The final G.I. JOE issue from IDW Comics hit last Wednesday and features a record-breaking front and back cover that has the most individual characters ever pictured on a comic book cover. According to bleedingcool.com there are 313 characters here, and I’ll take their word for it.
Larry Hama’s G.I. JOE series began at Marvel Comics 40 years ago in 1982 and became one of the bestselling comic books of the ’80s. The Marvel run concluded in 1994 with #155, and in 2010 the series was reopened by IDW with #155.5 as a Free Comic Book Day issue. Two months later #156 came out and the series has continued until now – this week’s #300.
Let’s take a look at that outstanding record-breaking cover:
Above we have the back of Cover A combined with the front of the retailer incentive version that doesn’t have the Joe and IDW logos covering any of the art.
And here are Covers B and C.
(Cover B can be placed with issues #296-299 to create one large Cobra group image.)
Next, we have Cover D and another retailer incentive cover.
And one more retailer incentive cover:
Another variant cover came with a Joe Nerf gun that you could preorder from Hasbro Pulse, but I passed on that. If I remember right, it showed Joe characters shooting Nerf guns at each other, and it didn’t grab me.
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I was surprised to see that #300 ends on a cliffhanger. There has been speculation that the next comic publisher to get the G.I. JOE license might let Larry Hama continue with #301 and beyond, but even so, I had thought this issue would wrap things up for the time being, but no.
A lot of great covers to choose from and some spectacular interior art by S.L. Gallant and team, #300 is a fun action-packed romp. Give it a read!
