 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. It's time for another GI Joe comic book review I've been trying to do one of these reviews each month and I have kept up with it for the last couple months So yay me. We are up to issue number 31 and this is a pretty special issue At least I think it is briefly recapping the events of issue number 30 the dread knocks noticed to GI Joe at Maguire Air Force Base and reported that to Cobra commander who assumed that was GI Joe's secret headquarters Of course, that is not GI Joe's secret headquarters, but that is where they keep their aircraft We got some mayhem and destruction from the dread knocks just before Cobra showed up to attack the Air Force Base GI Joe arrived just in time to fend them off now we get to issue number 31 and on the cover We see Destro standing over snake eyes who appears to be wounded and defeated It's a good dynamic cover and it reasonably depicts the events in the issue on the splash page We see the GI Joe vehicles that participated in the defense of the Air Force Base Rolling through a neighborhood and back into Fort Wadsworth, which is where their secret headquarters is located I don't know if the real Fort Wadsworth has a neighborhood located that close to it But for the purposes of the story, it's convenient that it's there We have a title all fall down We have a creative team of Larry Hama script Rod Wiggum pencils and Andy Muschinsky inks This is Rod Wiggum's first issue drawing GI Joe and he is one of my favorite artists in this series And you'll see why as we go along near the gate for Fort Wadsworth is a Cobra crimson guardsman from the Fred series His family purchased a home in that neighborhood Specifically for the purpose of surveilling that army base Fred gets a phone call from Cobra commander just moments before the GI Joe Vehicles roll right past his house. So he misses that important event Cobra commander informs Fred that he will soon have some guests And he has to do whatever they tell him to do back at McWire Air Force Base a C-130 is taking off in the plane We have snake eyes hawk ace and wild bill the plan is to fly over the high Sierras So snake eyes can parachute out over his cabin in the mountains and take a little vacation He's earned it the high Sierras mountain range is in California. They're taking off from New Jersey That's gonna be a long flight. That's not just a little detour Nobody in this C-130 notices a secret transmitter inside the plane back in New Jersey at the old gas station Where Zartan and the dread knocks have headquartered Zartan is having a phone conversation with Cobra commander Zartan is not going to argue about who's to blame over that debacle at McWire field Well, Zartan is definitely not to blame. He wasn't there if it's anyone's fault It's the dread knocks later over the high Sierras that would be much later over the high Sierras Snake eyes parachutes out of the plane after snake eyes is gone Airborne and spirits step out of a cargo container. They've been hiding in the plane the whole time. They're drawn just so well They look exactly like they should look there's no lazy artwork here back on Staten Island Fred is greeted by his two guests Which are Firefly and Destro the last we saw Destro and Firefly They had just arrived in New York after escaping the Florida swamps They had promised vengeance against Cobra commander, but apparently they've been diverted to Staten Island to meet up with Fred That's where they get noticed as Zartan's homing device was tracked to a plane circling over the high Sierras Back at the C-130 spirit notices the homing device and crushes it and doesn't tell anyone and just jumps out of the plane He found a tracking device on a plane that has his team commander on it That's something somebody probably should know about back at snake eyes is cabin snake eyes is playing fetch with his pet wolf Which we know as timber although he is not named here. We see a bit of snake eyes his face here We have to assume he is wearing one of his masks It's already been established that snake eyes his face is disfigured though I don't know why he would wear a mask in this situation where he is supposedly alone But he is not alone. He notices spirit and airborne observing him even though they are 10 miles away in the forest Why did Hawks send these two guys to observe snake eyes while he's on vacation? Was it to protect him? I don't know. There's this gorgeous panel with spirit and airborne in their figure accurate Uniforms and it looks so good. It's so refreshing and the backgrounds are drawn really well in this issue, too The environments in this comic book are so lush in the meantime Fred Destro and Firefly arrive in the mountains and inquire about where they might find snake eyes It's implied they drove here from New Jersey So this would have to be like days later Fred asks a gasoline attendant where he might find an old army buddy And this is a bit of irony although this Fred does not know snake eyes The next Fred actually was an army buddy of snake eyes I have to comment again about the lush environments. We're getting in this issue There are a couple panels on this page where there are no backgrounds But on those panels if the backgrounds were drawn in it would distract from what's happening in the panels That is the correct artistic choice. Rod Wiggum is really hitting this out of the park Meanwhile in Springfield, which is the location of Cobra's secret base Major blood is driving a taxi cab in the rain and the backseat is the Baroness and Billy Billy is the young anti-cobra Resistance fighter we saw in earlier issues the Baroness and major blood have a plan Billy is going to infiltrate a Cobra youth parade so he can get close enough to Cobra commander to assassinate him Yes, Billy wants to defeat Cobra But the Baroness and major blood are recruiting him to do their dirty work and they're trying to turn a child into an assassin These are not good people back in the high Sierra's Fred's car has made it up the mountain to the cabin and they get Immediate confirmation that it is snake eyes his cabin because snake eyes appears in the front door in full uniform Destro immediately starts popping caps spirit and airborne hear the shots and start making their way toward the cabin a firefight ensues with snake eyes blasting away with his oozy Destro fires a wrist rocket and blows up the cabins front door snake eyes hits the cars gas tank and it Explodes with a big but a doom gas tanks don't explode like that when they're shocked But it's a comic book from the flames firefly Destro and Fred mount an assault on the cabin as snake eyes Reloads and returns fire. This looks so good Firefly chucks a grenade through the open door snake eyes picks it up and tries to throw it out But it hits the window frame and bounces back in a few of snake eyes's bullets bounce off of Destro's mask We've already established that his metal mask is bulletproof in desperation Snake eyes throws a table over the grenade just before it explodes It doesn't provide much protection for snake eyes spirit and airborne finally arrive at the cabin and join in the fight This looks so good Destro is standing in the doorway of the cabin We find snake eyes stunned and leaning against the wall This looks so good just before Destro is going to squeeze the trigger and kill snake eyes The wolf comes through the door and attacks him firefly is on the roof and he decides to use a satchel charge Well, it is a charge in a satchel that he takes out of the satchel Is it still a satchel charge at that point airborne sees what's happening and decides to rush the place But he gets shot in the leg by Fred He does manage to shoot firefly spirit takes the opportunity to line up Fred in his sights And there's no background in this panel again the background would have distracted from the focus on the figure in the panel This is the correct choice by the artist This looks so good firefly drops the explosives down the chimney Destro sees it drop through the chimney and Smacks the dog and runs out the front door only to encounter spirits on the last page There's a really big explosion Ba da da da boom as a couple extra does in there the cabin is left in a flaming heap Does snake eyes die? Does the wolf die? There is a wolf in this last panel and you may assume this is the same wolf it escaped from the explosion But there's another wolf visible and I think it's implied that these are different wolves This is a wolf pack that just happened to be in the area. This is a great issue. I love it This is definitely one of my favorite issues that we've looked at so far the artwork is so excellent Rod Wiggum is able to nail the vehicles the uniforms and he places the characters in environments that feel very real The writing is good. We get a lot of action. It's so fun and we're introduced to a new character spirit It's an interesting choice that they paired the teams two native American characters together in this story It works though. There are a few questions raised We see almost all of snake eyes his face and he must be wearing a mask We see no disfigurement, but why would he be wearing a mask in this setting when he's all by himself? Also, the GI Joe C 130 and Fred Broca's car must have warp speed We get a little bit of movement in the overall plot with major blood and the Baroness's assassination plan Even though a big chunk of this issue is action this battle will have implications on future events So I would still count this as moving the plot forward and that action is so great This is what I want to see in a GI Joe comic book One thing I like about the action is snake eyes is defeated here He is a ninja and a commando, but he is not invulnerable at some points in the comic book series snake eyes is treated as Almost invincible. He can use some magical ninja technique to defeat any enemy or escape any situation Here he is outnumbered and outgunned and he can't ninja his way out of that Of course snake eyes will survive there will be some way he survived that explosion But here we see snake eyes as human the battles he fights have consequences. Do I recommend this issue? Yes, I am really excited about seeing more of Rod Wiggum's artwork. That was my review of GI Joe issue number 31 I hope you enjoyed it If you did please give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to the YouTube channel for more GI Joe comic book and toy reviews I'm working on starting a new series of reviews of the GI Joe animated series But I'm still working out the format for that So I'm not sure exactly when that'll start, but I am working on it You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website HCC788.com I can only continue doing these videos with the support of my friends on Patreon if you'd like to support the channel That's a great way to do it and you can get your name in videos I will see you soon for more GI Joe action until then remember only GI Joe is GI Joe