G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #21

G.I. Joe #21- “Silent Interlude”

Writer: Larry Hama
Breakdowns: Larry Hama(!)
Finishes: Steve Leialoha

Summary

In an issue without dialogue, Scarlett is kidnapped by Storm Shadow and taken to a Cobra castle that looks verrrrry similar to one used in the cartoon. Snake-Eyes parachutes from the C-130, single-handedly infiltrates the castle, fights off ninjas and saves Scarlett. Actually Scarlett saves him as well, since she manages to steals Storm Shadow’s CLAW jetpack. As the couple escapes, we’re shown that Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow have identical I-Ching tattoos on their forearm…

Notes:

• Wow. The long-awaited “Snake-Eyes Solo Story”! Very simple plot: hero rescues damsel in distress, but this is an amazing issue. THE ultimate G.I. Joe story as it showcases alot of stuff that would become the backbone of the entire series. The first full-on ninja action we’ve seen. Great story and it’s beautifully drawn. On top of it all, there’s a huge bombshell that’s dropped at the conclusion (the tatoos). I remember thinking: “wait… does this mean Snake-Eyes is a bad guy? Or is that his brother?!” The Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow connection would dominate the series until…well, even today. It’s not just a great GI Joe comic, it’s a great comic, period.
• Larry Hama’s masterpiece and he should have a copy of this stuffed into his casket when he croaks. If you can “read” only one GI Joe comic in your lifetime, make it this one.
• When I first bought this issue, I felt ripped off. “There’s no words!” But the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. Worked well, since it was a spotlight on Snake-Eyes, the mute bad-ass.
• Cobra Commander and Destro are in the castle, too. It was later revealed that this was Destro’s personal castle. Okay, then why did it have all kinds of elaborate Cobra imagery all over it? Over the years, this would be referred to as “The Silent Castle” in the European country of Trans-Carpathia. But…it was blatantly copied from the design of the animated series!
• Scarlett was also captured, chained up and taken to the Cobra castle in the cartoon.
• Destro detects Snake-Eyes’ drop on his radar. But he ignores it since the computer determines that there’s a .00018 chance of a landing.
• Destro’s busy playing with his chess set, which is made up of Joe and Cobra figures. His Baroness figure depicts her in her black leather outfit (mrrrow!). An outfit she had yet to wear and wouldn’t appear in until issue 23. He also had pieces of General Flagg, Kwinn and Scar-Face.
• Snake-Eyes has a humorous “Indiana Jones moment” when facing the second red ninja. The ninja pops out from behind a door and begins spinning his sais and looking all impressive. Snake-Eyes simply chucks a grenade that vaporizes him.
• Storm Shadow takes Scarlett to a dungeon and chains her wrists. It appears that Stormie then attempts to kiss Scarlett, but she bites down on his fingers. Kinda’ weird, because GI Joe had been removed from the usual cartoon antics of “bad guy wants to bag the female hero”. Out-of-character for the straight arrow Storm Shadow. We learn more about him as the years go on, and it seems strange that he’d want to force a kiss on a captive. Or at the very least, Scarlett could’ve been somewhat of bitch to him once he did his “good guy turn”. “You’re the jerk who chained me up and tried to kiss me!” *cock punch*
• Scarlett isn’t helpless, as she escapes from her chains by using a hairpin. She gets by Storm Shadow. Later, she brains two Cobra flunkies with her shackles and captures the CLAW jetpack/glider. Scarlett’s a frickin’ bad assette. No wonder Snake-Eyes risked his life for her so often.
• The letters page mentions that “Storm Shadow” is the white ninja’s name.
• Yup, this is the official kick-off of the third year of G.I.Joe. Things really begin to speed up for the next two years or so.
• I bought this issue, along with #’s 16-20 shortly after New Years, 1984. I hand’t found any GI Joe comics since #15. But we were at a mall across town and while my mom was in Walgreens, I looked across the aisle and saw….gasp… a store that only sells COMICS?!! Holy shit!! I went in there and immediately found the issues I had missed. I believed that they were only cover price…and about shit my pants when I took them to the register and the guy wanted to charge me a dollar a piece! The guy explained it to me and I remember worrying about it to my mom. She said: “well, it’s up to you”. I thought about it, then slowly pushed my five dollar bill (plus change) across the table to the guy. I remember riding home and thinking to myself “Holy shit! I just paid a dollar a piece for some comics. Nooooo!” But I justified it as “hey, it’s G.I. frickin’ Joe!!” Looking back, that was a big turning point for me and probably when I began getting serious about comic collecting, not just comic reading.
• Of course, there still wasn’t a comic shop on my side of town. It wasn’t until issue 25 that I finally began to pick ’em up monthly.
• Devil’s Due published a (shitty) prologue to this issue in the TPB of “Snake-Eyes: Declassified”. It shows Storm Shadow grabbing Scarlett in mid-air. Snake-Eyes then jumps out of the plane and has some freefall combat with Stormie. They even crash through a truck driven by the White Clown (a guy who’ll appear sometime around issue 65). The story ends with Snake-Eyes on the GROUND and signalling to Wild Bill in the C-130.

  So are we to believe that Wild Bill found a landing strip in the middle of nowhere? Destro’s computer screen this issue says there’s a “lack of landing zones”. Or did Snake-Eyes use his Magic Powers to jump back up into the air and get into the plane? Then they flew back over the spot where Scarlett was abducted, didn’t radio for back-up, and let Snake-Eyes jump again, only for him to arrive maybe 10 minutes after Scarlett had been captured?! Larry Hama actually wrote this prequel, so it’s best to forget it. It was a shitty money-making stunt by Devil’s Due, since it was only included in the TPB version.

Appearances:

Characters (with figures): Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, Destro, Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow

Characters (no action figures, or “comic-only” characters): 3 Red Ninjas

Vehicles and stuff (toys): Cobra CLAW
Vehicles and stuff (not toys): GI Joe C-130

Firsties:
Characters: Storm Shadow, Red Ninjas
Vehicles: Cobra CLAW

Rating: 5 Flag Points