G.I. Joe: Retaliation #3
Official Movie Prequel
Written by John Barber
Art by Salvador Navarro and Atilio Rojo
Colors by Esther Sanz
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover by Salvador Navarro
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 28th, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Joe fans, you’re in for a treat! G.I. Joe Retaliation #3 is chock full of a story you’d never expect to read. And, it begs a LOT of questions about G.I. Joe Retaliation. I can honestly say, that reading this comic is getting me more excited for the movie.

Writer John Barber throws a wrench into the plan here. Normally movie prequels are stories like the 5 minutes leading up to the first scene or just some generic stories about the characters that appear in the film. But this book is a lot different. It’s actually really interesting to read and, as I stated earlier, is getting me more excited for G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Barber delves quite deeply into the origin of Snake Eyes, which is always fun. Let’s admit it, he’s one of the coolest of the G.I. Joe team and learning more about his past with the Arashikage Clan is just pure fun. Also, there’s some great flashbacks as to Roadblock’s origins. The only thing that I found strange is that Barber portrays Roadblock as one of the most important, bad-ass Joes on the team. So, it just causes me to wonder, where was he in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra? Hopefully that will be explained in the next issue or in the movie.

Artists Salvador Navarro and Atilio Rojo take turns drawing the “current” and “past” pages. Both do a good job, but I have to say, the Snake Eyes origin pages are a little but better than the current Roadblock storyline pages. One of my major problems is with the way Roadblock is drawn. Every other Joe is drawn to look like the actor that portrays them in the movie, except for Roadblock. At this point, I’m thinking they don’t have the likeness right to The Rock, which is a shame.

Summer will be here before you know it, and it’s time to get ready!!! Yes, the movie is a little over 3 months away, but this book will get you pumped for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. It’s an entertaining read, and fun to look at. I just wish the art would’ve been a little more consistent.