 Right to G.I. Joe headquarters. You're a genius, Destro. Destro's got a plan. He's an evil man. He's the terrifying enemy of G.I. Joe. We're the adventures of G.I. Joe from Marvel Comics. Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and it's time for another G.I. Joe comic book review. We are diving into issue number 18. I had to take a bit of a break because of the holidays but we are back. Recapping what we saw in issue number 17 after a major battle in Washington DC we found out that two characters we thought were dead are actually alive. At the end of the issue Scarface, Destro, and Sneak Eyes and Quinn were all converging on the same place. Coney Island. They seem to be setting up an epic confrontation there. That brings us to issue number 18 and let's start by looking at the cover. The cover has Cobra Commander and Destro behind them is a large screen and on that screen they are seeing the Joe team capture a Cobra officer and there's a lot of technical detail around that screen. It is a good layout. I like the cover but at the end of the last issue we were led to believe we would be picking up the story at Coney Island but this does not look like Coney Island. Opening up to the first page we have a splash page and there's Coney Island. We have a title Destro Returns even though Destro never went anywhere. There is a jet flying overhead and the Joes are approaching the beach in the APC. The APC has the canopy removed so we can see inside. The creative team includes Larry Hama script, Mike Vosberg breakdowns, and John Dagestino finishes. On the next page Hawk confirms Scarface has arrived at his safe house and it's amusing Scarface still wears his Cobra uniform mask even when he is out of uniform and he's not hiding his identity. His V-shaped scar is pretty distinctive. How did the Joes know to go to Coney Island? Hawk got a letter from Snake Eyes. They thought Snake Eyes died several issues ago. This is their first confirmation that Snake Eyes is still alive. The letter includes a message to Scarlett that confirms his identity and she seems happy that he's still alive. She sheds a single tear. The Joes assembled the Manta and use it to approach the beach. This is a pretty blatant attempt to use a new toy in the comic book. It's okay here but it doesn't really do very much. Snake Eyes and Quinn approach Coney Island driving a pink Cadillac and I would cue up the Bruce Springsteen song but I believe this comic book predates the release of the song so maybe Bruce Springsteen got the idea from G.I. Joe. Yeah I'm going with that. Destro was in the jet we saw earlier. It hovers over the roller coaster on Coney Island. Scarface's safe house is just below the coaster. This jet is blue and it looks like a Harrier with Cobra emblems on it. I keep in mind at this point Cobra did not have any jets in the toy line so the comic book kind of had to make some things up. Scarface is sitting on a cot in a wooden shack feeling sorry for himself when he spots Destro repelling down to the roller coaster. Really Scarface did you not hear the deafening jet engine noise just above your head? The Joes roll up on the crowded Coney Island beach in the APC and the Manta. They are surrounded by witnesses so so much for secrecy. All parties are converging on Scarface as we were promised in the last issue. Scarface activates the roller coaster so it will knock Destro off but just then Quinn kicks his way into the control room and starts shaking him down for the location of Dr. Venom. Destro takes out the runaway roller coaster car with his wrist rockets. The Joes see the explosion as they close in. Scarface has apparently told Quinn all the information he knows about Dr. Venom so Quinn tosses Scarface the keys to the Cadillac and tells him to make like a tree and get out of here. Then we get the battle we were promised as the Joes and Destro open fire on each other in a populated American city. I know there aren't a lot of civilians around because this is apparently an abandoned area but we know there are civilians in the vicinity because we just saw them a few pages ago. Scarface flees in the pink Cadillac. Destro hurdles a fence to give chase and I'm not sure if it's a perspective problem or what but the fence looks like it's about waist high. I don't know if that was the artist's intention or if the perspective is just a bit off. Destro steals an ice cream truck to follow Scarface and I think this is supposed to be a bit of comic relief. It would be pretty funny if the ice cream truck had the music going for the entire chase. Everyone is chasing Scarface but nobody really wants Scarface for Scarface. For each of the parties Scarface is the means to another end. Quinn and Snake Eyes already got what they wanted from him so they are gone. Destro wants to use Scarface to resume Dr. Venom's plan of locating G.I. Joe headquarters and the Joes want Scarface because he can give up some Cobra secrets. The chase leads to a highway and the Joes open up on the ice cream truck and the pink Cadillac with full automatic machine gun fire on a crowded civilian highway. I don't know if bullets work differently in the G.I. Joe universe. Maybe they are using Vapo bullets that vaporize if they don't hit the target but here in the real world if a bullet doesn't hit the target it tends to keep going potentially into one of the many civilian vehicles surrounding this firefight. Now we know it's against federal law to use the army within the United States to execute laws unless it's expressly authorized by the constitution or Congress. This is due to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1807. Since G.I. Joe operates within the United States and has frequent battles within the United States we have to assume they got some special dispensation from Congress to do that but that doesn't mean they can willy-nilly start shooting up a state highway. Civilian police are limited in their use of deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect by the U.S. Supreme Court case Tennessee versus Garner. But Garner was a 1985 case and this comic book is from 1983 it predates that case. So apparently before Garner U.S. streets and highways were free fire zones. The Cadillac crashes. Scarface leaps out and keeps running but he's quickly grabbed by Destro. The leaking fuel from the Cadillac explodes and knocks the APC on its side. A passing truck driver helps the Joe's get the APC back on its wheels so they can continue the pursuit. Destro shakes up Scarface a bit letting him know how much trouble he's in. After all the Joe's might find out what was in the briefcase he was carrying for Dr. Venom. This is confusing to me. I've gone back and looked at previous issues and Scarface wasn't carrying a briefcase. Dr. Venom was carrying a briefcase. The briefcase would have included the plague toxin that was part of Cobra's plan to infiltrate GI Joe headquarters. Destro and Scarface hijack an airliner and redirect it to Libya. This may seem a little strange but in the late 70s and early 80s there was a spate of hijacking of civilian planes by terrorists. Also throughout the 70s and the 80s Libya funded a number of anti U.S. terrorist groups. So Libya was perceived as an enemy of the United States. This comic book often aligns Cobra with other enemies of the U.S. and sometimes uses Cobra as a proxy for those enemies. The Joe's load their vehicles on a cargo plane. They are going to follow Destro and Scarface all the way to Libya. When Scarface and Destro land at the Tripoli airport they are given a parade and a hero's welcome. Waiting for them in the limo is Dr. Venom with an injection of plague toxin for Scarface. While en route to Libya the Joe's use satellite photos to figure out where Cobra plans to transport Scarface. At Tripoli Cobra commander Destro and Venom talk about their plan. They have infected Scarface with the plague toxin. They want him to be captured by GI Joe because within two weeks he will start to spread the plague and he will infect the entire GI Joe team. Cobra's plan is banking on Scarface being brought to GI Joe headquarters and not someplace else. Also if the plan fails they will have to kill Scarface themselves because within two weeks he will become a walking disease factory. Scarface overhears this and he's understandably upset. Things aren't going very well for him. The Joe's have landed in the desert 90 miles south of Tripoli and they are now conducting a military operation in a foreign and hostile country. Also they can capture one guy who may be able to give them some intelligence on Cobra. A Cobra convoy drives through the desert kicking up a lot of dust. The Joe's use that cover to drive right up in the convoy up to Scarface's his tank and knock him out. Once the Joe's have captured Scarface the Dragonfly helicopter opens fire from above giving the Joe's a distraction so they can escape. This is a ballsy plan I have to say. It also doesn't make any sense. The Joe's want to capture Scarface but you know who also has a lot of information about Cobra? Well Cobra commander and Destro and Dr. Venom all of whom are in the same convoy. They are right there but the Joe's are not trying to capture them. They even pass up an opportunity to grab Destro. They drive right by him with the motorcycle. The Dragonfly picks up the vamp with its winch and they make good their escape with their prize. So the Joe's plan worked. They captured Scarface who they may be able to shake some information out of. And Cobra's plan also worked because the Joe's captured Scarface who is infected with the plague toxin. This issue like the last issue is just okay. In fact I think I liked the previous issue better. This is another transitional story. We don't seem to have gotten to our destination yet. We are just seeing the pieces moved around the chess board. Issue 17 set up an epic confrontation at Coney Island. We did have a confrontation but I would not call it epic. This issue set up an epic confrontation in the deserts of Libya. But that was more of a surgical operation rather than a major battle. There are also some elements of this issue that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Like Scarface not being able to hear the jet that was directly over his head. The Joe's opening fire with civilians around. The firefight on the highway is hard for me to justify. The Joe's are endangering a lot of civilians. The airplane hijacking and shifting the story to Libya probably made sense at the time. But now it makes this story really seem dated. In the post 9-11 era the hijacking of a civilian airliner would be a very touchy subject. So yeah this was not one of my favorite issues but the next issue. Number 19 is one of my favorites and it's one of the most important issues in the entire series. I look forward to covering issue number 19 next month. But for now that's my review of G.I. Joe a real American hero issue number 18 published by Marvel Comics. Published December 1983. I hope you will join me on this channel for more comic book reviews and vintage G.I. Joe toy reviews. I will see you soon and always remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.