Similar to Transformers (2019), this series reboots continuity again, with writer Paul Allor and artist Chris Evenhuis as the creative team.
In this continuity, Cobra has taken over an unspecified number of countries throughout the world, including the United States, and G.I. Joe is a small band of rebels fighting back. Outnumbered by their implacable foe, the Joe leadership must recruit civilian spies and saboteurs: Ordinary people living in occupied territories who will put their lives on the line to strike back through clandestine but high-impact missions. Rithy "Tiger" Khay, a motorbike deliveryman who has had to resort to contraband smuggling to make ends meet, finds himself embroiled in the struggle and becomes their latest operative.
After a run of ten issues, the series came to an end with the one-shot G.I. Joe: Castle Fall.
Character page is a W.I.P.
Tropes Include:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Hawk had retired from the military after serving with distinction for at least twenty years, but once Cobra takes over, he comes out of retirement to form La Résistance.
- Aborted Arc: The series ends without any resolution to Hawk making a deal with Destro or Jinx choosing to fight Cobra on her own terms with the aid of Snake Eyes after Scarlett boots her from G.I. Joe.
- Adaptational Personality Change: While most of the older characters are considerably different than previous depictions, the most prominent are:
- While Roadblock is still The Big Guy, here he is a civilian cook who never had any military experience prior to the rebellion. The first time he has to kill somebody, he takes it VERY hard.
- In the original comic, Fred Broca was one of the first Cobra soldiers to join the Crimson Guard. Here, he's a civilian who initially knows nothing of Cobra's true agenda and is horrified when he finds out. He is promptly deemed a security risk and executed.
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Averted. Tiger (the son of Cambodian immigrants) doesn't know how to fight at first, and has to learn from Scarlett.
- Anyone Can Die: Played with. Having a starring role in other iterations of the franchise does NOT provide any level of immunity in this series. Duke is killed early on to prove this point.
- Arch-Enemy: Major Bludd is shaping up to be the Darth Vader to Tiger's Luke Skywalker.
- Badass Bookworm: Before the war, Lightfoot was a librarian for the University of Chicago and Frontier was a teacher. Now they are the Joes' explosives expert and field commander, respectively.
- Canon Character All Along: Near the end of the series, Dr. Mindbender is shown to have an assistant who questions his decisions. The end of her debut reveals that she's this continuity's Lady Jaye, working as The Mole.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Cobra Commander and Destro, moreso than previous incarnations. Cobra was originally a tech-oriented MegaCorp before it went rogue and took over the world. Destro and his Military Armaments Research Syndicate appear to be manipulating both sides of the G.I. Joe/Cobra conflict for their own agenda.
- Crapsack World: The first issue alone has corner stores advertising gas masks and ration packs, and armored stormtroopers carrying out public executions as a scare tactic to keep the rest of the populace in line.
- Deal with the Devil: Hawk makes one with Destro to get additional resources to fight Cobra.
- Death by Adaptation: The series kills off a lot of characters who survived to the end in previous continuities.
- Duke becomes the first casualty when Major Bludd shoots him.
- The ninth issue has Tunnel Rat reveal that Heavy Duty, Ripcord, Dial Tone, Grid Iron, Hi-Tech and Dusty died combating Cobra.
- The series ends with the Baroness and Cobra Commander perishing when their escape helicopter blows up in flames during the Joes' final assault on Cobra.
- The Empire: Cobra. They have taken over the United States and rule it in with an iron fist.
- Expy:
- The writers cite the SOE as an inspiration for this incarnation of the G.I. Joe team.
- As a masked supervillain who has conquered (most of) the world and killed off (most of) his heroic opposition, Cobra Commander is a loose one of Emperor Golgoth.
- Frontier looks like Flint with a beard, and fills Flint's traditional role as field commander/executive officer. He also shares Flint's academic background, being a teacher before the war.
- Gender Swap:
- The Doc of this series, as seen in Issue #4 is female.
- The ninth issue shows Dial-Tone to be female like her counterpart in the previous IDW continuity.
- Grand Finale: The one-shot G.I. Joe: Castle Fall marks the end of this continuity, having G.I. Joe finally take down Cobra and encourage the liberated populace that they are free to live their lives on their own terms.
- The Mole: Lady Jaye works with Dr. Mindbender while undercover for the Joes.
- Race Lift:
- Cover Girl and Lightfoot were Caucasian in the original comics; here they are both African American.
- Zartan is Latin American.
- Snake-Eyes is Japanese-American.
- Dr. Mindbender is from India, according to a mini-bio in Issue #10.
- Shout-Out: The series is essentially a gritty Deconstruction of the Sunbow cartoon's "Worlds Without End" two-parter with its "What if Cobra won?" premise. Both works briefly mention the Weather Dominator from the cartoon's second five-parter.
- The Starscream: Major Bludd against Cobra Commander (really, the senior leadership in general).Bludd: I know he's untouchable, unless I'm willing to abandon control. Unless I'm willing to destroy myself. And I'm not ready for that... not yet.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cobra Commander claims that conquering the world was merely the first step, the next step is saving it. Though it is unclear if this is actually true.
