G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #228
(Cobra Nation: Part Three)
Writer: Larry Hama
Penciler: SL Gallant
Summary:
Subplots aplenty, this month! In Springfield, Baroness and Zarana cotinue to train Dawn Moreno.
In Olliestan, Bombstrike performs a recon mission on the abandoned Cobra/Red Shadows base (where they built the Big Frickin’ Robot). She gets captured by Cobra agents, Dr. Sidney Biggles-Jones and Dr. Cassandra Knox. Biggles-Jones confirms that her old rail gun technology was slated to be added to the Robots.
In the East Village of NYC, Scarlett and Jinx visit “Ellenbogen’s Antiques & Oddities”, where they meet Obake Obassan. She introduces them to the owner, Ellen, who apparently has been supplying weapons to the Arashikages. They also meet a silent master of the Red Ninjas, a young lady named “Akane”. Akane apparently has some connection to Jinx.
Jane goes to check on Claire Hauser and is startled when she pulls a gun on her.
Finally, Cover Girl is out of her coma and is discharged from the hospital. Her throat was damaged, so her voice is all grumbly, now. Cover Girl and Lady Jaye visit the mother of a dead soldier to deliver medals and decorations. The solider was named “Jodie Craig” and she was killed in a highly classified mission.
Notes:
- I got the sense that the scenes with Cover Girl and the mother were Hama’s favorites to write, this month.
- The letters column mentioned that there is something “Unique” about this issue. It’s the first GI Joe:ARAH comic to feature an entire female cast. Even the supporting/background characters are female.
- Unlike a forced gimmick, this felt entirely natural. I didn’t realize that it was an all-female cast until the note in the letters column.
- It took me awhile, but I realized that “Jodie Craig” is/was the enigmatic “Shooter” from way back in issue 1. She appeared, in flashback, in the Devil’s Due “G.I.Joe: Declassisifed” mini-series, circa 2005. Hama wrote that series himself, so this is another case of him “officially” bringing in another past character that he liked (like he did with Pale Peony).
- Oh, and Shooter actually has a figure, released in 2016. I’m scoring this issue as her first official appearance, though. Technically, she debuted, in cameo, back in issue 1.
- No real time frame for when Shooter died, though. Could’ve been years ago and it’s just now being declassified to the family. Or it could have been recently and Shooter has been working “off-camera”, all this time.
- A little odd that Lady Jaye is suddenly stationed at the Fort Wadsworth base. Previously, she’s been hanging out at the Pit in Utah.
- Dr. Knox her first (and up to now, only) appearance in issue 153.
- Biggles-Jones last appeared in issue 142. However, she made an additional appearance (or two) in the short-lived 1993 “Transformers Generation Two” comic. I have never read those issues, so I don’t know if they tied up whatever organization Biggles-Jones was working for, or if those appearances are contradicted or ret-conned out.
Appearances:
Characters (figures): Scarlett, Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, Jinx, Bombstrike, Jodie “Shooter” Craig, Baroness, Zarana
Characters (“comic-only”): Dawn Moreno, Jane, Akane, Obake Obassan, Ellen (Bogen?), Dr. Sidney Biggles-Jones, Dr. Cassandra Knox.
Vehicles and stuff (toys): VAMP, Cobra Stinger, Cobra HISS (wreckage)
Vehicles and stuff (not toys):
Firsties:
Characters: Akane, Ellen (Bogen), Jodie “Shooter” Craig (officially).
Vehicles and stuff: none
Rating: 3 Flag Points
Shooter first appeared in and then also died in the Declassified series.
Thanks. Your’e absolutely right about “Declassified”. This main article was written in 2016 (or whenever issue 228 came out), so things have changed and been clarified, since then. In issue 228, they didn’t specifically say that Shooter was killed in “Declassified”…and with the way characters have come back from the dead in Hama’s world (Sneak Peek, Darklon, Dr. Mindbender, Dr. Burkhardt), I left it open that she may have appeared to “die” in Declassified, but it would be ret-conned that she somehow survived and came back to keep doing hush operations until recently. Thus the comment about: “No real time frame for when Shooter died, though. Could’ve been years ago and it’s just now being declassified to the family. Or it could have been recently and Shooter has been working “off-camera”, all this time.” Sorry, I should’ve clarified that, more.
It wasn’t until the past two years or so that Hama officially said Devil’s Due’s “Declassified” was in his continuity and that it pertained to the Marvel and IDW series (part of the reason I finally went back and recapped “Declassified” for this Crappy Website). He hadn’t mentioned that when issue 228 saw print, so I was thinking there might be a chance that Hama would eventually get to a NEW (official IDW) version of Shooter’s death and/or “Declassified”. Regardless of how we got there, I’m happy that there wasn’t a ret-con and Deviil’s Due’s “Declassified” is now officially canon and part of the “Hama-verse”, as it is.
Conversely, Hama also wrote the first 4 issues (or so) of Devil’s Due’s “Frontline” series, circa 2003, which featured a story set after Marvel issue 155.Yet that story is NOT in continuity…despite the fact that we thought it was, for a few years.
I was just wondering something – has Akane ever been seen or referenced again? It seemed like her appearance was meant to lead to something but then it fell off the radar.
Also, on a general note about Obake Obaasan, so we have any idea who her husband was? She makes reference to him in a later issue, and my feeling is that it was either the hard or the soft master, but I don’t recall if or was ever specified.
Akane— yeah I forgot all about her, as well! Like you said (and when I wrote this recap), it DID seem like she’d be become semi-significant or a recurring character.
I don’t think Obake Obassan’s main squeeze was ever specified. Even in the DDP “Storm Shadow” series. I try not to read too hard into the Arashikage family tree, as I just blanket them with “they’re all related, somehow”. Kinda’ like all the wrestlers related to Afa and Sika.
“Unlike a forced gimmick, this felt entirely natural. I didn’t realize that it was an all-female cast until the note in the letters column.”
I don’t know about that…I’ve never read this comic, but the mention of Bombstrike doing a one-man recon mission, and then getting captured by Drs. Knox and Biggles-Jones (who, from my recollection, seem unlikely to be working together without a member of Cobra Command around to ensure that they play nice), started setting off alarms in my head even before I’d finished reading your synopsis/summary.