Divided Front #1: spoilers
Enfilade
only going to run four issues...?) DF is going to be six, I
believe...
Divided Front is set in the 80s. Flint leads the team against Cobra,
who has high-tech flying weapons pods that allow them to escape the
Joe attack. The Joe victory turns to defeat as the team has no idea
how to react to these weapons. Flint gets chewed out for the failure,
feeling like a loser and screw-up.
A Cybertronian vessel crashes in Oregon and Cobra moves in to
intercept it.
Starscream is alive and well from the original GI Joe vs TF
continuity--the first indication that this series is a sequel to the
previous WWII story arc. He's rebuilt into his F-15 form from the
original cartoon, and he's hoping to get off Earth at last. (It does
not say who reformatted him or if he somehow had the tech built
in....)
Flint's crew team up with Spirit Iron Knife (yay!) and his new
trainees: Alpine, Cover Girl (yay!) and Barbecue. They are sent to
contain the crash site in Oregon before Cobra does. There is
noticeable friction between Spirit's crew and Flint's. When the dust
settles the GI Joe team finds...Blaster's deactivated body.
On the second last page an enigmatic redhead woman arrives at the Joe
base and is described as "no angel." It looks like Scarlett. But on
the last page...it is revealed that Duke, Scarlett, and Stalker are in
fact in their old age, as they are WWII survivors (a grey haired
scarlett!!) They show Spirit and Flint WWII footage of the TF
battle....and the Joes' new challenge is to avoid Cobra from using the
tech to start WWIII.
***
Good things about this issue: I like the direct continuity allowing
DW to focus the action on a new group of Joes. Flint, Cover Girl,
Spirit and others deserve some time in the spot light.
(I guess Lady Jaye, who appeared in the first one, is too old for
Flint now...)
Some great jokes about Spirit and Shipwreck looking like the Village
People...
Apparently Destro and Cobra Commander are not the WWII versions, but
their descendants (literally in Destro's case and politically for CC).
I am not sure what is up with Snake Eyes, who is still doing his
ninja deal--is it the same Snake Eyes hopped up on Ginseng even though
he's like 70, or is there a new guy under the mask? Wait and see I
suppose...
Bad things about this issue: NOT...ENOUGH...TRANSFORMERS. Geez. Do
these series ALL have to start with "OMG WE FOUND ROBOTS" who dont'
wake up until #2? I feel like I've read this story before. The only
/good/ thing about it is that reading about all those new Joes--I was
so into seeing these characters in action that it's only when I found
deactivated Blaster that I realized how similar this story was to DD's
Joe/TF #1 and DW's TF/Joe #1. If you don't like Joes as much as I do,
that could be a problem--my review is short because I'm not going into
great detail on the Joe team dynamics, since this is a TF board...
Let's hope this series goes somewhere fresh next issue.
--Fil