TRANSFORMERS/G.I. JOE #1 - 6

"THE LINE" | "TRANSFORMED" | "TRIAL BY FIRE"
"WOLVES" | "TRENCHES" | "THE IRON FIST"
Writer: John Ney Rieber | Art by: Jae Lee | Colors: June Chung
Letters: Benjamin Lee | VP/Editor-in-Chief: Roger Lee | Publisher: Pat Lee

TRANSFORMERS/G.I. JOE was easily the most experimental Transformers comic Dreamwave published in their brief time with the property's license. Illustrated by Jae Lee in something as far from the Dreamwave house style as possible and written as an alternate history "What If" by John Ney Rieber, the story is set in the era of World War II but features Europe trembling under the reign of the Cobra Empire, assisted by a group of Decepticons found in the story's opening pages by the sinister Major Bludd.

To combat Cobra, the United States government forms a special unit called G.I. Joe, consisting of the best the armed forces have to offer, and sends them in as an advance commando force to prepare the Cobra Terrordrome for invasion by a U.S. fleet. While battling their enemies in and around the Terrordrome, the Joes inadvertently activate the slumbering Autobots, who eventually join forces with our heroes and defeat Cobra.

But when Destro releases his own Transformer, Bruticus, to destroy everyone on the battlefield, Optimus Prime orders the Joes' Snake-Eyes to destroy the Autobot Matrix, which immediately deactivates every Transformer in the area. The story ends with the Joes mourning their new friends as they mop up the remaining Cobra forces.

I've never been a big fan of alternate history stories, whether set in real life or fictional universes. As an example of the former, I point to INGLORIOUS BASTERDS -- I really enjoyed that movie up to the point where (SPOILER) the title characters murdered Hitler. Not that I didn't enjoy seeing Hitler get what was coming to him; it was pretty fun to see -- but at that point I realized the movie was set in some fantasy world and I lost all interest.