Tunnels. The war can be taken anywhere, but it can sure as hell be taken to the tunnels. It’s not going to be easy. The enemy has androids. We have to be better. We have to be better than the machines that hunt us. A couple of elites learn a lesson in G.I. Joe #9. Writer Paul Allor takes a dive beneath the surface for a bit of action brought to the page by artist Ryan Kelly. Color comes courtesy of Brittany Peer. There may not be a whole lot of depth in the story, but Allor and Kelly do a good job of bringing across some of the impact of urban warfare in a reasonably satisfying issue.

Heavy Duty died in an alley on a scouting mission prior to the operation. Ripcord was dead before he hit the ground on the way into the operation. Dial Tone got electrocuted taking down the communications grid. It ended up being a subterranean operation. So it’s lucky that the only one to survive into the heart of it was Tunnel Rat. That guy knows his way around sewers and tunnels and pipes better than anyone else. He’s going to have a hell of a time, though. Cobra’s Battle Android Troopers are crawling all over the place looking for him. 

Allor is aiming the issue in the right direction. Killing off a group of Joe operatives on the way into the issue makes for a pretty brutal statement on the nature of war. The sophistication of what comes next lacks the kind of potent connection that a story like this needs. Tunnel Rat comes across as a sufficiently interesting character and it IS fascinating to see the entire issue focussed-in on him, but the bulk of it lacks the kind of style that would live-up to the potential of an issue that spends so much of its time below street level. The story doesn’t really engage in the art on any kind of a meaningful level.

Kelly does an admirable job of locating the action of the issue firmly underground in a massive sewer system in Bhantal. The action itself is brought to the page pretty well. There’s a solid concussion cutting through the issue as Tunnel Rat is hunted. The pursuit isn’t given enough of a sense of movement. It’s one encounter after the next as the BATS seek the hero. If there was more of a sense of relative location between Tunnel Rat and the pursuing androids there might be a bit more of a dynamic sense of storytelling. The action that’s there is solidly well-executed, but the feeling of pursuit isn’t strong enough live-up to the potential of the premise.

Allor’s willingness to engage the brutality of war is admirable. There’s a kind of fearlessness decision to place an urban warfare battle in a sewer with various characters dying on their way in. It’s a dark, dark story. Allor’s G.I. Joe rebellion against a Cobra-ruled world is cleverly novel. It’s too bad there isn’t more of a solid overarching plot to tie all the issues together. Allor had managed some clever moments throughout the series thus far. It would be nice to feel like there was some better understanding of how each individual issue fits into the larger scope of the world that Allor’s creating.

Grade: C+