G.I. Joe Special Missions #27

Special Missions #27: “Mexican Holiday”

Writer: Michael Fleisher
Penciler: Javier Saltares

Summary

While the rest of the team is assigned cleaning detail at…some base… Outback, Quick Kick and Stalker are sent on a quick courier mission in Mexico. After meeting their contact, they get to lounge around at a swanky Mexican resort for the rest of the week. While Stalker lounges around at the pool checking out broads, Quick Kick and Outback take a tour bus to some Mayan ruins. Their bus is accosted by Mexican revolutionaries. Using a kid’s water gun, some Molotov cocktails and an Olympic javelin thrower, they hold them off for a bit. Stalker arrives with the hotel’s private helicopter and crashes it into the bus.

Notes:

• Huh?
• Fleisher strived to emulate Hama with the revolutionaries and a good body count on the tour bus (the javelin thrower and a few other tourists get blown away), but this is a very weak story.
• One of the tourists is a young kid named Davy, dressed up in camouflage with a plastic helmet, an Uzi water gun and firecrackers. All of those elements play into the story, unfortunately.
• Some recognition or dialogue between the three Joes about their Borovian incident (issue 60-65) would’ve been nice. Or Hawk could’ve mentioned to the other whiny Joes that it was unofficial payback for the ordeal.
• Stalker is a bit lecherous around the hotel. He meets some “foxy momma” in a swimsuit, Lydia. In the Devil’s Due “Frontline” series, it was established that Stalker and Lydia were married sometime during the franchise’s hiatus (1994-2001). All off-panel, obviously.
• Stalker’s also a bit of prick in the way he acquires the hotel’s helicopter. He holds up the pilot with a steak knife.
• In a huge goof, the “base” the other Joes are cleaning up looks like a college campus or any large military base. With barracks, 5-story buildings, huge hangars and jet tarmacs. It’s supposed to be Joes’ HQ, but the Pit III was always shown with the three low-profile Quonset huts. Huge continuity error. That’s why I refer to this as “some base”. It’s obviously not the Pit. You could No-Prize this and say that the Joes were at an actual military base in Utah or Colorado (a few mountains are drawn in the background).
• When the Joes return home at the end, Ace is seen playing cards. According to his file card, that was a big part of his character- he was a cutthroat card player (thus the codename). I think he was also shown playing cards back in issue 54.
• Thankfully, only one more issue of “Special Missions”. As I mentioned, the last 15 or so have been rather sub-par and disruptive to the main title.

Appearances:

Characters (figures): Hawk, Stalker, Outback, Quick Kick, Roadblock (cameo), Bazooka (cameo), Recondo (cameo), Wild Bill (cameo), Lady Jaye (cameo), Lift-ticket (cameo), Shipwreck (cameo), Slipstream (cameo), Ace (cameo)

Characters (“comic-only”): Lydia, Davy, Octavia the librarian, Mexican Revolutionaries (Emilio, Renaldo,Ignazio)

Vehicles and stuff (toys): Conquest X-30 (cameo), Tomahawk (cameo)

Vehicles and stuff (not toys): none to speak of

Firsties:
Characters: Lydia, Octavia, Davy, Mexican Revolutionaries

Vehicles: none