30 Days of Winter: Day 6 - Silent Comics - Snake-Eyes/G.I. Joe

[proteus_lives]

Greetings True Believers!

Here is my entry for Day 6 of 30 Days of Winter. This might be the greatest G.I. Joe story ever told.

The flow of it is wonderful and Snake-Eyes and Scarlett are unstoppable bad-asses in it and it's the first ever appearance of Storm Shadow. Larry Hama was born to write G.I. Joe.

Enjoy G.I. Joe #21, "Silent Interlude".



Scarlett has been captured by Storm Shadow and is brought to Cobra Commander.




Who is parachuting out of the sky to rescue her? The Joe's silent, raging badass, Snake-Eyes.

But Scarlett isn't putting up with any of SS's shit.



Snake-Eyes lands and starts killing everything with a snake symbol on it.

Scarlett isn't the type who waits to be rescued so she breaks out of her cell and starts killing everything with a snake symbol on it.




Snake chucks a Viper of the roof and Destro sees the dude sailing past his window and hits the alarm. Storm Shadow summons Red Ninjas to fight.

Snake-Eyes kills the first one and the second one brings out the sais for a ninja duel.



I love, love that page. Because Snake-Eyes isn't just a unstoppable ninja warrior, he's a nut-crushing army ranger who realizes sometimes you to pick up the machine-guns and grenades and kill every motherfucker in the room.

Scarlett steals a glider and prepares to escape, she doesn't know Snake-Eyes is in the house.

Snake and SS duel and Snake-Eyes spanks him. He runs to the roof and sees Scarlett.







So wonderful. I love the ending. This comic inspired a lot of people in the wordy '80s.

Comments

[pyrotwilight]

Wat.

Snake Eyes using his hands catches the blade on its sides and fast enough to stop it from hitting Scarlett? That is both badass and neigh impossible.

[proteus_lives]

You know what's inside the word impossible?

Snake-Eyes.

[icon_uk]

The Bare Handed Blade Block is such a common notion in fiction that there's even a TV Trope page devoted to it, which you'll already know if you clicked on the link before finishing reading this sentence!

[toby_wan_kenobi]

Okay, here's what you need to keep in mind - in the GI Joe movie, the other Joes? The best of the best, the meanest and toughest troops America has to offer?

They needed magic multi-billion dollar robot accelerator suits just to keep up with Snake Eyes. And they still weren't as badass as he was.

Admittedly, that is about the only thing that the movie got right, but it was the most important thing to get right. Ice floating? Eh. Snake Eyes being this dimension's Badass Supreme? NON-NEGOTIABLE.

[proteus_lives]

Snake-Eyes was the best part of the movie. I like the lines when he's chasing the Cobra SUV. Baroness: "He gave up!" Storm Shadow: "He never gives up."

"Eh. Snake Eyes being this dimension's Badass Supreme? NON-NEGOTIABLE."

Motto! In another Devil's Due series, Snake-Eyes killed a Decepticon with his sword. His sword.

BTW, have you seen G.I. Joe: Resolute? There is a epic animated battle between Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Storm Shadow: "He never gives up."

He's always there.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[ninjapeps]

BTW, have you seen G.I. Joe: Resolute?

I particularly loved the scene where Snake Eyes takes out a tank.

really, they could edit out every scene that doesn't involve him and the movie would still be insanely awesome.

[proteus_lives]

I would love a Snake-Eyes only show. No other Joes, No Cobra, just Snake-Eyes walking the Earth, kicking ass.

They could keep the PSAs though, I'd love to see Snake-Eyes teaching kids not to litter.

[aaron_bourque]

"Neigh" impossible? Only Centaurs, Beta-Ray Bill, and 30-30 can do it?

[pyrotwilight]

Yeah that was bugging me but nay impossible sounds wrong too since that'd be "not impossible"... Nigh impossible maybe?

[icon_uk]

"Nigh" is the correct word.

[terrykun]

With a little help from Sarah Jane in the case of the latter-most. ;)

[lieut_kettch]

.30-30? Oh my god. Someone remembers Bravestarr!

[aaron_bourque]

Of course I do. Bravestarr: the first cartoon with an EFFECTIVE anti-drug episode. Remember kids, drugs aren't just bad, they'll kill. They won't just kill, they'll kill YOU.

[equinox216]

And Beta Ray Bill's all "I say thee, NEIGH!".

[blackruzsa]

.... It is sorta possible; I've seen it done with, not technically a blade, but a thin, sharp-sided panel, which is kinda blade-shaped.
Although the real question is, can you throw a blade that is slightly curved in such a straight line?

[nezchan]

Unwritten dialogue for the last panel: "Well shit, son. Can't compete with that!"

[midnightvoyager]

That last page is a thing of beauty. The whole thing's absolutely awesome, but the last page says all that it wants/needs to say in three panels, with no words. Perfect.

[aaron_bourque]

Best part about this is that, according to at least one recollection of how it came to be, the original "silent issue" was to be just like any other issue, with dialogue balloons and narration and sound effects . . . but after the art was drawn, the script was lost before everyone (or just the editor or writer) was to go on vacation, so they had to send it off to the publisher as was.

All an accident. Serendipitous!

[proteus_lives]

Or so the legend goes......

[badficwriter]

I remember this! Very famous in the day. I suspect my copies are all trashed now well-loved.

[neev]

This is why I fucking love G.I. Joe.

That panel of Scarlet smirking up at Storm Shadow is just great.

[proteus_lives]

Motto.

You know she's telling him where he can put that fucking katana.

[magus_69]

And his katana is not the katana she means.

[terrykun]

Sono katana wa aitsu no ichinimmae?*

*The katana is his manhood?

[hradzka]

That page with Snake-Eyes tossing the grenade is one of the greatest comic pages of the eighties. The panel beats are absolutely perfect.

Everybody remembers "Silent Interlude" because for a lot of kids, it was their first exposure to what wordless story telling could do. I remember when Joss Whedon did "Hush," his silent episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, he was asked by fans if "Silent Interlude" had been an inspiration -- it wasn't, because Whedon wasn't familiar with Hama's work on the GI JOE comic, but it's telling that its impact was such that that was where a lot of people's minds immediately went.