G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #332
Writer: Larry Hama
Pencils: Pat Olliffe
Summary:
In the Atlantic Ocean, 300 miles off the coast of Virginia, Cutter, Wet-Suit, Shipwreck and Deep Six are on a mission, in the Whale, to recover a black box from a sunken Russian sub. Three Cobra Rattlers and an Aspid soon arrive, deploying Eels and a Hydro-Viper. “Ol-What’s-His-Name” (Ghostrider) provides opposition for the Rattlers, while the Whale gun down the Aspid.
Deep-Six’s suit it tethered and the Eels slice it. Deep Six feigns unconsciousness, to lure in the Eels, and then takes them out with a knife. Meanwhile, Wet-Suit is able to eliminate the Hydro-Viper. The Joes recover the mysterious black box and are successful in their mission.
Notes:
- Straight-up “Special Missions” type of story, with a minor “toy jam” effect. Cool to see these “figures” in their specialized environments and facing the opposition. It’s about what you’d expect for a comic book about toys; yet nothing too silly.
- It’s a nice nod to have Deep Six actually do some deep sea diving, and using his tether. I think this is the first time he’s used such a thing in the comics, and it’s an obvious connection to the hose and bellows from his figures.
- Ditto for the Eels and Wet-Suit. The Eels (version 2) use their mechanical sharks, and Wet-Suit uses that nifty underwater sea-sled propulsion unit.
- The Hydro-Viper comes off like an elite or upgraded underwater operative. Whereas the Eels are just “Cobra frogmen”. Both are consistent with their file cards.
- All of the Rattler pilots look like Wild Weasel. So it’s still unclear if he died in issue 165 (and yes, we mentioned the same thing in the recap for issue 311).
- Ghostrider gets in a pretty good air duel with the 3 Rattlers. One Rattler pilot actively used the VTOL turbines in mid-flight to stop and move the plane– something I’d routinely do with my own Rattler, circa 1984.
- No mention of why both G.I. Joe and Cobra are after the black box. This could tie into future storylines…or it could just be a random one-off mission that is never spoken of, again. I’m hoping it’s the former.
Appearances:
Characters (figures): Cutter, Deep Six, Wet-Suit, Shipwreck
Characters (comic-only): none
Vehicles and stuff (toys): Killer Whale, Phantom X-19, Rattler
Vehicles and stuff (comic-only): Cobra Aspid
Firsties: none
