G.I. JOE VS. THE TRANSFORMERS: THE ART OF WAR #3

Written by Tim Seeley | Pencils by Joe Ng, James Raiz, & Alex Milne
Inks by Rob Ross, M3th, & Alan Tam | Letters by Brian Crowley
Colors by Kevin Yan, Rob Ruffalo, & Tom Liu | Edits by Mike Sullivan

The Plot: After receiving a briefing on Serpentor from the scientists who created him, G.I. Joe (Hawk, Roadblock, Scarlett, and Snake-Eyes) and the Autobots (Perceptor, Bumblebee, Arcee, and Grimlock) follow him to Cybertron, where they soon come into conflict with Predaking, Pirahnacon, and Serpentor himself. Serpentor kills Bumblebee and the rest of the group is taken captive.

Elsewhere, as the Autobots prepare for a peace celebration, Optimus Prime dispatches Hot Rod to lead a team to track down their missing friends. Meanwhile, more Decepticons are rallied to Serpentor's cause, and soon his Decepticon army attacks the Autobots' party.

Continuity Notes: We're told that "Serpent O.R." is short for "Serpent Organic Robot", named for the serpent which tempted Adam and Eve because the project team was tempted to use Megatron in their construction of the robot. Seems like kind of a stretch, but he had to be named Serpentor somehow, after all.

Snake-Eyes and Scarlett have a tender moment in which he unmasks for her and they share a kiss.

G1 References: None to speak of.

G.I. References: The relationship between Scarlett and Snake-Eyes is a callback to the Marvel Comics series, which presented them as a couple pretty much from the beginning.

Body Count: As recounted above, Bumblebee (Bumblebee!!) is killed in action.

My Thoughts: Bumblebee! Bumblebee! You can't kill Bumblebee! That's like killing off everybody's kid brother!

Mind you, it's obvious Tim Seeley does this to get a rise out of both characters and audience, and it certainly worked on me, but I tend to be responsive when any classic (year one or some year two) Autobot is killed -- and Bumblebee is just one of those characters who, in my opinion, should be "off limits" for being offed -- especially for shock value or to demonstrate the superiority of a new villain.

But at least the artwork is still great and we get cameo appearances by several more Autobots and Decepticons as the issue proceeds. Unfortunately there's very little else to say about this one. Even though it furthers the plot, it somehow manages to feel like filler even more than the prior issue, which was entirely action. It's not bad, it's just... clinical, I suppose, in moving everyone around, despite a few attempts at pathos from Seeley (Bumblebee's death being the only one of which actually lands, and even that feels cheap and by-the-numbers as detailed above).

Maybe the series should've been a nice even four issues instead of five? I guess we'll find out in short order...