Deviations

Earlier this year, IDW put out a handful of one-shots called Deviations, built around the idea of stories that asked what if things happened differently in stories of their classic characters, leading to some kind of "else world." As familiar as that idea might be, it produced some really amazing stories that took concepts like "What if Cobra Commander won?" or "What would happen if the Ghostbusters never crossed the streams?" and did some pretty fantastic stuff. And now, they're coming back for a second round. In March, IDW is launching another five-week Deviations event, and it's kicking off with a Judge Dredd story where the always amazing John McCrea asks what Mega City One would be like if its toughest lawman had never recovered from that time he was briefly a werewolf.

Next March, IDW is launching an event called Deviations, a set of one-shots that take five of their licensed comics - Ghostbusters, Transformers, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The X-Files - and ask what if - er, what would happen if things had worked out just a little differently? In the case of America's daring, highly trained special missions force, that means a universe where GI Joe failed, and Cobra Commander took over the world. That's the bad news. The good news is that since ruling a world terrified into submission is actually pretty boring, Cobra Commander is reassembling the team so that he has someone to fight again. To find out more, I spoke to writer Paul Allor and artist Corey Lewis about how they approached the story and what it's like to live in a world run by Cobra - and got a look at some of Lewis's designs for a post-apocalyptic Cobra Commander and the sensational character find of 2016, Hawaiian Style Snake Eyes.