GI Joe 5

[knight_moves]

Issue 5 starts with the Joes du jour showing off to Scarlet their fancy new tank, though she's unimpressed. I hate to criticize a redhead, but lady, you're in G.I. Joe. If you don't like tanks, you might be in the wrong line of work.



Cobra--who have an agent embedded in Washington's airport security to photograph every document that goes through the X-ray machine(!)--wants to get their hands on this tank-tech, and infiltrate the parade it's in with a fake marching band. An impressive showing somewhat diminished by how the marching band isn't that good at their instruments.



And oh yeah, this is back when comic book characters could be horny.

So you can see how it's a nifty premise. Joes in an unarmed tank versus Cobra infantry, all in and around Central Park. The Joes eventually manage to use their electronic equipment to trace Cobra's transmissions to directly underneath where the brass (including General Flagg) are sitting...





I like these comics that walk a thin line between knowingly absurd and actually treating the story seriously. Like, I think Cobra Commander taking Girl Scouts hostage is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's still played rather straight, so you can enjoy both how over-the-top it is and be maybe a little stirred by Flagg's commitment to Lawful Good.

Comments

[thezmage]

First mention of Springfield, probably before Hama had decided that Springfield was an actual place and not just chosen for plausible deniability.

Clutch was too horny. He needed to back off.

I kinda like the opening scenario here: A bunch of guys try to impress Scarlett by explaining their ride to her and she reacts with just enough indifference for them to keep going without actually encouraging them

[beyondthefringe]

Scarlett loves tanks, she just also loves yanking the boys’ chains. Especially since the team was such a boys’ club apart from her for so long.

And yeah, Clutch has no chill.

This is a great issue. One of the earliest I read. Classic and entertaining.

[full_metal_ox]

Scarlett loves tanks, she just also loves yanking the boys’ chains. Especially since the team was such a boys’ club apart from her for so long.

And, on a Watsonian level, for the benefit of the readers: not only a moment of Ordnance Porn, but a careful inventory of what equipment is at the Joes’ disposal; the focus then becomes how they’ll use those limited tools to save the day—while under alignment constraints to boot.

[superfangirl1]

Cobra Commander really had weird priorities for his evil organization. I am surprise he never put dynamite on a bus full of nuns.

[tcampbell1000]

Cobra Commander gets such an unambiguous win here, one can almost forget that he's fleeing a failed operation. It's a bold choice for this series and this era, and it works: he comes across as a threat worth worrying about. If he'd gotten more moments like this in the cartoon, Serpentor probably wouldn't have been a thing.