IDW Publishing Forums

[shanecdavis]

In honor of 2012 being the 30th Anniversary of the Marvel G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic that we all know and love, we will be holding a reading marathon. Each week we will read 5 issues and then post our thoughts here. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate.

WEEK 1 - Marvel G.I. Joe 1-5

Optional reading - DDP G.I. Joe Declassified 1-3

Covers


Optional covers


This week's reading is where it all began! Who here was able to purchase the very first issue? Who here has a mint first print of #2???? Who here looked at their Hawk toy figure and asked themselves - This guy is leading the Joes???

This week includes the Declassified issues from DDP. Whether you consider them part of the ARAHverse or not, they certainly do add to the mythos. Feel free to give your opinion on them as well.

Well, what are you waiting for?? Get reading!!

***Special thanks to Antartica and his Yo Joe! website for providing the cover images***

[Torpedo]

I saw The Dark Knight numerous times in the theater, and I distinctly remember after the third or fourth viewing my friend excitedly talking about the "sky hook" scene where Batman captures Lau from his Hong Kong skyscraper using an air balloon scooped up by a low-flying aircraft. My friend talked at length about how cool and innovative that stunt was, and how he couldn't believe no one had thought of it before. And I sat across from him at the Thai restaurant we hit up after the movie, thinking, Dude, I saw that stunt twenty years ago in a G.I. Joe comic!

In fact, it was the first G.I. Joe comic. Skyhook appears right in the prologue of "Operation: Lady Doomsday". Baroness uses the balloon to kidnap Dr. Adele Burkhart from a moving train and is then retrieved by a Cobra helicopter. It was as awesome on those pages as it was on the screen in The Dark Knight--okay, maybe not as awesome, but almost; if the comic book had Hans Zimmer doing the score, then it would be as awesome.

***

I've been a G.I. Joe fan for as long as I can remember. Seriously, I was born just before the toy line launched and my brother collected the first couple waves of figures until I was old enough to take up the reins. We recorded "The Revenge of Cobra" from TV and I watched it all the time, every day. But I wasn't a G.I. Joe comic reader from day one. I like to think i would have been had I known they existed (and had I been able to read). As it is, the book was already in its 70s by the time I came along. The first issues I read were from the Cobra Island Civil War, and they were enough to hook me. From that point on, my best friends and I tracked down every issue that came before.

Re-reading the first issue today, I'm still impressed by how seamlessly Larry Hama wove all of the necessary elements of the toy franchise into a plot-driven, action-packed story. All of the toys and vehicles from that 1982 wave get some page time, in addition to series regulars like Generals Austin and Flagg, plus the Baroness, who has always--always--been my favorite member of Cobra.

Of course, coming from the toys and cartoons first to the comics, and being a young, naive child, I was always a little thrown off by Hawk in the comics. The blonde hair was too similar to Duke and confused me (again--young and naive). Plus, I couldn't find anything in that original 1982 Hawk file card to suggest he was the overall commander of the unit other than saying he's a natural leader. Weren't they all natural leaders? I always thought of Stalker as the team's first leader.

Another thing that's always struck me as kind of funny is I think this first issue is the last time Larry Hama uses the full cast of established characters on the mission. After this, he focused more on smaller teams to manage the pacing, unless he was throwing in damn near everybody, like during the major conflicts. I think issues #8 or #9 might have had all 13 originals, but they weren't Hama-written issues. Scaling back the cast for specific missions/issues was a great choice. It allowed him to control the flow, to give everyone a chance to shine and introduce bits of characterization that felt organic and fresh. Still, it was fun during "Operation: Lady Doomsday" to see the whole team working together.

***

I'll chime in on the other early issues later this week. I also just ordered the "Declassified" trade paperback, so if it arrives early enough, I'll give my thoughts on those issues, too. In the meantime, I can't wait to read what everyone else thought about these first couple entries in the G.I. Joe mythos.
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Author of Mr. Smartass, available for Amazon's Kindle, iPad/iPhone, and other e-reader devices and apps.

[jackharkness]

i've BEEN rereading gi joe for months, i feel declassied 1-3 IS canonical to arah,as is the first four issues of frontline, but, are you including special missions in this as well? i think you should

YO JOE

[ER]

Enjoyed your comments Torpedo! And remember, even if your Declassified trade doesn't come until next week, please feel free to post your comments on it here. Only the current week will be stickied, but the unstickied marathon threads will still be on the boards after their week is up for anyone to comment on. BTW, you're in for an amazing read when your Declassified trade arrives - not the best art in the world, but the script ranks among Larry's best work.

Ah, G.I. Joe #1... Where to begin?

For those of you who only have this issue collected in a trade, here's how the issue actually breaks down:

*Operation: Lady Doomsday 28 pages
*Map of the Pit 2 pages
*Hot Potato! (a short story that takes place "Somewhere in the Middle-East" 10 pages
*Pin-Ups/File Cards for Scarlett, Breaker, Flash and Stalker 4 pages

for a total of 44 pages! Quite an ambitious debut!

I began officially collecting the series with #57, and I know for a fact that that was the December '86 issue. Assuming that one Joe issue came out a month up to that point, that would put #1 at coming out in April 1982. Can anyone verify or disprove this? Again, I don't know for certain when #1 dropped, but for now I'm assuming April '82.

Before saying more on #1 I have a confession to make: I own every original issue of the Marvel run for #16-155, but for the the first 15 issues I actually have them from when they were reprinted as "Tales of G.I. Joe" and not the original releases. So if anyone with an original print of #1 knows of something more in the issue other than the 44 pages I listed above, I'd like to know about it - I've always assumed that "Tales" reprinted the whole thing, but I guess you never know...

Yeah, '87 and '88 was the heyday of my Joe comic buying. Not only were the main title and Special Missions going strong with fantastic stories, but I also bought up just about every previous story during those years, thanks to Tales of G.I. Joe and from just hunting down back-issues. Good times!

After re-reading #1 this morning here's a few thoughts:

We see Breaker when he first puts the gum in his mouth that he's been chewing on ever since

There's some dark moments for a toy-tie-in comic:
*CC wasting all the villagers
*Snake-Eyes wanting to kill Dr. Burkhart instead of going through the trouble to rescue her (!) #1 features one of the few times we get a statement from Snake-Eyes as Scarlett translates his sign language: "...wouldn't a B-52 bombing raid solve this problem with less risk?"
*Scarlett suggesting to SE that they kill themselves instead of being captured (from Hot Potato)
And I could go on. But yeah, pretty gritty for a toy comic.

Anyway, this is an outstanding issue - #1 truly hit the ground running and launched a series that many still love 30 years later. I'll post more when time allows. Can't wait to read #2 tonight!
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30 Years of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! 1982 - 2012

[ER]

[shanecdavis]

[Torpedo]

My collection, which is currently a thousand miles away in my parents' basement, is pretty incomplete. I was picking up back issues with a friend and splitting the take between us, so he has/had a lot of them. Also, a basement flood in the early nineties wiped out most of my Special Missions, Yearbooks and Order of Battle issues. However, I still have a few of those early issues, including #1, and I think you got everything, ER. It's been forever since I read "Hot Potato", so if anyone who has it could post a summary or recap and review, I'd be grateful.
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Author of Mr. Smartass, available for Amazon's Kindle, iPad/iPhone, and other e-reader devices and apps.

[ER]

[Torpedo]

[ER]

Thanks for the back-up Torpedo

So I was flipping thru some of the first issues I bought, starting with #57 and moving forward, seeing if I could find any evidence to support my memory, and I can't believe how quickly a little detective work paid off.

The official date on #61 is July 1987. And on the last page of this issue it says: to be continued in Special Missions #6 - on sale April 28.

It looks from this that #61 was released in April, which fits perfectly with my memory of #57 being the December issue.

If the "July" issue was actually released in April that would put the official printed date three months ahead of when the issue was actually released.

So if the official date on #1 is June, then I think we could at least speculate that it was actually released in March.

I wish we had an exact day, or at least the month of when the Hamaverse was actually born. Anyone else with any info or memories that might help us out?
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30 Years of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! 1982 - 2012

[Oracle1984]

Great idea. I recently completed my ARAH collection (have a first printing of #2, though not quite in mint condition), and re-read the series a few months ago. Those first few issues are timeless!

(and I can also vouch that Marvel's dates were a few months off from when they were actually printed)
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September 17, 1984. MTME Part I. The world changed forever.
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"Nobody ever died for a typewriter." Road-Block, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) #69 (p.4)
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(Okay to print)

[CrazyK]

[Hellstrom]

Newstand comics also had a color coded bar on the top of the pages if you looked at the comic closed and from above. That also told the guy that stocked them which ones to pull to make room for the new stuff if it did'nt sell. Look at any old comic and it's there. But yeah the dates were ahead of when they hit shelves for a reason.
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The cake is a lie.

[ER]

CrazyK and Hellstrom - good info! That totally makes sense
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30 Years of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! 1982 - 2012

[ER]