 Hello everybody, Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, and we're back with our second comic book Wednesday, and we're going to look at GI Joe number two. Don't forget to smash that subscribe button, and if you like this video, don't forget to hit that little thumbs up sign. If you're watching this video from any website other than YouTube, I would greatly appreciate it if you would hop over to YouTube and just take a little trip over to the Hooded Cobra Commander 788 YouTube channel, and go ahead and subscribe, because if we can get some more subscribers and get some more viewers, I've got some really fun and exciting things planned related to vintage GI Joe, so let's all get together, let's have some fun talking about vintage GI Joe, and don't forget to subscribe. So today we're going to look at GI Joe number two. That's GI Joe, a real American hero, the comic book series published by Marvel Comics starting in 1982. The copy that I'm reading from is a trade paperback published by IDW Publications, and there are a few things of note that are different between GI Joe number one and GI Joe the second issue. One thing that's remarkably different is that GI Joe number two is rarer than GI Joe number one, and if you're looking for a first printing, you're probably going to pay more for it than first printing for GI Joe number one. The reason for that, and really it's not just this comic book series, but a lot of comic book series, the second issue often has a lower print run than the first issue, so a lot of times, a phenomenon that you'll discover in collecting comic books is sometimes you'll have more trouble finding the second issue of a series than you have finding the first issue, and that's the case here with GI Joe number two. Another couple things to note is that we have a non-Cobra enemy, Cobra, the traditional enemy of GI Joe, does not make an appearance in this comic book, and we also have the Joe's in a special environment. They are in an arctic environment in this issue, and this is before the introduction of GI Joe's arctic trooper Snowjob, so we have a selection of the original Joe team in an environment that really is outside of their specialty. The title of the story is Panic at the North Pole. It's scripted by Larry Hamma and penciled by Don Perlin, and the story opens at an American arctic research station that has been attacked. The Quonset Huts have bullet holes and blast holes all in them, and the Americans suspect that the Russians might have something to do with it. The Russians have their own research station about 100 miles away, which probably isn't a coincidence. So, right off the bat, the story sets itself in the Cold War, and that's kind of a good thing and a bad thing. For one thing, it places the GI Joe series in the real world. They don't just fight the fictional enemy of Cobra. They also fight the real world enemies of the US at the time, like the Russians. On the other hand, it really dates the story. It's a story that really feels like it happens in the early 80s. It really does not feel like a modern contemporary story. One thing that Larry Hamma does well, he did it well in the first issue, and he does it again here, brings us into the planning phase of the mission. This, I think, really draws the reader in. More so than if he just threw the Joes into an action scene and they just started shooting people. This feels like a more mature story, because we get to look at the planning that goes into these missions. We also get to see a little bit more of the personal life of some of the Joe team members, since they are all on leave. They have to be called back in to go on this mission. I like the treatment of Stalker. You know, Stalker is a professional soldier. He's a train killer, but he's still kind to woodland animals. He would rather take pictures of deer than to shoot them. So that's nice. I like that. Breaker, he's doing computer stuff, and it seems to me that Breaker commits a major security breach here. He walks away from a computer screen and leaves this message from General Flag still on the screen. I mean, isn't that some kind of top-secret thing that he maybe shouldn't leave there for anybody to read? Scarlet is in a karate tournament, and of course she's kicking ass as per usual. This is also the first time we learn why Snake Eyes wears his mask. He's not just hiding his identity. Apparently, his face is hideously disfigured, and so his mask is covering that. As the Joe team is flying to their mission in the Arctic, they discuss what their mission is and the mission parameters, and again, this brings us into the planning stages of the mission rather than just throw them in and have them start shooting. This feels kind of like a police procedural. I mean, we approach these missions with realistic military tactics, and it's kind of like the stories that use realistic detective tactics to solve crimes, except this of course is in a military setting. The mission here is just to observe the Russian station, but of course there's no way that this could just be observing. It's a G.I. Joe story, of course, so it's got to turn into something more interesting than that. We are introduced to Quinn, who shows up while the Joe's are observing the Russian station, and unfortunately Quinn is a stereotype. There's really no way around that. He is the stereotypical Eskimo. Now, this was the early 80s, and in the 80s they dealt with race in more of a ham-fisted way than hopefully most stories would deal with it now. But I mean, it's hard to get around the fact that he's intended as a stereotype. I mean, he's referred to as Nanook and Blubber Chewing, and so what else can you say? Quinn himself, though, is a really strong character. Breaker gets basically a printout from headquarters on his super high-tech communications backpack that gives us a little information about Quinn, and we learned that he's a very honorable guy. He honors all of his contracts to the letter. He's totally honest and fair in his dealings, but at the same time, there's some moral ambiguity here. I mean, he seems like a good guy, but he's working for the bad guys, so can you still be a good guy if you're completely loyal to the bad guys and you're honoring your contracts but you're making contracts with really bad people? And it's not like Quinn doesn't recognize his employers as bad people. He is as much as says that they are out to inflict evil on the world. Anyway, it leads us to the MacGuffin of this story, which is a frequency modulator in a machine that sends fear waves. The Russians have developed a fear machine, basically, and it transmits fear waves. I wonder if this is kind of an allusion to the general sort of Cold War paranoia. The story is, you know, set in the Cold War, and maybe it's a little bit more subversive than it seems on the surface. In the Joe's first confrontation with Quinn, Quinn wins. He gets the drop on them, they have to drop their weapons, and, you know, they are at his mercy. This is the first time that Quinn refers to Snake Eyes as Shadow Man. Instead of killing the Joe's outright, he basically just leaves them stranded at a broken down airplane, an airplane wreck. And, you know, they're in the middle of nowhere in the Arctic, and they don't have any supplies, so Quinn assumes that they are good as dead. But hey, this is the GI Joe team. The Joe team is never as good as dead. This is some really smart writing here. There's very little actual violence, really in the whole issue. The team deals with their problems using their brains. That's a smart team. They figure out how to solve their problems, and they don't always have to use guns in order to do it. So the team kind of MacGyver's a snow sled out of pieces of the airplane, and so they take off and they're going to try to catch up with Quinn, which leads to the second confrontation between the Joe's and Quinn, which Quinn wins again. Snake Eyes gets his Uzi back, but unfortunately he can't fire it, because Quinn has taken all the firing pins out of their weapons and put them on his necklace. So he still manages to beat them, even though they have the drop on him this time. So despite the fact that we have a really smart GI Joe team, we have an even smarter enemy. Quinn is a really sharp individual. Again, Quinn chooses to strand the Joe's there, rather than kill them outright. It seems to me like he has gotten the idea that this is a team that's not going to just give up. And so I think maybe he sees a way out. He sees a way to honor his contract, but at the same time to thwart the evil that he is serving. So Quinn succeeds. He makes the meeting with the Russians. He gives them their frequency modulator, and he fulfills his contract. He even makes sure that the Russians acknowledge that his contract is fulfilled. But the resolution isn't quite that simple. Quinn informs the Russians that he put the firing pins for the Americans' weapons in a cairn, and he even tells the Russians where it is. But of course the Joe's are on their way, and if they get to the firing pins before the Russians do, the Russians are as good as dead. And you can see the looks on the Russians' faces when they realize what's going on. Quinn has found a way to sort of help the Joe team without, in any way, going back on his bargain with the Russians. It is implied, without being shown, that the Joe's do complete their mission, as we get a close up of snake eyes wearing Quinn's weasel skull necklace, and the firing pins obviously have been placed back in their weapons, so they are armed, and they are marching toward the Russians. It is a beautifully understated resolution. We know exactly what's happened, and exactly what's going to happen, without anything having to be said or even shown. It's a really wonderfully written story, and a really well played conclusion. Overall, I would say that GI Joe Number 2 is a very cerebral story. In the whole issue, not one shot is fired in anger. It's really all about intelligence, improvisation, and determination, more so than about, you know, big guns and vehicles. It's a less complex story than GI Joe Number 1. There's less going on here than in the first issue, but there's a lot of subtlety here. It's a really beautifully written story, and I really enjoyed reading it again. One criticism that people have with GI Joe and any other comic book or cartoon that's based on a toy line is that it's really just out there to sell toys. But to that, I'd have to say, how does this story sell toys? You don't have the whole GI Joe team in this story. You only have four of the Joes, and they're not in their usual uniform. They're not in the uniforms that you see in the action figures. There are no vehicles. There's no Cobra. This does not feel like a story that is designed to sell toys. This is a story that's just written to be good. It's written to be enjoyed as a good story. Quinn, as I said, is a strong character despite being a stereotype, and we will see him again in later issues of GI Joe, and his character will be developed even further. I appreciate the fact that we learned a little bit more about the personal lives of some of the GI Joe team members. And despite the fact that this is a Cold War story, it does place the GI Joe series in the real world, and it firmly stays in the real world. It tells us that we are not dealing with pure fantasy. They're not just fighting a purely fictional foe. And that, I think, enhances the realism of the entire series. That is my review of GI Joe No. 2. Thanks for watching, and again, if you haven't done it, go ahead and smash that subscribe button. And if you liked this video, hit that thumbs up. Keep an eye out for more vintage GI Joe toy reviews and comic book reviews coming up on this channel. You'll want to make sure that you're subscribed because you're not going to want to miss this. It's going to be tons of fun. So thanks for watching, and I will see you again soon.