G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra #1 (IDW)

via Previews World

writer: Mike Costa

artist: Paolo Villanelli

It's a little insane to me that this project hasn't been hyped.  It's Mike Costa returning home, picking up the pieces of a saga he apparently concluded a year ago in the pages of The Cobra Files, a full-on espionage approach to G.I. Joe he originally launched with Christos Gage when IDW obtained the rights to the franchise a half dozen years ago.

I figure at least IDW has once again figured out what it has, as it's been doing from the start.  This is an instance of a publisher sticking to a project despite widespread apathy, much as Fox kept Fringe on the air for years without viewers particularly caring.  In both instances, it's more than worth whatever hassle it may be, because the end result is invariably genius.

But canny, in this instance.  With a new context, as the title of this latest title suggests.  Snake Eyes is making his debut in Costa's tales, which likely helped inform the recent mainstream G.I. Joe reboot, which hew closely in tone.  But since the masked ninja is famously mute, someone else must come along for the ride as well, and as such, Destro makes his debut as well.

Costa recaps Destro's backstory, and then gets to the good stuff, leading us back to Erika La Tene, Chameleon, rogue Joe and Cobra alike, who survived a game of psychological cat and mouse with Tomax Paoli.  The object of this return engagement is technically to pick up the thread of the Billy arc, Billy being the son of the late Cobra Commander (whose assassination at the hands of Chuckles was the clear moment Costa's work directly impacted IDW's wider landscape).

I didn't think this would happen.  But now it has.  Costa's back.  The game begins anew...