 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 78 here and I'm back with another comic book Wednesday and this time we are looking at issue number 10. Now issue number 10 is kind of special. It represents a departure from the formula that we've seen in G.I. Joe comic books so far. It is also the return of the regular G.I. Joe writer Larry Hama after a two issue absence and we see some significant character development and plot development that will have far reaching impact on this comic book series. So let's get started and look at issue number 10. On the cover we see Scarlet and Snake Eyes in a suburban neighborhood and there's a sign that says welcome to Springfield a nice little town. One of the houses though is a facade and it is hiding two Cobra soldiers. We got a hint at the existence of Springfield way back in issue number 5 when the Cobra soldiers disguised as a marching band were from the town of Springfield. On the splash page we see the roof of a building and some of the Joes are sneaking around very stealthily. We have a title a nice little town like ours with the writer Larry Hama and penciler Mike Vosberg. The Joes are on a mission to assault the building which they believe is a Cobra stronghold and we're dropped right into the middle of the mission which is a departure from the usual formula. Usually we get the setup in the Joes briefing room when we find out what the mission is going to be so we're doing things a little bit differently this time. Inside the building the Baroness is waiting for the G.I. Joe team. She insists that a Cobra soldier flashed the Nazi salute which again drives home the point that Cobra is just a stand in for Nazis. On the roof is Scarlet, Snake Eyes and Zap and it's a trap yet another trap. It seems like every issue of G.I. Joe has the Joes falling into a trap. This time it is literally a trap door. It opens up and the three Joes fall into a cell and the door slams closed. While they are still stunned their weapons are taken away from them. The rest of the G.I. Joe team rushes in but it's too late. A weird aircraft thing takes off from the roof with the three trapped Joes inside it. Inside the craft the Baroness gases the three Joes so they are unconscious for their ride to Cobra headquarters. Scarlet and Zap wake up in a jail cell and they are suffering from some very strange hallucinations. There's also a young boy in the cell with them but where is Snake Eyes? Elsewhere in Cobra headquarters we find that Snake Eyes is hooked to some strange contraction that looks like a torture device. Some new character called Dr. Venom is using the device as an attempt to read Snake Eyes' mind. Snake Eyes is not wearing his mask but his face is blacked out because we know that Snake Eyes has a hideous disfigurement. Apparently his face is so hideous that the comic book cannot even show it to the reader. Dr. Venom's explanation of how his brainwave scanner works is a bunch of techno babble mumbo jumbo but it sounds just scientific enough for us to accept it and move on without questioning it. Back in the jail cell Scarlet and Zap are still suffering from hallucinations. A door opens and they are given some bread and water but the boy that's in the cell with them warns them not to drink the water. Apparently the hallucinogens are delivered to them through the water. He uses the heat from the light bulb to neutralize the drugs so to make the water safe. Back at the brainwave scanner Dr. Venom is trying to use the machine to get Snake Eyes to reveal the location of the G.I. Joe's secret headquarters but Snake Eyes is blocking that information with some memories from his past. To suppress the information he has to dredge up more and more painful memories from his history. At this point we see a memory of a helicopter crash and we find out that that is how Snake Eyes' face got disfigured. Back at the cell Scarlet and Zap decide they have to trust this kid who is still unnamed at this point to help them escape. At the brainwave scanner Snake Eyes is remembering his time in Vietnam and when his family was killed in a car wreck. Snake Eyes' concentration slips for a moment and Dr. Venom gets a glimpse of G.I. Joe's personnel and vehicles. Unfortunately the vamp is drawn like just an ordinary army jeep. Back at the cell Scarlet and Zap pretend to be unconscious and the kid says something about an anti-cobra underground which of course brings the soldiers running. Scarlet and Zap are only pretending to be unconscious of course and they jump up and knock out the soldiers. The three escape with Scarlet and Zap disguised as Cobra soldiers escorting the boy out of the jail. Snake Eyes is doing his best to block the memory of the G.I. Joe headquarters despite the painful probings of the brainwave scanner but he has to dredge up more painful memories to do it. Scarlet, Zap and the boy drive around Springfield in a stolen car and the boy explains that Springfield was an ordinary town until the soap people came. The soap people were part of a pyramid scheme that was apparently a front for Cobra and Cobra ended up brainwashing the entire town. The entire town is just a disguised Cobra base. The buildings all house Cobra weapons. This reference to the soap people is a thinly disguised shot at Amway. Amway was a pyramid scheme and it started out selling soap and I've had some family members involved in Amway and I have to say it is a little bit brainwashing so I can say from personal experience don't get involved in Amway. It may not lead you to join Cobra but it does not lead to good things. Zap, Scarlet and the boy walk into a video arcade which is above Dr. Venom's headquarters but the kids in the video arcade are all loyal to Cobra and they see the boy who they recognize as a traitor and they see two adults that they've never seen before so they think that something's up. Underneath the arcade Snake Eyes is struggling valiantly against the brainwave scanner but it is taking a toll on him and he is nearly dead. Just then Dr. Venom and Cobra officer get an intruder alert and they rush upstairs to see what's happening. As they go upstairs they miss something on the screen which is Snake Eyes learning the secret ninja technique of slowing his heart rate and breathing to the point that he appears dead. This is the first time that we learn that Snake Eyes is a ninja. At the arcade one of the big arcade game laser guns is an actual freaking laser and one of the kids starts shooting at Zap and Scarlet. Dr. Venom decides that the kids have it well in hand so he returns to his work only to find Snake Eyes dead. But no he only appeared dead because he was using that secret ninja technique. As soon as he is let out of the restraints he knocks out the Cobra officer and takes the rifle and smashes Dr. Venom's face. If Snake Eyes knew how much pain Dr. Venom was going to cause him in the future Snake Eyes may have killed him right then. Snake Eyes retrieves his mask and goes upstairs to rescue Scarlet, Zap and the boy and they all escape in the stolen car. They drive to the airport where they find the same strange aircraft that brought them to Springfield. They ask the boy if he'd like to come with them but he declines he needs to stay there and fight Cobra so they hijack the aircraft and they escape. The escape is not perfect however the Cobra pilot that is flying the aircraft pulls a gun out of his helmet that's weird. Snake Eyes shoots the pilot and conveniently knocks out the navigation gear and the compass. The aircraft is flying through a storm and they can't tell which direction they're going. They keep flying until they make it all the way back to New York. They parachute out of the aircraft and Scarlet lands on the Incredible Hulk. Actually it's not the Incredible Hulk it's just an advertisement for another Marvel comic and then they take a bus back to GI Joe headquarters. Let's evaluate this issue. The escape is pretty contrived. I mean it's very convenient that the compass and the navigation gear were knocked out in the aircraft as they were flying through a storm so the Joes could escape without knowing the exact location of the Cobra base. The writer is walking a thin line here. On the one hand he wants to reveal secrets about Cobra but he doesn't want to reveal too much to the GI Joe team. This issue had a lot of science fiction mumbo jumbo from the weird aircraft at the beginning to the brainwave scanner to the laser gun in the arcade. Springfield is not all that small a town. It has a fairly good sized airport and if Cobra had taken over a town the size of Springfield it would be impossible even in the early 80s for them to keep it a secret because a city that size has connections to neighboring cities and somebody would have noticed that something was up. I do think the art was a little bit subpar though. I'm not a great fan of Mike Vosberg and I will be happy to see some other artists take a crack at GI Joe. I really don't mind this lack of realism though because this issue is just too much fun. I mean we learn a lot in this issue. We get an inside look at the secret Cobra headquarters. We also learn a lot about Snake Eyes. We learn how Snake Eyes' face got disfigured. We learned that he was in Vietnam. We learned that he was a ninja. We learned that his family was killed in a car accident. We're also introduced to a new evil character Dr. Venom and Dr. Venom will feature prominently in future issues of GI Joe. We are also introduced to the brainwave scanner which is a device that will also feature prominently in later issues. It's nice that Zap is in this issue but he's more of a third wheel. We're starting to see a core group of characters in these GI Joe comic books that are starting to weave their way through a lot of different stories and Snake Eyes and Scarlet are among the that core group. Zap is portrayed as having a mustache in this issue as he appeared on his card art but his action figure did not have a mustache. The way Zap is drawn he appears to be Hispanic which would be accurate to his file card and I do appreciate the ethnic diversity that we see in GI Joe. Springfield is a great metaphor for the dangers of extremism inside the United States. Not all threats to freedom and the Constitution come from foreign countries and even though Springfield seems like an ideal town it seems perfect on the outside underneath is a layer of fascism and totalitarianism and evil. And let's not forget the comic books warning about the dangers of Amway. As I said before don't get involved with Amway. This was a fantastic issue. Larry Hammer is back with a vengeance. It's just amazing how much information they crammed into this issue and a lot of this information will be very important going forward. Even though this was a standalone story it's different from the other standalone stories that we've gotten in GI Joe so far. This entire story exists to provide context for later stories in the GI Joe comic book series. I love this issue. I highly recommend that you pick up GI Joe number 10 and read it. It is vital to the storyline of the entire GI Joe comic book series so do not miss this one. This is a great comeback for Larry Hammer. Thanks for watching this video. I hope you liked it. If you did don't forget to hit that like button and don't forget to smash that subscribe button. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe comic book and toy reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them. Thanks for watching and I'll talk to you later.