 Hello everybody hooded gober commander 788 here and I'm back with another comic book Wednesday and this time we are looking at GI Joe issue number 12. Just a quick reminder if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe. I love getting new subscribers so if you want to make me happy make sure you go over to YouTube and subscribe to my channel. Let's start with a cover and on the cover we see an image of a riverboat and we see stalker, grunt, breaker and snake eyes jumping from the boat just before a bomb hits it. This is a pretty good cover, it promises some action. On the splash page we see that the story is set in San Francisco. We see the vamp chasing and firing on a van and the front of the van says Najahana Video Corp. We have a title Three Strikes for Snake Eyes and we have a creative team of Larry Hama script and Mike Vosford pencils. We learn from the dialogue that the cobra agents in the van are escaping with MX missile guidance chips. Scarlet clutch and breaker are in the vamp and they are chasing this van over the hills of San Francisco. When the van cuts through a sports car driven by a punky guy and I guess this is supposed to be comedy. The van spins around a corner and it encounters a small compact car occupied by an older couple and when the van hits the car the car explodes and one cobra officer manages to escape. We notice right away that this cobra officer has a scar across his eyes. The Joes chase him along the docks but the officer knocks breaker into some bikers and the bikers start beating up breaker. This is another example of how G.I. Joe really just hates breaker. This comic book is just relentless in dumping on breaker. The scarred cobra officer shoots clutch in the leg and escapes with the guidance chips. Scarlet saves breaker by shooting the earring off of one of the biker guys. Despite losing the cobra officer the Joes have a few clues. They have part of a packing crate that has an address in the Republic of Sierra Gordo and it says attention, S.K. Nguyen and they see that the MX missile chips were buried in a bunch of video game circuits. Back in Washington D.C. Hawke and General Flag decide to send breaker, stalker, snake eyes and gung ho to check out this Naja Trading Corp. Hawke mentions in an offhand way that Naja Hana means King Cobra in Hindi which is a very interesting fact and would make more sense if they were going to India instead of South America. The fictional South American country Sierra Gordo has undergone a revolution so this mission could get dicey for the Joes. The next day in Sierra Gordo stalker and breaker in civilian clothes approach the Naja Hana video corp. Meanwhile snake eyes and gung ho are watching from the tree line. When someone at the Naja Hana video corp opens the door stalker offers to buy video games but uh oh the person who opens the door is none other than Dr. Venom. We met the concentrated ball of evil that is Dr. Venom back in issue number 10 when he used his brain wave scanner to try to torture information out of snake eyes. Snake eyes sees Dr. Venom through his binoculars and he jumps from his tree and rushes to the scene. Gung ho follows along not knowing exactly what's going on. Gung ho bumps into a peasant who has a facial scar exactly like the Cobra officer they're looking for. The guy bolts so it looks like this is the Cobra officer. Back at the warehouse stalker and breaker's cover is blown when Dr. Venom deduces that only a member of GI Joe or Cobra could know about their video game front so since they're not members of Cobra they must be members of GI Joe. Cobra guards rush in and stalker and breaker die for their guns and a firefight breaks out which is pretty awesome, this is some great action here. Cobra brings in a heavy machine gun but they are taken out by snake eyes. The Joes have the drop on the Cobra soldiers and it looks like they have the situation stitched up when a blast of very precise machine gun fire disarms all of them. The machine gun fire came from Quinn. It's Quinn. The same Quinn we were introduced to in GI Joe number 10. The Inuit mercenary who is working with the Russians. It is very exciting to see Quinn. He was a strong character in the first story in which he appeared and he's sure to be a strong character in this one. Quinn promises snake eyes that if he throws down his weapon no one will die and that is very important because we know of Quinn that he always keeps his promises. The Joes are tied up and Dr. Venom orders the Cobra soldiers to take them to the boat while he stays behind to question snake eyes. He questions snake eyes by beating him mercilessly with a pistol. Quinn stops him and reminds him that he promised that no one would die but it's too late. It appears that Dr. Venom's beating has killed snake eyes. Quinn is very upset at his promise not being kept and he promises that once his contract with Cobra is expired Venom will answer to Quinn. Snake eyes is dragged into the warehouse and the warehouse is set on fire. As the boat drifts away Dr. Venom remembers that snake eyes possesses the secret ninja ability to slow his breathing and heart rate to the point that he appears dead. Dr. Venom realizes that snake eyes is not dead he is alive. Snake eyes escapes the warehouse despite being tied up and on fire. He runs past some of the villagers and they see his face without his mask and of course they're terrified. Everyone is frightened when they see snake eyes without his mask and I know that he has a hideous disfigurement but his face must look like the devil itself because I've seen and known people with major burns on their faces and it's not anything to get freaked out about. On the boat Breaker, Gung Ho and Stalker get the idea to use Breaker's bubblegum to entice rats to chew on the ropes. Snake eyes emerges from the river and climbs onto a guy's boat and the guy thinks that snake eyes is a river demon and jumps into the water. Snake eyes turns the boat around to pursue Dr. Venom. Snake eyes just stole that guy's boat. That boat was full of fruit and vegetables too. That boat probably represented everything that guy owned. Dr. Venom, Quinn and the others arrive at a small island bunker surrounded by concertina wire and guard dogs. A sea plane awaits them as does the Baroness. Dr. Venom, the Baroness, Quinn and the Scarface Cobra Officer go into the bunker to conclude their transaction. Snake eyes, who has apparently abandoned the boat that he stole, comes up from the water and takes out one of the Cobra guards. The rats have chewed through the rope enough for Gung Ho to break free and take out the other two guards. The Chos are happy to see snake eyes alive but snake eyes insist that they get on the boat and drive away since the boat has the computer chips and that was their mission. Snake eyes stays behind because he has a score to settle with Dr. Venom. He makes it to the bunker by taking out the guard dogs. Inside the bunker, we learn what this Cobra mission has really been about. Dr. Venom has developed a virus, which if it's confined with a serum is deadly. Quinn realizes that Snake Eyes is eavesdropping and starts firing on Snake Eyes through the slot in the door. When Quinn kicks open the door, Snake Eyes is nowhere to be found and the Baroness sees the Joes escaping on the boat. The Baroness and Scarface rush to the seaplane and they're going to take out the Joes on the boat and she orders Quinn and Dr. Venom to stay behind to track down Snake Eyes. Stalker and Breaker fire at the seaplane and Breaker mentions that the only person who could take down an airplane with a submachine gun is Sergeant Granite of Difficult Company. I really appreciate this reference to the Joe Kubrick comic Sergeant Rock of Easy Company. I used to read Sergeant Rock comic books whenever I couldn't find G.I. Joe on the shelves when I was a kid. The plane bombs the boat and the Joes jump out just in time before the boat explodes. Back at the bunker, Dr. Venom is sneaking up behind Quinn with a pistol. Snake Eyes tackles Dr. Venom and starts beating him mercilessly. Since the Baroness and the Scarface courier have the virus and the serum, the Baroness decides that Quinn and Dr. Venom are expendable, so she bombs the bunker. Quinn dies for Snake Eyes but it looks like he's too late and it looks like the bunker explodes. Stalker and Granite are stunned to see that the island appears to have been completely disintegrated by the bomb and their friend appears to be dead. Stalker appears to be taking the loss of Snake Eyes especially hard. The comic book has not revealed this yet but we will find out in later issues that Stalker and Snake Eyes were friends long before they were members of G.I. Joe. In fact, they served in Vietnam together. Let's evaluate this issue. This issue is fantastic. It is packed with so many things to love. It has the Joes on a secret mission to a foreign country. It has political intrigue. It has some of our favorite characters like the Baroness and Snake Eyes and Gung Ho. And it has the return of Quinn and Dr. Venom, two of the best non-Jo characters created by Larry Hama. We're also introduced to a new character that they are calling Scarface. We're used to Cobra soldiers and officers being the nameless, faceless enemy. But this Cobra officer is unique. He is set apart by this unique facial scar and he appears to have a particular special mission. A little personal history about Scarface. There was an urban legend that developed among my friends as a kid that there were some Cobra officer action figures that were manufactured with the scar that was depicted on Scarface in the comic book. These special Cobra officer action figures, we believed, were not marked any differently on the packaging. We just had to look at the action figure and see if he had the scar. So when we went to the toy aisle of a store, we would pick out Cobra officers on their cards and we would stare at them closely to see if we could find the one with the scar. Sadly, we never found one. Most of the story in this issue takes place in the fictional South American country of Sierra Gordo and I can kind of understand why the writer would set it in a fictional country. He gives him an opportunity to set the story in South America and he can kind of create a country that looks the way we would imagine a South American country to look and even if he uses some stereotypes of South America, it's not a real stereotype of South America because it's all fictional. This issue kicks off a new story arc. We are introduced to a virus and a serum that will no doubt play an important part in future issues. At this point we are no longer dealing with standalone issues in G.I. Joe. This now feels more like an ongoing series. We have story arcs and recurring themes and side characters and now the comic book is really starting to build on the universe of G.I. Joe. Obviously, I highly recommend this issue and how could I not? It delivers a lot of action, some great new story elements and it promises a great story in the next issue. That was my review of G.I. Joe number 12. I hope you enjoyed this review and I hope you enjoyed all of the reviews that I've done so far. We are now done with the first year of G.I. Joe comic books, 12 issues, 12 months. Don't forget to like this video on YouTube and make sure you subscribe and tell your friends. I love getting new subscribers and I love interacting with the people who view my videos so I look forward to hearing from you and I will talk to you all later.