G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #6

“To Fail is to Conquer… to Succeed is to Die (Ancient Afghan Proverb)”

Writer: Larry Hama
Penciller: Herb Trimpe

Summary: when an experimental US plane is shot down over Afghanistan, both the US and Russia race to recover it. Steeler, Clutch, Breaker, Stalker, Scarlett and Flash are air-dropped into Afgahinstan along with their easy-to-assemble Rough Terrain Vehicle (RTV). Meanwhile, back in the lower levels of the Pit, none other than HAWK appears to be radio’ing the mission details to Cobra! The Afghan team meet their CIA contact and an Afghani tribesman named Ahmed. After loading the cargo onto the RTV, they head for the coast of Pakistan, but soon run into the Russian contingent: the October Guard! After a small firefight (apparently both sides are lousy shots), they resort to hand-to-hand combat. Before either side can get an advantage, Cobra Commander and his troops show up and surround them.

Notes:

• For the first time, a story is “…to be continued!”
• Funny scene where the team is lounging around the Pit and Stalker says “Uh-oh, Hawk looks like he’s got another mission for us”. Hawk answers affirmative and Stalker replies: “Dag! I must be getting psychotic”. Hawk corrects him: “you mean psychic”. Stalker responds: “yeah, that too!”
• This is the first mention of the Joe’s usual airfield: McGuire AFB in New Jersey.
• Steeler and Clutch both continue their flirting with Scarlett. Clutch asks her: “hey Scarlett, if you get sick of staring at Steeler’s ugly mug, you can hop in the VAMP with me and we can, uh, run out of gas somewhere”. Clutch was a fun, sleazy comic relief for the first 3 years of the book.
• Scarlett’s dialogue indicates that she might have a Georgia accent. “Ya’ll” and stuff like that. She was never (or rarely) written like that, again.
• While “Grand Slam” is shown as a mission participant on the de-briefing screen, it’s actually FLASH who is on the mission. The second early mix-up of the two characters (see issue #1). Somewhat understandable, since their action figures were nearly identical.
• Stalker is definitely in charge of the operation. Affirming his early role as second-in-command of the team. Something that was carried over into the first 5-part cartoon series.
• “Schrage” is also labelled as “Scrage” on one page.
• “Daina” is also labelled as “Daini” on one page.
• Once again, it’s a Cold War era plot.

Appearances:

Characters (with figures): Scarlett, Clutch, Breaker, Steeler, Stalker, Breaker, Flash, Hawk, rest of team in cameos. Cobra Commander (I’m moving him to the “figures” classification, since his figure was released around this time as a mail-in premium).

Characters (no action figures, or “comic-only” characters): Ahmed the Afgahni. Unnamed CIA guy (Anderson?).

Vehicles and stuff (toys): VAMP

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): RTV

Firsties:
Characters (no action figures, or “comic-only” characters): October Guard: Col. Brekhov, Schrage, Stormavik, Daina, Horrorshow

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): RTV, October Guard’s “Kremlin Kiddie Kar”.

Rating: 4 Flag Points