G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #260

Summary:

Cover Girl’s extraction team in Shazidar spots an ambush ahead and is able to counter it, successfully.

Airborne’s team of Ripcord and Heavy Duty are in Sharra City and begin a plan to evacuate their 3 UN contacts, as well as all the orphans they are watching over. The “Green Morning” rebellion would kill all the kids, due to their ethnicity. It goes against international protocol, but the Joes do the right thing and decide to take the kids along.

In search of a ride, Airborne’s team finds the Green Morning HQ, where some “ethnic cleansing” is taking place. The Joes take the Green Morning guys and take off with a VW bus– full of UN workers and orphans.

Over in San Francisco, Milo is admitted to the Joe base/dojo run by Budo.

Meanwhile, in Kansas (?!), Destro, the Baroness and their Iron Grenadiers begin flushing out a subterranean Revanche base. They stumble into the “hive mind” and appear to be in deep dung.

Notes

• For the second straight month: lot of action and no wasted space!
• Okay, it IS a little cheesy (and maybe even cliche) that the Joes are rescuing orphans.
• Heavy Duty actually uses his big… umm…gun-thing.. that his figure came with. I think his only “Hama-verse” appearance was a background cameo, circa issue 130. He did have a lot of screen time in the DDP series, though.
• Both sides in the Shazidar conflict seem like pricks. The dictator Aboud’s forces (whom Cover Girl’s team face) seem like bad guys…and the “Green Morning” guys are definitely despicable. Not every conflict is good guys vs. bad guys.
• The Joes at the Pit are using a drone to help support their teams in Shazidar. It’s controlled by another new Joe (one we actually see, this time)- code-named “Joystick”. Really? You’re gonna’ go with that name? Okay, then…
• I’m curious what Joystick’s “Primary Military Specialty” would be? “Drone controller”? His figure would obviously come with a drone, which would be kinda’ neat.
• As Ambush is introducing Milo to everyone at the SF dojo, he mentions: “Long Range’s specialty is really artillery, but he’s got other talents that are useful here”. Finally some acknowledgment and clarification that a vehicle driver suddenly became a sniper. Maybe…
• Ambush also mentions that Alpine has just come back from an overseas missions. A reference to “Silent Option“, most likely.
• Not sure if it’s a widespread effect, but in my copy, page 10 seems a little pixelated…as if they’re using a “preview image” instead of the actual image. You can really tell the difference in the word balloons.
• Cover dressing for this issue is STILL billing it as “The Cobra’s Venom”… but there is no real connection to the recent Dr. Venom arc.

Appearances:

Characters (figures): Cover Girl, Muskrat, Dusty, Leatherneck, Repeater, Ripcord, Airborne, Heavy Duty, Long Range, Ambush, Alpine, Budo, Mainframe, Joystick, Baroness, Destro

Characters (“comic-only”):  Violette Robial, Freda Van Heusen, Idun Lundgren , Milo, Raymond

Vehicles and stuff (toys): none to speak of

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): Chenoweth, Flyer

Firsties:
Characters:  Joystick

Vehicles and stuff: Chenoweth, Flyer

Rating: 3 Flag Points