Hi,

I've been thinking of buying the trade volumes of the classic GI Joe run, including the Special Missions. I think the recent figure releases and the prospect of the second Joe film have made me think more about going back and reading some of those early stories that I have never read; I've never owned the entire run. Does anybody have these volumes (or the original marvel issues), and are they a good read?

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Seyms

A good read, awesome, excellent read.
I've 'em all except the last one (Classic volume 15).
Buy them soon!
I consider Marvel 1-155, the Special Missions and Yearbook (recently publishesd in one volume) the "bible" of the G.I.JOE.

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My collection:

http://www.joedios.com/dioramas/bro...r&imageuser=444

What would gi joe be without the marvel comics? The marvel run IS the joe story. With all the re-starts through the years it gets confusing and now there's this idea of joe verses and such, but the marvel run is THE joe verse. Anything else is just re-imaginings of the already established story. That's what it was when I was like 9 and that's what it is to me today. Gotta love the marvel run. Even the cartoon was a late comer, nothing in 82, just the 5 episode mini series in 83, just another 5 episode mini series in 84, so the first three years produced 10 cartoon episodes, and around 36 comic issues (probably more with the order of battle, yearbooks, etc).

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I submit to You. I lay at Your feet, Lord.

I agree with Turner. Hasbro hired Marvel and Hama to develop the mythos, so it really is the essence of GI Joe.

I loved the comics, it brought GI Joe to life. Admittedly they start out slow, a little cheesy but they quickly get better. When re-reading the series I usually stop around #120, it really goes down hill after that.

Special Missions was awesome. It seemed to fit more in the real world more than the regular series.

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My JoeDios photos | Flickr

I hear what you're saying, and it would be interesting to read those first few stories. I suppose seeing I was introduced to Joe as Action Force, everything criss-crosses in my mind!

Also, after reading DDs America's Elite, I just had to get rid of those Devil's Due books straight afterwards, I thought they were horrible.

I remember every year my folks and I used to fly across the pond to see relatives in NYC, and I used to pick up whichever Joe comic was available at the time. My favourite stories were the Springfield invasion and the Millville/Sierra Gordo issues, but I've never read the Snake Eyes trilogy, nor whatever happened directly after the Cobra civil war, not to mention everything before Springfield.

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Seyms

Ya, I see what you mean. I guess Hama didn't have the pressure of pushing the latest toys with Special Missions, so he was more free to do more real-world style stories.

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Seyms

I never thought of that. I'm the opposite, I get confused the other way around.

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My JoeDios photos | Flickr

Loved the original Hama stories, a mix of war stories, some sci-fi, mysticism a dash of and classic comic book dramatics thrown in. Great stuff, and still the highest bar in GI Joe stories imo. And the best part? It was fun!

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Not only is Hama offically the man as hired by Hasbro and inventing the mythos from the ground up (even the concept of cobra for an enemy, and the filecards), but his writing is just way superior to anything else I've read. When I read other joe comics (I've also got all the ddp including every spin off, and 13 of the european missions, and some transformers crossovers, and all the con issues, the 3-d ones, etc) they just don't make it to the level of Hama's writing (though I liked some ddp, and really like the dreamwave series). Even the original comics that came with the comic packs (like the resolute ones) are great.

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I submit to You. I lay at Your feet, Lord.