G.I. Joe Meets The Boys? Devil's Due Gets Bloody with The Disavowed #1
- Erik Dansereau
- Oct 5
- 5 min read
Alright, let's talk about the lies your action figures told you. Remember them? The elite military heroes with cool code names, laser rifles, and a sworn mission to stop a cartoonishly evil terrorist organization. What if that whole story was a carefully constructed piece of propaganda? What if the truth behind the Saturday morning cartoon narrative was something far more brutal, debauched, and dangerously real?
That’s the explosive premise of The Disavowed, the new mature-reader series from Devil’s Due and Massive Publishing. Billed as "G.I. Joe meets The Boys," this comic takes a rusty knife to the heart of 80s nostalgia and twists. It’s a deconstruction of the retro action phenomena from a creative team that knows this world better than almost anyone, and it promises to be one of the most gruesome and hilarious rides of the year.
The Premise: A Conspiracy Wrapped in Nostalgia
The story drops us into a world haunted by the legend of The United Five—the worst-kept government secret of the 1980s and the subject of rampant '90s internet lore. The U-Five was the ultimate special mission force, a team of larger-than-life soldiers formed to stop Komodo, an esoteric terrorist cult claiming to harness otherworldly power capable of reshaping the globe. It’s the classic good-versus-evil setup we all grew up on, right down to the unsubtle analogues for the characters we know and love.
Our entry point is Matthew Howzer, a man who never knew his father, Curtis Howzer—codename: Dane—a decorated hero of the U-Five who supposedly died in the final, secret battle against Komodo in 1989. Driven by a relentless obsession to uncover the truth, Matthew enlists in the military himself. But the truth he finds isn’t a heroic legacy. It’s a secret history far more bizarre, brutal, and debaucherous than any conspiracy theory could have imagined.
Here’s the killer twist that sets the whole series on fire: after decades in the shadows, The United Five have returned. But they aren’t here to protect the world. They’re here to hunt down their own former members, the legendary heroes of yesteryear who are now branded as "The Disavowed". The first issue masterfully establishes this central mystery. Why has America’s greatest special-ops team turned on its own? What really happened in that final battle that fractured the team so completely? This isn't a story about getting the band back together; it's about what happens when the band starts trying to kill each other.
The Blaylock Factor: A Reckoning with the Past
What makes The Disavowed so compelling is who’s pulling the trigger behind the scenes. If you’re going to deconstruct the 80s military action team, you need someone who helped build it in the first place. Enter writer Josh Blaylock, the founder of Devil’s Due who famously resurrected the G.I. Joe comic franchise for a new generation in the early 2000s. Blaylock isn’t just playing in the sandbox of 80s nostalgia; he helped shape its modern legacy.
Now, he’s back to get meta with it. This isn’t just a parody; it’s a reckoning. Blaylock is taking the very archetypes he once championed and pushing them to their most brutal and satirical extremes. There's a self-awareness here that elevates the book beyond a simple shock-value gorefest. It feels like a creator looking back at the black-and-white morality of his earlier work and asking, "What if it was all a lie? What if the good guys were just as messed up as the villains?" This insider's perspective gives the satire a sharper, more personal edge. It’s a polarizing mission that celebrates the icons of the past while holding absolutely nothing sacred.
The Art of War: Gritty, Gory, and Glorious
Visually, this book is everything the old cartoons weren't. Artist Pop Mhan, a veteran of both Marvel and DC, brings a kinetic and unapologetically brutal style to the page. The action is visceral and bloody, leaning hard into the "mature reader" label. Mhan’s artwork sheds the clean, toy-etic aesthetic of the 80s source material in favor of a grittier, more grounded reality. Characters are scarred, they bleed, and the violence has real, messy consequences.
The character designs are a masterclass in homage, clearly evoking their inspirations while being just different enough to feel fresh (and legally distinct). The "Gunner Globe" is a perfect example—instantly recognizable, but rendered with a deadly seriousness that the original never had. The art perfectly complements the writing's mission: to take the four-color fantasy of our childhoods and drench it in the blood and mud of a more cynical world.
Cover Fire
And let's be real, a book this steeped in 80s action figure glory needs covers that pop off the shelf, and The Disavowed delivers in spades. Beyond the main covers that give you that classic team-posed, ready-for-battle vibe, the variant game here is strong for all you collectors. We're especially keeping an eye on the high-ratio incentives that are sure to be hot commodities. The 1:25 variant from Sveta Shubina is absolutely fire. Sveta has been killing it on the secondary market with her Pinupocalypse ratio's and this one is no different seeing a high sale of $149 so far. But the one that really screams "weaponized nostalgia" is series artist Pop Mhan's own 1:15 incentive variant, a pin-up of the team's sharpshooter, "Peaches," that feels like it was ripped straight from a 1980s barracks wall poster. From homages to menacing villain portraits, there's a cover for every type of collector, making the hunt just as exciting as the read.
The Verdict: Is It Worth Enlisting?
So, does it work? Absolutely. The Disavowed is a bloody, foul-mouthed, and wickedly fun time capsule into the 80s, packed with guns, glory, and guts. It successfully walks the tightrope between loving homage and vicious satire. The central mystery is immediately compelling, and the book’s self-aware deconstruction of the genre is both intelligent and entertaining.
This isn't a comic for the faint of heart, nor is it for those who want their childhood memories to remain pristine. But if you grew up with these characters and you're ready to see them dragged through the mud for a story that's as smart as it is shocking, then you need to get this on your pull list. This is weaponized nostalgia at its finest, a must-read for anyone who loves a good conspiracy and isn't afraid of a little (or a lot of) blood.
If You Enjoyed The Disavowed, Try:
The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The most obvious and essential companion piece. If you want the gold standard in superhero deconstruction, exploring what happens when absolute power corrupts absolutely, this is it.
The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Before the MCU, there was this. A "widescreen," cinematic, and deeply cynical reimagining of the Avengers as flawed, government-sponsored tools of foreign policy. It’s a masterclass in updating classic heroes for a modern, morally grey world.
The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. The book that arguably paved the way for The Ultimates and the modern super-team blockbuster. It follows a team of heroes who decide they’re done asking for permission and start changing the world by force. It’s brutal, intelligent, and foundational to the genre The Disavowed is playing in.
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