The death of Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe Cobra #12, which came out this week, kicks off a new era of G.I. Joe comics with the Cobra Civil War event that spreads through the entire G.I. Joe comic book universe. In April, IDW Publishing will release two new CCW tie-in books: G.I. Joe: Cobra Civil War #0 and G.I. Joe Cobra Commander Tribute. Then in May IDW will launch three new ongoing series, Cobra, G.I. Joe, and Snake Eyes, that will continue the Cobra Civil War storyline.

Written by Chuck Dixon, G.I. Joe: Cobra Civil War #0 ($3.99) is a 40-page full color book (with 30 story pages) that details the internal struggle to find a successor to Cobra Commander. The saga of the search for a new Cobra Commander that kicks off in this issue will continue in all three of the new G.I. Joe series that debut in May.  G.I. Joe: Cobra Civil War #0 will ship with three covers (by Tom Feister, Gabriele Dell'Otto, and Fuso) in a 1-to-1-to-1 ratio.

The G.I. Joe Commander Tribute ($7.99) is a 100-page anthology that includes the landmark G.I. Joe: Cobra #12 issue, which features the death of Cobra Commander that kicks off the Cobra Civil War. It also includes classic Cobra Commander tales from the past along with many new file pages that provide background for the coming Cobra Civil War, plus a bonus poster of Kill Shot.

The search for a new Cobra Commander that explodes into a Cobra Civil War continues in May in a trio of #1 issues for IDW's new G.I. Joe comic book series, Cobra, G.I. Joe, and Snake Eyes. Details about the creative teams for the three new ongoing series will be released in the coming weeks

Meanwhile in other G.I. Joe news, Lee Byung-hun will return as Storm Shadow in a sequel to the new G.I. Joe movie being written Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and due in theaters in the summer of 2012.