G I Joe Clabics Vol 2 Larry Hama

On Collecting G.I. Joe Classic Material

The first thing you need to know is that Larry Hama's run on G.I. Joe is not one continuous story. It's fragmented across annuals, special editions, and regular issues, and someone decided to split it into volumes. G I Joe Clabics Vol 2 Larry Hama collects issues from the mid-to-late eighties, specifically jumping into material that covers the Cobra Commander origin arc and the early Decepticons/Joe crossovers. It's not a complete collection of anything. If you're looking for completeness, you'll be disappointed before you even open the first page. The volume collects G.I. Joe #45 through #50 and the 1987 Annual, plus the two-part story from Marvel Super-Heroes#31 which crossed over with the Transformers title. Hama was building toward the Cobra Commander backstory here, the revelation about Destro's role, and the whole Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow dynamic getting heavier. The art shifts between Howard Chaykin, Tom Palmer, and later Jim Balent depending on the issue. Not all of it ages well. Palmer's inking can look muddy in reprints if the scan source isn't clean. I spent about three years tracking down the individual issues before I even considered whether the trade was worth owning. The problem with collecting single issues from this era is that CGC-graded copies of G.I. Joe #45 through #50 have trended upward consistently. White pages are basically a myth at this point. I paid $18 for a 6.0 copy of #47 at a convention in 2019. The same issue in 8.0 went for $65. That's the market. Don't expect restoration or high-grade copies to hold value the way Silver Age books do. They won't.

The trade paperback collects this material in a decent format but there are known issues with the printing. The first printing used standard stock that's adequate. Later printings switched to a slightly lighter paper that makes the black levels look washed out, especially in the heavier inks from Palmer's work. I noticed this on my second copy when comparing side by side with the first. The difference is subtle but real. Check the edition line on the copyright page. First printing is preferable if you care about the artwork rendering correctly. One thing people miss about this volume is how much Hama is still figuring things out. By issue #45 he had been writing the title for nearly six years but he was still trying to lock down continuity around Cobra's leadership structure. The Cobra Commander reveal in #49-50 is famous but it's also somewhat muddled even at the time. Hama himself admitted in later interviews that he wasn't entirely happy with how the origin landed. The pacing feels rushed when you read it straight through. I've read this volume four or five times and I still catch panel transitions that don't quite connect the way they should. Another counter-intuitive thing: the Annual is arguably the stronger material here. The 1987 annual is a self-contained story that doesn't depend on understanding the broader continuity. It's a straightforward mission narrative with some decent character beats for Duke and Flanker. Some collectors skip it because they want the main story but it's genuinely well constructed. The lettering in the annual is also cleaner. Marvel's standard script format was more consistent in the annuals.

Where this falls apart is accessibility. You can't just pick up volume 2 and feel like you understand what's happening. Hama assumes you've been reading since at least the mid-eighties or he dumped a lot of exposition into early pages that reads heavy. There's no recap section. I've seen people buy this volume cold and immediately give up because they have no context for who Cobra Commander is supposed to be or why Destro matters. If you're approaching this fresh, you should probably read volume 1 first or at least have a summary of the earlier arcs available. The download situation is messy. There's no official digital release of this specific volume through major platforms like ComiXology or Marvel Unlimited. People looking for a digital copy will run into scanned PDFs on various forums. The quality varies wildly. Some are direct scans from owned copies, others are ripped from low-quality library photocopies. I found one copy that had the wrong color palette applied across the entire book because someone scanned it through a colored light filter by accident. The blue panels looked green. The red panels looked orange. It was unwatchable. If you want digital and can't find a clean scan, your best bet is actually purchasing individual issues digitally through platforms that carry vintage Marvel content. Sometimes #45 through #50 appear separately even when the trade doesn't. It costs more per issue but the source quality is guaranteed. I prefer that to dealing with a questionable PDF.

The other limitation nobody talks about is the framing. Hama's storytelling relies heavily on exposition dumps and internal monologue, especially in this section. Modern readers raised on cinematic comics might find the pace glacial. He tells you what a character is thinking in the same panel he shows the action. It's efficient for the medium at the time but it doesn't read quickly. Factor in roughly 120 to 130 pages of actual content depending on which printing and you're looking at maybe 45 minutes to an hour of reading time if you read straight through. For what it's worth, this volume is essential if you're tracking the evolution of the G.I. Joe mythos. It's not essential if you just want a good action comic. Hama was building a universe here, and that universe is fascinating but it's also deeply flawed in places. The art quality dips significantly in the Balent issues. His line work is angular and harsh compared to Palmer or Chaykin. It works for certain moments but it gets tiresome over a full arc. Check your copies for binding defects. These were printed in large quantities and the glue application was inconsistent. I've seen spines crack at issue 48 specifically. That's a structural weak point in the volume. If the binding is tight and the pages lie flat when open, you got a good copy. If it's already loose, negotiate or return it.

There is no complete remedy for the continuity gaps. Hama himself left things open in later issues that he never closed. The franchise got rebooted several times and this material was either ignored or retconned. You're reading something that exists in a state of permanent flux. That's just how it is. Buy the volume, read it, and understand that you're holding a snapshot of a creative process that was still evolving. It's valuable for that reason even when it's not satisfying as a standalone story.