Art by Rod Whigham and Andy Mushynsky
•The previous issue of Larry Hama's G.I. Joe series was a pretty intense, action-packed one, and the title isn't going to let up at all until the landmark issue #50, as several new prominent characters will be introduced (some of whom change the very make-up of Cobra), Joes fight their way into Cobra's base, a Cobra agent fights his way out of The Pit and then we get the biggest battle of the series so far, featuring (almost) every one of the by this point many, many Joes.
As we saw in the last issue, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have finally learned the name of the man responsible for murdering The Hard Master (it was—40-year-old spoiler alert!—Zartan), and now they will stop at nothing to get their revenge. (Just look at how Mike Zeck drew Storm Shadow's eyes on the cover above; I would not want that guy looking at me like that with a sword in his hand.) Meanwhile, Zartan has kayoed Rip Cord and begun impersonating him, while dressing the unconscious Joe in his own clothes, and Hawk has sent a Joe team to infiltrate Cobra Island and retrieve Rip Cord.
"Can't have two Ripcords on Cobra Island, can we?" Zartan says aloud to himself. "No, it's far better to have one wounded and unconscious Zartan bleeding in the sand... ...And one wounded Ripcord, anxious to be recovered to by his fellow Joes and returned to the safety of headquarters for proper medical attention!"
•Inside the Terror Drome, Crimson Guardsman Appel shows off the Firebat to Cobra Commander. This was a little red aircraft that came with the toy line's Terror Drome playset (along with its red and silver clad pilot, referred to as "AVAC"...which apparently stands for Air Viper, Advanced Class, and is a role, rather than a name).
Appel talks up the vehicle quite a bit while laying out all of its features—including the fact that it is so advanced that it doesn't actually need a pilot—to which the Commander responds, "Really, you carry on as if it were your own child."
The Firebat and its various features will be of importance to the story shortly, of course.
The Firebat and its various features will be of importance to the story shortly, of course.
•The Joe team that has infiltrated Cobra Island for the dual purpose of rescuing Rip Cord and doing some surveillance consists of Flint, Spirit and the just-introduced characters Quick Kick and Alpine. Hama is nice enough to have their mission involve some mountain-climbing, which is of course Alpine's specialty.
Their surveillance involves the Terror Drome, which they can't quite make sense of, and a very big vehicle covered by a huge tarp. We won't see what's under that tarp this issue, but it appears to be the Cobra Night Raven, a big, black airplane from the 1986 line that included a smaller vehicle that could detach from it and came packaged with a Strato-Viper action figure.
•Meanwhile, Appel finds the unconscious "Zartan", who is, remember, actually Rip Cord, on the beach, and hurries him back to the Terror Drome. "Take it easy, you slimy shape-changer!" Appel tells him once he's on a wheeled gurney. "You're going to be all right!"
It is then that he makes a discovery. "Zartan" is still clutching something he apparently tore off of "Rip Cord" during their struggle on the beach:
Realizing that not only is this actually the Joe who his daughter was involved with, but that Cobra Commander has been keeping him in the dark about Candy's whereabouts and thus stringing him along, Appel helps Rip Cord into the cockpit of the Firebat.
Rip Cord protests that the Joes assaulting the Terror Drome by this point wouldn't hurt him, but Appel tells him it's not the Joe team, but Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, and they are after Zartan...whose clothes Rip Cord is currently wearing and, because Zartan's a shape-shifter, he could easily take on Rip Cord's face, so the ninjas might not be convinced tha Rip Cord really is Rip Cord. So, Appel decides the best course of action is to just shoot Rip Cord-dressed-as-Zartan off the island in the Firebat which, remember, doesn't even need a pilot.
The Commander, seeing them on a monitor, is dismayed: "That inexorable ninja...finally found out who killed his uncle, and he's brought along Snake Eyes to share in his revenge!"
Tomax, Xamot and their Crimson Guard form a human shield around The Commander, just as the two ninjas blow open a sealed door and Whigham poses them much like Zeck does on the cover.
"I want him," Storm Shadow says. "Give him to me."
Tomax, Xamot and their Crimson Guard form a human shield around The Commander, just as the two ninjas blow open a sealed door and Whigham poses them much like Zeck does on the cover.
"I want him," Storm Shadow says. "Give him to me."
The Commander quickly gives up Zartan, who he tells them is on the floor below. During the process, he excuses his own role in the assassination of The Hard Master, saying that Zartan had done the deed in order to prove that he could.
Is this true...? We'll find out more details in issues to come, but it seems good enough for the ninjas, who leave the Commander and take off after Zartan.
•Maybe it's just because I grew up with the cartoon rather than the comic, but I was a little surprised about just how many Cobra soldiers these two kill in the process of trying to get to Zartan. I mean, I guess Snake Eyes gunning Cobra soldiers down makes some amount of sense, but Storm Shadow cutting them down with his sword or shooting them with his bow and arrow...? These guys were his allies and co-workers until not that long ago...even if he had only joined Cobra in order to learn who had assassinated his uncle in the first place.
•It turns out Appel was right to fear the ninja wouldn't wait to make sure the "Zartan" they were after was the real Zartan or not, as Storm Shadow charges the Firebat, intent on cutting "Zartan" down in the cockpit. Appel steps between them, and Storm Shadow instead seems to kill Appel with a ZASH of his sword.
Just then, Snake Eyes tackles Storm Shadow as the Firebat launches like a rocket.
"I could have got him!" Storm Shadow cries. "The blast would have killed me... ...but I could have got him!"
•So that's what happened to Rip Cord-dressed-as-Zartan, but what of Zartan-dressed-as-Rip Cord...? Well, after some fighting of their own, the Joe team sent to rescue him manage to do so, get back to their raft and make it out to sea. Spirit notices some inconsistencies between the wounds on the man they think is Ripcord and the damage to his uniform, but they don't suspect it's actually Zartan in disguise.
•So that's what happened to Rip Cord-dressed-as-Zartan, but what of Zartan-dressed-as-Rip Cord...? Well, after some fighting of their own, the Joe team sent to rescue him manage to do so, get back to their raft and make it out to sea. Spirit notices some inconsistencies between the wounds on the man they think is Ripcord and the damage to his uniform, but they don't suspect it's actually Zartan in disguise.
Art by Rod Whigham and Andy Mushynsky
•Okay, so Rip Cord, wounded and dressed like Zartan, was rocketed off Cobra Island to safety in a Firebat by Professor Appell. And Flint and his rescue/reconnaissance team managed to make it to sea, with who they think is Rip Cord (but is actually Zartan in disguise). But there's still a Joe left on the island: Snake Eyes, who, along with Storm Shadow, managed to fight his way into the heart of Cobra's Terror Dome base...and must now fight their way back off of the island.
Their attempts to do so, and the Joes' attempts to help them and the Cobra attempts to stop them, will comprise the entirety of this action-packed issue.
•The Joes make it to the WHALE hovercraft (It's been a while since we've seen it, but that's WHALE as in Warrior Hovering Assault Launching Envoy, and it seems to be a favorite of Hama's, as it shows up more often than many other Joe vehicles in the series do).
Once he's aboard, Doc begins to prep Rip Cord for evacuation...and Zartan temporarily reverts to his own face, complete with the diamond shaped makeup or mask... 
Amusingly, Doc is hardly suspicious at all that the man in front of him seemed to take on the appearance of an enemy agent known as a master of disguise.
•Meanwhile, one of those big transport helicopters Cobra uses in the comics—but that have no toy or cartoon equivalents—returns to the island, carrying Destro, The Baroness, Doctor Mindbender, Buzzer and a cargo that Mindbender is worried about.
They target the WHALE, but Cutter and company get the first shot in, sending the helicopter careening towards a crash-landing...right on top of all the planes in the airfield that Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes had just arrived a..
Seeing all of the planes destroyed, the pair then turn and instead head for the shore.
They target the WHALE, but Cutter and company get the first shot in, sending the helicopter careening towards a crash-landing...right on top of all the planes in the airfield that Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes had just arrived a..
Seeing all of the planes destroyed, the pair then turn and instead head for the shore.
"Down to the beach!" Storm Shadow shouts. "If we can't commandeer a plane, we'll settle for a boat!"
•Time to introduce some new toys!
The ninjas manage to take a Cobra Hydrofoil and launch it, still fighting with the Eels aboard it. The Eels? These were Cobra's red and gray clad frogmen, and their action figures came armed with harpoon guns.
The ninjas manage to take a Cobra Hydrofoil and launch it, still fighting with the Eels aboard it. The Eels? These were Cobra's red and gray clad frogmen, and their action figures came armed with harpoon guns.
Hawk orders a pair of Devilfish attack boats into the water. These were vehicles from the 1986 line and were orange on the box art (and the cover of this issue), but are colored green within the comic.
Piloting them this mission will be the two "newest Joes," who Hawk says are "the most qualified for this mission": Beach Head, a ski-mask wearing Ranger, and Wet-Suit, a Navy SEAL.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mindbender and some Eels board the water attack craft that were the cargo he was so worried about earlier. These are Cobra Hydro-Sleds, and are basically the equivalent of the Devilfish, although they are piloted from a prone position rather than a seated one. The toys were Cobra red and blue, but in the comic they are a solid blue gray. (Do note Cobra Commander talking shit about Major Bludd's literary abilities in the panel above; his disdain for Bludd's poetry is one of my favorite ongoing bits in the comic).
•Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes get thrown overboard during the battle and engage in acts of extreme bad-assery. Storm Shadow fights Eels underwater. Look at all the blood being spilled!
•And Snake Eyes fights a fucking shark.
These are some pretty badass panels, although as awesome as Snake Eyes fighting a shark with a knife may look, I think it's still not quite as cool as Stalker fighting a crocodile with a knife while rattling off its scientific name way back in G.I. Joe #13.
That's because one expects Snake Eyes to do the coolest shit, like fight sharks with a knife, whereas Stalker is just an ordinary elite soldier, and not a super-ninja.
•Snake Eyes kills his shark and gets to safety atop a Devilfish. Storm Shadow and the Eels surface and turn their blades on all the sharks now swarming them.
"Fight hard, Eels!" Storm Shadow tells them. "Even if you live through the sharks... ...you'll still have me to contend with!"
"Fight hard, Eels!" Storm Shadow tells them. "Even if you live through the sharks... ...you'll still have me to contend with!"
Hawk tries to comfort Snake Eyes preemptively, putting his hands on his shoulders and telling him that Storm Shadow is just too far away and there are too many sharks.
But nothing is impossible for a ninja!
Storm Shadow struggles to the shore...only to meet The Baroness.
•Given what a momentous event that scene contained, one would think this would have been a good place to end the issue, but there are actually two pages left, in which we check in on Rip Cord-dressed-as-Zartan and Zartan-dressed-as-Rip Cord.
The Dreadnoks pull the semi-conscious Rip Cord out of the Firebat when it lands at the Springfield airport. Hearing him mutter "C-Candy," they promise to get him some nice candy..."and grape soda, too!"
The Dreadnoks pull the semi-conscious Rip Cord out of the Firebat when it lands at the Springfield airport. Hearing him mutter "C-Candy," they promise to get him some nice candy..."and grape soda, too!"
Meanwhile, Zartan is loaded onto a VAMP that speeds him towards The Pit. Fortunately for the Joes, he's still unconscious from the drugs Doc gave him, and thus when he wakes up inside their secret base, he won't know exactly where it is or how to get there...not unless he manages to escape, of course.
Art by Rod Whigham and Andy Mushynsky
They discuss just how dangerous ninja are, and adept at playing dead, and Destro throws some shade at The Baroness. "I assume that was The Baroness' rationale for killing an exhausted, unarmed man," he says.
The death of the scene is leveled with some sex, as the splash features a nice view of The Baroness in her fetish gear-inspired costume and, as you can see above, the next panel uses her curves to frame the actual action being depicted.
Hmm, what could Dr. Mindbender want with genetic material, I ask myself, as if I have never seen the original G.I. Joe cartoon series...
•It doesn't take Zartan's trickery too long to be detected in The Pit. Doc looks at his blood under a microscope and realizes his blood type doesn't match Rip Cord's. It takes far longer for the Joes to catch Zartan, though...in fact, most of the issue. That's because Zartan uses his powers to continually shape shift into the form of other Joes, leading to a lot of running around, mistaken identities and fun visuals (When neither disguised as a Joe nor invisible, Zartan appears in a pair of ripped striped pajamas, with this mask/makeup on; in those images, he looks an awful lot like a pissed-off Nightwing in pajamas).
The Dreadnoks still thinking he's talking about candy-with-a-lower-case-"c", of course.
Thinking that Zartan has gone mad, they decide to spring him from the Springfield hospital and take back to their New Jersey hideout.
•On the road, they stop for grape soda and chocolate ice-cream floats at a diner. I've never been a fan of grape flavor, and I don't think I've ever had grape soda, let alone paired it with chocolate doughnuts (the Dreadnoks' favorite snack) or chocolate ice cream.
Were any of you who might have read this comic as children ever inspired to try grape soda and chocolate doughnuts...?
By this point, Rip Cord has recovered his wits and suggests they all head back to Springfield.
This is the first appearance of Sgt. Slaughter.
Now, Sgt. Slaughter was an unusual G.I. Joe character in that he was actually a real person: Robert Rudolph Remus. The Slaughter character was created for his professional wrestling career, and his trademark look consisted of a opaque sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat and a little mustache.
I have no idea how exactly he ended up in the G.I. Joe cartoon and toy line (and, thus, the comic book); there were a few other real people who were made into Joes in the toy line, but Slaughter was the only one who was also on the cartoon.
I have no idea how exactly he ended up in the G.I. Joe cartoon and toy line (and, thus, the comic book); there were a few other real people who were made into Joes in the toy line, but Slaughter was the only one who was also on the cartoon.
There, he was a major player, playing a particularly big role in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" mini-series that kicked off the second season, and the real Sgt. Slaughter acted as a live-action host to the cartoon after that.
In the toy line, his action figure was released in 1986, either as a mail-order exclusive, or packaged with the "Triple T" tank (Those three T's...? Tag Team Terminator). This was a little white tank that basically looked like a big metal easy chair with huge treads on either side. According to his file card, Slaughter was the team drill sergeant.
In the toy line, his action figure was released in 1986, either as a mail-order exclusive, or packaged with the "Triple T" tank (Those three T's...? Tag Team Terminator). This was a little white tank that basically looked like a big metal easy chair with huge treads on either side. According to his file card, Slaughter was the team drill sergeant.
In 1987, he got his own little sub-team, Sgt. Slaughter's Renegades, who came in a three-pack, and were introduced in 1987's G.I. Joe: The Movie, which Slaughter also played a sizable role in.
Then, in 1989, after I had quit paying attention to G.I. Joe, Hasbro released a "Slaughter's Marauders" team. This consisted of a new Sgt. Slaughter figure and five previously released figures with new coloring: Barbecue, Bazooka, Footloose, Low-Light, Mutt and Spirit. (Oh, and Junkyard and Freedom, although their colors hadn't changed at all). In this respect, the team was basically the same as the Python Patrol and Tiger Force sub-teams...which we'll get to eventually in the comics.
His introduction in this issue is pretty cool and certainly presents his arrival as somewhat momentous. In the first panel in which he appears, his face is dramatically obscured by his duffel. Above, we see some Joes hassling him, and, when it seems like they might come to blows, his response is simply to grin.
When we next see him, he's standing on a floor littered with four Joes, holding their heads and groaning. (When they tell him what's going on with Zartan in th Pit below, he tells them, "On your feet, soldiers," and lifts a pair of them up by their collars.)
At the risk of getting ahead of myself here, I'm kind of surprised that we don't see much of Slaughter after this issue. He'll show up again in issue #51 and...I think that might be his last appearance...?
As of the time I write this, I have finished Image Comics' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Compendium 3, which means I've read through issue #113 of the series (and all of the spin-off Special Missions), and Slaughter doesn't appear in any of those that I remember. I suppose it's possible he shows up in one of the last 43 issue of the series, but, if so, he doesn't make any covers.
Likewise, the Renegades and "Slaughter's Maruaders" never seem to show up.
Now, Hama seems to have dutifully written everything from the toy line into the comic he was presented with, no matter how silly it might seem (I'm thinking here of the G.I. Joe and Cobra space shuttles, for example, or the Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball vehicle, or this one particular character who even the other characters continually comment on how weird he is). Looking at the covers of issues I've yet to read, I see Megatron from The Transformers will show up, which means at least one giant alien robot is in the series.
But Hama apparently did draw some lines...some of which will seem arbitrary. He never included Cobra-La, for example; these were characters from a bizarre, prehistoric civilization that were the villains in the movie (and, like the Renegades, were sold as a three-pack). That's perfectly understandable, as their presence would seem to break the whole premise of Cobra that he had already established (As well as warp the narrative, pushing it rather far into hard horror and speculative fiction).
Likewise, the Renegades and "Slaughter's Maruaders" never seem to show up.
Now, Hama seems to have dutifully written everything from the toy line into the comic he was presented with, no matter how silly it might seem (I'm thinking here of the G.I. Joe and Cobra space shuttles, for example, or the Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball vehicle, or this one particular character who even the other characters continually comment on how weird he is). Looking at the covers of issues I've yet to read, I see Megatron from The Transformers will show up, which means at least one giant alien robot is in the series.
But Hama apparently did draw some lines...some of which will seem arbitrary. He never included Cobra-La, for example; these were characters from a bizarre, prehistoric civilization that were the villains in the movie (and, like the Renegades, were sold as a three-pack). That's perfectly understandable, as their presence would seem to break the whole premise of Cobra that he had already established (As well as warp the narrative, pushing it rather far into hard horror and speculative fiction).
For some reason, Hama also never included the Cobra flight pods (AKA "Trubble Bubbles"), one-person vehicles that were pretty cool-looking and maybe a bit on the futuristic side, but not as fantastic or weird as some of the vehicles into the comics. They were quite commonplace in the cartoon, too, which I suppose is why their absence in the comics seem notable.
Anyway, I wonder if Hama barely using Sgt. Slaughter meant that he wasn't a fan of the character. Or if he didn't like the Robert Remus or his schtick. (According to Wikipedia, there was some stolen valor-related controversy around his wrestling gimmick, as Remus never actually served in the military). Or if, perhaps, it was uncomfortable or otherwise impractical to use a character who was also a real person (Like, did Remus have to sign off on his likeness and dialogue in each issue or something...?)
