With thanks to Comic Book Resources for the initial announcement, IDW Publishing has named Karen Traviss the writer for their upcoming relaunch of the G.I. Joe comic.
G.I. Joe comes back to the front lines in September, featuring a team led by Scarlett in a story arc called “The Fall of G.I. Joe”. According to the solicitation Cobra is now positioned as the “good guys”, becoming a new world peace keeping force and Scarlett needs to hold together the scattered remnants of the G.I. Joe team. Steve Kurth will once again be handling the art chores.
I like the idea of Karen Traviss being tapped as the writer. She has a long and established history of science fiction and military writing, including properties like Star Wars and Halo, not to mention she’s a #1 New York Times Bestseller.
To see some of her work, check out her Author Page on Amazon.com
Check out the full solicitation info below, courtesy of Comic Book Resources:
G.I. JOE #1
Karen Traviss (w) • Steve Kurth (a) • Jeffrey Veregge (c)
DOES THE WORLD NEED G.I. JOE? Cobra had become an international peacekeeping force… and the future of G.I. JOE looks bleak. SCARLETT leads what’s left of America’s ultimate fighting force—but will she be able to keep hew team together? Real-world action and politics collide… and nothing will be the same.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
• THE FALL OF G.I. JOE BEGINS! Hard-hitting real world action!
• Bold new era begins with the master of military fiction, Karen Traviss (Halo, Gears of War, Star Wars: Republic Commando)!
• Scarlett commands the G.I. JOE team… but for how long?
• Foil-enhanced cover!
• Variant Cover by David Williams!
Awesome! Big fan of Karen’s work on the Gears of War franchise.
One article also says this new “season” is set 5 years after the old one.
Not a Star Wars guy, but I enjoyed her Republic Commando books.
Here’s to a good run. The past one getting cut off at the knees wasn’t entirely undeserved, but it’ll be nice to get a push behind the title again.
(… even if it does seem quite reminiscent of Retaliation’s plotline at first glance.)
What is this the 4th or 5th relaunch by IDW? The last one had some of the worst art I’ve ever seen. Although, not as bad as that SDCC exclusive GI Joe vs Transformers disaster (crayons?!?!). They started out good with Hama’s continued run, Origins, and Cobra but have gone downhill fast since then. I guess it coincides with the product.
I miss DDP…
Urgh, Traviss. No chance of me picking up this one.
I have to agree; IDW seems to be unable to actually nail the franchise down and stick with it. Their Joe run has consisted of nothing but “relaunches” and “new directions” that make it hard to keep a coherent story running. And what’s the only thing that’s been consistent? Hama’s RAH
And so far they are only announcing one series. Not two or three that has been their method from the start. So it leaves three books a month in three different continuities (ARAH, TFvG & IDW)