In 1997, DJ Sash was hitting the charts again with a new song titled “Encore une fois”. I was 15, still had all my childhood G.I. Joe sitting in my room and no new G.I. Joe toys were to be found. Little could I have known then that 27 years later, I’d be writing a blog post about some more French comics. If you missed the previous post, check them out here and here.
As promised, I’m back with another addition to my French G.I. Joe collection. This time it’s the Maximum Silence TPB, aside from the French commentary pieces, even non-French speaking/reading people can read this one!
The book starts with the remake of the iconic #21 from 2022 where each page was drawn by a different artist.
The next story in the book is the #21.5 that was first released in 2008 with the Snake-Eyes & Storm Shadow figures from the 25th anniversary series. In 2014, the comic book was released to comic book stores officially by IDW in honor of the 30th anniversary of ARAH. Called “Silence between borders”, the story is the same as in #21, but it’s shown from different perspectives and showing scenes from the viewpoint of other characters.
Next up is the story “Hush Job” from the Yearbook #3. This was released 3 years after issue #21 and is situated sometime after #52. It shows Snake-Eyes being held prison in the Cobra Consulate in New York and being subjected to the Brainwave scanner by Dr. Mindbender. Scarlett is asking Storm Shadow to help her free Snake-Eyes. They infiltrate the consulate building, both in their own ways. Snake-Eyes is able to beat the Brainwave scanner, and together they escape (with a bit of a ruse at the end and the Baroness without her catsuit).
The 4th story in the TPB is “Timber”, #19 from the G.I. Joe Origins series from 2010. It tells the story of how Snake-Eyes first encountered the lone wolf Timber.
And we’re already at the 5th story without any word balloons. This is the #85 from 1989 called “SFX”. The lack of words in this story is more than covered by the sound effects shown, hence the SFX title. Lot’s of sounds in this one.
And the silence doesn’t end yet, we get one more silent issue. #214 from the ARAH series from 2015, part 3 of “The Death of Snake-Eyes” story arc. After a lethal fight with Serpentor, the entire Joe roster – both troops and vehicles – are paying respect to Snake-Eyes.
