G.I. Joe #154 (November 1994) – “Flying the Unfriendly Skies” – Peter Quinones/Ernie Stiner/Chip Wallace
This one starts at the airport with Roadblock running to make a flight. He’s headed to a big chili cook-off in Texas, which he figures he’ll win because of his special blend of extra-hot chili powder, courtesy of his grandmother’s recipe. Some Cobra agents at the airport recognize him as a Joe and do a little hacking to get him bumped from his regular flight and re-booked onto a jetliner full of undercover Cobras. Roadblock is actually happy (since they put him in first class) until they get in the air and the Cobras try to capture him. Luckily they’re not using guns
because they don’t want to depressurize the cabin, but they all do have knives and tasers, so Roadblock is still in trouble. He fights some of them off but a Cobra torturer gets stupid and pulls a gun, his shot blowing out the emergency door and depressurizing the plane, which goes into a nose dive. Roadblock makes sure the torturer goes out the door and once the plane levels out Roadblock hides in the storage area and jumps a couple of Cobras for interrogation. The rest of the Cobras all have guns now and are sweeping the plane looking for him, He heads for the cargo bay which is full of weapons and other 
equipment … including a parachute. He gets jumped by Cobras again and has to fight his way out the bay doors, but he manages to grab an anti-tank missile and blast the plane while in free-fall, before landing safely and waiting for the Joes to pick him up. This was obviously a filler issue (and not written by Larry Hama), so it’s not up to the usual standards. But it’s fine for what it is, although Roadblock’s constant puns get old fast. Next issue is the final one of the original run, so I’m hoping the Joes will get a decent send-off.
G.I. Joe #155 (December 1994) – “A Letter From Snake Eyes” – Larry Hama/Phil Gosier/Scott Koblish
This one starts with Wade Collins having a nightmare about the patrol in Vietnam where he was shot and left for dead. His son Sean is seventeen and wants Wade to sign some papers so he can enlist in the Army early, but Wade tries to tell him that serving in the military isn’t fun or glamourous. Sean reminds Wade that he’s technically not his real father, just a surgically-altered Cobra replacement, so Wade says he’ll get Snake Eyes to let Sean know how things really are through a letter. Sean respects Snake
Eyes as a true warrior, so he agrees. Sean’s letter arrives at the Pit in Utah a week later, where the Joes are packing everything away because the government has decided to shut them down. Snake Eyes reads Sean’s letter bemoaning the current (as of 1994) state of America: nobody cares about patriotism or duty anymore, just material gain and appearance, or they’ve become so jaded they seek solace in drugs or other mind-numbing pursuits. Sean wants to join the military because of what it stands for, a sense of honour and glory that’s lacking everywhere else. Snake Eyes’s reply is to the point and rather brutal: 
being a soldier doesn’t bring honour or glory, just boredom, terror, and a sense of loss. He talks about the various members of he and Wade’s old LRRP unit and why they were in Vietnam. None of them was there for honour or glory, more like necessity and half of them didn’t make it back. Those that did were never the same again. Snake Eyes concludes his letter by saying he has no regrets about serving, but wouldn’t really recommend it unless you’re ready for all the bad stuff that goes along with it. Snake Eyes’s letter is intercut with scenes of the Pit being officially closed down and the flag being lowered and packed away. When Sean gets Snake Eyes’s letter, he shows it to Wade, who tells
him he was one of those who could never talk about his experience in Vietnam. Wade says he’ll sign the papers if Sean still wants him to, but Sean says he’d like to think about it for a while. Sean’s mom notices the letter has no return address and wonders what that means, but we see the answer in a last look at the now-deactivated Pit. This is a really good issue and a fitting end for the series. Larry Hama actually served in Vietnam and I think he was in a LRRP himself, so I’m assuming the members of Wade’s team were based on people Hama actually knew. It was cool to see some background on Ramon Escobedo and Dickie Saperstein, and I’d be willing to bet the details of Ramon, Dickie, and 
Stalker’s lives were all true for some of Hama’s fellow soldiers (although I doubt if he knew any ninjas personally). His description of the emptiness of modern life still fits today, although I notice he forgot to mention guys like Oliver North and Reagan when he was listing all the disappointing public figures of the time. The closing of the Pit was done well and I am sad to see this series end, but it had gotten away from its roots in the last few years, almost becoming a superhero comic with all the ninja stuff, killer robots, and space missions. Originally, I think the comic was an examination of military life after Vietnam and how society’s attitudes toward that war cast a long shadow over life in the United States for a long time afterwards. I would’ve
liked to see more of that, but I guess most fans (the majority of whom were probably too young to remember Vietnam) preferred action over introspection. I know there’s a revival series years later that basically starts where this one leaves off (and includes Sean Collins as a major character) and I’ll probably review that one of these days, but for right now I think I might try something else for a while. Join me here next Monday and you’ll see what I mean.