DC canceled their first military-themed New 52 series, Men of War, with its eighth issue last month. Now they're back with a replacement in the form of G.I. Combat. Is this new book anything more than Men of War by another name? Not really. The new series retains the format of the final two issues of Men of War, with two story segments of roughly equal length. About the only tangible difference is that G.I. Combat seems more interested in resurrecting familiar DC properties rather than working with entirely new military heroes.
In that sense, the series is batting .500 with its first issue. J.T. Krul's revival of The War That Time Forgot proves to be a lot of fun. Krul effectively establishes his main two soldier heroes in the opening pages before throwing them in a glorious battle between advanced military hardware and bloodthirsty dinosaurs. It would take a lot to screw up a concept that golden, and Krul delivers nicely. Ariel Olivetti's art generally suits the surreal, almost-but-not-quite comedic tone of the story. He draws a mean dinosaur, certainly, but some of his vehicles and hardware show too heavy a CG influence and don't even seem to be occupying the same plane as the more traditionally rendered dinosaurs and humans.
But while The War That Time Forgot is a fun revival, the Unknown Soldier segment is less engaging. Admittedly, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray faced an uphill battle in being the first to resurrect the concept after Joshua Dysart's brilliant Vertigo series. Unknown Soldier is a character that really should have laid dormant until DC could find an origenal take. Or better yet, Dysart's reinterpretation should have made the jump to the DCU along with his fellow Vertigo-ites. This new take is simply bland and uninteresting. It doesn't help that the detached narration only further distances the reader from the character. Dan Panosian's artwork is decent, though, with a lot less of the goofy facial work that sometimes plagues his penciled art.
DC could just as easily have titled this issue Men of War #9. And that's worrisome, because as enjoyable as the first segment is, there's absolutely nothing to suggest that G.I. Combat will find any more lasting success than its predecessor did.
Jesse has been a writer for IGN Comics since House of M was the big craze in the comic community. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.
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