Cobra #20 and 21 (IDW)

writer: Mike Costa
artist: Antonio Fuso, Werther Dell'Edera

(from unleashthefanboy.com)

The Oktober Guard saga concludes.  Turns out the reports of Ronin's demise (mainly, here at Comics Reader) were greatly exaggerated.  Instead of dying she's taken prisoner and begins a grueling interrogation experience, allowing us to learn more about the Guard in much the same way Mike Costa has explored characters from both the Joes and Cobra previously, proving there's no end to this successful character formula.  While she's enjoying that, Flint puts an extraction team consisting of himself, Lady Jaye, and Chameleon, heading into Russia to put an end to this messy affair.

Except their efforts won't be enough.  They end up captured, too, and it falls to Clockspring, another character like Ronin and Chameleon original to Costa's adventures, to make an awful deal to find resolution.  He turns to the Joes' prize informant, Tomax Paoli, formerly a key member of Cobra, and by the end of #21 we find out just much of a deal with the devil has really been made, and is the true payoff to the Oktober Guard arc.  Not only does it further emphasize the abilities of and rivalry between the Joes and Cobra, but it draws a lovely bow around Costa's efforts to date.  #21 is the final issue of this particular incarnation.  In April G.I. Joe: The Cobra Files will launch, the latest iteration of the series.

In a lot of ways, Cobra in its various incarnations can be described either as the saga of Paoli (and his late brother Tomax) or Chameleon, although it's really both.  It's their journey and relationships with the two key organizations that Costa has used to define his approaches to them, intimate and personal but filled with intrigue.  Like Chuckles in the original stories, Clockspring finds his best definition in relation to one of them.

I've long held that Cobra is one of the best comics on the market, and Costa continues to earn this faith.  Anyone who still hasn't experienced it should at least acknowledge IDW's remarkable commitment to keeping these efforts in print on an ongoing basis.  If it had been a fluke, the first mini-series would have been the end of it, or maybe the second mini-series, which was turned into the first ongoing series in the run.  This is the end of the second ongoing series, leading to a third in just a few months.  Though Cobra is in the title, Costa has never allowed the stories to feature mustache-twirling villains.  He's a writer filled with nuance.  He's one of the best.