G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero #240

Writer: Larry Hama
Penciler: S.L. Gallant

Summary

Some time has passed since last issue, as Storm Shadow, Dawn, Zartan, Heather Collins and the rest have seized control of Dr. Mindbender’s basement lab and have held off legions of Cobra troopers. Wade Collins and “Mrs. Wade Collins” recognize Snake-Eyes (II) as their son, Sean, and they have a quick reunion.

Dawn demands Dr. Mindbender removes Snake-Eyes’s persona from her mind. Snake-Eyes (I) takes over control of Dawn and tosses Dr. Mindbender into the Brainwave Scanner. As the good guy crew prepares to leave the lab and fight their way out, Heather Collins uploads a virus into the Brainwave Scanner and Mindbender is strapped in to it. Yet, after everybody leaves, Dr. Mindbender brags that the Scanner had a fail-safe in case of such a virus– it creates a digital avatar and loads that into whoever is strapped into the Scanner. The digital avatar is actually the persona of Dr. Venom, who now “lives again” in Mindbender’s body.

In Darklonia, Roadblock, Spirit Iron-Knife and Grosz fend off their Cobra pursuers, through use of smoke and diversions tactics.

Notes

• Well, it took ’em awhile, but they’ve finally seem to have replaced Mindbender with Dr. Venom. Always felt that while Mindbender was (most likely) a Hasbro creation, Hama probably wished it was Dr. Venom in the role, all along.
   
• It’s confirmed that Mindbender’s Brainwave Scanner lab is in the basement of the Springfield Community Center.
   
• Cobra actually uses a Viper in SNAKE armor in an attempt to enter the Center. First time the SNAKE armor has been used since issue 19!
   
• Best scene of the month is with Destro, watching on a monitor as Demon Granny takes out the SNAKE: “What was that thing that just took out an armored battle suit?” Baroness: “It was a Prada bag”.
   
• Dawn/Snake-Eyes has a flashback to the original Brainwave Scanner session, back in issue 10.
   
• Demon Granny refers to Snake-Eyes II as “Throwdown”, for what that’s worth.
   
• In Darklonia, the Joes commander a “Retaliation HISS”. Tough to tell if it made a cameo appearance, last issue, but this should be considered it’s “Firstie”. I had to look it up, as the Retaliation HISS (probably from the movie, right?) is somewhat different from the HISS V.
   
• Zartan seems to have done yet another “good guy turn”, as he appears to be fully aligned with Storm Shadow, now. At least for the moment.
• The solicitation for this issue mentioned something to the tune of “learn more about the mysterious Dawn Moreno”….but I don’t think anything about her (not Snake-Eyes) was revealed.
   
• The action was good, this month, but this story seems to be relying too much on the dang ol’ Brainwave Scanner. A common and recurring complaint.
   
• Becoming obvious that the Brainwave Scanner has become a crutch, yet plots around it come-and-go at leisure. For instance, remember the mob guys who found “Dr. Venom’s Back-up” back in issue 192? How many fail-safes, back-ups, Trojan horses and other “deux ex machina” effects do Dr. Venom and the Brainwave Scanner have?

Appearances

Characters (figures): Storm Shadow, Roadblock, Spirit Iron-knife, Snake-Eyes I (flashback) Zartan, Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness, Dr. Mindbender, Torch, Ripper, Buzzer, Zarana

Characters (“comic-only”): Throwdown (Snake-Eyes II), Dawn Moreno, Wade Collins, “Mrs. Wade Collins”, Heather Collins, Demon Granny, Wendy Ling-Torres, Dr. Venom, Grosz

Vehicles and stuff (toys): Cobra Rage, Cobra Retaliation HISS, Destro’s Despoiler, SNAKE

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): none to speak of

Firsties:
Characters: none

Vehicles and stuff: Cobra Retaliation HISS

Rating: 3 Flag Points