Snake Eyes (2008 Comic Pack)

What csn I say about Marvel’s GI Joe issue 21 that hasn’t already been said by minds wiser than mine? Nothing much, except to relate my own experience with the legendary comic. I picked up the issue at my regular 1984 comic book haunt, 7-11. I had picked up a few issues of the Marvel comic by that point, but hadn’t been up on each and every issue. I was hit-or-miss in that same way throughout the mid 80s, as the local convenience store wouldn’t always stock the same Marvel titles from month to month. I think I got lucky a few times and snagged the Avengers sequentially for about three months straight. It wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered a local comic shop, and began reading and collecting in earnest. Those 7-11 days are still a fun memory, however. What could be better for an 11 year old in the 80s than a Big Gulp and a comic?

The comic pack figures, since their debut in the Valor vs. Venom days, often attempted to convey the hues of a four color printing process in an action figure. The result was often a garish onslaught of color, la the comic pack Roadblock. The 25th Anniversary series attempted this a few times as well, and Snake Eyes here doesn’t fare too badly for it. The color doesn’t truly match the pages I remember from the newsprint paper of my original copy of the comic, but looking at reprinted issues with bolder colors, I can see a resemblance. The figure could have been even more similar to the page had the web gear and goggles been molded in the same color as the rest of the figure. I suppose that would have been just too plain of a color scheme, and woluldn’t have enough “pop” tp stand out on the pegs. Thankfully they didn’t go for an odd route and try to mimic the cover’s dramatic lighting. That would have been stranger than the Sunbow radioactive version.

In the end, we’re left with yet another 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes repaint that’s not too useful, and functions mostly as a tribute figure. I do like the silver goggles, even if they weren’t colored as such in the issue. Maybe I could get behind an orange, yellow and white machine gun fire reflection color scheme.

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