GI Joe: Sierra Muerte No. 3 — Banging the toys together

Snake Eyes leads the Joes on the ultimate rescue mission to save Storm Shadow! Will Cobra Commander survive the conspiracy against him in GI Joe: Sierra Muerte No. 3?

GI Joe Sierra Muerte 3 cover art by Michel Fiffe (Courtesy of Hasbro, published by IDW)

With only three issues to tell the story, Michel Fiffe did some serious work crafting and pacing GI Joe: Sierra Muerte. When I was growing up, comics limited-series were typically four parts long, nowadays they can stretch anywhere from six monthly issues to 52 weekly chapters! Even with extra pages, allowing only three issues begs for a quick pace, and benefits from it.

In an interview with Chad Bowers at the back this final installment, Fiffe talks about how he was influenced by the 1980’s GI Joe cartoon produced by Sunbow studios. Those episodes only had about 25 minutes to sell the toys and impart a safety lesson. Sometimes the writers were obviously spinning in place trying to kill time, other times they had to take some wild creative leaps to get to the happy ending under the wire. They weren’t always good stories, but they were always very entertaining. It’s the pace and small scope of Sierra Muetre that reminds me of the cartoon. It’s not Larry Hama’s ongoing military soap opera, but a tight vignette with a definite start and finish.

Sierra Muerte isn’t just a homage to the cartoon though, Fiffe knows the Real American Hero comic lore: it’s set in one of Hama’s fictional South American countries, it namechecks fan-favorite comics-only characters like Dr. Venom (who was recently killed, again), and uses pseudo-mystic conventions like the deadly Arashikage Mind-Set, without slowing down to explain any of it.

GI Joe Sierra Muerte 3 art by Michel Fiffe (Courtesy of Hasbro, published by IDW)

The series is full of perfect character moments too. Cobra Commander moping in his long nightshirt should get an award for “Best New Iconic Image” or something this year. The flirting between Flint and Lady Jaye is delightful, and of course, there are duplicitous disguises by the bad guys. I got faked out thinking the senile scientist the Joes rescued would turn out to be Zartan, but instead, the swamp chameleon replaced one of his allies.

With three issues of GI Joe: Sierra Muerte on comic shelves, and a collection sure to soon follow, comics creator Michel Fiffe has delivered a top-shelf confection worth your time. It might not have the same “gloves off” energy of Fiffe’s COPRA series, but it’s the best synthesis of the GI Joe comic and cartoon you’re likely to find, and I hope we get more.