G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #261

Summary:

In Shazidar, Cover Girl’s team is able to meet-up with Airborne’s. After being chased through Sharra City by the Green Morning extremists, they coordinate a high-speed pick-up with Wild Bill and the C-130. The C-130 doesn’t slow down, flies just above the ground, and drops the ramp so the Joes can drive in.

Cover Girl and Repeater push the Chenoweth off the C-130 as it flies away. The Green Morning horde is ecstatic that they’ve scored a vehicle with intact weapons, including a load of C-4 explosives. At that moment, Joystick maneuvers his drone into range and fires a Hellfire missile, blowing up all the bad guys.

In Kansas, Destro and the Baroness are clearing out a Revanche hive mind or “Boss Fortress”. Several Iron Grenadiers are taken out by Revanche’s Alpha 001 Prime. Destro and the Baroness are able to escape the subterranean silo, blowing it up as they do. They appear to be clear, but then Alpha 001 Prime emerges with metal tentacles aflare.

Notes

• For the third straight month: lot of action and no wasted space!
• During their escape through Sharra City, Heavy Duty, Airborne and the UN workers are hit by bullets, but survive. One UN worker, Violette, appears to have more serious injuries, so she may bite it, next month.
• Joystick speaks this month. He just appeared in one panel, last month. He looks a little like the 2003 era “High Tech” figure, for what that’s worth.
• Destro and Baroness escape in a the ol’ “Cobra Helicopter/gunship” that first appeared in Yearbook #2 (and several appearances, since then). Yet it FINALLY has a name– “the Aspid”!
• I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but the escape from the desert plains of Shazidar into the C-130 reminded me of “MegaForce”. Yet no flying motorcycle. Hey, don’t laugh. As a kid I thought that scene was awesome and re-enacted it a few times in my GI Joe stories.
• Even though Destro and the Baroness are kinda’ doing their own thing, they still use Cobra equipment and Baroness still has the Cobra sigil on her outfit.
• Speaking of Baroness’s outfit, on the cover she’s depicted with an additional Cobra emblem on her shoulder. Her shoulders aren’t clearly visible in the actual issue, so it’s tough to determine if this was just an artist’s choice for the cover. Sorta’ like the Baroness’s beauty mark from 1982– we’ll check and see if it comes and goes.
• This is officially the start of a new arc, titled “Artificial Intelligence”. Okay, but the story set in Shazidar will actually overlap from the last arc, “The Cobra’s Venom”.

Appearances:

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

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

Vehicles and stuff (toys): none to speak of

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): Chenoweth, Flyer, Cobra Aspid

Firsties:
Characters:  none

Vehicles and stuff: none

Rating: 3 Flag Points