 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commanders have an 8-8 here. It's time for another GI Joe comic book review I'm trying to get to these once a month They've been a little bit difficult to fold into my schedule But we are coming up on some iconic issues of the GI Joe comic book series And I don't want to miss them recapping the story from last issue through a series of improbable events Quinn and snake eyes were able to find the fugitive Cobra officer Scarface and Through him get the location of dr. Venom Quinn is determined to take revenge on dr. Venom scarface was then captured by Destro who took him to Libya where he was injected with plague toxin by dr. Venom Cobra's plan was to have scarface Captured by the Joes who would then take him back to GI Joe headquarters and he would spread the plague Cobra would then watch for Quarantine procedures to find out where GI Joe headquarters was located that brings us to issue number 19 with the publishing date of January 1984 and on the cover we have an epic battle with Destro atop a his tank and the Joes all around there are Explosions gunfire this looks like the epic battle We have been promised for a couple issues the comic did not deliver on the epic battle promised in last issue So in this issue, I really hope that's what we get on the opening splash page. We have the title Joe triumphs Spoiler apparently Joe wins. We have a creative team of Larry Hama Scripter Mike Vosberg pencil breakdowns and John Dagostino finishes on that opening splash page We see the Joes constructing a metal framework and that metal frame is in a recognizable shape It is the 1983 headquarters command center I had that play set, but I did not recall the play set being used in the comic book So it's kind of a thrill to see it here. That was one of my favorite toys back in 1983 There are several shirtless Joes, and I have no idea who these guys are that is a sad fact about the 1982 Joes they did kind of all lookalike according to the dialogue that Joes are building this prefab fortress and they are doing it in GI Joe's Secret base called the pit and they are doing it below ground level snow job and dock wheel in a hospital bed And on that hospital bed is the Baroness all bandaged up a few issues ago The Baroness was badly burned in an exploding hiss tank Cobra commander tried to assassinate Destro and the Baroness intentionally crashed her tank to prevent it Dung Ho and Doc do this weird comedy bit about accents, and I'll just let that go elsewhere in the pit Scarface is explaining Cobra's plan to the Joes and why shouldn't he? There's no reason to be loyal to Cobra at this point They injected him with a lethal plague toxin with the full expectation that he would be captured Spread the plague and eventually die Scarface reaches into his boot and pulls out a vial And that vial contains the antidote to the plague toxin He had it the whole time. Wait, wait, wait, hold on stop the comic book So Scarface was captured by Destro flown to Libya in a hijacked jet Injected with the plague toxin by Dr. Venom set up for capture by GI Joe Captured by GI Joe taken to GI Joe headquarters and at no point in any of that Did anyone search him and find this in his boot? It's not like he was hiding this in a body cavity or something A standard Terry Frisk would have found this Which means nobody searched him So he was brought to GI Joe headquarters He could have had a bomb on him and they would never know Now that the Joes know Cobra's plan, Hawker reveals his countermeasures He plans to convince Cobra that the motor pool building that sits atop the pit is actually GI Joe's headquarters They will destroy the motor pool building Believing they have destroyed the actual headquarters and then go on their merry way This is a really dumb plan The plan involves revealing to Cobra the actual location of the real GI Joe base But just trusting that Cobra will not suspect that the base is underground This plan could have worked just as well at some abandoned army base In fact, it would have worked better There is no reason to draw Cobra to the location of the real GI Joe base in order for this plan to work Hawker also says he took the liberty of moving major blood and the Baroness to the pit from Washington So they won't miss the big show This plan is nonsense These are valuable prisoners They should not be placed in a position where the enemy may rescue them or they may escape And why would the Baroness be there? She is unconscious She can't see the show The only reason to have her there is for someone to eventually rescue her Meanwhile, at Cobra headquarters, Destro has spotted quarantine procedures in satellite photos So now they believe they know the location of GI Joe headquarters I have to say Cobra's plan is not that great either They are depending on Scarface being brought to GI Joe headquarters But that's not a natural place for GI Joe to take him He could have been taken to any detention facility And the idea that they can find GI Joe headquarters by watching for quarantine procedures is also kind of absurd So quarantine procedures are only happening at this one location throughout the entire United States Cobra commander almost accidentally reveals to Destro that the Baroness is still alive Remember, Destro thought the Baroness died in that burning his tank The story shifts to Dr. Venom's secret laboratory near the old Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a real place It was closed as a naval base in 1966 and was reopened as an industrial park in 1969 A major tenant, Sea Train, closed in 1979 So in 1983 and 1984, there would have probably been plenty of vacant buildings for Dr. Venom to set up a secret lab Quinn and Snake Eyes are observing Dr. Venom through a skylight And Quinn again reveals his intention to take revenge against Dr. Venom And he wonders what Snake Eyes plans to do about it They crash through the window Quinn is ready to beat the living hell out of Dr. Venom when he is interrupted by the approach of Cobra helicopters These helicopters are more made up vehicles for the comic book that did not exist as toys They look like Huey helicopters They are not the more famous Cobra transport helicopters that were used in many issues of the comic book The story shifts back to Staten Island and we get a brief description of Fort Wadsworth and the U.S. Army Chaplain's assistant school there Fort Wadsworth is, or at least was, a real army base on Staten Island It was the home of the U.S. Army Chaplain School from 1974 to 1979 The Chaplain School was no longer at Fort Wadsworth in 1984, it had moved to Fort Monmouth in New Jersey Since G.I. Joe is anticipating a battle at Fort Wadsworth, they are sending the Chaplain's assistance on a bus trip to the Presidio in San Francisco on the West Coast That'll be a very long trip This is another reason why this is a bad plan Fort Wadsworth, at least in the G.I. Joe universe, is a working army base With personnel that have nothing to do with G.I. Joe In order for this plan to work, G.I. Joe has to send them elsewhere If this had been staged on some abandoned army or navy base, that would not have been necessary In order to draw Cobra in, G.I. Joe has had to give the appearance of quarantine procedures, which means the motor pool is surrounded by ambulances Short Fuse has misgivings about placing claymore mines under the ambulances, saying it must be against the Geneva Convention And oh my god, he is right Those ambulances in this artwork very distinctively have the red cross Tripwire hand waves away that criticism, saying they are placing the mines under the ambulances, not in the ambulances, which is a distinction without a difference Then Tripwire says, oh, besides, all the weapons used by American police departments are illegal under the rules of the Geneva Convention Which is a false equivalence and a non sequitur The Geneva Conventions do have numerous regulations that would make what the Joe's are doing here very illegal According to the Hague regulations of 1907, it is forbidden to make improper use of the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention, including the red cross The Geneva Convention of 1929, Article 24 says the red cross shall not be used, except to protect or indicate medical formations and establishments and the personnel and material protected by the Geneva Convention Using ambulances marked with the red cross to cover weapons and mines is an improper use of that marking and the Joe's know it And I hate that the comic book just handwaves away that problem If the Joe's want to be the good guys, they have to behave as the good guys and this is not that The excuses that the other side in a conflict doesn't follow those regulations or some civilian police departments that have nothing to do with this issue don't follow those regulations is not logically or legally justifiable Compounding G.I. Joe's war crimes, they move a prisoner into a combat zone, they move major blood into the motor pool building and chain him to a radiator I know Larry Hama is trying to inject some military pragmatism here, but this is making me question who I'm supposed to be rooting for Back in Brooklyn, since Dr. Venom hasn't given the proper recognition signal, the Cobra Troopers believe his lab has been taken and they plan to storm it Snake Eyes figures out a way out of this mess by putting on the Cobra Snake Armor Dr. Venom confirms that Snake Armor has offensive capabilities and powerful mood changers to strengthen and enhance the powers of the user Why would they need that? Dr. Venom is known for creating mind reading and mind control devices Snake Eyes knows this and he has just been told by Dr. Venom that the Snake Armor has some of that technology in it and Snake Eyes puts it on anyway Dr. Venom activates the Snake Armor which takes over Snake Eyes' mind which causes him to disarm and incapacitate Quinn So this is another weird and kind of dumb plan Dr. Venom designed the Snake Armor to take over the mind of the user and cause the user to direct the Snake Armor in the way Dr. Meinbender wishes The exact same thing could have been accomplished if Dr. Venom had simply taken over the Snake Armor directly and taken control away from the Operator Trapping the Operator in there This extra step of taking over the mind of the Operator just gives Snake Eyes the opportunity to overcome the mind control Something Dr. Venom knows Snake Eyes can do Quinn is placed in the other suit of Snake Armor and Cobra proceeds with their plan to attack Fort Wadsworth Back at the pit, General Flag orders the Baroness to be moved to the prefab fortress which has been constructed under the motor pool building Doc protests that she is in critical condition, she should never have been moved in the first place and now they are placing her in the midst of a potential firefight Thank you Doc for being the only grown up in the room General Flag says he is aware of the ethical problem and takes full responsibility, but it doesn't work that way Doc is individually responsible for his ethical choices This exchange means the comic book is aware of the logical and ethical and legal problems it is presenting and it's just turning its back on them On the next page, Steeler wonders why they are building the prefab fortress on the level of the pit under the motor pool building when they are trying to trick Cobra into believing the GI Joe base is above ground How then, he asks, are they going to get this base on the surface Hawk says the base was built on the hydraulic lifts and they are going to push the whole base up through the ground floor What? Why? As we will see later, there is plenty of room in the motor pool building for this prefab fortress So why not just build it in there on the ground level? Why build it under the ground level and push it up through the floor? Clutch and Breaker take the prisoners, Major Blood and Scarface, on a patrol with the vamp and I think I actually understand this part They are taking the prisoners out where they will be visible because they want to confirm for Cobra that they have found the right place They want to draw Cobra in and as soon as they see Major Blood and Scarface, their belief that they have found GI Joe headquarters will be confirmed But wouldn't this make Cobra suspicious that GI Joe is on to their plan because taking prisoners out on a patrol is not a normal thing to do As Cobra helicopters approach, Clutch speeds the vamp back to the motor pool building pursued by Cobra Fang helicopters Hawk follows through with his plan to push the prefab fortress up through the floor of the motor pool inside the building This is just incredible, the vamp makes it through the door just in time as missiles blow up the facade as the smoke clears the fortress is still standing I've complained a lot about the logical and ethical problems with this issue but finally we get the epic battle we have been promised As Cobra attacks GI Joe headquarters in force, the headquarters takes out the Fang helicopters, those things are death traps As the Cobra troopers approach, the Claymore mines under the ambulances blow them away, solidifying GI Joe's status as war criminals In case there is any doubt about whether GI Joe is misusing the markings intended to protect medical personnel and the wounded, the artwork again very distinctively shows the Red Cross No, I will not let that go and neither should you with the reader One of the great things about the GI Joe comic book is it does not treat us like dummies and it often asks us to think Well, it has given us something to think about here GI Joe deploys the pack rats, these small remotely controlled battle robots Meanwhile, Doc is being taunted by the prisoners who are handcuffed to jail cell bars The pack rats are able to take out some of the his tanks, it's nice to see the pack rats used here, those toys are very small and could easily have been overlooked by the comic book To counter the pack rats, Dr. Venom deploys the snake armor, manned by mind controlled Quinn and snake eyes As the snake armor takes out the pack rats, there is an unfortunate art choice here The pack rat missile launcher is a tracked vehicle and of course the treads on the toy are fake, it actually rolls on wheels that are concealed underneath As the missile launcher is taken out here, the artwork shows the wheels that are on the toy that's not supposed to exist in universe Dr. Venom reflects on the time snake eyes overcame his brain wave scanner Dr. Venom knows snake eyes can overcome his mind controlled devices and that's exactly what snake eyes does Snake eyes takes over the snake armor and tries to use it to fire at Dr. Venom's his tank But he can't because the snake armor is programmed not to fire at anything painted in Cobra blue Of course the his tank is not blue, it is black, the blue coloring of his tank in the comic book is just kind of a convention of comic book coloring Some things that are black are colored blue for comic books just because it looks better on the page Since snake eyes can't take out the his tank, he instead frees Quinn from the other snake armor All of this would have been preventable if Dr. Venom had simply been able to control the snake armor directly Rather than mind controlling the person in it Quinn uses the pack rat machine gun to fire on Dr. Venom's his tank Cobra bombards the base with artillery, these are vehicles that did not exist as toys G.I. Joe deploys their air and ground vehicles and we get more all out Warfare Quinn finally has Dr. Venom in his clutches and plans to stuff a grenade down his throat That is hardcore A fang helicopter lands on the roof of the fortress and a cobra trooper plants a bomb Doc is momentarily distracted by this and is knocked out by major blood General flag intervenes and holds major blood and Scarface at gunpoint He says you're a 10-8 and that's what you're staying 10-8 is a military police 10 code that refers to a prisoner in custody This is apparently different from civilian police 10 code Scarface kicks the gun out of general flag's hand Major blood picks up the gun and shoots general flag Major blood uses the handcuff keys from flag to release himself But leaves Scarface chained to the bars Major blood leaves the jail cell with the Baroness On the roof of the fortress that cobra trooper is finally getting the timer to work on that bomb But he is shot in the back by major blood who straps the Baroness to the fang helicopter and flies away It's amusing to me that the fang helicopter in this panel has the foot peg that is on the toy Back on the battlefield Quinn has Dr. Venom right where he wants him Quinn has a change of heart though He says the spirit of the weasel lives in Dr. Venom But Quinn also has the spirit of the weasel And he can't fight that spirit in others until he conquers it within Inside the fortress Doc moves the wounded general flag out But has to leave Scarface chained to the bars Because major blood took the keys Back outside on the battlefield Quinn walks away But Dr. Venom can't simply just get away with his life He pulls a pistol and shoots Quinn in the back Dr. Venom taunts Quinn So what have you got to say now? No more mumbo jumbo aphorisms about weasel spirits No last lunge to try to strangle me with your last breath No, there's no more anger left in me Venom I've made my peace with the weasel Quinn will not harm you while he lives That I promise Quinn falls over dead in view of his friend Snake Eyes From his hand falls the grenade Right at Dr. Venom's feet He has kept his promise He did not harm Dr. Venom while he was alive The explosion is the last we see of Dr. Venom A moment later the bomb on top of the fortress Explodes and disintegrates it Doc who is kneeling over the body of general flag Turns and tells us he couldn't stop the bleeding General flag is dead Cobra commander believes he has destroyed G.I. Joe headquarters He orders his troops to regroup and retreat Retreat? You retreat after you win? You just destroyed the base Press your advantage and wipe out the whole team If Cobra had continued to fight They may have discovered that the fortress they destroyed Was only on top of the base G.I. Joe is celebrating because they did In fact trick Cobra into believing They destroyed G.I. Joe's headquarters But the last panel reveals the cost of that major victory Two characters that have been important to the Joes so far Have died In fact four characters that have been important To the G.I. Joe universe have died Because Scarface was blown up inside the base And Venom was blown up by a grenade There is so much to unpack with this issue I'm not sure where to begin I do like this issue despite my criticisms We do finally get the epic battle we were promised It is a very important and dramatic issue Because it saw the death of several major characters It's important to point out that none of the characters That died in this issue had action figures at the time These were characters specifically created for the comic book Larry Hama did this from time to time In the comic book series Of course he could not kill off characters That had action figures for sale at the time Hasbro would not allow him to do that But neither would he show war without consequences He created characters like Quinn and Dr. Venom And he took the time to really flesh them out Over several issues he made us really care about those characters They are not just background characters Because we care about them their deaths matter They mean something The death of Quinn is especially poignant He had become the friend of Snake Eyes Snake Eyes has had a tragic life He tends to lose the people most important to him Even though I like this issue and I'm satisfied with the conclusion We went through some strange twists and turns to get there The issue has numerous logical problems Both G.I. Joe and Cobra's plans are very flawed The fact that either of their plans worked stretches credulity This issue raises several serious ethical problems It's aware of those ethical problems It even spotlights those ethical problems And it seems to resolve those issues in unethical ways In fiction you often have characters that view ethics As an inconvenient impediment to them achieving their objectives I know Larry Hama is a pragmatist And he often takes the opportunity to show military And political leadership as being less than honest and forthright And that may be what he's trying to do here With hawk and general flag But the dishonorable choices of the leadership trickle down to the rank and file When the Joes intentionally take action they know to be illegal And before I get complaints that I shouldn't worry about these issues That it's just a comic book, that it's just for kids That it's just to sell toys The comic book itself raised these issues The comic book could have ignored these issues but it didn't It specifically brought them up And if the comic book wants to bring them up Then it can't expect me to not think about them Do I recommend this issue? Of course I do This is not one to be skipped This issue has repercussions deep into the comic book series This issue is kind of the end of an era We are moving out of 1983 And it's about time to introduce some of the new characters from 1984 The next issue is a transitional issue We get a little bit of a breather from this heavy drama Coming forward you will start to notice something The writing for this comic book series is about to get a lot more sophisticated And a lot more layered The characters will become more complex And the interconnection between them will become more interwoven That was my review of issue 19 of the comic book series I hope you enjoyed it Next issue as I said is kind of a transitional issue So I hope you will join me for that I am trying to do these comic book reviews about once a month As always I will have vintage GI Joe toy reviews coming up I hope you will subscribe so you don't miss them You can find me on Facebook and Twitter And I have a website HCC788.com Thank you to my patrons for making this show possible I couldn't do it without your help If you like the show and you would like to support the show in that way Please check out my Patreon I'll see you next time And until then remember only GI Joe is GI Joe