I may at least try to highlight that, if not cover them all.  It was reprinted by Marvel as GI JOE European Missions.

I did see some of the British editions, though, at a local shop, after I got to college.  They also had some Captain Britain issues there.  At first, I wondered what the heck it was, then I noticed the UK pricing and realized it was the British version of JOE.

As far as I know, yes, it was a completely separate continuity, though I think the reprints might have Americanized a few things.  I was glancing through the first issue and it looked like they might have altered a word or two, like the term "sub-hallways" in stead of the likely "sub-passages" or "sub-corridors," that a British writer might use.

Too bad they were limited to using characters based on the toy line, because it would have been nice to see some British Army characters, like Para or Recce or Squadie....or else something like Salisbury Plain, Hammer (a West Ham supporter) or Essex Girl.

They could have had soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry......

Hell, Megaforce was closer to GI JOE than the JOE movies, and it predated the concept!

Well, it is little known that Australian soldiers fought alongside the JOEs, in Vietnam, hunting the Cobra Cong.

Oi, Joe!

GI JOE #2



Arctic Ninjas!

Wait, shouldn't he be wearing a white snow suit, to blend into the landscape better?

Trimpe is still using the wrong M-16 models, but, he at least seems to have moved up to the A-1 model, based on the muzzle breaks. He has some wonky proportions on the handle area of the upper receiver (the top). The magazines are also the Vietnam-era 20 rd one; the longer 30 round mags were standard, at that point.

Something familiar about a quonset hut on fire, in the Artic, with a team of soldiers poking around......



Roll Call:Larry Hamma-writer, Don Perlin & Jack Abel-art, Jim Novak-letters, Bob Sharen-colors, Tom DeFalco-editor, Jim Shooter-sitting in a warm office, back in the States,

Mission Report: An Air-Cav unit is at a US Research station, at the North Polar Ice Cap. The camp has been destroyed inan attack, by someone. As the officer-in-charge of the response team notes, it makes no sense for the Russians to have hit it, since they are the closest neighbors, in their own research station. They would be the prime suspect. General Flagg orders the area sealed. General Austin tells him to send a covert JOE team to investigate. The team is currently on leave, after their last assignment (what, all of them? They'd still have to maintain a duty section...). Stalker is ....um...stalking deer, in Wisconsin...



Breaker has gone to MIT to chew bubblegum and study crystiline fracture points, and he is all out of bubblegum. He gets recalled before a cute researcher can try to pick him up, in the cafeteria. Scarlett is kicking some guys butt, in a martial arts tournament, when an MP tells her she has been recalled to duty. She walks out of the match and her opponent tries to recover some pride and attacks her from behind. She goes all Cynthia Rothrock on her....



Pretty certain that is a penalty, as most tournaments do not allow contact with the head.

Bette Davis....er, Snake Eyes is at Columbia University, using a sensory deprivation tank. An MP shows up and insists the techs open it up, then is shocked by Snake Eyes' face, and he dons his mask.

Snake Eyes is Dr Doom?

General Flagg briefs them in the air, over the Arctic. Their primary mission is to conduct a recon, without being seen. If they encounter hostiles, they are to withdraw. their secondary mission is to retrieve the missing records, from the US station. The team does an airborne insertion and then humps the distance, over the ic, to the Russian station. They set up an observation post, within range of the camp and sit there and watch.

6 hours later, they spot someone. It is an Eskimo (their words....an inuit or yupik tribesman), with a dog sled team....



...and a .30 cal US M1919 machine gun, slung across his broad back. He goes into the Russian hut, but comes out quickly, then mushes his dog sled team in the direction of the coast. The JOEs decide something is fishy and they don't mean the caviar. They move in for a closer look. The door to the hut is wide open and they carefully enter and discover....



The Russians are dead, their transmitter modulator is gone, the safe has been rifled, and Snake Eyes finds a booby trap. They dive out of the building before it blows. They assume he was working for the Russians and will rendezvous with a sub. They make their report to General Flagg and head off, tracking the Eskimo. While they are running after their target, they get data back from Flagg, about their target.....



The Eskimo's name is Kwinn (seriously?).

I guess when he gets there, the Russians are going to jump for joy!

The dossier also indicates he is a mercenary, who has worked for both sides, always fulfills a contract and keeps his word, speaks multiple European and Innuit languages and is an expert with convential firearms and traditional weapons.

The JOEs catch up to Kwinn, who has made camp, next to a wrecked plane. They assume it was how he arrived. They see no sign of a pilot and the dossier didn't mention piloting skills. The carefully move up to surprise Kwinn, who is sitting by a fire, but they find a surprise....



Kwinn suddenly appears, holding a detonator, with a dead-man switch (sends a signal if the switch is released). He orders them to lay down their weapons. He takes their packs and destroys their sat-com, then explains what happened...



The Russians were conducting a psychological experiment, inducing fear via energy waves, which caused the Americans to grow paranoid. there was a leakage and it infected the Russian technicians, who attacked the Americans. Their own paranoia was to extreme when their heater broke down and the froze to death, after turning on one another.

Kwinn's flight crew is waiting for him at a camp, near the sea, to await submarine extraction. Scarlett questions why he is telling them all this and Snake Eyes signals her. Kwinn answers for them, that they are dead, without their equipment, as he leaves with it, in his dogsled.

Scarlett suggests heading for the American station, to seek shelter, but Stalker says they are pursuing Kwinn and gives orders. They cannibalize the aircraft, finding charts of the area and use the landing skis, seats and parachutes to construct a crude ice boat. They then give chase.



Snake Eyes brings along the plastic explosives, even though they have no detonators (Then how was Kwinn supposed to detonate them, to kill the team?), to the confusion of the others. They are able to get ahead of Kwinn, in their light craft and with prevailing winds. They spot an ice bridge over a cairn that Kwinn will have to travel. Snake Eyes produces to magazines of ammo, hidden in his boot (must be roomy boots), which gives them something that can detonate the explosives. They rig up a booby trap, after pouiing the powder and primer charges from the cartridges, into a canteen cup.....



They spot Kwinn's sled approaching and set off the explosives, when the sled is in range, burying it under snow and ice. They work quickly to get the sled dogs out and try to neutralize Kwinn, but he isn't there. he expected a trap and has outflanked them, holding his M1919 on them. However, he missed Scarlett and she attacks from behind, delivering a dropkick to the back of his head. He doesn't go down and knocksScarlett into a snowbank. Snake Eyes pulls another magazine out of his boot and dives on the dog sled, grabbing his Uzi and slapping in the magazine. He chambers a round, but it will not fire. Kwinn smiles and taunts him with his necklace of seal heads, which hold the firing pins, from their weapons. He lets them live, saying the Russian experiment is an abomination and he should give them the transmitter, but, a contract is a contract. He does not kill them and departs.

Kwinn rendezvous with the Russians and takes his payment of gold, but does not remain and heads off in his sled, saying the JOEs will be there. The Russians demand he stay and protect them and he refuses, saying he has fulfilled his contract. They accuse him of betraying them and he replies that he left them five miles away, with no way to fire their weapons. He turns and starts to much his sled, then says he left the firing pins in a cairn, as an offering tot he spirits of ice and snow, that fear might be eliminated. he tells them they are only one mile from it, compared to the four miles, for the JOEs. Maybe they can reach it in time and he departs. As he leaves, he says "but they are trackers and you are not..."



Analysis: The basic plot here is taken from the novel, Ice Station Zebra, by Alistair Maclean, which was adapted into film, directed by John Sturges. In the novel, a fire breaks out at a drift ice research station, designation Zebra (for Z, using the pre-1956 Combined Communications Board Radio Telehoney Aplhabet. After changes in 1956, the modern standard replaced Zebra with Zulu). Supplies are destroyed and several killed and a US nuclear submarine is dispatched to rescue the survivors. A mysterious doctor carries orders from the Chief of Naval Operations to join the crew, as a doctor, specializing in frostbite and Aerctic exposure treatment. The CO is suspicious and refuses to allow him to join the mission, until he finally reveals he is an MI-6 intelligence officer, whose brother is the commander of the station. They journey to the location and have to break through the pack ice, about 8 miles from the camp. They then trek across the ice, in a storm and locate and treat the survivors. they discover that a man has been shot and learn that others were killed and the fire deliberately set. The station came into possession of reconnaissance film of US missile basis, taken by a Russian satellite and jettisoned. The survivors are loaded onto the sub and on the return voyage, a fire breaks out in the engine room, nearly destroying the sub, in an act of deliberate sabotage.

The film created additional characters, including a Russian defector, played by Ernest Borgnine, a Marine detachment, commanded by Jim Brown, and has the sub sabotaged on the journey to the station, then the traitor tries to kill the MI-6 man, played by Patrick McGoohan. They end up in a confrontation with Russian paratroopers, searching for the film re-entry capsule.

The same basic plot applies here, except the destruction and murder is caused by the Russian experiments, which backfires on their own men. Kwinn is the mercenary hired to recover the transmitter and stolen files, before the Americans can get their hands on them. Kwinn, however, has a code of honor and he does not like the experiments to induce fear, as it it the greatest danger in his world. He fulfills his contract, but gives the JOEs a fighting chance to stop the Russians and their experiments.

The name, obviously, comes from the 1967 Bob Dylan song, "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" which was most famously covered by Manfred Mann.



The camera doesn't stay on him (probably for good reason), but it didn't look like the guitarist was even trying to mime chord changes.

Kwinn actually turns out to be a fascinating character, a highly capable and deadly foe, but one with a code of honor and a conscience. He is truthful and fulfills the letter of his contract; but, that doesn't stop him from setting up the possibility for justice, in the form of the JOEs retrieving their firing pins and hunting down the Russians, destroying the transmitter and recovering the stolen records. It is his way of sending a message to the Russians about messing with the natural order of things. Visually, Kwinn makes a great character, as his size and ethnicity helps him standout, while the characterization makes him a far more memorable character than either Cobra Commander or the Baroness, so far.

Kwinn was not developed for the toy line and debuts here, as a totally original character, which also explains why he isn't working for Cobra. He did eventually get a figure, in 2004, as part of the GI JOE Generation 2 release. It's actually a smart move on Larry Hama's part, as it allows them to expand the Joe stories into other areas and not just a perpetual, and potentially repetitive war with Cobra.

This was my first actual purchase in the series, as I missed issue 1, until I got it through the Fan Club mail-in offer. Perlin's art is a bit on the subdued and mundane side; but it works and he tells the story well. My biggest pet peeve, then and sort of now is the lack of accuracy in the weapons. I was weaned on the DC war comics (and Charlton, to a lesser extent, as well as Sgt Fury) and those tended to be far bigger sticklers for accuracy, especially as they tended to be popular on military base PXes (Post eXchange....a retail store for servicemembers and their families. In the Navy, we called them the Naval Exchange. You paid no sales tax and regulations limited profit margins, so you had lesser markups than civilian stores). Marvel is aiming for a different audience, though and the detailing on the toys wasn't any more accurate than the comics. They went for an approximation, which is understandable, though it will always be a stickler, for me. Perlin's Uzi is a bit wonky, but mostly captures the silhouette, though he makes the common mistake of comics of the period to leave out the shoulder stock. The actual Israeli submachine guns (manufactured by Israeli Military Industries and also under license, by several arms manufacturers, in Europe) included either a fixed wooden shoulder stock...



...or metal folding stock....



The weapon became synonymous with Israeli soldiers, especially after the Entebbe Raid and the Hollywood adaptations of the events of the hijacking and mission (Victory At Entebbe, Raid on Entebbe, Operation Thunderbolt, 7 Days at Entebbe) and in Hollywood action films and tv shows, in the 1980s, such as Miami Vice. A popular range of battery powered squirt guns, shaped like the Uzi, also added to their entry into the public consciousness. Every kid of the 80s knew what an Uzi was, just like my generation knew what a Colt six-shooter was (they elite of us knew it was called the Piecemaker or Colt Army model) and kids of the 70s knew what an M-16 was (thanks to tv shows like SWAT, as well as footage from Vietnam, on the evening news). Half the time, neither the media nor the kids knew the difference between the Uzi and the similarly designed Ingram M-10 and M-11 submachine guns....


(As used by Snake Plissken, in Escape From New York)

It had a boxier shaped receiver and was often fitted with a noise suppressor, but had a similar magazine well, situated inside the pistol grip. The Uzi was far more accurate and gave better control. It was actuall developed from a Czech submachine gun design, the CZ Model 25



But, who cares, I hear you say. Well, some of us who read these kinds of things did, so nyaaah!

Ironically, I have never owned a firearm, as an adult and had my fill of them, in the Navy. Really, I had my fill of them after my dad wounded a rabbit, when we were hunting, on my grandfather's farm, and it was still alive and shrieked when he picked it up. He dashed it against a tree to finish it off and I never hunted again. It wasn't the latter part that got to me, it was the noise the rabbit made and the thrashing. I could no longer look at them, as a target. I wasn't that fond of the taste of them, as it was. I did fire M1911A1 .45 cal pistols, in the Navy and qualified with the Remington 870 12 ga shotgun, as part of my basic qualifications (I was also on the ship's security alert team, as Disbursing Officer) and was always armed when I picked up the ship's payroll, for payday (and had an armed guard with me). That satisfied any leftover childhood fantasies of playing Army and handling guns, though I still maintained a historical interest in the military and the development of firearms. I just don't feel the need to own them and stock up for Doomsday or the Zombie Apocalypse and do believe in limits on ownership and types of firearms available to the general public, from a public safety aspect. But, that's another topic.

Issue #1 was good enough, for a toy tie-in comic; but, this issue suggests this series might be a bit more than that and that there may be some serious (if derivative) drama and action to be had.

This also gives us more character development for Snake Eyes, probably more than the rest. We learn that he is facially disfigured, which is why he is always masked, ala Doctor Doom. We also learn he is a sneaky SOB, who hides extra magazines in his boots, even though M-16 magazines would be too bulky to do that. You might get away with an Uzi magazine, though he produces both, from his boots. They would also tend to show as a big bulge, in the leather of the boot, or the rubber of Arctic boots. Then again, the JOEs have laser weapons, so why not?

Stalker is shown hunting deer, for pleasure, but with a camera and not a rifle (or muzzleloading rifle, shotgun with slug, or bow). Whether that is a deliberate choice as a character trace or just a concession to not promoting the idea of hunting, for sport, I have no idea. You could interpret it either way, though the page is set up to make you think he is looking through a targeting scope of a rifle, to then reveal he is holding a camera with long range telefoto lens, when the helicopter turns up to collect him.

Scarlett is shown to be a badass martial artist, though the tournament seems to have rather loose rules. her discipline is supposed to be tae kwon do, though she appears to engage in judo, in the earliest panels, then launches a flying kick, in her last panel, at the tournament. the background banner identifies it as a freestyle tournament; but, in that era, you rarely saw that big a mixture of styles. Grappling arts tended to have tournaments separate from striking arts, even within freestyle tournaments. Cross-training was quite as prominent, except in things like Jeet Kun Do, Bruce Lee's style, which incorporated his background in wing chun kung fu, grappling (which he learned from wrestler/stuntman Judo Gene LeBell), and his own techniques for "trapping" (intercepting and trapping hands or feet, when they enter "trapping range" and then hitting the opponent with a counter-strike). Lee's philosophy was to use whatever works best for you and was one of the key inspirations for what would become Mixed Martial Arts (along with catch wrestling, as practiced by Japanese pro wrestlers, Brazilian vale tudo matches, as showcased by Gracie Jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing).

Breaker is shown to have advanced technical and scientific skills, by studying at MIT, in his off-duty time.

Next issue, we return to the battle with Cobra, as they apply an age-old strategy, against the JOE team.

There are Americans that don't own firearms? Is that legal?

GI JOE #3



I don't know what kind of weapon that soldier is holding. It looks like the love child of the M-16 and the AK-47. It mostly reminds me of a toy gun I had, that was based on the Romanian AK-47



Roll Call: Larry Hama-writer, Herb Trimpe-pencils, Jack Abel & Jon D'Agostino-inks, Diana Albers-letters, George Roussos-colors, Tom DeFalco-editor, Jim Shooter-REMF

Mission Report: The JOE team is busy mopping up, after a raid on a Cobra stronghold, which looks rather like a high school gym, if you ask me......



I see Cobra had Kinkos whip them up a few banners. Probably how the JOE team found them out.

Steeler and Clutch dismantle a Cobra battle robot. Breaker reports in to General Flagg and requests transport and medevac for the wounded, mainly Cobra troopers who dropped their guard, with Snake Eyes. An ambulance arrves to remove the wounded and disguised US Mail trucks carry off the robot components and the JOE team, taking them back to The Pit, beneath the grounds of Ft Wadsworth. As they travel, it is revealed that the Pit lies underneath the US Army Chaplain School! (see Analysis) They also intimate that the chaplains are unaware of it.

Sheyeah, right; chaplains know everything that is going on, they just don't show it, publicly!

The truck with the robot components is sent down the elevator to the bowels of the Pit, for analysis and we learn about the defensive arrangement of the facility, in terms of why certain portions are on particular levels....



The robot components are taken to a lab and the guys decide to have some breakfast. Hawk and Scarlett have an appointment to attend a social party at the Chaplain's School, which is being held in the motor pool building. They go to get into their Class A uniforms, while Snake Eyes, Flash and Stalker stow the weapons, in the armory.

Meanwhile, back when the trucks were headed to Staten Island, to Ft Wadsworth, we saw Cobra Commander and his technicians monitoring listening devices. Now, he receives word that it is time for the robot's timing emchanism to restart its brain. It has been preprogrammed to reassemble itself and then get beyond any shielding to transmit the location of the JOE base. We then see a mechanical hand receive a signal and "crawl" across the table and then to a console, where it activates the balst doors at various levels, cutting off those rooms.



Stalker, Flash and Snake Eyes are trapped in the armory, while Breaker, Clutch and Steeler are locked in the canteen, while making breakfast (don't they have a chow hall?). Hawk and Scarlett are up above, at the party, in the motor pool. One of the guests thought she smelled bacon cooking, as an aroma came up a ventilation shaft and out a floor grate.

The robot hands then begin assembling segments and then attaches the head and the robot is fully active.

Meanwhile, in the canteen, Clutch removes an access plate, on the blast door and sees the counterweight, which holds the door shut. he doesn't have a crowbar or jack to lift it, though. Steeler tells him to stand aside and removes his battle blouse. He then crouches down and gets a hold on the bar and lifts it, telling Breaker to jam a chair into the doorway when the door opens. He remarks to Breaker that it isn't much different then changing a bogey wheel on the MOBAT tank. Breaker gets it in there and wedges it, holding the door partially open, when Steeler lets loose of the counterweight. They then move out to assess the situation.

In the armory, Flash suggests using his laser rifle, at a low power setting, to burn through the locking mechanism. The room is airtight, so it is the easiest way to burn through, without eating up all of the oxygen. The others crawl into bunks to conserve air (bunks in an armory?) It does the trick, just as the air really starts getting fowl.

While the armory group are burning their way out, Breaker's group heads for the lab and runs into the robot, now fully functional and weapon systems activated. They are forced to retreat and Clutch hits on an idea and runs into the shower area. He loads a bucket full of after shave and sets fire to it, then tosses the flammable liquid onto the robot.

Cobra has troops in the air, waiting for the homing signal from the robot to be outside any shielded area. At the party, one of the chaplain's now says he smells something like an electrical fire.

Breaker and his team check for the robot, which is gone. they go into the training area, in search and it comes up out of the pool, where it extinguished the fire. They are forced to retreat to the elevator and take it up to the garage level, where the MOBAT and VAMP are parked, but their ammo has been stored. The robot starts climbing the elevator cable and Clutch drops the elevator car on it. It doesn't stop it, so they move the HAL laser cannon over and drop it down the shaft, but miss the robot, which stopped at a lower floor and broke through the doors. It blasts through the stairwell doors and starts climbing stairs tot he garage level. Meanwhile, Steeler, Clutch and Breaker hit on a plan and grab paint and aluminum sheeting, used for "chaff." The robot bursts through the doors, into the garage and one of them throws a bucket of paint into its visual receptors. They then goad it towards the aluminum foil, spread across the floor. It steps onto it and plunges down the vehicular elevator shaft, which they had camouflaged.



The robot hits the bottom of the shaft and breaks apart. In the motor pool, one of the chaplains says the crashing noise sounds like a truckload of anvils going over a cliff. Hawk says it must be an acoustical phenomenon, as there is nothing but solid Staten Island underneath the motor pool>

Tsk, tsk, lying to a chaplain; you are going straight to Hell!

Cobra's helos are running low on fuel, waiting for the signal. Cobra Commander orders them to hold position until the last possible second.

Once the armory is opened, Stalker, Snake Eyes and Flash grab weapons and head for the sound of the crash. They find the shattered robot, but the head is moving. Flash hits it with a blast from the laser rifle and it crashes down from a wall it was climbing, with tentacles. A compartment breaks open, and small little "spider" robots emerge and start climbing the walls, trying to get beyond the shielding, to broadcast the homing signal. The JOEs start smashing and shooting the ones they can see, but there are a dozen and they spread out. The JOEs go hunting. Breaker works at getting their security sensors back online, to aid in the search. They JOEs stop several from getting to vents and airshafts and Breaker finially has the computer online. One last spider is near the top of the airshaft, leading into the motor pool. It is too far away to reach before it can transmit a signal to Cobra.

One of the Chaplains hears noises coming from the grating and bends down to examine it. he sees the spider crawl out of it. Scarlett takes care of the problem...



The chaplain swears he heard a cheer, from below, but Hawk blows it off as another acoustical anomaly. he then remarks to Scarlett that he is going to recommend some leave for the team, as it sound like some of them are getting a bit "barracks happy." Cobra Commander gives the recall order and the Cobra helicopters return to base.

Analysis: The title of the story is "The Trojan Gambit," which pretty much telegraphs the plot, on the splash page. Using the time-honored tradition of Odysseus, Cobra has planted a Trojan Horse into the JOE's base, at The Pit. It has independently operable segments, which allows it to operate the hand, to manipulate the security systems and block off the JOEs, then assemble the complete robot to break past security shielding and transmit the homing signal ("open the gates of the city"). The image of the hand operating independently reminds me of a similar scene, in a later episode ("Terrorform") of the UK sci-fi comedy series, Red Dwarf.....



The DCAU would do similar things, with Brainiac.

Ft Wadsworth is a real location and it did house the US Army Chaplain School; but, not in 1982. Larry Hama had been stationed at the post, during his time in the Army and had fond memories of the Chaplain School being there. So, he included it. It also did not have a motor pool. In 1979, it had actually been turned over to the US Navy and was used as the headquarters facility for the Naval Station New York. It was shut down after the Vase Closure and Realignment Commission put it on the chopping block, in 1994 (when multiple military posts were shut down, including my old duty station, Naval Station Charleston, as well as Chanute Air Force Base, in Rantoul, in my home region of central Illinois).

It is a bit ridiculous to have a top secret installation underneath a working military base, which is separate from the base's function. There would be too many people around who would be suspicious of the comings and goings in the secure area. Plus, the construction of such a thing would never be secret. It's not exactly like the NORAD base, inside Cheyenne Mountain, where they carved the installation out of the rock and built up an underground complex, from scratch. All of that was done under a security cover and then operated as such, as a high security area. The location was known; but, the location was chosen specifically because it would be impervious to a nuclear strike and could continue to function, in war. A secret base for the JOEs is cool and has a certain strategic sense; however, it is not very practical. You have to staff it and arm it and maintain it and that takes personnel, who would be coming and going. The best way to control security of such a site, is to isolate it from other activities. There are no real secrets on a military base, though there are secure areas. you have to have the proper security clearance and access to go into them. For instance, Naval Special Warfare Development Group, aka DEVGRU, aka SEAL Team 6, is based as NAS Oceana, at Virginia Beach, VA, at the Damneck Annex (aka Training Support Center, Hampton Roads). The area is part of a large base complex system, with the DEVGRU area and the Navy an Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center also segregated, because of the nature of their work. Basically, you don't go in there, if you aren't assigned there. End of story. Everybody in the area knows who you are and the general picture of your mission, but not operational details. That includes weapons and support vehicles and equipment. In theory, yes you could target the base; but, in practice, good luck making a successful strike. That is why you have security.

For dramatic purposes, a secret headquarters, especially underground, is more fun,. That then becomes the main thrust of the plot, as Cobra tries a gambit to locate it it and transmit that location to an assault force. The problem with the plan is the security of the base. Hama is fairly clever with the plot, as the robot gets things inside, but, it is scanned for active signals and transmissions, before bringing it in. So, the robot appears to be inert, before they truck it to The Pit. Them he has it further scanned and determined not to be a threat, so everyone heads to chow. Then, surprise, a self-timer activates a CPU and the robot hand executes a pre-programmed sequence. Now, to program such a thing, Cobra would have had to have some idea about JOE's security measures. Dialogue suggests they have thought of the most logical set-up and programmed the robot to exploit the likely defenses; but, that is a bit omniscient. We have to infer how the robot searches out and locates the command controls and activates the blast doors, not to mention bypasses any computer security protocols.

In other words, plot convenience.

It's not excessively excessively egregious, so we let it pass. Then, Hama ratchets up the tension as the JOEs have to solve a set of puzzles, before the robot can get to high ground and transmit. Once they get out, they have to stop the robot, without the proper weapons, forcing them to improvise.

This really gives us a sense of the technical capacity of Cobra, as well as their tactical thinking. This is not a screeching Cobra Commander, issuing orders in a frenzy. This is a cool, calculating leader, with a head for military strategy and a dangerous, well equipped and well trained adversary. It also shows the technical skills, training and ability to improvise of the JOE Team. They are able to use their mechanical and technological skills to get out of their prisons and them formulate a plan to fight and stop the robot, without heavy weapons. They attack its vulnerable points, like its optics and radar sensors, with the flammable after shave and the paint, and the aluminum sheeting to "chaff" the radar. Aluminum foil is used to fool tracking radars and confuse it enough to divert missile targeting systems. Fighters haves chaff launchers that will shoot fragments of aluminum into the air and confuse the targeting radars of missiles. If done correctly, it can cause a missile to veer off course enough to miss the target.

Hama also engages in some humor, with the scenes at the party, as they try to cover from the sounds and smells that have emerged from below. No chaplain is that naive. You'd have better luck trying to convince them that you have no idea how you contracted an STD, as you have kept yourself pure, for marriage.

Aside from the issue of locating the secure facility below a very non-secure school, there is one major mistake in this issue, which is down to Herb Trimpe, who probably should have known better, as a veteran. When Scarlett is in her dress uniform, she is draw with her hair in a pontytail, hanging down the back of her neck.....



US military regulations for women's hair, at the time (I can't speak for the present; but suspect it is still mostly the same) specifies that it must not interfere with the proper wearing of headgear and cannot extend below the base of the collar, in either length or pinned up. Most servicewomen either wear their hair in a bun, with the bun positioned under their cap, or cut it to a shorter length to avoid the hassle of pinning it up. A ponytail does not conform to regulations. Trimpe served in the Air Force, from 1962 to 1966 and I would assume he would have encountered female service personnel, at some point, especially since he was in a weather division. Although he might not have been up on Army regulations, Air Force regulations (and Navy and Marine Corps) were pretty consistent, when it came to the wearing of hair. The only change that ever came down to that, in my time, was the allowing of males to wear a single ear piercing, in civilian attire, in 1991/92. Prior to that, male servicemen were not allowed to have ear piercings or wear an earring in even civilian clothes, and women were limited to a single set of piercings and specific uniform earrings (small gold orbs). Special Operations units often work under modified grooming standards, if their missions have the potential for them operating undercover. However, that wouldn't change the wearing of long hair, for women, in uniform and males would generally have to have a neat presentation, with longer hair or facial hair, in uniform. When my duty station did exercises with Red Cell, a training team of Navy SEALs who act as terrorists, in security training drills, they SEALs had longer haircuts; but, we aren't talking mullets.

The only people who are going to notice would be military readers; but, this series did have a big following at the PX. My digital copy of issue #6 is missing the letter page, so I have no idea if it was brought up by readers.

Overall, good plot, nice pacing and a good use of the characters

Cobra's helos are depicted as having a vaguely cobra hood shape, to the fuselage.....



They also appear fairly large and we see door gunners, in one panel. My guess would be that they are the size of something akin to the CH-53E Super Stallion or the Mil Mi-24 Hind gunship, of the Soviet military. A Hind could carry a squad of 8 troops, along with a 3-man crew. A CH-53 could carry up to 38 troops (platoon size), plus a 3-man crew. The Cobra ships look bigger than a Huey or Blackhawk, which would carry about 11 passengers. In looking through the oy images, I do not see anything that is comparable. The first Cobra helicopter vehicle was the Cobra FANG, which was a single-seat gyrocopter, ala Little Nellie in You Only Live Twice....



It's basic shape is closer to the AH-1 Cobra Gunship; but, that design was the basis for the GI JOE Dragonfly attack helicopter, in the same 1983 toy wave.

We will have to see if these appear again, or if they will stick more to the toy releases (as the cartoon did). At the time of the earliest issues of the comic, the vehicle toys consisted of the HAL laser cannon, a FLAK anti-aircraft gun (not used so far, in the comic), the VAMP, the MOBAT tank, the RAMROD motorcycle (with gatling gun) the JUMP jetpack, the MMS Missile Launcher (which came with the Hawk figure) and the Cobra Missile Command set.





"You've not seen the last of Cobra!"

Kid should have shook his fist at them, for the full effect!

At this point, I was used to the artistic discrepancies in the weaponry and the plots were pretty good; so, I stuck with the series, as I found new issues and had cash.

Next issue, the JOE team takes on domestic terrorism, as we question the legal status under which they operate.