Henry10MY LIFE IN COMICS PART 2
February 2nd 2007 05:58
In Part 1 of this series you learned about my nascent comic-reading habits, and how I just grabbed any old thing at random for my Mum to buy me. I was a comic reader, but I wasn't a comic collector. Enter the year 1988, and that was all to change for good (or ill, as my Mum might say).
There were two things that I was completely obsessed with at the time - one was the Transformers as I have gone on about at length. The other was G.I. Joe. Luckily for me, both had comics at the time.
It all started when Mum brought home this comic for me:
Let me explain G.I. Joe just a bit, because it's a damn weird franchise. The very basis of it is that it's about an elite military force dedicated to fighting terrorists, and in the beginning it didn't stray too far from that. Sure, the terrorists were Cobra, who are more like supervillains than actual terrorists, but it wasn't too far-fetched. That changed after a while. You had a shapechanging biker. You had ninjas, ninjas, and more ninjas. You had an elite military force populated by soldiers with every kind of personality defect under the sun. I swear, from reading G.I. Joe you'd believe that the US army is made up completely of utter fruitcakes. Truth in art, people. And with G.I. Joe Yearbook #4, pictured above, you get Croc-Master.
Now this guy is where things got really weird. Croc-Master's thing, as you might have guessed, was that he loved crocodiles. So naturally, he got hired by a ruthless terrorist organisation determined to rule the world. This is the sort of thing that Larry Hama, series writer, had to deal with all the time. Here he was writing a pseudo-normal military soap opera with the odd ninja subplot, then more toys come out and he has to figure out how to use guys like Croc-Master. He did alright - Croc-Master and his pets served as security on Cobra's island headquarters.
That's where G.I. Joe Yearbook #4 comes in. The exact plot escapes me all these years later, but it involved a team of Joes infiltrating Cobra Island, and culminated in scenes of them blowing up hundreds of crocodiles with plastic explosives. Naturally such awesomeness was something I required in monthly doses, and a nerd was born.
I started on the main series with issue #69, and followed it up until #115 or so. As far as toy-based comics go, this is right at the top of the pile. Aside from the main plot of constant conflict with the various factions of Cobra, there was a great series of mysteries and interpersonal conflicts involving the commando ninja code-named Snake-Eyes.
Snake-Eyes was the coolest. He had fought in Vietnam, and later on got disfigured in an explosion that also damaged his vocal cords so he couldn't speak. He became a ninja. And every character with any significance in the saga was tied into his backstory. Every interesting mystery was tied to him. Any G.I. Joe fan who says that Snake-Eyes isn't their favourite character is lying, and you have my permission to punch them.
I eventually dropped the series, but not because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I just grew up (briefly). Transformers had been cancelled, I was entering high school, and girls were becoming less icky. In retrospect, dropping G.I. Joe did not help me with the ladies, so now I wish I'd stuck with it. Ah well, such is life.
On the other side of things, there was Transformers. I won't get into this too much, because I've already worn this subject out. When I started buying G.I. Joe, I noticed that there was a Transformers comic as well. I was permitted to add an extra comic to my monthly list, and so I did. I started with #39, and went all the way to the end, which was #80. Blah blah blah. Go read about it here, I want a sandwich now.
NEXT: Transformers has been cancelled!!! G.I. Joe has been dumped for the wimminz!!! But a growing boy still needs comics! What was I to do? Find out in our next gripping installment!!!!!
!
There were two things that I was completely obsessed with at the time - one was the Transformers as I have gone on about at length. The other was G.I. Joe. Luckily for me, both had comics at the time.
It all started when Mum brought home this comic for me:
Let me explain G.I. Joe just a bit, because it's a damn weird franchise. The very basis of it is that it's about an elite military force dedicated to fighting terrorists, and in the beginning it didn't stray too far from that. Sure, the terrorists were Cobra, who are more like supervillains than actual terrorists, but it wasn't too far-fetched. That changed after a while. You had a shapechanging biker. You had ninjas, ninjas, and more ninjas. You had an elite military force populated by soldiers with every kind of personality defect under the sun. I swear, from reading G.I. Joe you'd believe that the US army is made up completely of utter fruitcakes. Truth in art, people. And with G.I. Joe Yearbook #4, pictured above, you get Croc-Master.
Now this guy is where things got really weird. Croc-Master's thing, as you might have guessed, was that he loved crocodiles. So naturally, he got hired by a ruthless terrorist organisation determined to rule the world. This is the sort of thing that Larry Hama, series writer, had to deal with all the time. Here he was writing a pseudo-normal military soap opera with the odd ninja subplot, then more toys come out and he has to figure out how to use guys like Croc-Master. He did alright - Croc-Master and his pets served as security on Cobra's island headquarters.
That's where G.I. Joe Yearbook #4 comes in. The exact plot escapes me all these years later, but it involved a team of Joes infiltrating Cobra Island, and culminated in scenes of them blowing up hundreds of crocodiles with plastic explosives. Naturally such awesomeness was something I required in monthly doses, and a nerd was born.
I started on the main series with issue #69, and followed it up until #115 or so. As far as toy-based comics go, this is right at the top of the pile. Aside from the main plot of constant conflict with the various factions of Cobra, there was a great series of mysteries and interpersonal conflicts involving the commando ninja code-named Snake-Eyes.
Snake-Eyes was the coolest. He had fought in Vietnam, and later on got disfigured in an explosion that also damaged his vocal cords so he couldn't speak. He became a ninja. And every character with any significance in the saga was tied into his backstory. Every interesting mystery was tied to him. Any G.I. Joe fan who says that Snake-Eyes isn't their favourite character is lying, and you have my permission to punch them.
I eventually dropped the series, but not because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I just grew up (briefly). Transformers had been cancelled, I was entering high school, and girls were becoming less icky. In retrospect, dropping G.I. Joe did not help me with the ladies, so now I wish I'd stuck with it. Ah well, such is life.
On the other side of things, there was Transformers. I won't get into this too much, because I've already worn this subject out. When I started buying G.I. Joe, I noticed that there was a Transformers comic as well. I was permitted to add an extra comic to my monthly list, and so I did. I started with #39, and went all the way to the end, which was #80. Blah blah blah. Go read about it here, I want a sandwich now.
NEXT: Transformers has been cancelled!!! G.I. Joe has been dumped for the wimminz!!! But a growing boy still needs comics! What was I to do? Find out in our next gripping installment!!!!!
!
| 75 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JoshZ
Especially Dr McNinja.
JZ
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
But it's fucked up. The American military has all these individuals with great powers, and they fight this evil army - and always come out on top.
It really drilled the idea of 'Us vs. Them - and they're bad'...
Comment by Nathan P. Mahney
NerdBlog
The comic was a bit more complex. The bad guys weren't all bad, the good guys could do some pretty reprehensible stuff at times as well. It had recurring Soviet characters that were mostly good guys.
It probably helped that writer Larry Hama was of Korean descent, and not as likely to drown the book in American jingoism.