(via CBDB)
writer: Mike Costa
artist: Antonio Fuso
All things must end. Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso have been, like Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, been collaborating since 2009, and their projects ended in 2013. While on the surface the worlds of Oz and Cobra have nothing in common, the approach from their respective creatives team in this context could not have been more similar. They were both genius, and understood the basic appeal and possibilities better than anyone else.
Costa and Fuso were masters of psychological warfare. Together, they tracked the fortunes of Cobra exiles Tomax Paoli and Erika La Tene, a story that like the team of Costa and Fuso comes to an end with this issue.
Paoli and La Tene's fortunes have been in flux. Paoli has been a prisoner of G.I. Joe, and La Tene has been struggling to prove herself as a valuable ally. Whereas Paoli has only been pretending to help, La Tene has been on a course toward redemption. But Paoli has been lying, and his end game involves causing his former ally to doubt whether or not she has been successful.
Last issue it was so much obvious that Costa was writing from the perspective of someone who was not necessarily writing just the characters, but a writer who was being forced to vacate a story early. This issue, he leaves all the doubt on the table. He ends his epic run on a note of ambiguity. I wasn't initially sure how to interpret this, but really, it's the only appropriate end for this saga. It remains, as it always was, a sheer work of genius.
And hopefully more readers will come to appreciate that, especially now that the whole thing has been published.
They've certainly come a long way since the 80s.
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