G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #328
Writer: Larry Hama
Pencils: Andrew Krahnke
Summary:
Sherlock and Down Range charge into the pyramid and save their teammates from the Revanche androids. Dawn slices open one’s head, flipping its top to the back, like a hinged lid. The android then thinks it’s firing an RPG at Sherlock and Down Range, but it’s really firing at the Terror Drome and its reactive armor. Everything blows up, yet the Joes manage to make it outside.
Dawn Moreno is the last out and takes the brunt of the concussive force. During so, she begins to experience old implanted memories of Snake-Eyes, including a “weaponized Easter Egg” that was implanted by Dr. Venom way back in issue 10. Yup… another circle back to the BRAINWAVE SCANNER. Dr. Venom is seen tinkering with Snake-Eyes’ brain and implanting stuff into his childhood bedroom.
The Terror Drome was destroyed, yet being embedded in stone and earth, it actually acted like a giant makeshift mortar and blew everything through the top of the pyramid, like a smokestack. Revanche, Alpha-001 and Dr. Mindbender viewed the whole thing…yet are perplexed why this peculiar image of an old bedroom seems to linger.
Notes:
- Well, there goes any momentum this title may have had: another recurrence of the frickin’ Brainwave Scanner.
- I get that it’s there to sort out this weird Dawn/Snake-Eyes/Throwdown stuff, but I’d be perfectly fine if these personality and memory shenanigans were sorted out, off-screen. Just have all three walk out of the Pit, one day, and say: “thanks to our session with Psyche-Out, the three of us have figured out any memory or personality issues.” Then have them jump in a tank and shoot stuff. Problem solved. Moving on.
- While the mission and action were somewhat straightforward, the ancient pyramid location seemed like something that would’ve used in the DIC cartoons. Or even like a “fun with science” skit, a la Mark Rober.
- Kinda’ clever how the Revanche bot with the flipped head actually played directly into the plot. It wasn’t just there for gruesome effect. Even though it’s a robot, it is still a little unsettling to have it running around with its head sliced in half, flipped backwards, and dangling.
- In the surreal flashback Brainwave Scanner sequences, Dr. Venom is visually implanting his “easter egg” in Snake-Eyes’ consciousness, in what was apparently his bedroom. We can see posters for Steve Earle and Creedence Clearwater Revival on Snake-Eyes’ walls.
- Also a nice touch how Dr. Venom’s brain tinkerings include a “cut along dotted line” of Snake-Eyes’ head, similar to how the Revanche android was cut open.
- Indeed, the art and those little touches bump this issue’s rating from a 2 to 3, despite yet ANOTHER callback to the frickin’ Brainwave Scanner and Dr. Venom. I suppose this means we’re now in for the THIRD return of Dr. Venom? I get that Hama may have missed one or two ideas the first TWO times he brought back Dr. Venom… but put it out to pasture, please.
Appearances:
Characters (figures): Cover Girl, Jinx, Snake-Eyes (flashback), Scarlett (flashback cameo), Dr. Mindbender, Cobra Commander (flashback cameo), Baroness (flashback cameo)
Characters (comic-only): Dawn Moreno, Sherlock, Down Range, Dr. Venom (flashback/virtual), Alpha-001
Vehicles and stuff (toys): none
Vehicles and stuff (comic-only): none
I see this book is still going nowhere fast. I consider ARAH my favourite comic book series of all time, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m still buying the issues but not reading them anymore. Kind of like the last couple of years of the original Marvel run.
I get that. I often ask myself: “if this didn’t have the label of G.I. JOE on it, would I be buying it?”
My biggest issue with the Brainwave Scanner is the same characters seem to be used with it the majority of the time. Enough with having Snake-Eyes menaced by it already. How about using it on someone else? Preferably a non-ninja.
Finally! Others who are as tired of Snake Eyes as I am. I’ve written to the PostBox Pit asking for more non-Snake Eyes stories, but yet here we are.
Hama’s done great work with other Joe and Cobra characters throughout his tenure, but he just quit developing those characters to concentrate on more Snake Eyes.
Why not more Destro and Baroness? Darklon and Katya with resurrected Sneak Peek in Darklonia? Trucial Abysmia? Sierra Gordo? Frusenland? Etc and Etc, The possibilities are endless, but no, it’s more Snake Eyes. 😡
Snake-Eyes is cool when he’s doing “Snake-Eyes stuff”. Which is being a commando and just operating for the team on missions. The first GI Joe comic I ever bought was issue 8, where Snake-Eyes is this bad dude who single-handedly takes out a tank.
Yet it seems to be a whole different book when he’s the focus. He brings a lot of baggage with him, and we’re seemingly always subject to ninja mysticism/shenanigans, mental/personality issues, and the Brainwave Scanner. There are GI Joe Stories, and then there are Snake-Eyes stories. A good example of when he really worked with the team (without driving the plot) was the little arc to Asia with Scarlett, Iceberg, and Chuckles in “Special Missions”.
I kinda’ relate him to Spider-Man, who is cool when he’s doing Spidey Things. Beating up the Scorpion, trying to make ends meet, and worrying about Aunt May. He doesn’t need the unusual earth-shaking changes, magical, and cosmic elements, as they seem out-of-place when applied to him (clones, alternate dimensions, Mephisto, even his involvement with the original Thanos war). When Spidey thought about joining the Avengers in the 80s and 90s, it always ended with him declining membership, as things were too earth-shaking and/or cosmic for him. Both Snake-Eyes and Spidey don’t need those extra tacked-on “comic book sci-fi elements.”
Yeah, it would be nice to see the Brainwave Scanner used on somebody not named Snake-Eyes. Like when Clutch and Rock & Roll were turned into sleeper agents, circa issue 101 (even though that plot was quickly written off and tied up). When they did the Ninja Force traitor arc with Scarlett (circa issue 135 and 1993), I remember being worried and thinking that Scarlett might be brainwashed with the Brainwave Scanner, but that didn’t happen. A lot of the Cobra agents were subjected to it, circa issue 145, including Storm Shadow. That plot was kind of a thing when the series relaunched at issue 156…but it faded away and the Brainwave Scanner wasn’t the big focus as it is when connected with Snake-Eyes.
It’s funny you mention the “Scarlett is a traitor” arc. I’ve always wondered why Cobra Commander didn’t pop her in the Brainwave Scanner to make sure her defection was for real.
Maybe that’s why he had Dawn plugged in.