Cobra #6
Written by Mike Costa
Art by Werther Dell’Edera
Colors by Arianna Florean
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Covers by David Williams, Antonio Fuso, Robert Atkins
IDW Publishing
Release Date: October 26, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

I have a feeling that Cobra #6 is the calm before the storm. The really, really BIG storm that’s going to be rolling through the GI Joe titles in November and December as the Hunt for Cobra Commander storyline concludes.

I have some mixed feeling about this issue. While the there are some further developments in the overall arc, for some reason I get the feeling that there should have been more. Writer Mike Costa gives us another solid issue, but with the reveal of the new Cobra Commander just two issues away, I was expecting a lot more.

The story mostly focuses on a handful of Cobra team members, while I feel it should be focusing on all those involved in the contest to be the new leader of Cobra. There’s a lot of characters absent from this issue, so it’s really hard to even come close to judging the standings in the contest between the Cobra agents, who’s the front runner, and who’s basically out of the running. In part, almost half of the issue concentrates on what’s going on with the GI Joe team. Am I missing something? Again, it’s not a bad issue, just really not what I had in mind.

This issue’s artist, Werther Dell’Edera, does a nice job of not straying too far from the style of regular series artist, Antonio Fuso. He’s got a nice style, but unfortunately, there’s not much action this issue for him to show off his talents on. It’s mostly a spy/espionage story. The one thing I will rave about is his facial expressions. For spoiler reasons that I won’t go into, he has to convey a lot of different emotions this issue and he is very successful on that level.

This issue of Cobra is good, but not great. I’m sure, as I said earlier, that this is the calm before the storm. The overall story of the Hunt for Cobra Commander is not really advanced enough for me. Instead of being an all out war between the members of Cobra, it’s pretty much a “let’s check in and see what these characters are up to” issue.