[G.I. JOE] FULL FORCE!

[inflatable dalek]

Now, never you mind about Firefly previously only being shown to be Just Some Guy only slightly more competent than a blueshirt trooper.

What's especially daft is that (IIRC) no one actually knows what Firefly looks like, so he could just be standing there in plain sight without anyone realising. And why would he even bother posing for a picture anyway (or at least pose without not doing his blur thing)?

How the hell did Snake Eyes and the Blind Master get in touch with one another to sort out their plot on such short notice when they're in different countries and one can't talk and the other's, well, blind. Isn't that the plot of an old Richard Prior movie as well?

And why does Scarlet go along when she seems entirely genuine in her "Orders is orders" speech before, considering no one but Snake Eyes could hear what she was saying anyway?

Personally I always thought Bob got away with Grimlock/Ratbat etc. thanks to the cartoon covering the Movie characters, allowing the comic to promote the still-shipping 1985 figures and the odd 1986 one (Ratbat was the same year as Rodimus, remember) that wasn't getting covered on the telly, and it worked out nicely because they could then have sensible intros when the line switched back to more present-day stuff.

I've always got the impression he never thought much of the movie characters (possibly because they were created by Sunbow rather than him). Factor in his fairly obvious disdain for the Targetmasters as well (how many spoke more than "I am X" style lines?) and I don't think Hot Rod and company did anything on the American book till Furman came on board.

I've read suggestions over the years that there was some sort of reciprocal deal between the comic and cartoon to share the characters out evenly, so Skids got a couple of big issues to himself to make up for only having two lines in the show. It's possible there was the same on the Joe book as well, though Bob interviews have never suggested this was true (he seems to have done the Ratbat thing for a laugh more than anything else).

To go back a bit, the issue where one of the Joe's bring a "Jetfire" toy in must have been not long after the Transformers crossover. Considering that (unlike the token mention in the TF book) it was totally ignored was this Larry's way of saying it never happened? I also loved the oversized Megatron drawn in Jetfire's place (so large in fact I could buy Jetfire originally being drawn there until someone realised it would be odd to have his toy in the Joe comic where they were legally required to make the actual character look as different as possible).

You do wonder why exactly Snake-Eyes and Scarlett are in the military, rather than just being, I dunno, vigilantes or something. The "Snake-Eyes goes off on an unauthorised mission while all the other Joes are tied up in red tape" thing will crop up a bit more.

Well, considering we were told that anyone going on a rescue mission would be finished absolutely guaranteed no doubt Snake Eyes will be sacked when he comes back.

[Cliffjumper]

Harry apparently kept a Jetfire on his desk when at Marvel... My bet, though, is that he wrote Jetfire in dialogue because he had the figure, and the artist didn't bother checking what Jetfire looked like. That issue is one of my least favourite - firstly, you can see the moral of the story coming on about the second page; secondly, the Joes are kind of creepy, aren't they?

And yeh, the Marvel crossover is completely ignored by Hama... I don't think it's actually contradicted per se so much as simply not referred to. The G2 one is basically ignored too in a slightly strange way - the Joe plotlines (like Scarlett's fake defection and the revival of Mindbender) are picked up (though the G.I. Joe comic only lasted something like another dozen issues anyway), but there's no reference to the Transformers stuff. Think the way the Marvel bits in the first few issues of Transformers - no retcons, but no references.

How the hell did Snake Eyes and the Blind Master get in touch with one another to sort out their plot on such short notice when they're in different countries and one can't talk and the other's, well, blind. Isn't that the plot of an old Richard Prior movie as well?

Shut up shut up shut up Snake-Eyes is just magic. Accept that, and the fact that his head is a magnet for any napalm, burning fuel or hot ashes floating around, and it'll all make a lot more sense.

Firefly's role before his return is so tiny that it's a wonder anyone knows who he is...

I'm not sure exactly what cooperation the comic and cartoon had, but it is weird the way that it works out for both properties. The TF cartoon gives a lot more attention to the bulk of the original Autobots than the comic does (if we think of later appearances for the likes of Prowl & co as Action Master or whatever tie-ins), whereas the Dinobots, Shockwave, Jetfire and the Throttlebots a/o got a lot more in the comic. With GI Joe, Duke, Shipwreck, Bazooka, Quick Kick, Barbecue, Airtight, the aforementioned 1986 bunch, The Sarge etc. were all featured quite a bit in the cartoon but not so much in the comic; on the other hand Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Rock 'n' Roll, Clutch, Grunt and so on get a lot more to do in the comic.

Mind, it gets a bit more blurred because characters came back around a lot quicker in the Joe toyline than in Transformers - before the Action Masters come in right at the end, there are basically six "revived" characters in the line (Goldbug, Prime, the Classic Pretenders), whereas Snake-Eyes I think had one toy or another on sale for the whole decade and things like Tiger Force and Night Force were kicking in by 1988.

[inflatable dalek]

And yeh, the Marvel crossover is completely ignored by Hama... I don't think it's actually contradicted per se so much as simply not referred to. The G2 one is basically ignored too in a slightly strange way - the Joe plotlines (like Scarlett's fake defection and the revival of Mindbender) are picked up (though the G.I. Joe comic only lasted something like another dozen issues anyway), but there's no reference to the Transformers stuff. Think the way the Marvel bits in the first few issues of Transformers - no retcons, but no references.

You can really tell with the G2 one that he'd already got his plots all worked out when he was told to include the Transformers can't you? I'm surprised he was able to resist throwing Bludgeon in as well, revealing that he'd helped to kill the Hard Master too.

Shut up shut up shut up Snake-Eyes is just magic. Accept that, and the fact that his head is a magnet for any napalm, burning fuel or hot ashes floating around, and it'll all make a lot more sense.

Considering his super ninja unkillable skills you have to wonder how he got mutilated in the first place.

I'm not sure exactly what cooperation the comic and cartoon had, but it is weird the way that it works out for both properties. The TF cartoon gives a lot more attention to the bulk of the original Autobots than the comic does (if we think of later appearances for the likes of Prowl & co as Action Master or whatever tie-ins), whereas the Dinobots, Shockwave, Jetfire and the Throttlebots a/o got a lot more in the comic. With GI Joe, Duke, Shipwreck, Bazooka, Quick Kick, Barbecue, Airtight, the aforementioned 1986 bunch, The Sarge etc. were all featured quite a bit in the cartoon but not so much in the comic; on the other hand Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Rock 'n' Roll, Clutch, Grunt and so on get a lot more to do in the comic.

Yep, it's enough to make you wonder if there was some sort of grand Hasbro run plan. Though it might well have just been an amazing coincidence like how well the UK and US TF stuff merged before it was being written by the same guy.

Issue 64: Yay! This is what I remember! Well, the Fred stuff, not the Joe sub plot of "What are they up to in the middle of the desert that requires lots of digging?" that's almost insulting obvious. Considering Snake Eyes has gone rogue you'd have thought the Joe plot would have been them being forced to go after him before he kicks off an international incident. It'd be a little forced but there'd be drama and relevance that "Hand me so Yo Joe Cola and party!". And how did Flint get back so quickly (mind, there's a chap in a bandana in the background who looks amazingly like Quick Kick as well...).

The Blind Master is a bastard, he's in France for three minutes before he's blowing up cars on the road and no doubt causing lots of innocent collateral damage. Lucky we've already established the French are scum for hating America.

Shame it's never been mentioned before that the Baroness knows what Cobra Commander looks like. And why does Serpentor trust the word of a woman he should know is pissed off with him over Zarena getting her job? The whole "Hey, that's a Cobra vehicle!" bit reminded me of Scorponok's crew arriving at Ratbat's base in Cold War.

[Cliffjumper]

I've also not workied out how a) the Pogo actually flew to another island when it's short-range point attack and b) no-one noticed the damn thing until it landed... I could just about buy that the Baroness knew what the real CC looks like seeing as she's shown to be his #2 since the first issue, but the idea of some guy tuurning up in some armour no-one properly in Cobra has seen before in a vehicle no-one had ever seen before even getting that far... Jesus. What if the Joes had whacked Snake-Eyes in some crazy clobber and a vehicle with Cobra markings and dropped him in? He'd have killed most of Cobra's high command in minutes...

Mind, one way of looking at things is that the Baroness doesn't know what Cobra Commander looks like, guesses straight off the bat that Fred isn't the real deal (and he does basically admit it instantly), but sees someone she can manipulate and use for her own ends. But that's possibly giving Harry too much credit.

The hoops Hama jumps through to prevent GI Joe from actually mobilising at any stage in the later half of the run are hilarious. There's a full-on "G.I. Joe are at WAR!!!!" storyline for about ten issues, but the rest of it is just increasingly weak excuses for only about five Joes being out there at a time, with the rest sitting in the Pit with their thumbs up their arseholes... It's why the World War 3 storyline from DDP is one of my favourites, it's the only time you really feel that there are a hundred or so of the guys, and that with their training and equipment they are basically a highly capable army unit.

The strange thing about the G2 one is how little actual crossovering there is... the Transformers stuff is almost isolated from the rest of it, especially when the Autobots arrive - Scarlett ducks out of the way when Hotspot's bunch of sacrificial lambs jump out, and #142 is then basically a Transformers issue. It's been a little while since I read the thing, but apart from Cobra Commander having the odd conversation or two with Megatron there's basically no interaction.

[inflatable dalek]

Mind, one way of looking at things is that the Baroness doesn't know what Cobra Commander looks like, guesses straight off the bat that Fred isn't the real deal (and he does basically admit it instantly), but sees someone she can manipulate and use for her own ends. But that's possibly giving Harry too much credit.

The problem with that is it's not actually the Baroness who claims she knows what CC looks like, it's Zartan when when he sees her coming off her plane and before she knows anything about what's going on. So unless Zartan's wrong and she just roles with it it seems to be pretty much face value.

The hoops Hama jumps through to prevent GI Joe from actually mobilising at any stage in the later half of the run are hilarious. There's a full-on "G.I. Joe are at WAR!!!!" storyline for about ten issues, but the rest of it is just increasingly weak excuses for only about five Joes being out there at a time, with the rest sitting in the Pit with their thumbs up their arseholes...

No no no, they're doing really useful things like digging mysterious tunnels. Though how much use, say, Lifeline is at that...

The strange thing about the G2 one is how little actual crossovering there is... the Transformers stuff is almost isolated from the rest of it, especially when the Autobots arrive - Scarlett ducks out of the way when Hotspot's bunch of sacrificial lambs jump out, and #142 is then basically a Transformers issue. It's been a little while since I read the thing, but apart from Cobra Commander having the odd conversation or two with Megatron there's basically no interaction.

I wouldn't be surprised if Furman gave the main pointers on the TF side of things, "Here's where Megatron was last time we saw him, here's where we need him to be by the end, here's some Autobots that aren't getting G2 toys you can safely have him kill to show how bad he is, just have Hotspot still alive at the end". Other than that I doubt Hama cared very much, the dialouge is mostly terrible IIRC. Which is a shame because there's some nice lines in the stuff around it (Mindbender ftw).

Issue 65, 66 & 67:

GI Joe in space? Hey? I mean, considering they don't know Cobra have their own space shuttle until after they've already got the Defiant who on Earth thought that was a worthwhile idea? Surely it would have made more sense for the Joe's to use a shuttle at Huston (that could be the Defiant piloted by Payload for toy purposes) and maybe just have it seconded to them afterwards now they know about the Cobra ship?

And why make a real big deal of actually pointing out the scientific accuracy in the lack of sound when everyone's merrily glued to the floor on their ship? A huge debt to You Only Live Twice (especially the astronauts caught tether) in there as well.

And up to now I was actually liking Fred despite his plans being so bonkers they shouldn't really work. He'd been tough, no nonsense, ruthless and, in getting the comedy foreigner ship captain killed, improved on the original Commander's intentional murder rate by 100%.

But here he suddenly undergoes a complete character revision, turning into a cowardly wise cracker completely dependant on the Baroness to tell him what to do. I know that it's to make a sharper contrast with him proving he's got the right (or is that wrong?) stuff on the Shuttle, but it's so over done he seems a complete tit. The Baroness' heaving chest must be distracting him.

And how do you sneak across the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War when you're a top commando? You join the circus. Apparently performers don't need passports, visas or formal identification of any sort. Snake Eyes and Scarlet are even using their costumes and code names even though the airshow issue showed the later at least seems to be public domain.

What makes it especially funny is Storm Shadow and Billy just turning up. No need for fake deaths and elaborate deceptions whatsoever. That tenth letter might as well be "Duh" for Snake Eyes.

I did however like the emotional reunion between Stalker and Snake Eyes (showing friendship without talking about Nam!) and the former coldly staying behind just long enough to shoot the prison guard.

And Stalker and co were prisoners for five months? How does that work? In the same amount of time Fred shot Cobra Commander, buried him, went to San Fran, POGOed over to Cobra Island and had a trip into space pretty much right after. Did that really take that long?

The Terrordome plot linking all the way back to issue 2 is actually fairly impressive (and would almost seem like very cleaver long term planning if not for the Joes getting hold of the plans and not seemingly noticing the brainwashing schematics).

However, Serpentor pretty much stole these three issues with his cheery mocking in the shuttle one. "Bon yoyage!".

[Cliffjumper]

The problem with that is it's not actually the Baroness who claims she knows what CC looks like, it's Zartan when when he sees her coming off her plane and before she knows anything about what's going on. So unless Zartan's wrong and she just roles with it it seems to be pretty much face value.

Yeh, that's throw a spanner in the whole thing... The Fred thing really reads like Hama came up with the initial "anyone could be behind that mask" twist and didn't really think it through... The whole "Fred gets into Cobra Commander's position" bit isn't something we're meant to pay much attention to I think; Hama knows where he wants him and just rushes him there as quickly as possible. To be fair, once he's there him and Serpy both trying to outflank each other is rather good fun; it just would have been more fun with the real Cobra Commander.

No no no, they're doing really useful things like digging mysterious tunnels. Though how much use, say, Lifeline is at that...

Well, it is the work for a highly trained ultra-specialised military unit - it's what top secret organisations do, after all. Any FBI/CIA facilities that need a bit of digging? Done by the cream of the field agents... The problem is whenever some liberal strawman pops up questionning the need for G.I. Joe, you can't help but think they have a point (again, DDP cut to the chase, biting the bullet and settling on a full-time roster of about a dozen of the best and most flexible Joes, with the more specialised ones called in when the mission needed them).

I wouldn't be surprised if Furman gave the main pointers on the TF side of things, "Here's where Megatron was last time we saw him, here's where we need him to be by the end, here's some Autobots that aren't getting G2 toys you can safely have him kill to show how bad he is, just have Hotspot still alive at the end". Other than that I doubt Hama cared very much, the dialouge is mostly terrible IIRC. Which is a shame because there's some nice lines in the stuff around it (Mindbender ftw).

Yeh... while it's still not brilliant (it's the height of the Ninja Force bullshit - Snake-Eyes' duel with that ninja master who just can't shut the **** up and feels the need to narrate the whole fight being a particular low), the Joe stuff is a bit more... committed. I mean, unless you IDW previous stuff onto them, only Override actually makes any impression - the rest of the Autobots could be anyone (and even Megatron's a bit off... strangely, again, he picks up a bit in the last issue, though bits like analysing Chase/Searchlight's leg are very strange). So, yeh, I reckon Furman either wrote or had heavy input in the bulk of that issue, and I suspect Hama was happy enough to let him do it as long as he had control of the Joe threads...

That said, I've only read the stuff that late in the run once, and I do have half a memory that Milleville was built up to quite a bit and then pretty much disappeared from the book (which backtracked in the following issue to catching up with some events which had been put on hold with the crossover, and then sort of limped towards the end with a bunch of barely-connected fill-ins and standalones, the main storyline being the Star Brigade bit).

GI Joe in space? Hey? I mean, considering they don't know Cobra have their own space shuttle until after they've already got the Defiant who on Earth thought that was a worthwhile idea? Surely it would have made more sense for the Joe's to use a shuttle at Huston (that could be the Defiant piloted by Payload for toy purposes) and maybe just have it seconded to them afterwards now they know about the Cobra ship?

And after that it's pretty much forgotten about too - it might be involved in the Star Bridagde stuff (in about eighty issues time), but it might not.

Serpentor's actually better in the comic... He's a bit more of a wily, oily politician than the cartoon version (who's basically a macho Cobra Commander) and it fits the storyline fairly well. The only problem is that it emphasises how similar Cobra and the Decepticons are in both Marvel titles - if they put half the effort into taking on G.I. Joe as they do into ****ing each other over, they'd be a real threat. As it is, G.I. Joe can spend six months trying to spring Stalker and a pair of extras from a fake Soviet republic without having to worry about Cobra trying anything...

[inflatable dalek]

Yeh, that's throw a spanner in the whole thing... The Fred thing really reads like Hama came up with the initial "anyone could be behind that mask" twist and didn't really think it through...

It would work better if Fred had stayed cool and collected. The Crimson Guard are supposed to be the best of Cobra so him having a good working knowledge of current operations isn't a stretch (and the real CC had been out of the loop for a while anyway) and the Commander has made himself something of a man of mystery anyway, I doubt there's that many people who know enough about him to be able to call the bluff.

But no, Fred seems to be going out of his way to show himself up right from the start. Can you imagine the real deal calling anyone "Chum" like Fred does to Serpentor when they first meet?

Still, I liked Mindbender merrily throwing his lot in with Fred for no real reason despite being the guy who created Serpentor in the first place.

Well, it is the work for a highly trained ultra-specialised military unit - it's what top secret organisations do, after all. Any FBI/CIA facilities that need a bit of digging? Done by the cream of the field agents...

Reminds me of when they opened the Pit II and we're told first time round none of the bases catering staff had enough clearance to come down and cook any food. Hama doesn't seem to get that even the most secret of secret bases have support staff, cleaners, mechanics and someone to run the canteen. The head of MI6 doesn't hoover their own office. That's what background checks are for, and in this country a large part of the point of the official secrets act (I can't believe America doesn't have anything similar?) so you can legally behold anyone to keep stum as and when you need to.

Yeh... while it's still not brilliant (it's the height of the Ninja Force bullshit - Snake-Eyes' duel with that ninja master who just can't shut the **** up and feels the need to narrate the whole fight being a particular low), the Joe stuff is a bit more... committed. I mean, unless you IDW previous stuff onto them, only Override actually makes any impression - the rest of the Autobots could be anyone (and even Megatron's a bit off... strangely, again, he picks up a bit in the last issue, though bits like analysing Chase/Searchlight's leg are very strange). So, yeh, I reckon Furman either wrote or had heavy input in the bulk of that issue, and I suspect Hama was happy enough to let him do it as long as he had control of the Joe threads...

Does the Scarlet betrayal thing work better in the wider context? It seems hard to believe that all of Cobra don't seem completely retarded to take her at face value.

Serpentor's actually better in the comic... He's a bit more of a wily, oily politician than the cartoon version (who's basically a macho Cobra Commander) and it fits the storyline fairly well. The only problem is that it emphasises how similar Cobra and the Decepticons are in both Marvel titles - if they put half the effort into taking on G.I. Joe as they do into ****ing each other over, they'd be a real threat. As it is, G.I. Joe can spend six months trying to spring Stalker and a pair of extras from a fake Soviet republic without having to worry about Cobra trying anything...

I also noticed that Serpy has basically taken the place of the original CC when he first showed up, the old leader losing his troops respect (and why does the military genius need Zartan to tell him he's let them get too bored?) dealing with a usurper with complete sarcasm.

[Cliffjumper]

But no, Fred seems to be going out of his way to show himself up right from the start. Can you imagine the real deal calling anyone "Chum" like Fred does to Serpentor when they first meet?

Mmm, the big problem is that Fred and the CC really have nothing in common - considering only Raptor (and what the Hell is the deal with him? He seems to operate completely out of the loop - no-one else in Cobra knows who he is, and he doesn't seem to know much about them either) has seen the suit, there's no similarity in there - different personalities, different suits... It's the worst impression ever. Really there's no reason Fred would choose the battle-armour over running up a uniform on the sewing machine other than there being a new toy out.

Still, I liked Mindbender merrily throwing his lot in with Fred for no real reason despite being the guy who created Serpentor in the first place.

Oh, whatever you do, don't try and work out the motivations of anyone in the whole thing... Zartan's slide all over the place too. Zartan's actually the most inconsistent character in the whole run - Hama can't decide if he's an assassin, a spy, a ninja, a leader or just a biker.

That's what background checks are for, and in this country a large part of the point of the official secrets act (I can't believe America doesn't have anything similar?) so you can legally behold anyone to keep stum as and when you need to.

Well, they're currently using massive resources to track down the chap behind the Wikileaks stuff, so it's a fair guess... Add in that it's a fictional universe and they don't have to strictly deal with the idea of good American workers leaing information to the press. But then the Joes are ridiculously cliquey in the comic - how often do you see them interacting with anyone else? They're friends with each other, they have relationships with each other, they go on leave with each other and they seem to inherently distrust anyone who isn't a member of the damn team. You don't even see them working with the conventional military/police all that often.

Does the Scarlet betrayal thing work better in the wider context? It seems hard to believe that all of Cobra don't seem completely retarded to take her at face value.

There are a couple of other things in there, but yeh, basically Cobra Commander's a moron for falling for it. Hama brings the original back and then spends the last third of the run making him look as stupid as possible.

[inflatable dalek]

They're friends with each other, they have relationships with each other, they go on leave with each other and they seem to inherently distrust anyone who isn't a member of the damn team.

Hey, Ripcord had a relationship with someone outside the team! Oh... yeah, that's probably why they don't bother.

The funny thing is it took longer to type that out than it did to read the page that wrapped up Ripcord's long running (what, a year? Two even?) plotline. Poor bastard. From Snake Eye's non plussed reaction I guess we won't be having an arc where he hunts down Scrap Iron in revenge for the Fat Master? Is it even mentioned again?

Issue 68:

The opening page is another strong Marvel memory. Now, the previous two issues have taken the time to retroactively create a massive long running storyline that goes back to the second ever issue. All that, and the entire thing gets wrapped up in just one issue? That's so busy doing a massive toy dump there's basically no room for the plot?

And why are they called Battleforce 2000? Cobra's mind beams can be counteracted by just having music on a bit loud? Where is Serpentor during all this?

And the big one, the scene where Fred is only not found out because of an emergency due to his hilarious "So, this is your project is it?" and not being able to name Kiwini. Which raises the question that, as Cobra themselves have the plastic surgery skills to make anyone look like anyone, why they didn't also ask the supposed commander some simple questions about past missions only he'd know the answers to rather than relying on visual identification.

69& 70:

Well, it's actually nice to see American foreign policy go tits up due to past mistakes (though with the suddenly a lot more present like he has a new toy Hawk making mysterious mumblings there's going to be a plot twist I guess).

But dear God, the bit with Roadblock and the flag is painful. Yeah, threaten to shoot an unarmed civilian with your giant spinning chain gun and then bitch at Ambasador Tosser for suggesting it's not a good idea. I can't decide if it's an intentional gag that Roadblock then burns the flag himself (and indeed any other ones laying about) when he blows up the building.

[inflatable dalek]

71-73:

I'm not actually sure anything happened in 71. A completely desperate attempt to drag out a one part story to a second instalment for no real reason with some terrible exposition ("Once he was a Lt. like you!" "That's what happens when you make deals with the American Bananarama Corporation!").

The easy infiltration of the Pit III showed another good reason why contractors should have built it, all those Joe's hanging about outside is what drew Serpentor's attention to it in the first place. Oh, and Mindbender has changed sides. Wacky guy.

And come on Baroness, you can do better for a shag than that. Destro won't be pleased when he turns up. Perhaps he'll use those odd shoulder spikes to stab Fred to death.

Oh, and I take back being impressed by Fred actually killing Captain Ming Mong. He couldn't even do that right.

[Cliffjumper]

Yeh, didn't want to spoil that little twist of stupidity for you.

Fred basically seems to get his brain cooked on the long Pogo over to Cobra Island... Like I said earlier what starts off as a fairly neat (and probably at the time quite brave and unexpected) twist runs out of steam pretty quickly. The Baroness' motivations are really dodgy, like Zartan's.

Roadblock seems to get all the most embarrassing nationalistic bits, and the most embarrassing bits full stop... He's the one who beats an injured Storm Shadow, for instance, something we're meant to find a bit awesome. he has his first three issues as Mr. OTT Gourmet, then becomes big strong black guy.

[inflatable dalek]

Yeh, didn't want to spoil that little twist of stupidity for you.

Bastard.

Fred basically seems to get his brain cooked on the long Pogo over to Cobra Island... Like I said earlier what starts off as a fairly neat (and probably at the time quite brave and unexpected) twist runs out of steam pretty quickly. The Baroness' motivations are really dodgy, like Zartan's.

Like I said earlier, it really reads to me as if this was supposed to be a permanent change, with Cobra Commander just being a passable title like Robin. Which makes how Hama's buggering it up even more stupid.

The Baroness seems to have gone from manipulating Fred to being his pawn, he seems to be the one doing the work on seducing her and in the last two issues he's been merrily chucking her into battle and ignoring her. Preferring to spend time with Zartan (homoerotic subtext in GI Joe? Well I never).

What made Hasbro go for such a drastic change in his look anyway? Otherwise the Commander, along with Snake Eyes, seems to be one of the most consistent characters from toy to toy. It doesn't look like it lasts long either, the regular opening credits to the DiC series (with the YO JOE rap and Rad style voiceover) have him back in 'da hood.

74 & 75:

Mostly much better, Fred's still a dim witted tosser (despite having much more troops than Serpentor he's still losing before the Joe's turn up) and the Captain has a hilarious moment where he forces his own name into dialogue (and for some reason he's speaking in broken English when he's by himself rather than his own language).

But, Destro having a tea party, the uneasy alliance, lots and lots of fairly clear and sensible action all add up to a winner.

I was expecting this to be the storyline where loads of old toys die though, the set up all feels very Underbase but it's strangely bloodless so far. Only the BAT's have brought it on page so far.

[inflatable dalek]

Right, before a post detailing my thoughts on issues 75-80 (and the sharing of a AWESOME video), Mr. C. Jumper Esq was kind enough to send me today, amongst other things, a Storm Shadow toy.

Now some of you may remember Halfshell was good enough to send me a spare Beachhead recently. And very happy he was on top of my TV until my cat decided he was her official nemesis and took to knocking him off it, meaning, slowly but surely all his accesories got lost in the spot where it's impossible to reach without moving the entire chest of drawers. So it's hardly surprising that within moments of this (slightly blurry I'm afraid, I think my phone lense needs a clean) picture being taken:



This happened:



And there the blurring is due to her really going for it. He did survive though. And as I've been typing this my Mother has bested him as well by managing to knock him off by just walking past. Ninja my arse.

[inflatable dalek]

75-80:

The Cobra Island arc was overall really well done, fun, action packed and with a nicely bitter ending for the Joes. Dr. Mindbender's side switch at the end made sense as well. Though I do love that Cobra Commander got a hard to retcon on page death, Serpentor (who Hama apparently hated) gets several get out clauses (we don't see the arrow hit and he gets packed in ice immediately. I'd actually be surprised if he doesn't show up again before the end).

The follow up issues were OK, a bit too similar to the Joes getting shafted in the aftermath of the Springfield invasion, but there was still some good stuff there, such as Roadblock going to someone who doesn't like the team very much for help. The jingoism returns in full though with not one but two buy American commercials.

Destro got the best bits mind, love him lounging on the deck with the bikini clad Baroness (but how hot does it get in that helmet?) and turning up to save the day.

The Captain and the Commander plotline was a bit rubbish, Fred gives him a boat rather than just killing him? But otherwise a decent little arc. Though at this stage the idea of him impersonating CC is pretty much farcical as just about everyone but the Joes (who likely wouldn't care anyway as a nutters a nutter, they certainly don't pick up on Mihn's careful "The man in the Cobra Commander costume" comment) knows the truth.

The final issue about the new island was basically entirely throwaway but a good trade overall.

Oh, and thank **** for the Ghostrider thing coming up earlier in this thread or I'd be completely baffled. I still don't get why Hama just didn't give the guy a different name, considering their close working relationship on the line Hasbro can't have been that insistant on it surely?

Shame, as otherwise he was rather a fun character, nice and laid back.

And to top things off, came across this on youtube the other day, a video promo for the film. It's really rather sweet, especially the attempt to compensate for the lack of a cinema release by bigging up how you don't need to leave home to see it:



Christ, does Slaughter really say "AND...THIS...IS...FOR...THE...U...S...OF...A!" when needlessly beating an already defeated Nemesis Enforcer in the original dub? Blimey, the UK's "And this is for Action Force!" is a lot more subdued.

[Cliffjumper]

Stormy's funky. I actually bought that one because I thought I'd nicotined mine, but it seems he is just off-white. As a general point, for some strange reason Joes seem a lot more yellowing-proof than TFs...

If you do want any more kit for Beach Head, LMK... I keep piles of generic accs as spares.

The Cobra Island arc was overall really well done, fun, action packed and with a nicely bitter ending for the Joes. Dr. Mindbender's side switch at the end made sense as well.

I like the arc in general, but I can never stop thinking how much smoother it would have been with Cobra Commander rather than Fred - it would cut out most of the worst bits in one swipe.

The follow up issues were OK, a bit too similar to the Joes getting shafted in the aftermath of the Springfield invasion, but there was still some good stuff there, such as Roadblock going to someone who doesn't like the team very much for help. The jingoism returns in full though with not one but two buy American commercials.

Uh-huh... I'm not sure if it's just uncharitable reflection, but it does feel like the Joes spend the second half of the run with their hands tied for some nebulous reason, time after time, usually just as an excuse to slim the cast down to Hama's Half-Dozen.

I like the gist of the Rogue Roadblock bit (except the bit where the big scary black man jumps straight through the limo door, possibly on the promise of a big slice of wattiemelon), but found most of the execution to be a disappointment - rounding up Grunt, Cover Girl, Barbecue and co had me quite hyped up that we were going to see a bit more of these neglected reservists (the Avengers have done the odd storyline using the concept pretty well), only for it all to be a bit of an anti-climax at the hospital.

Though Destro's pure win with the receipt at the end. From about this point onwards he starts heading solidly into doing whatever the Hell he wants, and he's easily the most likeable character in the book because he's about the only shade of grey out there.

Oh, and thank **** for the Ghostrider thing coming up earlier in this thread or I'd be completely baffled. I still don't get why Hama just didn't give the guy a different name, considering their close working relationship on the line Hasbro can't have been that insistant on it surely?

I kinda wish we hadn't mentioned it earlier, because I'd love to hear what exactly someone who'd never hear the stupid reason had thought of some of the stupidest scripting in comics history. I can think of so many ways around it in any number of situations, Hasbro insistent or not, but Hama's there banging out intrusive trademark jokes in a book aimed at 12-year olds. Twat.

Plus I found the whole "G.I. Joe move in" bit to be generally very well scripted and quite andrenhaline-pumping, and the shitty joke yanks you out of it and you remember Tripwire tripping over and start wishing the BAF stuff had lasted longer.

[inflatable dalek]

Stormy's funky. I actually bought that one because I thought I'd nicotined mine, but it seems he is just off-white. As a general point, for some strange reason Joes seem a lot more yellowing-proof than TFs...

I do like the glower. I've always found it mildly amusing that the original Snake Eyes toy isn't really very ninja-rey, being more a guy in a ski mask ang goggles. It's like Hama was just so desperate to do the ninja thing he forced it on the closest character he could.

If you do want any more kit for Beach Head, LMK... I keep piles of generic accs as spares.

I'm tempted to have a fiddle later to see if I can reach, if not I'll let you know.

I like the arc in general, but I can never stop thinking how much smoother it would have been with Cobra Commander rather than Fred - it would cut out most of the worst bits in one swipe.

I've no idea how true this is, but reading TV Tropes earlier it seems Hama was basically told to kill Cobra Commander to fit in with what happens to him in the film, despite there being a new toy out which he would have to feature. No wonder it winds up a bit half arsed.

Oh, and loved Zartan's gratuitous mentioning of killing the Hard Master for no real reason when preparing to shoot Serpentor.

Uh-huh... I'm not sure if it's just uncharitable reflection, but it does feel like the Joes spend the second half of the run with their hands tied for some nebulous reason, time after time, usually just as an excuse to slim the cast down to Hama's Half-Dozen.

Yep, I think the problem is, as mentioned earlier, there's so many of them in comparison to the number of named Cobras outside constraints have to be brought in to to stop it being a walkover for the Joes (Cobra may have more generic soldiers but Joe has the trump card of theoretically being able to call on the resources of the entire US Army). A strange side effect of all this is that this very pro-US book is constantly having to present the US Government as full of jerks and bastards.

Grunt

Did I mention how awesome it was in the earlier issue when he phoned up offering his services as a secret rescue team for Steeler and co only to get told to sod off for not being a ninja?

Though Destro's pure win with the receipt at the end. From about this point onwards he starts heading solidly into doing whatever the Hell he wants, and he's easily the most likeable character in the book because he's about the only shade of grey out there.

He's easily fantastic, I was worried the new silly gold look was going to undo him but he's more than holding his own against it. His sidekick is good fun as well.

I kinda wish we hadn't mentioned it earlier, because I'd love to hear what exactly someone who'd never hear the stupid reason had thought of some of the stupidest scripting in comics history. I can think of so many ways around it in any number of situations, Hasbro insistent or not, but Hama's there banging out intrusive trademark jokes in a book aimed at 12-year olds. Twat.

The most obvious workaround is even done in one of the issues where Ghostrider and Wild Bill use callsigns to contact one another, that done more consistently would have worked fine (I mean, the adverts basically for the vehicle really so name checking the toy that comes with it isn't that essential. I doubt we're going to see him hanging round the Pit anytime soon.).

[Cliffjumper]

Yeh, that's the other problem - Ghost Rider's the vehicle driver, as you say. They regularly get shafted (how many times is a Rattler flown by anyone other than Wild Weasel? 99% of the times we see a Rattler, that's how many). So you've got the option of having Ace or Slip-Stream fly the thing.

You've got the aforementioned "He's super, super secret" thing where he's some black ops guy and next to nobody even knows his codename (simple conversation between Flint and Keel Haul stating only Hawk's met the guy, but that's good enough for them, something like that).

You've got the callsign one.

You've got just not mentioning his codename - refer to the plane, just have no-one address the pilot by codename. The unfortunate result of this is that the dialogue would sound more natural than usual due to the lack of people in highly visible distinctive unique costumes ending every line of dialogue with the codename of the person they're addressing.

You've got just calling him 'Ghost' or 'Rider'. People call Snake-Eyes "Snakes". People call Roadblock "Block" and it's all one ****ing word.

You've got the option of nobody remembering his name, but done in a fashion where ten of them don't stand around banging on about how they don't remember his name.

That's six options on the spin that are better than "drawing attention to it like a stupid, self-satisfied piece of shit who as a sideorder is a racist scumbag with all the comedic timing of the Holocaust".

Regarding Grunt, incidentally, that little plot arc is his big moment. His big college arc builds up to him being an extra in the Joes' invasion of a hospital.

[inflatable dalek]

Yep, you could even just have him called by his real name (and perhaps make the joke that he really hates his codename and ignores it, it's not much subtler but it wouldn't be as heavy handed).

Regarding Grunt, incidentally, that little plot arc is his big moment. His big college arc builds up to him being an extra in the Joes' invasion of a hospital.

Well, no wonder he brought his girlfriend with him. How long has he been in collage at this point? It feels like ten years.

Oh, I did like Firefly calling Mindbender "Baldy", that was awesome.

[Cliffjumper]

I'm Oktober Guarding it! Got Daina, Brekhov, Shrage and Gorky over the past few days, plus the 25th Anniversary Red Star... The old-style ones are tiny; Brekhov especially seems small even compared to the originals. He's also disappointingly good-looking. Daina's awesome with her little Russian hat too. I keep forgetting which one of Gorky and Shrage is which, though.

Other random purchases recently include Dart, Sure Fire, Hard Drive, Mirage, Big Brawler and General Flagg. No, I've never heard of them either.

Plus I ooopsed and got the 25th Anniversary Battle Armour Cobra Commander who's Cobra Commander rather than the one that's Fred. D'oh.

[inflatable dalek]

Plus I ooopsed and got the 25th Anniversary Battle Armour Cobra Commander who's Cobra Commander rather than the one that's Fred. D'oh.

What about the whole "It could be anyone under the mask" thing? Put him in the POGO with Raptor and Charlie Chan dressed as a sailor next to it and no one will ever know.

Slightly disappointed to find the fancy pants boxset discussed way back in the distant past of this thread seems to no longer be available on Amazon.com. I'll be fine with the individual boxsets when I do get round to getting the TV show but the big box was just so nice. Shame the BluRay of the original film is region locked to the States as well, I guess the DVD it will have to be. At least that's an improvement on the "Switch to Action Force halfway through" version I have at the mo.

Randomly rewatching the title sequences on Youtube earlier, and it hit me how well edited the Action Force credits are. The cut of the "GI: Joe: The Revenge of Cobra" title card is done seamlessly with some flame from the next shot covering the snip perfectly.

Shame there's only low quality VHS copies on the tube. Though I suppose anyone with decent editing skills and the soundtrack could recreate it with a high quality version of the Joe original, it's only the (frankly brilliant) CGI of the fist smashing the Cobra logo and becoming Action Force that would have to be taken off the tape.