Review – Cobra Commander #5 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics (Skybound Imprint)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Andrea Milana
Colourist: Annalisa Leoni
Lettering: Rus Wooton
Release Date: 22nd May 2024

The concluding chapter of Skybound’s Cobra Commander – one of the first character-focused miniseries in their critically acclaimed Energon Universe – is on sale this week, taking us from the swamps of the Florida Everglades to the glass and steel of M.A.R.S. Industries and global arms dealer Destro.

After all the set-up over the previous four chapters, this is the issue where we finally get what we all came to see – namely, the formation of Cobra. That has always been what this series was going to be about, and Williamson, Milana et al do a fantastic job of coalescing all the key parts of their story together here. It turns out that Cobra Commander has been hard at work since the end of the previous issue, building up his Dreadnok forces, developing his technology, constructing his own “quaint” town to serve as a base of operations, and making sure he has the attention of Destro prior to inviting him to a meeting to discuss their potentially shared future.

I’ve said it before in my previous reviews of this series, but I absolutely love the shift from monologuing caricature to cold, ruthless monster here for the title character. The subtle redesign is A+ too, with the long overcoat and wide-brimmed hate giving him more than a passing resemblance to a certain Clown Prince of Crime. There’s far more calculation than chaos going on here though, although that ruthlessness is on full display during the first meeting and “sales pitch” to Destro.

Milana’s artwork remains perfectly suited for the story, with a slightly stylized, undoubtedly cinematic approach that injects the pages with a real sense of energy. The tension as Destro and the Commander finally come face to face is beautifully executed, and I love the decision to have them meeting in a fairly unremarkably suburban street in broad daylight as opposed to some murky warehouse or “lair”. Colourist Annalisa Leoni also does a great job during these scenes, and the final pages see us nudging ever so slightly into the more ‘theatrical’ version of Cobra Commander that we’re all familiar with, giving her some fun moments to work with.

While I loved the inclusion of the Transformers in Skybound’s Energon Universe, I’ll admit to being a little skeptical coming in about just how much they could do to ‘freshen up’ the worlds of G.I. Joe and Cobra, given how well-established they are. Turns out, I needn’t have worried. Taking the familiar and tweaking it just enough to feel different and energized (no pun intended), Williamson and Milana – and indeed all of the Energon Universe creative teams to this point – have done an absolutely fantastic job with this new shared comic book universe, and I absolutely can’t wait to see where it goes next in the pages of their upcoming Destro and Scarlett miniseries next month.

Rating: 4.5/5.

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
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