G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #19

“Joe Triumphs!”

Writer: Larry Hama
Penciller: Mike Vosburg

Summary

Hawk surmises that the infected Scar-Face wasn’t supposed to kill the Joes, rather expose G.I. Joe HQ by generating a high-profile quarantine order. The Joes fake a “quarantine” at Ft. Wadsworth by sending all the Chaplain’s Assistants on a retreat to the Presidio. Expecting an attack, the Joes begin building their “pre-fab fortress” on the Pit’s garage level. Later, they’ll push it up to the ground level and make Cobra believe that G.I. Joe HQ is on the surface. Hawk orders Major Bludd and the Baroness to be transferred to Ft. Wadsworth, as well.Cobra does in fact pick up the “quarantine” via radar and begins their attack.

Meanwhile, Kwinn and Snake-Eyes have tracked Dr. Venom to his Brooklyn wharf lab. They grab Venom, but the cobra assault force (with Destro and Cobra Commander) arrives to save him. Kwinn and Snake-Eyes are placed into Venom’s new SNAKE battlesuits, which also mind control their subject. Cobra stages a full frontal attack on Ft. Wadsworth. The Joes fend them off and Snake-Eyes overcomes the SNAKE’s mind control. Dr. Venom shoots a freed Kwinn in the back, but a grenade rolls out of Kwinn’s hand and kills Dr. Venom. A Cobra sabotuer lands on the roof of the pre-fab fortress and plants a bomb. Major Bludd escapes, kills General Flagg and takes the heavily-bandaged Baroness with him on the sabotuer’s FANG copter. The pre-fab fortress explodes and Cobra retreats, thinking they’ve won. Scar-Face dies in the explosion. Snake-Eyes is reunited with the team, but the deaths of Flagg and Kwinn have put a damper on things.

Notes:

• Big, big blow-out issue. This came out in the fall of 1983, right in time for the Christmas season. Amazingly, almost ALL of the Joe and Cobra vehicles are included. Hmmmm…
• I mark this as the unofficial end of the second year of G.I. Joe. Although, the start of the third year doesn’t occur until issue #21
• This issue was the final of the five promised TV commercials from #9. It was re-worked to sell the GI Joe HQ toy (which absolutely sucked, by the way)
• With this issue, Marvel has completed their task of working EVERY GI Joe/Hasbro toy of the first two years into the comic (with the exception of the FLAK). They even managed to work in the GI Joe’s HQ jail cell. From this point on, Marvel would do their best to work in as much as they could, but several new toys and figures were often skipped over. (most notably: Scrap-Iron, whose debut ocurred almost two years after his figure hit the shelves).
• For once, the Joes are the ones doing the subterfuge, with their ruses of the “quarantine” and the ground-level fortress.
• Kwinn was going to make Dr Venom swallow a grenade, but felt that his insane lust for vengeance meant that the “weasel spirit” was within him (Kwinn). One of the recurring themes of the series: that the lust for vengeance can ruin your life.
• Scar-Face comes clean on the toxin plan to the Joes: he figures he’s a dead duck anyways
• Hardest thing to justify in this issue is the battle itself. It takes place on what looks to be a completely deserted Staten Island (although the skyline of Manhattan is drawn in the distance). The other elements of Ft. Wadsworth, like the water towers and barracks are not seen. Unless the entire battle took place on exactly 100 yards, it’s tought to believe that no civilians on the heavily populated Staten Island noticed anything. Especially tough when, about a year later, we’re shown the entrance to Ft. Wadsworth and see that it’s located RIGHT NEXT DOOR to suburban homes!
• The pre-fab fortress has a roof on it, something its toy counterpart did not.
• I don’t think any fans were upset that Gen. Flagg was killed. He hadn’t really played into any plots since issue 5 and with Duke on the way, he was redundant. Also didn’t help that no action figure was planned or expected. Hawk had been calling the shots for well over a year and Flagg had become more of an obstacle than a “leader” (see issue 16).
• I’ve always considered the SNAKE armor as the prototype for the BATs. Again, you could guess that Dr. Mindbender expanded on Venom’s original designs.
• The Joes plant claymore mines under a string of ambulances. Short-Fuse mutters that it must be against the Geneva convention to do so. Trip-Wire tells him “most weapons carried by the average police officer are against the Geneva convention.”
• I don’t believe that the PAC/RATS and the SNAKE armor were ever seen again.
• Cobra Commander almost lets it slip to Destro that the Baroness isn’t dead.
• It had been almost a year (issue 8) since the entire team was involved in a full-scale battle with all their gear and vehicles.
• Trip-wire is mistakenly called “Torpedo” in one panel.
• Hilarious opening scene with Snow-Job complaining to Doc about the way Gung-Ho switches his Cajun accent on and off. Doc replies with a combo of eubonics and medical terminology.
• Here’s another realization on the “GI Joe is Smurfs” connection: for the first two years of the comics, Cobra has been trying to find G.I Joe HQ… the same way Gargamel’s sole motive was to find the Smurf Village (well, until years later when he discovered Smurfs could be cooked into gold).
• This issue has a profile page of Snake-Eyes! I had forgotten all about that…so my earlier comments about the profiles not returning “for about six years” was false.
• The next issue box promises an “unusual tale by Larry Hama”– obviously the famous “Silent issue”. But, as we’ll see, issue 20 was not written by Hama and has dialogue. The “Silent Issue” is #21.
• This was released in Marvel’s infamous “assitant editors’ month”. Alot of Marvel titles had cheeky shenanigans that month, like running “Aunt May & Franklin Richards vs. Galactus” in Marvel Team-up or having the Avengers appear on Late Night with David Letterman. No chicanery present in this title, except for the cover’s corner box: instead of the usual shot of Grunt, it’s a shot of assitant editor Linda Grant in a helmet, with explosions about. I didn’t know it was Grant until recently–I had always assumed it was Scarlett.

Appearances:

Characters (with figures): The entire Joe Team: Hawk, Scarlett, Breaker, Stalker, Gung-Ho, Grunt, Rock n’ Roll, Grunt, Doc, Torpedo, Snake-Eyes, Flash, Grand Slam, Zap, Short-Fuse, Torpedo, Wild Bill, Airborne, Ace, Steeler, Snow Job, Clutch. Cobra Commander, Major Bludd, Destro

Characters (no action figures, or “comic-only” characters): Baroness, Scar-Face, Kwinnn, General Flagg

Vehicles and stuff (toys): VAMP, MOBAT, RAM, APC, Wolverine, PAC/Rats (3), DragonFly, Skystriker, GI Joe HQ (“Pre-Fab Fortress”), SNAKE, HISS, FANG
Vehicles and stuff (not toys): maybe some Cobra transport copters

Firsties:
Characters: none
Vehicles: PAC/Rats, SNAKE, GI Joe HQ (“Pre-Fab Fortress”)

Rating: 4 Flag Points