgraded it for the now grown-up Gen X’ers who were shaped by the Joe cartoons.
With both Duke and Cobra Commander, Williamson has begun to build out the Energon Universe beyond the Duke cameo in Transformers #2 and delivered two decidedly mature stories featuring my favorite childhood toys. There is a lot to love here for new fans who didn’t grow up on the cartoons, but for those who did, Williamson is writing these books with us in mind.
If you were a fan of the Joe and Transformers toons growing up and somehow missed the Transformers toys before they started flying off the shelves, do yourselves a favor and grab Duke and Cobra Commander while you can. Thank me later.
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