 Hello, everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. It's time for a GI Joe comic book review. We are picking up where we left off So we are on issue number 28 in the previous issue. We wrapped up the two-part snake eyes origin story We also had a bee plot in which a squad of Joe's infiltrated a Florida swamp to investigate the Zartan's cabin on the cover We have an unidentified Cobra vehicle. We later learned that it's a rattler Although the vehicle on the cover doesn't exactly follow the rattler design It is attacking the GI Joe mobath tank issue 28 is titled swamp fire not to be confused with the Dreadnought Vehicle swamp fire drip wire torpedo and mutt are returning from their mission to the freighter that operated as GI Joe's main Seabase until they got the USS flag. This issue was written by Larry Hama with pencils by Marie Severin Marie Severin Marie Severin was a legend. No wonder this issue looks so good I did not recall that Marie Severin was involved with GI Joe and that is super awesome mutt and torpedo catch us up on the events of Previous issues. This was common in these comic books of this era any issue could be someone's first issue So you kind of had to get people caught up in the story Duke Wild Bill and roadblock arrive on the dragonfly Helicopter and wow Duke gets to ride inside and roadblock has to ride outside on the skid rank has its privileges torpedo points out where the cabin is on a map We are definitely going to get a battle Cobra commander and firefly are at Zartan's cabin But Zartan believes the Joes are going to mount a full assault on that location So Zartan and the Dreadnoughts say to hell with this we're out of here We get a brief interlude where a couple of local police officers are waiting on a freight train Breaker asks for directions and then the GI Joe mobath tank bursts out of the train and Accidentally sideswipes the police cruiser these two characters chief and RL are drawn to look a bit like Laurel and Hardy And I think that's one of the references chief also has some similarity to Jackie Gleason's character Buford T Justice in Smoky and the Bandit and these two characters are similar to the sheriff and deputy Dwayne from Superman 2 The sheriff was played by Clifton James and Clifton James played Sheriff Pepper in the James Bond movie live and let die in 1973 what we have here is a trope that would have been very familiar to readers in 1984 when this comic book was published back at the freighter we get a new vehicle It's the killer whale my favorite vehicle while Bill and Doc occupy the dragonfly helicopter Duke cutter roadblock and deep six occupy the killer whale and we are off to fight Cobra Destro has some Cobra rattlers stashed away and empty oil tankers And it is a toy accurate Cobra rattler this time This is great the Baroness flies back to the Cobra base in Springfield while Destro and wild weasel fly back to the swamp to attack The Joe's and rescue Cobra commander from the cabin back at the cabin firefly discovers one of the computer panels is fake and behind It is a video game style control panel somewhere on route 56 The chief and RL are trying to pull over the MOBAT tank, but stealer driving the tank just ignores them The local police are totally in the right here. They have jurisdiction The Joe team must have been given some special police powers by Congress because they often operate inside the United States And that would normally be illegal before we move on with the story I want to pause and mention what a great job Marie Severin has done with these vehicles These are mostly toy accurate vehicles certainly more toy accurate than many issues we've gotten in this series Firefly discovers the hidden computer panel controls a robot army of robot soldiers and his tanks In universe you could consider these robot soldiers to be precursors to the Cobra bats invented by Dr. Meinbender They are like an earlier version of the bats. They are not quite as advanced They are totally remote controlled and not autonomous In reality the Cobra bats would not have even entered the early design phase by 1984 So any similarity is totally coincidental The chief decides he's going to threaten the Joe's with a shotgun if they don't pull that tank over But he finds himself face to face with a robot army A battle ensues chief joins in and blasts the robot with his shotgun There are too many robots and his tanks So breaker calls for backup the killer whale diverts through the swamp to assist There's another little cutaway with an older couple watching TV as the killer whale whizzes by This is a reference to the painting American Gothic Back at the battle the Mobat tank and the police car are attacked by Cobra rattlers In a brief one page break from the action the Baroness has returned through the Cobra base in Springfield and goes to the detention section where a major blood is imprisoned The Baroness seems to be offering him a deal for his freedom No doubt we will find out more about that in future issues Guestrow and Wildweasel are using thermal imaging to target the Mobat tank and the police car The Joe's are desperately throwing buckets of water on the Mobat's engine to cool it down So it will not show up on the heat detectors It's too late for the police car to get blown up Fortunately the chief and RL managed to escape The Joe's successfully cooled down the Mobat's engine So it no longer shows up on the thermal targeting system in Destro's Rattler Just then the killer whale shows up and they open fire on the Rattler Destro's plane takes some damage But he manages to turn around and spray the Joe's with bullets Roadblocks gun was destroyed Deep Six was hit but his gun still works They still have one more chance to kill Destro Destro is bearing down on them Deep Six discovers his turret will not elevate He cannot aim his gun at the attacking plane Roadblocks says no we don't give up like that He takes the gun off the turret and puts it on his own back So Deep Six can fire back at the Rattler Destro bails out just before the Rattler is destroyed Back at the cabin Wildweasel has arrived to rescue Cobra Commander But since the Rattler only has one extra seat He can only rescue Cobra Commander Firefly will have to find his own way out of the swamp He is not happy about it In the aftermath of the battle we see the Joe's wounded This is something Larry Hama often included These were not battles in which nobody got hurt This was not the animated series These battles had real consequences As Firefly trudges through the swamp Planning his revenge against Cobra Commander He meets up with Destro Who also seems he would be happy with revenge against Cobra Commander The issue ends with Zartan and the Dreadknocks On their motorcycles heading North North Miss Tessmucker They know the Joe's came from the North And they want to find the Joe's hidden base Next issue Beach Whale The deadliest fish not in the sea I liked this issue very much It's not easy to follow the legendary Two issue origin of Snake Eyes story This issue returns to staples of GI Joe They introduced new vehicles Because of course they have toys to sell It's done in a very fun way though This story didn't move the plot forward very much But we got a lot of excitement and action I love Marie Severin's artwork here It's very solid The faces are all distinct The uniforms are mostly correct And she makes an effort to draw the vehicles Mostly toy accurate How did a legend like Marie Severin Get involved with GI Joe It's probably due to Larry Hama Larry was an industry insider He knew everyone And that was a benefit to the GI Joe series On more than one occasion That was my review of GI Joe number 28 I hope you enjoyed it If you did please give this video a thumbs up Subscribe to the YouTube channel And share this video I have a lot of vintage GI Joe toy And comic book reviews in my back catalog Please check them out And stay tuned for more Support the channel on Patreon It helps me continue doing these videos I will see you next time And until then remember Only GI Joe is GI Joe