 Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, and I'm back with another comic book Wednesday. This time we will be looking at G.I. Joe number six. That's G.I. Joe, a real American hero, the comic book series published by Marvel Comics starting in 1982, and we're looking now at the sixth issue. Before we get started though, I want to remind everybody to smash that subscribe button, and if you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and if you don't like this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs down. I've got a lot of great videos coming up, you will not want to miss them, and since my subscriber base is increasing, I have some pretty cool plans for when we hit certain subscriber milestones. You will not want to miss that, you will definitely want to be around for that, but of course we've got to approach those milestones first, so don't forget to hit that subscribe button. So let's look at G.I. Joe number six, starting with the cover. On the cover, we have a big picture of Cobra Commander's helmet with his face mask reflecting two images. On one side is the G.I. Joe team, and on the other side is some unknown team. This is a team that we have not met yet. It's a pretty cool image, nicely designed, and it gives us some hints at what's going to be in the comic book. On the splash page, we have a title. To fail is to conquer, to succeed is to die. In parenthesis, it says, Ancient Afghan Proverb. That's a very ominous title, I wonder if it is foreshadowing something that will happen in the comic book. We have a creative team of Larry Hama as the scriptor, and Herb Triumph as the plot and penciler. The story opens with the G.I. Joe team getting an escort back to base from tactical air support. This is before G.I. Joe had its own jet, the Skystriker, and Pilot Ace. Later on in the series, of course, I think Ace would have fulfilled that role, but they didn't have Ace around at the time. The Joes all get a ride back to the pit in a doos and a half truck. Later in the series, the APC would fulfill that role. This is still 1982, so really, come on 1983, you cannot get here fast enough. The G.I. Joe team needs some better vehicles. The Joes are returning from a mission, and apparently it was a really tough mission. Now we don't get to see the mission, we don't know exactly what it was. The only way we know about it is that they're just talking about it, and they're telling us how tough it was. Before they have a chance to relax, Hawk walks in with another mission, and this one he says is going to be on an all voluntary basis. Why would the mission be all voluntary? That also seems kind of ominous. It seems like there's something going on here that we're not being told. In the briefing room, we find out what the mission is, and I've said before that I like this aspect of the comic book. I like it when it brings us into the planning phase. I do think that that draws the reader in and makes the story seem more realistic. The Russians apparently have an anti-gravity plane, oh boy, anti-gravity, more science fiction. Anyway, the plane, it goes down in Afghanistan, and this was during a time when the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan, and the Afghan rebels have the plane, and they will give it to the United States. So the G.I. Joe team's mission is to go into Afghanistan and retrieve the Russian plane. You have to keep in mind that we're talking about Afghanistan pre-911. This is back in the Cold War, and nowadays we are familiar with certain place names like Kabul and the Hindu Kush Mountains, but for 1982 this was a really advanced story. This is a kind of story that you wouldn't expect, kind of detail that you wouldn't expect in a comic book that is intended for kids. One of the things I really liked about the comic book when I was reading it as a kid is that I didn't feel like it was treating me like a child. Here we are talking about real parts of the world where there is real political conflict, and reading about that as a kid definitely made me feel very grown up. It made me feel like I was reading a mature story. So the Joes are going to go into Afghanistan and they're going to take out the plane on this vehicle called an RTV, or Rough Terrain Vehicle. It's a vehicle we've never heard of before and we will never hear of again after this issue. Hawk asks for volunteers, and of course everybody raises their hands, and this should be no surprise. I mean, we're talking about an elite military unit. So all of these guys are like alphas and jocks, and not one of them would want to be the sole guy who doesn't raise his hand when there's a call for volunteers. So of course, when there's a call for volunteers, everybody's going to put their hands up. It doesn't really matter though, because Hawk has already selected the team that's going to go in. Now this is why I think the whole volunteer thing is bullshit. I mean, suppose somebody on that list did not raise his hand. Do you think they'd get to stay behind? I don't think so. So the Joes are on their way. They're on the plane flying to Afghanistan. But in the meantime, something strange and mysterious is happening in the dark end of the communications bunker of the Jiojo Command Center. Some mysterious person is calling Cobra to inform Cobra of the Joes mission. And that mysterious person turns out to be Hawk. Hawk is actually calling Cobra and giving them all of the Joes mission secrets. Is Hawk a traitor? Oh my God. Say it ain't so. The Joes parachute in and they don't see the rebels at first. The rebels are hiding and then they pop up and surprise the Joes. We get to meet the CIA operative who is working with the rebels and he turns out to be a real douche nozzle. An exchange between the rebel leader and the CIA agent gives us the impression that we are supposed to trust the fighting man. And CIA agents don't fight so they just wouldn't understand. The Russian plane is boxed up in a crate and the Jiojo team assembles their RTV so they can drive the crate out. And once it is assembled it is actually a really cool looking vehicle. You know what? I really wish there was a toy of this thing. Of course this comic book is selling toys but it's actually selling toys that don't exist. I kinda wish they had made a toy version of this. It would have been really cool. I would have bought it. As they're leaving Stalker tells the rebel leader that they will try to get them anti-tank weapons and ground to air missiles. Now this is kinda creepy and really, really ironic. At the time the US kind of thought of the Afghan rebels as, you know, the underdogs and they were the enemies of our enemies so they had to be the good guys. In 1982 they had no idea that these same rebel groups would produce some of the most evil enemies that the United States has faced in the modern era. The naivete that the Joes demonstrate here is almost heartbreaking. So the Joes are on the move driving through the Afghan mountains and the vamp jeep is on point and the RTV is carting the secret Russian plane and as they are driving they are being observed by persons unknown. Then they run into a ravine that is not on the map. There are no bridges and there's no obvious way to get over it. Clutch as usual is being a smart ass until he is cut short by a bullet whizzing past his head. Last we have a firefight. We have action in this action comic. We don't know who exactly is shooting at them but at least some hot lead is being exchanged. We really haven't seen a firefight like this since the first issue of the comic book. The Joes have to get out of there so Steeler comes up with a plan. He picks up the vamp using the crane on the RTV and he carries the vamp over the ravine. He also drives the RTV over the ravine but the artwork here is really confusing. In one panel it shows the ravine as being very narrow but then on the next page the ravine is huge. Now I think I understand what the artist was trying to convey here. Basically Steeler used the width of the RTV to kind of stretch the wheels across the ravine but it's not drawn that way. It really doesn't actually make any sense the way it's drawn but I'll just chalk that up to the difficulties of illustrating that particular maneuver. As the Joes are crossing the ravine we finally get to meet our mystery force. It is the October Guard, a Soviet Special Forces unit. The October Guard includes Colonel Brekov, Horosho, Stormovik, Dina and Shrage. I guess that's how that's pronounced, it's really an odd spelling. The October Guard and their little dune buggy, Dukes of Hazard jumps over the ravine and a lot of dialogue is exchanged in the few seconds before they hit the other side. Yeah, that happens in comics a lot. There are scenes where there is far more dialogue than could actually occur in the time that's being illustrated. I'll just have to chalk that up to a limitation of the medium. As the October Guard is jumping over the ravine and being stereotypical Russians, Scarlet shoots the front wheel of the dune buggy with a bolt from her crossbow. The tire, which is designed to self-seal against bullets, does not seal against arrows, so when they hit the other side, they crash with a great big cronk. Now with both teams on the other side of the ravine, they take cover and they start exchanging fire again. There is a dialogue error here where Grand Slam is called Flash. The team roster clearly indicates that Grand Slam and not Flash is on this mission. And the comic book coloring has the pads as gray, which is probably meant to represent Grand Slam's silver pads. Steeler decides to press an advantage by taking the high ground. He extends the cab of the RTV to get a very advantageous firing position on the October Guard's position. The October Guard is pinned down by the Joes and so they say some stereotypical Russian things and they attack. They abandon their cover and they just rush toward the Joes. The Joes are firing at them and the October Guard should be mowed down at this point, but of course they're not because nobody in this comic book can shoot worth a damn. And so the fight becomes hand to hand. Scarlet kicks Stormavik's ass and Horror Show is strong enough to take on two guys on his own. Colonel Brekov is fighting Stalker when he says, look behind you. Is it your backup team? No, it is not the Joes' backup team. The Joes never have a backup team. It's Cobra. They are surrounded by Cobra soldiers and Cobra Commander himself is there. He orders his troops to line the prisoners up by the ravine and kill them. Wow, there is a lot going on here. I always like to give the good and the bad points of every issue and I did like this one, so I'd like to get the bad points out of the way first. First of all, all of the jokes in this issue fall flat. None of it's funny, all of it's really hokey. There is a somewhat implausible firefight where the Russians and the Joes basically just run at each other. This battle was more like what we saw in the cartoon. You remember in the cartoon how when G.I. Joe fought Cobra, the battles mostly consisted of G.I. Joe and Cobra running at each other out in the open, firing their lasers randomly and nobody hitting anybody. Well, this fight was a lot like that. You would think that with all that hot lead flying around, somebody would at least accidentally get hit. But no, apparently one of the safest places on earth to be is in between the G.I. Joe team and the October guard when they're in a firefight. Nobody gets hit. We also have some uncomfortable irony in that the Joes in this story side with the Afghan rebels. This is really uncomfortable reading this now with knowledge of how history plays out. Even though it's somewhat uncomfortable to read now, I say don't run away from it. Embrace it. There is a really interesting story to be told here. You could really explore how there could be unintended consequences from some of these missions. We have Hawk giving G.I. Joe's secrets away directly to Cobra. So it raises the question, is Hawk a spy? Now that we've got the bad parts out of the way, let's talk about the good parts of this comic book. We have our first cliffhanger. This is our first two-part story, the first G.I. Joe story that actually spans more than one issue. And I think that's great. This is a milestone in the comic book series. And it probably marks the first point in the comic book series when they were pretty sure that they weren't going to be cancelled before the next issue. So they actually had the confidence to stretch a story out to more than one issue. So that's great. This is a turning point and this is going to lead to some great stories in the future. Not only that, we have action and we have great action. We have a firefight, which is awesome. You know, that's what we want to see from the G.I. Joe team. A lot of our stories up to this point have not involved very much actual combat. So it's nice to see this elite combat unit actually doing some combat. We get to meet the October Guard, which is the Soviet answer to the G.I. Joe team. The October Guard will play an important role in the G.I. Joe universe going forward. Again, like issue number two, this issue is set in the Cold War. Which does date the comic. You know, you can really tell that this occurs in the early 80s. But again, it sets the comic in the real world, which I like. And let's not forget one great aspect of this comic book, Cobra. We see Cobra again. Yes, I love Cobra as the adversary for G.I. Joe and their back. And they're in uniform. And they've got the Joe's held at gunpoint and we don't know what's going to happen. We have to read the next issue. That's exciting to me. I really, really liked this. I love this issue in case you couldn't tell. And I'm really, really looking forward to reviewing the next one. That was my review of G.I. Joe number six. I hope you liked it. If you did like this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. And if you didn't, go ahead and give it a thumbs down. And once again, don't forget to subscribe. I've got some great stuff coming up. And you know, now we have a cliffhanger. The next comic book Wednesday, we will be reviewing the conclusion to this two part story. So stick around for that. And once again, don't forget to subscribe. I've got some great stuff coming up. Thanks for watching and I'll talk to you all later.