They are some of the most elite soldiers in the United States. They represent some of the most advanced skills and the best training the US military could possibly throw at them. So why are they having difficulty with a simple training simulation? Could it hav something to do with the fact that they’ve allowed an old enemy to join them? Things get complicated for the elite in G.I. Joe #1. Writer Joshua Williamson and artist Tom Reily play with some beloved action figures in an all-new adaptation of the title for Skybound’s “Energon Universe.” It’s a fun beginning to a promising new iteration of the old G.I. Joe formula.

Destro and Cobra Commander our planning in offensive. They have quite a lot of firepower. However, it's unclear as to exactly what kind of tactical advantage they truly have. That is, of course, until a proper demonstration is given. Energon-fueled rifles shoot a number of hole into a well-armored dummy. Looks like things might be going in Cobra’s favor. Meanwhile, Duke is delivering intel to a team of Joes. They’ve got word of a crash of extra-terrestrial origin. Robots from another planet have been disguising themselves as vehicles. They don’t have a whole lot of time to discuss matters before Cobra attacks...

Williamson is putting things together in a way that honors the Hasbro animated series things in a new direction. G.I. Joe and the Transformers feel like a very natural fit as their stories were both products of the Marvel animation Studios in the 1980s. The two franchises fit quite well together. The addition of former villain The Baroness to the G.I, Joe squad makes for a pleasantly disorienting dynamic that should serve the new series quite well. Williamson manages a very tight combination of familiar and unfamiliar elements in the promising opening for a new series.

Reily’s work has a sketchiness about it that would seem at odd with the clean lines that one would expect out of G.I. Joe. The overall spirit of the visuals is firmly in place, however. there is a highly kinetic expression of explosion and combustion as the action rules across page and panel. It might not look as a light and pleasant as it did in cel animation on a cathode ray tube back in the 1980s, but the overall spirit of everything is carried along quite well in an issue that handles the overall impact of everything quite well.

It is undeniable and inevitable that things will be moving in a direction greater integration as the Energon Universe continues to develop. What had been a simple and pragmatic solution to gunfire in cheap animation back in the 1980s becomes a central plot in a first issue of a new series. The laser rifle style action of the old animated series is given a bit of a sinister look here in an issue that lends considerable darkness to the final splash page. It is that final page that really drives the fact that the new series is NOT a weak iteration of the old franchise. 

Grade: B+