GI JOE #61



I know it's more dramatic, but trained soldiers don't fire from that kind of position. This is how a combat veteran depicts a similar situation.....



Notice they are hugging any cover they can find, no matter how small, reducing their exposure to enemy fire, while taking aimed shots at the enemy. Check out Our Fighting Forces #152, "A Small Place in Hell," to see how Jack Kirby illustrated what house-to-house fighting was like, street fighting, etc. That is probably the single best depiction in comic books of real combat, by someone who was there.

Creative Team: Larry Hama-writer, Marshall Rogers & Danny Bulandi-art, Joe Rosen-letters, Bob Sharen-colors, Bob Harras-editor, Jim Shooter-about to walk into an ambush of his own.

Synopsis: Hawk briefs a team for a covert op, behind the Iron Curtain.....



They are to rescue an American journalist, Devlin Winchell, arrested on espionage charges. They will go in under deep cover, with "sterile" clothing and gear, and are being discharged, for plausible deniability.

Um......no..........only in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Billy tells off his old man, now that he has his memory back. He says he is outta there, but Fred 7 tries to stop him and gets kicked in the face for his trouble. Raptor goes to call his pet birds, with a whistle and Billy kicks it out of his mouth and Raptor leaves some white stuff on the floor. Billy is leaving, but vows that he will not betray his father. Cobra Commander pulls his gun, but let's the kid motor. Fred argues, but CC tells him to button his lip.



The group meets up at the Hotel Grod (You'll Go Ape for Our Rates!),, along with Spigou, their local contact. Somehow, Outback is supposed to be a red-headed Arab.....



Why do I expect to see Sgt Schultz pop in?



The journalist is being held in the State Secrity Building, in the main square. Heavily fortified, electronic surveillance, armed guards the works. Their way in is through a back alley loading dock, where a cleaning crew will dump garbage onto a truck, for removal. The team will be secreted on that truck.

I smell a rat and his name rhymes with Spirou.

Spigou provides them with Uzis and grenades and ammo.

Back in Colorado, Billy goes looking for the blind sensei and meets up with a ninja, Jinx. She asks him if he has seen any "meeses" and then he guesses that she is attached to the JOE team.....



Back at Fred's Garage, Cobra Commander tells Fred and S@#$-Bird....er, Raptor, that he is tapping out......



Fred and Bird are all, "What about me...what about Raven?"



CC says he will write letters of recommendation to Serpentor.

Wait, Cobra has HR? Now there's the real evil!

CC says toodles and Fred rants about giving up his identity, undergoing surgery to become a Fred and quotes Dee Snyder.....





Didn't show that on the cartoon!

Meanwhile, in Borovia (bordering Moosylvania and Fredonia), it's time to collect thee garbage.....





They quickly overwhelm the guard and take the keys. He rats out the other two guards and Quick-Kick (Akira Maeda?) nuchucks them in the head. Snow-Job performs a rear naked choke on another and Quick Kick and Stalker check the cells, but they are all empty. Stalker signals Snow to lighten up and then puts the barrel of his Uzi against the guard's head and asks where Winchell is?

This is no time to be asking about donuts, guys!



The guard says he is gone, exchanged for one of their spies, via the US State Department....who forgot to call the Defense Secretary, at the Pentagon.



Upstairs, the empty guard station has been discovered; and, before you can say "AAOOOOOOOOOOOGGAHHH!" the alarms go off. Ourback, armed with a Ppsh 41, tells the guys to "Didi" and provides covering fire. They get to the truck, but Quick-Kick is hit. Outback yells for Spigou to floor it. They speed away as guards emerge and return fire. One yells to alert Colonel Ratnikov.

Snow-Job has been hit, too, but it is a clean entry and exit wound. Stalker asks Spigou if he can get them to a safe house and he says he is the entire organization and there is no safe house. No grenades, either. They run into a roadblock and take incoming fire. Spigou turns down an alley and tells the others to get out and run, he will try to delay them. He's hit, also. He backs out and plows towards the roadblock. Stalker makes the call and orders Outback to make his way to the border and report back to base, while he stays with the wounded.

Spigou go "BOOM".....



Staler and the wounded are trapped. Ratnikov asks for the whereabouts of the others and Stalker keeps stum and gets kicked in the head and goes down. outback is below, down a manhole, and hears everything, as blood seeps through the seam.

The JOEs watch the news on CNN.......



The comic then self-destructs.......



Thoughts: Fast-paced, exciting stuff....apart from the Cobra nonsense. Cobra Commander is just giving up, like that? Not on your screeching life! Except, he got a bullet to the back.

Doesn't mean he is dead, though........

Spigou didn't turn out to be a rat, like I figured, which would be a far more likely situation than the State Department getting Winchell out, without consulting the DOD. This all would be handled at a Cabinet level, which means both would be involved, as the President would want options. Plus, the US military isn't sent in covert to pull out one journalist. The CIA might set up something, especially if the journalist is a real "asset," but not the DOD, unless we are talking a hostage situation. Spy exchanges are actually the usual form of negotiation, in such situations. If they want covert, the CIA would have its own, disavowable assets. Plus, you don't just discharge soldiers before you send them on covert missions. DEVGRU and DELTA operate covert all the time and are not discharged to prevent a link. It's going to come out, though they will probably start with a cover story of being a recon, from another unit. This was the scenario used by Andy McNab, the pseudonym of an SAS trooper Steven Mitchell, from the Bravo Two Zero SCUD-hunting patrol, caught behind Iraqi lines, during the Gulf War. McNab and a couple of others were caught and repeatedly interrogated and claimed they were from units other than the SAS. One of the patrol, Colin Armstrong made it out, by walking to Syria, shattering the regiment's historical record of Trooper Sillito, in North Africa, during WW2, by cover 300 km on foot. Later research and SAS records dispute many of McNab's claims and some of Armstrong's own account of the mission, though the overland trek was factual.

The upside of the Cobra section is that we have an interesting turn of events, as Fred "frags" Cobra Commander and implies that he will use the armor to replace him, within the Cobra command structure. How long befor people start acting suspicious? Is Cobra Commander still alive; and, if so, what will he do to Fred?

Next, Billy walks and meets up with Jinx, who is part of the JOE team and a ninja...technically, a kunoichi. The term means "woman, " but became a term for a female ninja, thanks to the influence of Futaro Yamada's novel Ninpo Hakkaden. The existence of actual female ninja spies is highly debated and largely believed to be fiction. So, tough luck, Elektra. This is GI JOE, though, so we get a female ninja, in a red outfit, because red is so stealthy. Then again, actual ninja didn't wear black pajamas, either. That is a conceit carried over from kabuki plays, where actors dressed in black are considered to be invisible. Actual ninjas would wear ordinary clothing, to blend in with the populace. They were spies and saboteurs, not assassins. They had samurai for that. Again, most of what the Western world knows of ninja comes from fiction, not historical record. That is why the idea of Snake Eyes being a ninja is so laughable. A trained commando is beyond what a ninja did. But, it was the 80s and everybody had given up "kung fu fighting" for "Ninja Rap"....



(Okay, technically, that's the 90s; but, still......)

Don't know why Outback was wearing the keffiyeh, as no one is going to believe a red-headed Arab. The mission brief says his cover was an oil refinery engineer, from an Arab state, but did not state he was supposed to be an Arab. Just make his cover that of a Canadian. No one ever suspects a Canadian!

This brings us up to speed with Special Missions. As you recall, Outback went on the run, made it out of the city and bought a truck, then made it across the border into the Austrian Alps, where he requested to speak with the US Embassy. Next issue picks up the storyline. After that, we will cross back over to Special Missions, for the next issue.

GI JOE Special Missions #7



This cover puts me in mind of a little known, but engaging little action-drama, from the late 70s.......



Great little film, with a terrific cast, shot in Greece. By the way, the monastery is at Meteora, the same location used in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, later.

Creative Team: Larry Hama-writer, Herb Trimpe-artist, Phil Felix (Oh, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar.....)-letters, Bob Sharen-colors), Bob Harras-editor, Jim Shooter-Na, na, na, na; na, na, na, na; wayyyyaaaa hey, goodbye!

In reading this issue and the regular series, timelines get a bit confused. This has Chuckles, who was introduced in issue #60, but haven't yet been integrated into the JOE team; yet, here he is, working with Lady Jaye and Breakwe and Tunnel rat, while we are introduced to Psych-Out, a Psy-Ops specialist.

Synopsis: We open on the New York City streets, as trucks from Penultimate Pest Control (great name) and Cerberus (almost typed Cerebus, which would have been cooler) Security are cruisin' round the 'ville.....





They make a beeline for the Cobra Consulate and dialogue tells us it is their "target." The Pest Control truck stops at the gate and presents credentials, saying they are there to treat the premises for rats and waterbugs. Security verifies their credentials and passes them on. We then learn that the truck was hijacked from a legitimate contractor, by the Peron's and a Castro, plus some guy name Emil. Someone must have gone to see Evita. The security truck crashes into the lobby and troops jump out, opening fire on Cobra security and everyone else in the way. Simultaneously, in the underground garage, troops jump out of the pest control truck and open fire on Cobra troops there, working to secure the garage area and to get to the boiler room. Meanwhile, the lobby troops work to secure that area and the stairwells down to the basement and boiler room, creating a clear path and securing it from assault.

Meanwhile, The Baroness gets the alert, while Zarana cracks barbed jokes.....



The intruders get to work, drilling holes into key support beams, which they then pack with C-4, military grade plastic explosives. They then tap the surveillance camera network to broadcast their demands to Cobra....



The call themselves Menshevikistas and are "bourgeois university students," from Sierra Gordo, who oppose the current "peasant puppet state" and demand Cobra withdraw their military support of the hardliner regime, so they can create an intermediate regime that will rule until the general populace is "elevated to the level at which they can rule themselves."

As The Baroness says, they are being blackmailed by Yuppie Terrorists!

Dr Mindbender tells Baroness that his examination of the footage and building plans suggests that they could bring own the whole structure with half the C-4 they claim. He recommends they evacuate the building. Zarana mocks the terrorists, but Baroness can't be that dismissive. She orders a televiper to establish contact with Cobra Island and briefs Serpentor. His reaction doesn't exactly make her situation better....



Basically, he channels General Patton, in Sicily (if you have seen the film) when he threatens to fire General Lucian Truscott, when they are bogged down, in an attempt to get them moving and catch up Montgomery (which was fiction, as Patton rated Truscott as one of his best officers and the 3rd Division as the best in the 7th Army and one of the best in the entire US Army). Baroness either solves the situation or Serpentor will fire her (probably permanently) and replace her with someone else.

Meanwhile, on another rooftop, we see the JOE team is monitoring the situation, Chuckles, visually, through a spotter scope, and Dial-Tone via parabolic microphone....



"No you didn't, girl!"

Why do I imagine Dial-Tone sounding like Shore Leave, on the Venture Brothers?

Psych-Out evaluates the intel and opines that Baroness can't back down and will act as they have projected and says to go ahead with their operation.

Baroness flips the bird to Zarana and sends in vipers, in heavy gear, to storm the boiler room. They get ambushed before securing their flanks and Juan, the leader, says they aren't playing games and mentions the truck in the lobby. Zarana asks if anyone checked that truck and they realize that it is a car bomb. This convinces Baroness to order the evacuation of the building and the alert goes out and Cobra personnel, military and professional, leave the premises, while armed troops secure the outer perimeter, which would not sit well with the NYPD.

Chuckles orders Dial-Tone to alert Breaker and Tunnel Rat to proceed and we see them in the sewers below the building, setting charges on the power and communication lines into the building. They set them off and plunge the terrorists into darkness. The JOEs then break out power gliders and fly from their rooftop to the abandoned roof of the Consulate and land, then send the gliders off towards the river, to conceal their insertion.

Evita is ready to blow the building "Time to die for me terorristas......" and Juan starts arguing with her, which is juxtaposed with Baroness and Zarana getting catty....



Juan and Evita start fighting (while Che watches from afar) and Dr Mindbender plays peacemaker with the lady snakes and Psych-Out tells the Joes to proceed with phase II of their mission. Dial-Tone taps the security camera system and Lady Jaye dons a wig and glasses and impersonates the Baroness and basically calls the terrorists "pampered children of the efite middle classes" and dares them to blow the building. A televiper shows Baroness the footage and she has a firm grasp on the obvious....



Zarana shoots off her mouth and suddenly it turns into ECW....



Evita gets the detonator away from Juan and sets it off.....



The demolition packs were actually CS gas (tear gas), which forces The Baroness and her crew to leave the lobby, allowing the JOEs to walk out under the cover of the smoke and chemical mist, so that no one is the wiser. Breaker and Tunnel Rat restore power and we then learn the purpose of all of this chaos.....



It was all a diversion, to plant bugs on the Cobra Consulate communication system. Chuckles provided the gimmicked explosives to the terrorists, and acted as an agent provocateur to foster their attack on Cobra. Pretty ruthless, given the casualties to Cobra, in the initial assault and the attempt to storm the basement; but, they are the enemy and it fits the normal CIA mindset, which Chuckles fits far more than he does Army CID.

Thoughts: Nice tense action piece, with a pretty good twist, for this kind of thing. It's a bit over-complicated, since their infiltrations of the sewers below and past efforts suggest they could have done that with less chance for it to go Ti....ugh...belly-up. This kind of thing you want to keep as simple as possible, to minimize risk. Keep It Simple, Stupid! The basic guiding principle of special operations.

The Mensheviks were a historical group, rivals to the Bolsheviks in early 20th Century, who believed that a period of capitalism, under the bourgeois would be necessary to educate the populace to the point that the real social experiment could take hold. They also advocated a larger, wider-reaching party, while the Bolsheviks advocated for a smaller party of professional revolutionaries as being more effective. The Mensheviks were closer to being Social-Democrats, similar to the ruling party in the Weimar Republic, in Germany, until the National Socialists (the Nazis) came to power, in 1933. Here, Hama is mocking them and similar "middle class liberals" as trust-fund Socialists. That was a favorite insult of the Reagan Era conservatives, especially when tossed at people like Sen Edward Kennedy and 60s activists, like Jane Fonda. There is a certain level of truth in it, though it simplifies things terribly, as there are plenty from that world who were serious, committed activists who sought to elevate everyone, not just one faction of society. However, simplification is the key process for most political arguments.

Hama must have been to see Evita, as Juan and Evita are so obviously meant to invoke Juan and Evita Peron. Not sure if Raoul was meant to invoke Fidel Castro's brother or just a Latin name and no idea on Emil.

I forgot to mention it last time, but at the end of Chuckles' debut story, we see him in a white jacket and pastel t-shirt. He is so obviously inspired by Sonny Crockett, of Miami Vice, who had been US Army CID, in Vietnam, in his backstory. He's a steroided up version, to be sure. I'm waiting for their version of Lt Castillo, so we get some Edward James Olmos action.

Considering that Hawk was warned off of F-ing with Cobra Island or the Consulate, he sure seems to be launching several operations against them.

Hama's treatment of the female characters is largely for comical effect, but it does them a disservice. The Baroness was the Number 2, in Cobra, but she is treated like Natasha Fatale, in Bullwinkle, an inept sidekick of an inept leader. Zarana acts like Sandra Bernhard, in the 90s, egging people on, while hanging out with more powerful female figures, like Madonna or Rosanne Barr. It treats them as glorified jokes and Dr Mindbender is the only adult in the room. It's not the most enlightened portrayal out there, though it seems rather common for that generation of Marvel writer (and comics at large, really), with a few notable exceptions, among the male population. I know the main audience are pre- and adolescent males; but why cater to the lowest common denominators of that demographic? Maybe I'm too "elitist" and think maybe you have an obligation to present better role models in your heroic tales. Call me backwards, but that was the example my father set for me and people respected him.

The JOE idea of power gliders is a bit gonzo. The propulsion system if usually mounted below the airfoil. For one thing, the design we see would be rather top and tail heavy, making it less than aerodynamic. An actual paraglider is either a backpack-mounted fan and a parachute-style airfoil or something more like an ultra-light, with a go-cart-like platform, with rear-mounted engine, and a hangglider-like airfoil mounted above. They pretty much match what Trimpe drew for the first issue, for Cobra.

For those who had better things to do than watch pro wrestling catfights, ECW, aka Extreme Championship Wrestling, used to have several valet/managers who either were or looked like strippers, playing to their largely male fanbase. A key aspect of that was watching the women attack each other in catfights, flashing panties at the crowd and hoping that double-sided tape prevented anything else to flash the crowd. It was similar in tone to various skanks throwing down on Jerry Springer and was copied by the WWF, during the "Attitude Era," of the late 90s/early 2000s, and WCW, to a lesser extent. It wasn't totally new to wrestling, as World Class Wrestling, in Dallas, had valets Sunshine and Precious fighting over wrestler Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin (Sunshine was his legit cousin and Precious his actual wife), leading to a mud-wrestling match, Missy Hyatt had battles against Dark Journey, in Mid-South/UWF Wrestling, and even Miss Elizabeth, paragon of beauty and virtue, threw down with Sherri Martel (who was a trained and excellent wrestler, who bumped for Elizabeth), in the earlier WWF. Hollywood was doing this on Dynasty, with Crystal (Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins), with stuntwoman Jeannie Epper taking the bumps for Evans, and there are film examples that aren't just Russ Meyer movies.

A quick word about "Penultimate Pest Control." For years, I have made the same joke. I used to joke to Barb that if I ever won a Powerball super-jackpot in the lottery that I would rent storefronts next to places that called themselves "Ultimate Backscratchers" and call the place "Penultimate Backscratchers," just as a prank. No one ever calls themselves the "penultimate" anything, except maybe Avis Rental, back in the late 70s and 80s, when they advertised them as Number 2 and that they "try harder." Cerberus Security is a nod to Greek mythology and the 3-headed canine guardian of the Underworld (portrayed in Epicurus the Sage, as a bulldog, who is subdued when young Alexander scratches his belly!). Cerebus Security would have been cooler, with a more armadillo-like caricature of our favorite Conan parody, holding a shield and a spear. I'd save Dave Sim would spin out of control; but, he did do some Young Cerebus for Epic Illustrated; so, you never know.

Chuckles' file card implies that Chuckles is actually a CIA agent placed in Army CID for the purposes of infiltrating GI Joe. As Hama wrote the file cards, I've always taken this as Chuckles true back story and it fits with the way he wrote Chuckles (who gets more use in Special Missions then he ever gets in the main book).

The Miami Vice inspiration is obvious, but he also reminds of CIA agent Jack Wade, played by Joe Don Baker, who appeared in the first two Pierce Brosnan James Bond films. Not I think the Bond writers were mining GI Joe for plot ideas, but the idea of a Hawaiian shirt wearing CIA agent seems to have embedded itself in the public consciousness.

GI JOE #63



Zeck's sense of proportion is in inverse proportion to his dramatic sense. Scarlett's CAR-15 us bigger than the standard M-16A1! It's supposed to be a smaller carbine version, for use by squad leaders and support personnel, Meanwhile, Snake Eyes appears to be compensating for more than just a messed up face.

Meanwhile, that German farmer is awfully possessive of his crops. MEIN FIELD indeed!

Oh......._{mine field}........Never mind!

Creative Team: Larry Hama-writer, Ron Wagner & Andy Mushynsky-art, Joe Rosen-Letter, Bob Sharen-colors, Bob Harras-editor, Jim Shooter-stepped on a mine.

Synopsis: Flint, Lady Jaye, Scarlett and Snake Eyes are on leave....in Grenada!



Oh, sure, they love Americans in Grenada; especially ones with low MCAT scores who can't get into credible medical schools!

Snake Eyes continues to listen to news reports about their captured comrades, in Boravia, who have been left to twist in the wind. The news report mentions that the leader of the "mercenaries has been identified by Boravian security as Lonzo Wilins, an Army Ranger and Vietnam veteran, whose last posting was to a chaplain's assistant school motor pool. The State Department denies this information. Scarlett reminds Snake Eyes that Hawk has made explicit orders that no rescue attempt will be made, though Scarlett knows Stalker would defy those orders to rescue them. Flint tells him to lighten up, that the team knew the situation going into the mission. Scarlett tells him to let Snake Eyes sort it out on his own.

Flint needs to worry about his own problems, like fraternizing with enlisted personnel, if he actually is a warrant officer (his backer card says he is a warrant officer, but lists his grade as E-6, which is a staff sergeant).

In Boravia, Stalker is singled out for a work detail, while Sno Job and Quick Kick get assigned to "Cultural Folk Artifacts Detail." Ilsa the She Wolf....I mean Comrade Olga informs us that the labor detail has loss 20% of strength to dysentery. Snow Job and Quick Kick (who still doesn't have a shirt, while Snow Job is wearing his parka. One of them is freezing or sweating his rear guard off!

The boys are told that if anyone tries to escape their entire section is shot. They are shoved onto benches at a table with a prisoner named Boris, who is the camp snitch....



Stalker is busy felling trees and halling them to a log flume, to go to a mill. A guard with a sniper rifle taunts him, saying he would give him up to the 300 meter mark, before shooting him, if he wanted to try to escape.

We jaunt over to San Francisco, where Jinx gets Billy set up in an audio booth, to study language tapes. Billy asks what it has to do with GI JOE and Jinx says he asks too many question. Outside the Presidio (of Monterey), Raptor watches the base and asks questions of his own, like why Billy and Jinx have sat on the base, for so long? Billy listens to the tape and gets bored quickly, when the tape takes an interesting direction....



Apparently, Hawk, Chuckles and Law & Order have been transferred to military recruiting. Leave No Ninja Child Behind!

Raptor tries to call Fred with his intel, but Fred has left the garage and is headed to Galveston, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, talking about seizing his future. He takes the pick-up truck, with something big hidden under a tarp.

Meanwhile, everyone at the JOE Utah base is going stir-crazy and Roadblock decides it is time for a game of touch football. Meanwhile, Serpentor and Dr Mindbender study surveillance photos of the camp and observe that more JOEs came out of the quonset huts than could be quartered in them (maybe they were having a party?) and smell a rat....

They are interrupted by a Techno-Viper (completed with strobe lights, synthesizers and pounding beats), who informs them about Raptor's observations at The Presidio.



In Grenada, the couples go for a walk (before the court martial, in Flint's case) and run into a blind man, who asks for help to get to the airport in time to meet his daughter arriving from the mainland. Flint offers help, but is cut off by Snake Eyes and Scarlett joins him, as they head into a grassy area, for a short cut...



Flint says the area around the airport seems familiar and Lady Jaye says he probably saw it on the news, as US Army Airborne conducted an operation there, during Operation Urgent Fury (aka the invasion of Grenada) and Flint remembers what it was. he finds the signs warning of land mines torn down, as he recalls they were using metal detectors to move across the field. He yells out a warning to Snake Eyes and Scarlett, but his voice is drowned out by an explosion. Lady Jaye starts to run towards the field and Flint tackles her, reminding her that they have no idea how many other undetected mines are there.

Billy is interrogated by Hawk, but won't rat on his father. He then is shown to a room where Storm Shadow and Ripcord are waiting. he then tells them that the Soft Master and Candy were killed in the auto accident, which means Hama couldn't figure out how to wrap up their storylines.

Stalker returns to the gulag, from his work detail and is reunited with the others for their evening meal (imagine a pig trough). Stalker tells them about the terrain outside the camp and that he has been watching the guard towers and Boris starts tattling to teacher. Snow Job is hauled off to be beaten and Stalker is warned that if he doesn't sit down then Snow Job will be shot, instead. Stalker sits while Boris says he had no choice,

A team sweeps the mine field in Grenada but finds no mines and no trace of the three. Flint radios in and Storm Shadow starts asking questions....



Fred arrives in Galveston and makes for the harbor, where he inquires with a Vietnamese boat captain about chartering his vessel, with some cargo. he isn't interested in fishing and the captain says there is nothing out there but water and Cobra Island. Fred answers "Bingo!"

Thoughts: So, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Flint and Lady Jaye take leave to Grenada, for some tropical horizontal mambo and one couple ditches the other. Sounds like they were either bored or want to get freaky on their own. of course, a mine field is a bit of an extreme way to ditch an annoying couple, on vacation. Also, the blind man is the same dude that Billy met in the warehouse, near Fred's garage. The one in the picture with young Jinx, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and the Hard and Soft Master. They got blowed up, but there isn't anything left? Yeah, right!

So, as I mentioned, Flint's backer card file says he is both a warrant officer and an E-6, which suggests that there was a change in the character, at some point in production and Hama didn't get the word, or the E-6 listing was left uncorrected, as the front of the card clearly says "Warrant Officer." That makes him an officer (WO-1 to WO-4); and, therefore, banned from dating enlisted personnel....even in a special operations environment. Spec Ops tend to ignore rank when it comes to friendships and when operating in the field, except in the case of the officer-in-charge's orders. That does not extend to sleeping together. It causes too many problems, starting with the fact that the officer writes fitness reports on the enlisted personnel, which affect promotion and pay. It also clouds their judgement in the field.

Leaving that aside, who takes vacation on an island that was a war zone just 4 years before? More on that, in a moment.

We see that Cobra has been conducting extensive surveillance of the JOE team and is onto their Utah base and now know something is also going on at the Presidio. They note signes of motor vehicle tracks that are larger than earthmovers, which means something that shouldn't be hard to spot in a barren area, yet they can find no trace. They also know there is a lot of night activity, when the satellite (what no infra-red and night vision scanning) can't observe.

Fred has made his way to the Gulf and is trying to charter a boat out to Cobra Island. We know he has Cobra Commander's armor; so his plan shouldn't be too hard to discern.

Stalker is thinking about escape, but we see how hard that will be, between disease, malnutrition, exhaustion and snitches. If, they can get out of the camp and make their way to the mountains to hide, they still have to evade security forces, a possibly hostile population and basic survival needs. They may find abundant game in the mountains; but, if winter is setting in, they will have the problem of both game and exposure to the elements. Short-term survival is the easy part. Staying alive and free in hostile territory and climate are quite another and we have seen that no rescue is coming. Their best hope would be trying to cross a mountain border, like Outback; but, the odds are greatly against them.

The other question is, if they weren't blown up, WTF happened to Snake Eyes and Scarlet, and the Blind Master? Given that ninjitsu is about deception and infiltrating an enemy locale, it doesn't take a lot of thinking to work it out. The mine field was cleared, which means the explosion was staged, as a diversion. Given that Snake Eyes was obsessively watching news reports on the catpured JOEs, particularly Stalker, his best (non-F) buddy, I think you can work out what the diversion was for.

Now, about Grenda, especially for you young folks, who didn't live through that whole thing. The Caribbean island of Grenda was a British colony, until 1974, when it gained independence, as part of the Commonwealth, maintaining Queen Elizabeth as head of state, while electing a new president. The election was marred from the start by civil unrest and the new government was friendly to the UK, while others strongly opposed ties. Opposition to the ruling party built and a bloodless coup was staged in 1979, by Maurice Bishop. Bishop set up a Marxist-Leninist government, but maintained ties to the Commonwealth and recognition of the Queen as head of state. They took on development projects with the aid of both the UK and Cuba and the Soviet Union, including the construction of a new airport at Point Salines, with a runway that could accommodate commercial aircraft or heavy transport aircraft for military operations, according to the Reagan Administration. In 1983, a Congressional representative traveled to Grenada to observe the projects and reported in Congress that there was no sign of military development in relation to the airport and it was entirely a commercial venture, designed by Canadian planners and funded by the UK. The administration ignored this evidence and continued to claim that the Cubans and Soviets were building military forces to further their aims in Latin America, specifically targeting other Carribean nations and Central America, particularly the nations around Nicaragua, which had fallen to a socialist government.

Grenada and several other Caribbean Islands were notorious for low end medical universities, which recruited students from America, who either couldn't afford better universities or who didn't have the academic credentials to gain admission to US schools. There were numerous jokes and Hollywood plots involving Caribbean-based medical degrees.

In 1983, tensions increased within the ruling party and factions splintered and launched a coup, arresting Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and 7 members of the ruling council, as well as placing the Commonwealth representative Paul Scoon under house arrest. The Reagan Administration began making claims of threats to the American students, as potential hostages, as in Iran, just a few years before. They began planning a military operation, overseen by defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Gen Colin Powell. They then claimed they received a request for military intervention from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, an organization largely underwritten by the US. The claim was that a secret communique came from Scoon, calling for military intervention. The only documentation for such an action was dated after the invasion.

On October 25, 1983, at 0500, US forces deployed from Barbados for an assault on Grenada, with helicopter troops launched from Barbados, Marines airlifted from the USS Guam, and the 82nd Airborne and 75th Ranger Battalion airlifted from the US. The Rangers were assigned to capture the Point Salines Airport and due to unforeseen anti-air defenses, were forced to perform a parachute insertion to take control of the airport, to then allow the 82nd to land at the airport. The Marines seized the old Pearls Airport and forces were deployed to rescue Revolutionary Council members and Scoon, using Delta and the Navy SEALs. The assault on Richmond Hill Prison, where the Council members were believed to be held led to casualties, when unexpected anti-air defenses shot down a helicopter. The SEALs made it to Scoon's mansion, but were soon surrounded by hostile forces and cut off from extraction. Air Strikes from AC-130 gunships and A-7 Corsair attack aircraft, from the USS Independence, kept the attackers at bay, until the Marines could relieve the siege.

The Rangers were dispatched to locate the US students at the True Blue Campus, but a reconnaissance jeep became lost and was ambushed. The Rangers eventually reached the campus and secured 140 students, not the claimed 600, which the Administration stated were in danger, on the island. US intelligence was unaware that the students were split between two campuses. The other campus wasn't secured until the following day, securing another 200+ students, who then informed them of a third campus. The 325th Infantry captured the main campus and discovered even more students who were missed the previous day.

There were numerous failures in the mission, with several helicopter crashes (part of the delay in assaulting the campus in Grand Anse was due to a lack of helicopter transport), inability to communicate between Army, Navy and Marine forces (a request for naval gunfire support was called in to the US, via a local phone line and then radioed to ships stationed offshore...later used as a plot point in the film Heartbreak Ridge). A Navy SEAL reconnaissance team drowned while attempting to infiltrate the island, via boat. A helicopter carried the team and a "Boston whaler" seacraft to an infiltration point and dropped the boat into the water. the team then dropped, fully loaded with gear, into the water and found that the combined weight of their bodies and gear overloaded their flotation vests and they drowned, as they did not have breathing gear for a scuba insertion and they could not get free of their gear. 4 team members died as a result of an overly complicated plan, rather than to do a helicopter insertion of the team or a diver insertion from a ship or submarine, or a small boat insertion from a ship. Any of these would have been simpler and achieved better results.

The Administration did not allow outside press onto the island until several days after the invasion. The United Nations condemned the invasion as a violation of the UN Charter but a Security Council resolution was vetoed by the US. Buckingham Palace expressed anger over the invasion of a Commonwealth nation, without UK involvement. Students interviewed on ABC TV's Nightline program denied any threat, but, some, after Administration promises that they could continue their medical studies at US schools, changed their story and thanked US forces for rescuing them.

The Administration claimed extensive reinforcement of the island, by Cuban forces, but US and associated Carribean forces amounted to about 8000+ personnel, against an opposition of about 700 Cubans and 400 Grenadians, or about a 7 to 1 strength advantage. US failures led to the Goldwater-Nocholas Act, which led to sweeping changes in the command structure at the Department of Defense, the largest since the 1947 National security Act, in the wake of WW2. More power was placed into the Joint Chiefs and a streamlining of special operations and communications was instituted. The invasion was also used as political capital by the Administration to claim an end to Vietnam Syndrome, a reluctance to use military force in foreign operations, which had defined the 1970s, including the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Some have drawn a line between the bombing of the Marine Barracks, in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 23, 1983, and the launch of this operation, two days later, claiming the invasion was carried out to dispel notions of a weak military, after the deaths of 241 Marines, assigned as part of the Peacekeeping forces in Beirut. The film Wag The Dog presents this as fact, demonstrating the use of political spin, via military operations, under false pretenses. The US military had been conducting exercises on Vieques Island, in Puerto Rico (which is home to a naval gunfire range and used extensively for military training), as part of 1981's Ocean Venture exercises, which included mock invasions of Vieques. These kinds of exercises are conducted constantly, to train for potential scenarios in which military forces might be deployed. The subject here seems to be preparing for a hostile invasion of a Caribbean island, to fight possible Cuban and/or Soviet-backed forces. Similar exercises were carried out in relation to Latin America and potential intervention or invasion there.

Hama is using Grenada because it is recent (the splash page features the remains of a downed Soviet helicopter, in the bay, though the only helicopters that were downed were US military aircraft) and it provides potential unexploded munitions for the cover story of Snake Eyes and Scarlett disappearing. As is usual in this series, he keeps the backstory minimal and simplified, as window dressing for his own story. Sierra Gordo is basically Nicaragua, in this series, and Cobra Island is now largely a metaphor for Cuba. Everything else is about selling toys. Hama needs more than just battles with Cobra to maintain an ongoing series, so he draws from past and recent history for locations, plot ideas and character motivations, like Stalker and Snake Eyes, in Vietnam, ignoring the passage of time, since they should be more senior in rank than they are, 10+ years after withdrawal from Vietnam. Given they were involved in recon missions in Nam, they would likely have left the theater at no less than E-5 and should be at least E-7, if not E-8, by this point. Guys like hawk would be contemporaries of Colin Powell and Norman Schwartzkopf, as well as Col Charles Beckwith, founder of Delta Force.

Ron Wagner and Andy Mushynsky make a good team on the art, though it is not as detailed as Rod Whigham and Mushynsky, when it comes to the toy depictions.

Interesting issue, which is playing with plot developments and building mystery for the ongoing storylines. We have three main plotlines going: The captured JOEs in Boravia and a covert rescue operation, in defiance of orders; Fred's attempt to impersonate Cobra Commander and take control of Cobra, and Cobra's own plans and their surveillance of the JOE team and whatever is being constructed blow ground, at the Utah camp. There are overlapping elements, like Billy, who is a link to both Fred and what cobra is up to, as well as the POW rescue, as he is connected to the ninja contingent.

The off-panel deaths of Candy and the Soft Master suggests, to me, that Hama really didn't have any idea where to go with them and just killed them off, like an actor who leaves a series (such as the late John Amos, on Good Times). This is pretty much the first we have seen of Ripcord, since the climax of that storyline. He was recovering from wounds, but Stalker was as badly hurt, if not worse, yet he was back on missions soon after. The increasing cast size is beyond unmanageable, for Hama and he has said in interviews that he was largely making it up as he went along, without real long term plans, apart from the current storylines. We usually got transitional storylines, which wrapped up the previous and started seeding the ground for the next story. Then intros for new toys/characters, then into the story proper, which carries us through the year, to the climax, with the long story lasting about 4 to 6 issues, leaving the other half of the year for transitions and introductions. That's fine, so long as you can continue to feed storylines to keep the series interesting. We are pretty much at the peak of the toy line, so the motivation of marketing via comic books is headed for a decline. The cartoon wrapped up production and followed with a motion picture, but was then dormant for 2 years, before launching a sequel series, to dwindling rating and half the number of episodes. Ironically, Marvel's growth has also pretty much peaked; and, aside from a few key series, they will struggle with dwindling sales, with short term bumps from gimmicks, through their tenure under the Andrews group. We are nearly half way through the main series, more or less, at this point. How long the interesting storylines hold out remains to be seen, since I haven't read the material before.

ps  I'll clarify the Ilsa comment in future, as it becomes more obvious.

Profitable yes; but, that profit wasn't re-invested in the company.  It was siphoned off by the owners.  Marvel was used as a cash cow to pay off other acquisitions, like Revlon and Cigar Afficionado, as well as fund further acquisitions of Fleer and Panini.  We are in 1987, which is pretty much at the height of their sales and popularity.  Things start declining in the 90s.  It's a slow decline, at first; but it starts speeding up by the middle of the decade and then rushes into bankruptcy, thanks to the combination of the bust of the speculator bubble, the losses with Heroes World, the implosion of the trading card market and other economic factors.  Individual issue and title sales still hit some major peaks; but, the sales of the entire line start declining.  Profitability is coming more from other revenue, which fueled the Andrews Group to buy up businesses that were licensing Marvel characters for merchandise, to basically create a vertical monopoly.  The problem there was timing.  They bought Fleer not too long before the trading card market took a dump and their acquisition of Heroes World, which was not equipped to handle every comic shop account in the country, was a fiasco.

As for this series, the peak popularity of GI JOE, in general is 1987-88, then the toy sales start a steady decline and the cartoons and pretty well played out.  The series still has about another 5 or 6 years to go; so, it isn't at deaths door.  It is starting to have a nagging cough, though.

Hollywood fantasy, mostly.

Military police only have jurisdiction within military facilities.  They cannot arrest anyone outside of those environments, without cooperation of civilian law enforcement. Military personnel are subject to their jurisdiction; but, civilian authority trumps the military in civilian offenses.  For an example, from my own experience.  I had a disbursing clerk who was in a car stopped by civilian police.  In the vehicle, they found cocaine.  He and the driver were arrested for possession of narcotics.  He was then turned over to military authorities for disposition of the case under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and brought back to the ship and placed under arrest, in the ship's brig.  He was then brought up on charges of possessing and using narcotics (we received random urinalysis results that indicated cocaine in his system, as well as the civilian arrest) and he was administratively discharged from the Navy.  Had the civilian authorities wanted to, they could have filed criminal charges and tried the sailor in civilian court.  Then, he'd also face trial under military law.  I can cite another, more horrible example of that.

One of our ship's left behind a warrant office, when they went to sea and he worked in our office.  I was then asked by our Administrative Officer if I would be willing to act as a bailiff for a court martial, since they needed someone of higher rank.  The case involved the warrant officer, but he didn't know what the charges were.  In court, the charges were read out.  He had been molesting his 15 year-old stepdaughter, since she was age 11.  She had confided the situation to a school guidance counselor, who reported it to the authorities.  He was arrested and tried in civilian court and convicted.  he was then handed over to the military for court martial.  The civilian authorities had mandated his removal from the home and banned him from being near the children and put him in court supervised counseling and some of the counselors testified at the court martial.  The civilian court left the punitive action to the military and only handed out the rehabilitative aspect of the sentence.  The military convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years hard labor, in Leavenworth (a military prison in Leavenworth, KS), though he would have gotten a stiffer and longer sentence had there not been economic factors involved with the family situation.

Military police cannot enter civilian premises without permission or a court issued warrant, executed by civilian authority.  In the case of the fisherman, the FBI wouldn't be involved unless there were Federal crimes, like racketeering, under RICO statutes.  The FBI only has jurisdiction for Federal crimes.  An FBI agent could theoretically arrest someone for armed robbery, if they were on the scene, but would turn them over to the local police and the state or municipal courts would deal with it.  In a pissing contest between the DOD and the Justice Department, the Justice department is likely to come out on top, as the Attorney General is one of the most senior positions in the cabinet.  Defense Secretary is another high ranking one.  It could come down to who has more of the president's ear.  In reality, though, most agencies cooperate with each other, though they don't always share intelligences, which was grossly revealed with the 9/11 attacks and led to a realignment of intelligence networks and security agencies, with the creation of the Dept of Homeland Security.  For instance, the Coast Guard was transferred from the Transportation Department (during peace time) to Homeland Security.

The A-Team also would have you believe that Dirk Benedict was a Green Beret (let alone George Peppard) and that Mr T had a real fight record and not worked toughman competitions and pro wrestling.

Besides, Lance Legault was always at his best when he was quietly snarling at someone.

I don't know if that was entirely true; but, it drew a large fanbase form outside the comic shop crowd.  The letters pages sound a bit younger, but you see some military ranks mentioned in correspondents and some older-sounding folk.  Some shops and sectors of the fan community hated anything that wasn't superheroes.  I don't think I ever saw a shop, in the 80s, that was carrying Archie comics, apart from back issues.  No Harvey's to be seen, in many cases.  Westerns and war comics were also hard to come by in a lot of them, except the DC books and Sgt Fury.  The shop I used during my time in the military had a decent selection of Silver and Bronze Age, but I could rarely find Charlton war comics or westerns, a few Marvel Westerns, and mostly Jonah Hex, for DC, as well as the DC war comics (mostly Our Army at War, Sgt Rock and Star Spangled War, with a bit of The Unknown Soldier and Our Fighting Forces).  They did carry the Rio graphic album, from Doug Wildey and Comico.

I did see GI JOE, in those environments and they had back issues of the series; so, someone was buying them.  More than The Nam.

I'm old enough that I was exposed to more genre stuff at a young age and friends and family had all kinds of comics, including Charlton and Gold Keys, as well as DC and Marvel and the usual Archie and Harveys.It could be frustrating, in my collecting days, trying to locate classic Richie Rich stories or hunt down the Archie issues with their superhero identities (Pureheart, Captain Hero, Evil heart and Super-Teen).  It was easier to find the Archie Red Circle superhero stuff, from the 80s and even some of the 60s Mighty Comics revival of the heroes.