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G.I. Joe: America's Elite
G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes: Declassified
Soldier. Ninja. Respected member of G.I. Joe. His real name is classified; his past, a blank slate... But behind every mystery waits a truth to be told. For the first time in print, the definitive origin of Snake-Eyes is told What little information was known has been sewn together with revelatory moments and threads that explain where he's been, how he became who he is and set the stage for where he is going. A tale of war, betrayal, loss and death - and out of the tragedy... the legend is born.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published May 10, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 17, 2009
Snake Eyes is a hugely popular member of G.I. Joe that gradually the series became somehow synonymous with him. So much that he would appear on the cover of an edition even when he didn't feature in it. And he didn't even hold a major role in the classic animated TV series.
This book, like what the title screams, is an attempt to 'declassify' Snake Eyes' past. It's more like Snake Eyes: Demystified.
Snake Eyes was such an intriguing, interesting character exactly because he's so mysterious. The authors of the classic comic spun this well: even when appearing in a flashback when he hadn't been mute and deformed, his face was never shown, and we never saw him talking.
It's all blown away in this comic.
The story's not really bad, actually - at least it gives us explanation about the lives of not only Snake Eyes, but also Storm Shadow, Zartan, and Cobra Commander. But I believe there are more cleverer, artsy ways for comic authors to convey the story without employing the standard American-comic style and erasing all of Snake Eyes' elegant mystery that makes us love him.
The art is easily forgettable (except for the covers perhaps), except one by an artist whose name I can't exactly remember. My sister's word for the art is 'Spider-Man-y'. Some look like heavily influenced by the late Michael Turner (this is a polite way of saying 'wannabe').
Quite entertaining, but not really satisfying.
This book, like what the title screams, is an attempt to 'declassify' Snake Eyes' past. It's more like Snake Eyes: Demystified.
Snake Eyes was such an intriguing, interesting character exactly because he's so mysterious. The authors of the classic comic spun this well: even when appearing in a flashback when he hadn't been mute and deformed, his face was never shown, and we never saw him talking.
It's all blown away in this comic.
The story's not really bad, actually - at least it gives us explanation about the lives of not only Snake Eyes, but also Storm Shadow, Zartan, and Cobra Commander. But I believe there are more cleverer, artsy ways for comic authors to convey the story without employing the standard American-comic style and erasing all of Snake Eyes' elegant mystery that makes us love him.
The art is easily forgettable (except for the covers perhaps), except one by an artist whose name I can't exactly remember. My sister's word for the art is 'Spider-Man-y'. Some look like heavily influenced by the late Michael Turner (this is a polite way of saying 'wannabe').
Quite entertaining, but not really satisfying.
September 30, 2021
Very nice one shot issue about my and most everyone's favorite G. I. Joe character. Above average art and writing. Very recommended
November 21, 2008
I was disappointed with this story. For a character whose innate unbelievability as a plausible individual (a mute American commando/ninja? Totally happens, right?) never seemed to hamper the tragic impact of his story, the so-called "origin" contained in this mini-series fails in making the character even remotely compelling. Instead of a living, breathing person, the reader is instead treated to a fairly hackneyed portrayal of a two-dimensional patriotic do-gooder, who, to be frank, would've been left better off as a blank slate than as such a flat and featureless stock All-American hero.
The story contains all the relevant origin material of the Marvel series transcribed and re-illustrated, padded out with the odd bit of dialog from our hero - dialog which does nothing to illuminate anything about this aloof mystery man. There are no odd angles to the person in Declassified. There are practically no angles at all, in fact. There is no history, no name, no place, and worst of all, no growth. What there is, is a poorly conceived notion that the G.I. Joe universe is needlessly small, and that, of course, the greatest hero and the greatest villain were once good pals.
It made me puke in my mouth a little.
Not actually. No. No, what I did do was throw the book on the bed and refuse to finish reading it once the big reveal was apparent. As much as I enjoyed Larry Hama having a little silly recursive fun by convoluting the assassination of the Hard Master, I did not enjoy finding out that this writer had so little imagination that he felt it was not only good but necessary to link two individuals who, by any reasonable judgment of their characters, would most likely not fraternize, let alone collaborate on a Robin Hood style crime spree. If Larry Hama blessed this plot point, then it is apparent he no longer considers these characters his. And that is a shame. Because they are. They're his; not ours. We do not have a say in their lives. And certainly not like this writer has. The worst of it is the high praise this mini-series received from all the G.I. Joe fans who read it. Reading this crap was a disappointment. And I'm out thirty bucks for the pleasure.
The story contains all the relevant origin material of the Marvel series transcribed and re-illustrated, padded out with the odd bit of dialog from our hero - dialog which does nothing to illuminate anything about this aloof mystery man. There are no odd angles to the person in Declassified. There are practically no angles at all, in fact. There is no history, no name, no place, and worst of all, no growth. What there is, is a poorly conceived notion that the G.I. Joe universe is needlessly small, and that, of course, the greatest hero and the greatest villain were once good pals.
It made me puke in my mouth a little.
Not actually. No. No, what I did do was throw the book on the bed and refuse to finish reading it once the big reveal was apparent. As much as I enjoyed Larry Hama having a little silly recursive fun by convoluting the assassination of the Hard Master, I did not enjoy finding out that this writer had so little imagination that he felt it was not only good but necessary to link two individuals who, by any reasonable judgment of their characters, would most likely not fraternize, let alone collaborate on a Robin Hood style crime spree. If Larry Hama blessed this plot point, then it is apparent he no longer considers these characters his. And that is a shame. Because they are. They're his; not ours. We do not have a say in their lives. And certainly not like this writer has. The worst of it is the high praise this mini-series received from all the G.I. Joe fans who read it. Reading this crap was a disappointment. And I'm out thirty bucks for the pleasure.
April 11, 2025
Issue number 2 is the weakest issue and as Larry Hama says in the introduction, it's not the way I would have done it, but it's not terrible. The rest of the story, for the most part, is just stringing up the various bits of Snake Eyes' origin provided by Hama during the original Marvel run.
March 16, 2020
One of my biggest complaints about Marvel's treatment of Snake Eyes' back story is that they doled it out in tiny pieces over 6 years of comic issues. This collection fixes that and more. It collects ALL of Snake Eyes' origin story into one six issue mini-series. It was very well written, with more details added to the story to fill it out and make it readable in one arc. The art work was excellent and created the mood for the story. So glad DDP went back in time and pulled this all together.
January 25, 2024
I love G. I. Joe but merely like Snake Eyes. He was a cooler character as a commando vs a ninja. Too many coincidences tying him to Cobra, before he was a Joe, make him the Han Solo of the G. I. Joe universe. The artwork is fantastic, and it sums up dozens of issues giving tidbits of Snake Eyes lore, but seeing it all at once shows how soap operatic comics can be. Yo Joe!
June 28, 2017
It's not great. For a "declassified" story of how such a major character came to be, it's a rather generic tale told blandly. The dialogue is unoriginal and the plot is predictable. I feel like there's something here, but it's all put together very heavy handedly.
February 9, 2020
I wouldn't mind at all if the upcoming Snake Eyes movie were to follow this source material...
March 27, 2009
Ok I have not written a full book review in a long time, but I am just finishing a couple books and I have been on a big tear of reading graphic novels. First up is the new update and re-telling of the Snake Eyes origin in the devil’s Due GI Joe line. Being thirty four at the moment I am I grew up on GI Joe. Amazing that 80’s liberal parents everywhere like mine bought there kids entire armies of Joe action figures. If your not from this era then you need not read on.
There is also an upcoming Hollywood take on GI Joe and I’ll also be commenting on the movie.
The graphic novel in question is a smart well constructed book that uses the things we know about Snake eyes and fills in the gaps. One of the coolest subtexts in GI Joe was always the story behind snake eyes. A goth ninja unable to speak hidden behind cloth because of horrible scarring we assume had happened to him in battle. Snake Eyes was the only good guy in the Joe who hold a candle on coolness to the Cobra guys.
(Side note cobra had the coolest outfits, Vehicles and they had a heavy metal band named cold slither. So much cooler than Joe)
The cobra dudes always looked tough and Snake Eyes we knew had some long standing feud with cobra’s ninja Stormshadow. Here we get the story of how the men who became enemies fought side by side in the Vietnam war.Trouble happened when Snake eyes excelled at the stormshadow’s family ninja dojo. Jealousy kills everything.
So I knew this was the Snake Eyes declassified but it is so much more. I was surprised by the connection Snake Eyes has to the very birth of cobra. It was a bit outlandish but come on so is a guy named Roadblock who talks in rhyme – if I can accept that I follow this story.
Perhaps my only problem with this book is the how simple and throw away the accident that scarred and silenced Snake Eyes was. It happens in a helicopter crash on the way to a mission. Snake eyes should have been fighting 40 cobra commandos and jumped on a grenade to save scarlet. Over all the book was good.
So the movie… I am worried. It is set to be directed by Stephen Sommers whose first mummy movie was a entertaining if not vapid Indiana Jones rip off. Not great but it was no Van Helsing. The problem is the fucker directed that one too. Van Helsing was unwatchable and painful in like fifteen ways.
The worst part is I want this to rock. My friends in Indiana and I always used to talk about writing a GI Joe live action screenplay just for fun. There are several things I wish I could have expressed to the producers but I know it is too late.
Don’t make Cobra commander a wimp. Make him a brilliant anarchist organizer and not one once of camp. I think the Campyness needs to be there but not cobra cammander. He needs to quote dead Russian anarchists and have a valid argument that makes sense. He should believe he has to destroy the governments of the world who have failed to control the corporations. He should blame the governments of the world for some tradegy in his personal life.
Destro should be the crazy one driven by his family curse to simply destroy law and order. The two should not trust each other. I am all for campy-ness behind that. Bring on the cobra shaped headquaters hidden in the desert that rises up when needed. I am down. Just forget the native American Joe who has the eagle on his shoulder. What were they thinking with that one.
There is also an upcoming Hollywood take on GI Joe and I’ll also be commenting on the movie.
The graphic novel in question is a smart well constructed book that uses the things we know about Snake eyes and fills in the gaps. One of the coolest subtexts in GI Joe was always the story behind snake eyes. A goth ninja unable to speak hidden behind cloth because of horrible scarring we assume had happened to him in battle. Snake Eyes was the only good guy in the Joe who hold a candle on coolness to the Cobra guys.
(Side note cobra had the coolest outfits, Vehicles and they had a heavy metal band named cold slither. So much cooler than Joe)
The cobra dudes always looked tough and Snake Eyes we knew had some long standing feud with cobra’s ninja Stormshadow. Here we get the story of how the men who became enemies fought side by side in the Vietnam war.Trouble happened when Snake eyes excelled at the stormshadow’s family ninja dojo. Jealousy kills everything.
So I knew this was the Snake Eyes declassified but it is so much more. I was surprised by the connection Snake Eyes has to the very birth of cobra. It was a bit outlandish but come on so is a guy named Roadblock who talks in rhyme – if I can accept that I follow this story.
Perhaps my only problem with this book is the how simple and throw away the accident that scarred and silenced Snake Eyes was. It happens in a helicopter crash on the way to a mission. Snake eyes should have been fighting 40 cobra commandos and jumped on a grenade to save scarlet. Over all the book was good.
So the movie… I am worried. It is set to be directed by Stephen Sommers whose first mummy movie was a entertaining if not vapid Indiana Jones rip off. Not great but it was no Van Helsing. The problem is the fucker directed that one too. Van Helsing was unwatchable and painful in like fifteen ways.
The worst part is I want this to rock. My friends in Indiana and I always used to talk about writing a GI Joe live action screenplay just for fun. There are several things I wish I could have expressed to the producers but I know it is too late.
Don’t make Cobra commander a wimp. Make him a brilliant anarchist organizer and not one once of camp. I think the Campyness needs to be there but not cobra cammander. He needs to quote dead Russian anarchists and have a valid argument that makes sense. He should believe he has to destroy the governments of the world who have failed to control the corporations. He should blame the governments of the world for some tradegy in his personal life.
Destro should be the crazy one driven by his family curse to simply destroy law and order. The two should not trust each other. I am all for campy-ness behind that. Bring on the cobra shaped headquaters hidden in the desert that rises up when needed. I am down. Just forget the native American Joe who has the eagle on his shoulder. What were they thinking with that one.
October 16, 2011
This is one I really liked, and it left me wanting to read more. The origin story of Snake Eyes has it all: intrigue, friendship, betrayal, tragedy, and a good story. We learn the story of the silent and mysterious ninja member of the G.I. Joe team. In addition, we get a look at the early days of Cobra and G.I. Joe as well as how Storm Shadow came to be Cobra's ninja. If you are a G.I. Joe fan, this is one worth reading. And it does lend itself to rereading too, which is a good thing. As always with this newer G.I. Joe series, the art is very good in this volume as well. It was neat to see certain characters who turn out to be bigger players in the G.I. Joe series later. That was interesting to me. Overall, a volume I enjoyed.
June 25, 2008
A neat retelling of the Snake Eyes origin story.
October 1, 2016
I didn't know what to expect from this--I am one of those rare children of the 80's that isn't familiar with G.I. Joe. But even then, I thought this was a great origin story.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews