G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #312 // Review
Two powerful warriors are locked in hand-to-hand combat. The chrome-headed arms dealer is being warned that the battle in question is not his. He should step aside. The powerful warlord with the serpent-shaped headdress would prefer not to tangle with the arms dealer, but he’s not going to have much of achoise in the matters in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #312. Writer Larry Hama continues an impressive run with one of the more reliable franchises from the past few decades. Artist Chris Mooneyham and colorist Francesco Segala bring the full impact of the action to the page.
Destro often has others fighting for him. One does not get to be to a position like his without finessing strategies which successfully avoiding entanglements that might cause him personal harm. The same might be seaid for the ancient warlord as well, but neither of the combatants would have gotten to be where they are without having olympic-level fighting ability. So it’s not going to be an easy battle for either one of them. Two people of their stature are going to be very reluctant to attack each other, but once they are poised against each other, things are going to get particularly brutal.
The central conflict lights-up the first quarter of the issue is the single most satisfying point in it. And...honestly it might be the single msot satisfying scene in the series for the entire year of 2024. IAs cool as it is to see a veteran like Hama continuing his series as he has been, but it can be difficult to get a new peerspective on a series from someone who has been working on it for several decades. Hama craves out a clever moment between Destro and Serpentor at the beginning of the issue that feels like a high point of the past year.
Mooneyham allows the action to tumble across the page with grace and poise that only am;lifies the brutality and the. drama. Mooneyham finds a nice dynamic and rolls withit quite well in the course of the issue. The showdown between the cyborgs and the a swuad of Joes outside of the emergency room i nSpringfield really has no business being anywhere near as fun as it ends up being under the power of Mooneyham/s art. Segala’s colors add radiance and depth that provides a nice atmosphere for all the action.
It might not feel llke it’s breaking terribly new ground on the whole. The first scene feels more or less like a solidly entertaining progression from recent eevents, but so much of what’s going on is an echo of a shadow of another echo of somethign that’s happened before. The good news abpout this is that Hama has had LOTS of experience telling this type of story and so it all glides across the page quite well from beginning to end. Hama clearly knows what he’s doing. Hopefully he continues to work with the series for some time.
