Reviews
REVIEW: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #286
Book Title: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #286
Book Description: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #286 is a spotlight on one of the most popular characters in the series, Storm Shadow. We’re taken back to when Stalker, Snake Eyes, and Wade Collins we’re on the Long Range Patrol together in Vietnam.
We see how because of a very bad day for the “Brooklyn’s Squad” Storm Shadow, aka Tommy Arishikage, joined the bravo team’s Long Range Recon. Patrol.
From there we learn a bit more about both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes even has a speaking role in this issue! As time goes by we also get to see how the two became friends and then brothers.
Book Author: Larry Hama
Book Format: Paperback
Publisher - Orgnization: IDW Publishing
Publisher Logo:
Illustrator: Andrew Lee Griffith
- Story(3.75)
- Interior Art(3.75)
- Cover Art(4)
- Dialogue(3.75)
- Mechanics(4)
- Editing(4)
Summary
I wouldn’t go as far as to describe this book as an origin story for Storm Shadow. While it doesn’t drill down as much as fans everywhere would have liked, it does shed more light on the beginning of the friendship between the two ninjas.
This was an area we only knew about in broad strokes from the earlier issues. I don’t envy the editing team’s job of making sure everything stayed in canon for this story. It couldn’t have been easy; but they pulled it off.
Ordinarily I’m not too big on variant covers. I liked all three of the covers IDW had to offer for issue #286. The problem was my local comic book store didn’t order enough copies to get the retailer’s incentive cover that came with ordering a certain number of issues.
As a result I only got covers A and B. The action on cover A is great, even if it has nothing to do with the story. Cover B’s artwork makes a bit more sense as this is a spotlight on Storm Shadow.
The interior artwork is rock solid! I loved seeing Snake Eyes in the river during the patrol. The detail was incredible. The coloring was spot on. This is the kind of work that made me fall in love with this title more than thirty years ago.
As a geek on a budget G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is great. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to appreciate the story. It’s essentially a one shot so there isn’t much in the way of a financial commitment. It’s pure G.I. Joe goodness at its best. I look forward to next month’s installment!
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