Story by Chuck Dixon
Art by Robert Atkins
As a child of the 80’s, I grew up on a steady diet of Robotech, Transformers, and G.I. Joe, with my introduction to comics coming from the latter two. G.I. Joe has always had a solid stable of likeable characters, but no one character ever embodied everything a kid wanted to be like Snake Eyes.
The second issue of Snake Eyes is another solid entry in IDW’s stable of G.I. Joe comics. The issue flips back and forth between Snake and crew infiltrating (read: “invading”) Khalikhan’s mountain stronghold and flashbacks of a naturally one-sided “conversation” between Snake and Scarlett. The scenes in Khalikhan’s palace carry a sufficient level of badassery to live up to Snake’s character, and the flashback scenes offer a touching glimpse into his relationships with some of his teammates, lending a little more depth to the wordless killing machine.
For all of the love and nostalgia I have for Snake Eyes, I was initially skeptical that Chuck Dixon could pull off a book centered around a character that doesn’t speak. He handles the situation eloquently, though, by injecting (mostly) realistic dialogue between the supporting characters to fill the spaces and keep things moving. I never felt the book was bogged down by excessive dialogue or depictions of Snake trying to get his point across non-verbally.
Robert Atkins’ art is adequate, but takes a severe dip in quality in the last few pages of the book. This is easy to disguise in an action sequence, but it is most noticeable on one of the last – and most important – flashback scenes with Scarlett, and has the unfortunate effect of degrading the scene’s impact.
Overall, a good Joe book and a must-have for anyone who grew up as enamored with Snake Eyes as I was… Am.
