G.I. Joe Reviews: G.I. Joe 37, G.I. Joe 38

G.I. Joe #37 (July 1985) – “Twin Brothers” – Larry Hama/Frank Springer/Andy Mushynsky

This one starts with Ripcord, Blowtorch, and Gung Ho helping Bongo the Balloon Bear deliver some balloons and other party favours to an organization at the Arbco Brothers Circus. The Joes are helping because they owe Bongo for taking her van to chase Fred II a couple of issues ago, although it seems like Ripcord might have a more personal reason for helping Bongo (who’s actually a hot blonde named Candy). The Joes don’t know that Arbco Brothers is a Cobra front, so they don’t suspect that the party booking is a trap laid by a couple of weird twin brothers named Tomax and Xamot. Elsewhere, Lady Jaye and Roadblock are training with some captured HISS tanks, but they get beaten by a new Joe named Flint, who’s showing what he can do with the Armadillo mini-tank. Flint is an old friend of Duke’s, but his cocky attitude doesn’t endear him to Lady Jaye. At the circus, Tomax and Xamot have called Cobra for help, but they’re too busy getting ready for Billy’s trial (which we’ll see next issue) to care about a few Joes, so the twins decide to capture them alone. They do have help from a bunch of Crimson Guardsmen (whom the twins command), so when the Joes split up they’re followed by Siegies in business suits. Ripcord and Candy run into their pursuers in the House of Mirrors, but the setting helps them trick their way out. At the Pit, a new infantry trooper named Footloose shows up and is immediately shanghaied into coming with Wild Bill to pick up some equipment from the training exercise. Footloose seems a bit too nervous to be a Joe, but settles down a bit when they fly over the circus and he sees Gung Ho and Blowtorch waving from the roller coaster. By the time they get back (with the chopper hauling the Armadillo with Flint and Footloose aboard), Ripcord and Candy have fled to the big top and Xamot is poised to blow Gung Ho and Blowtorch away by shooting through the coaster track when they pass under him in the loop-the-loop. Flint jumps off the tank and goes after Xamot, while Footloose lands on the ground in the tank and frantically tries to figure out how to run it. Tomax can feel his brother is in trouble (getting pounded by Flint), so he goes to help, leaving the Siegies to take care of Ripcord and Candy. They take refuge on top on a trapeze platform, giving Footloose a chance to bust in with the Armadillo and scatter the Siegies. Gung Ho and Blowtorch were faking being hurt (the steel coaster cars protected them from the bullets) and pound the Crimson Guard who come to check on them. Tomax rescues his brother from Flint and they take off, chased by Wild Bill in the chopper. He tries to blast them with some missiles, but they go through a drainage pipe to safety. Most of the other Siegies have fled and the Joes are pissed off because it seems like the twins knew they were coming. Candy is even more pissed off because every time she hangs out with Ripcord, people end up shooting at her. She tells him she doesn’t want to see him again and Ripcord takes it pretty hard. This is a pretty good issue, bringing in a lot of new characters (Flint, Footloose, the Crimson Twins) and vehicles (the Armadillo, the Cobra Ferret). Flint and Lady Jaye seem to be at odds the first time they meet, but we all know where that’s going. Tomax and Xamot clearly have some kind of psychic connection here, able to see through each other’s eyes and feel when the other is in trouble, but I think that mystical aspect of their relationship is toned down later. Larry Hama probably thought it was too esoteric for a comic like this; he gave a scientific explanation for Zartan’s shape-changing abilities too. The Ripcord/Candy thing will go on for a while, and Flint will become a major character, but Footloose kinda disappears after this. Maybe fans didn’t care for him much? I think Larry Hama was trying to write him as some kind of New Age/ex-hippie burn-out who joined the Army on a whim to “find himself”, but apparently that didn’t resonate with fans.

G.I. Joe #38 (August 1985) – “Judgments” – Larry Hama/Rod Whigham/Andy Mushynsky

This was the second issue of G.I. Joe that I bought (after #33) and it’s the one that got me hooked on the series and made me a regular reader. It opens in the depths of Cobra headquarters in Springfield, with a tribunal meeting to decide the fate of Billy, who tried to shoot Cobra Commander in the aforementioned issue 33. The tribunal consists of pretty much all the Cobras we’ve seen so far: Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness, Major Bludd, Storm Shadow, Firefly, Zartan and a couple of Dreadnoks, and Wild Weasel. Billy is Cobra Commander’s estranged son, but that doesn’t mean the Commander is going to show any leniency towards him. Cobra Commander knows someone put Billy up to assassinating him and helped him plan it, so that’s what this trial is for. Of course, we know it was Baroness and Major Bludd (and Destro was definitely aware of the plan too), but Billy refuses to talk. At the Pit, Ripcord, Gung Ho, Roadblock, and Stalker are called in for an assignment. They’re supposed to go down to Sierra Gordo to rescue an American humanitarian who went down to try to arbitrate peace amongst the various factions that have turned the country into a permanent war zone since Cobra dropped their support for their puppet dictator. The kicker is that the person they have to rescue is Dr. Adele Burkhardt, who we saw in issue 2 and who thinks the Joes are a bunch of stormtroopers acting on behalf of a quasi-fascist American government. In Springfield, Destro suggests that Billy may have been brainwashed and isn’t responsible for his actions, but Billy denies it. Zartan suggests they use Dr. Venom’s brainwave scanner to read Billy’s thoughts and Cobra Commander agrees. Billy does the same thing Snake Eyes did in issue 10, using older memories to block the machine from reading his thoughts. The process is painful, but Billy manages to dredge up some memories of how Cobra first got started, with his father turning a simple pyramid scheme into an organization bent on world conquest. Cobra Commander doesn’t like everyone seeing his secret origin, so he has Billy taken out of the machine and tossed in a cell. Storm Shadow is impressed with Billy’s sense of honour, shielding the people who used him. In the Pit, a contingent of Joes (Duke, Lady Jaye, Flint, Mutt, Cover Girl, Blowtorch, Snake Eyes, and Footloose, who disappears for some reason) slip out a hidden motor pool entrance to check out a suspected Cobra agent’s house … the guy who arranged the Arbco Brothers job last issue that turned out to be a set-up. In Sierra Gordo, the four Joes parachute down and make their way through the jungle, but are ambushed by native Tucaros in a clearing. The Tucaros turn out to be friendly and are working with another Joe (Recondo) who’s already on the scene. Recondo has been scouting the location where Dr. Burkhardt is being held and it looks impregnable, situated at the base of a sheer cliff with all kinds of firepower protecting it. So Recondo casually suggests they climb down the unclimbable cliff. In Springfield, Storm Shadow breaks Billy out of his cell and Destro tries to stop them escaping, but Storm Shadow and Billy get past him and take off. On Staten Island, the Joes arrive at the suspected Cobra house and are ambushed, Duke and Lady Jaye getting shot right through the front door. (Don’t worry, they’re wearing body armour.) Snake Eyes and Mutt go in the back and force the Cobras (Tomax, Xamot, and a Crimson Guard) to blast their way out the front window. They blow up the APC and take off, but the Joes find plenty of evidence that the house was a Cobra base. They get a shock when Candy drives up and informs them that this is her house. This is a great issue, with lots going on. I like how it connects to earlier stories, with the brainwave scanner, Dr. Burkhardt, and Candy’s house all tying together. Of course, a lot of this was just set-up, so we’ll have to wait to see how the Joes rescue Burkhardt and what happens with Candy, not to mention Billy and Storm Shadow. It’s good to see Rod Whigham back, as I really love his art; Candy sure looks better than before, although it might just be that her hair is long now instead of that weird perm she had.