G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #141

“Sucker Punch”

Writer: Larry Hama
Pencilers: Steven Lieber & William Rosado

Summary:

While Tunnel Rat’s team has a shootout with Cobra troops in the sewers of Millville, Snake-Eyes and the Ninja Force into the Night Creeper Leader on the rooftops. Snake-Eyes bluffs going into the “Arashikage Mind Set” and defeats the NC Leader.

Dr. Biggles-Jones tells Scarlett that she’s also a double agent. But before they can act together, Megatron busts through a hospital wall and snags Biggles-Jones. He pans to freeze her, then use just her cerebral cortex and nervous system to help him cook up new Rail Gun tech and other crap. Scarlett rushes out of the hospital and confronts Megatron, head-on.

Hawk suddenly gets the order to pull out–another agency has an infiltrator in Cobra, as part of an intricate sting operation. But Hawk sends Spirit and Storm Shadow back into town to retrieve Snake-Eyes.

Notes:

• We’re not told who Biggles-Jones is working for. But it’s suggested that whatever agency she’s involved with is also tied into the Joes’ orders to pull out.
• No way to tell if “Night Creeper Leader” is actually “Aleph” with a new costume, or if it’s a new guy, altogether. There’s no harm in thinking it is, so this is something for uber-fans to discuss amongst themsevles.
• Dr. Mindbender hears Scarlett and Biggles-Jones spill the beans to each other… by listening through a hospital wall with a glass cup.
• Icky Feeling Alert: Mindbender spends this issue running around in a bath towel.
• Strangely enough, Nunchuk is never shown in any panel, not even in the group action shots. Just an artistic choice, I guess.
• The BATs return, looking like their new metallic “Terminator” forms.
• The cover proclaims this: “the Greatest Joes Action Saga of All-Time”… unsubstantial hyperbolic copy that usually suggests a title is struggling.
• Letters page returns for the first time in awhile. One clueless fan declares that he can’t afford the current $1.75 cover price (issues 135-138) and will drop the book. He declares that the first issue of GI Joe only cost 35 cents! Drastically incorrect as the first issue was $1.50 and all subsequent issues up to #34 were 60 cents. Marvel hadn’t had a 35 cent cover price since late 1976…six years before GI Joe ever went to press.
• Another fan writes in, claiming to have deciphered the Arashikage hexagram through the I-Ching. According to this fan, it means: Truth, Luck, Good Finance, Spirit, Family, Something that is lost will reappear. I prefer the “fire over water” meaning, but I suppose there are several ways to interpret I-Ching symbols.

Appearances:

Characters (figures): Hawk, Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Tj’bang, Dojo, Jinx, Scarlett, Spirit, Roadblock, Tunnel Rat, Rock n’ Roll, Airtight, Dial-tone (cameo), Stalker (cameo) Cobra Commander, Zarana, Slice, Dice, Night Creeper Leader, Dr. Mindbender, Megatron

Characters (“comic-only”): Dr. Biggles-Jones

Vehicles and stuff (toys): Rhino G.P.V

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): An indistinguishable Cobra airplane

Firsties:
Characters: Night Creeper Leader

Vehicles and stuff: none

Rating: 1 Flag Point