The Marvel comics were pretty accurate to the toy line. Hawk was always in command and his figures had the highest rank as far as I know. And Duke turned down a commission. (I don't know if this stuff changed in the DD comics.)

No death is another thing that bugged me. If you're not aloud to kill people because it's a kids show, is War and Combat really the best subject matter to use? :p

the cartoon was so bad, but I was like 8 or 9, so they were ok to me. But.. I have not watched the new DVD's because I dont want to groan and go "pfft" every 4 seconds. I mostly watched it for the vehicles, the characters were secondary.

Ok, let me RE-PHRASE my argument. I'm not looking for "BlackHawk Down" or "We were Soldiers" levels of realism, I just can't believe they made those cartoons with that lever of animation (which was good for those days), took and adult subject like war and terrorism and tried to slap a "Sesame Street" rating on it by making it that outlandish. I mean shows like "Silverhawks" and "C.O.P.S.", you could buy some off the wall stuff, because they were set in the future. GI joe was pushing it with a Jet pack and Laser Cannon in the 80's. I just did NOT need to see things like fatal Fluffies, Giant Tube Worms, and crappy robot cobras that never came out as toys.

Like I said...it's just me. Yeah, I like watching "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie, but it's a "check your brain at the door" thing. It's mindless, let loose entertainment. I can't buy the cartoons being like that. they were already like that with some of the other things mentioned above, but the crazy stuff they added made a show that was ALREADY pushing it into a farce for me.

Well, the only thing i can say about this really, is that i absolutely loved the cartoon as a kid. Totally. I was blown away by them. I still remember, to this day, the feeling i had after watching the first episode i ever saw (the one with radioactive Snake-Eyes): i was utterly exhilarated, and i rushed from the television to my parents to tell them about this great new cartoon i just saw, which i never did for any other television show.

Even years after seeing my last episode, i remembered a lot of the storylines, like the one from that first miniseries, and the episode where a Joe (Shipwreck ?) was captured and placed into a fake town with fake people that all melted in the end. And The Viper is Coming. And the one with the female Strato-Viper.

So i had absolutely no problems with all the odd stuff in them, like the mind controlled arena fights, and all the weird monsters employed by Cobra, and everybody flying a Skystriker (did anyone really have a problem with that last bit ? As a kid ? Seriously ? Kids cared about stuff like that ? Mindboggling.).

And today ? I recently purchased a few second-hand (third-hand, fourth-hand ?) GIJoe video tapes (you know, the stuff from before DVDs were around). And sure, the ridiculousness of it all clashed somewhat with my memories. But hey, it's a cartoon, i can live with ridiculous. I also bought a DVD with The Movie on it. Watched it for the first time since i saw it on TV those many years ago. And quite honestly, i didn't like it anymore (i did back then). It was bad, real bad. Then i watched it a second time, and it's kind of growing on me. I rather love seeing my toys come alive on the screen.

I think a lot of this can be thought about in terms of the eternal divide between GIJoe cartoon fans and comic fans. Personally, i'm a fan of both, but on all Joe forums it's quite clear that most GIJoe fans have picked a side. It sounds to me that those of you that are put off by the level of strangeness in the cartoons, are really expecting to see the (definitely more realistic) comic in animation (or the toys, which are more closely linked with the comic than with the cartoon). Which just simply isn't the case for the eighties cartoon, but might be so for Resolute.

So here is my feelings about the cartoon. I hauled ass home everyday from school just so I wouldn't miss an episode. I remember after watching, my brother and I would grab the Skystriker and Rattler and run around the back yard and front yards of our neighbors shooting the hell out of each other. I didnt care that they made some snake critter/guy out of some crazy dead a-hole leaders and tyrants from the past. I didnt care that there were big tube worms,or that a big stone statue came to life in Montezumas temple. (That was a bad case of Montezumas revenge)LOL. I just looked at it as the best thing to happen to cartoons since Scooby Doo and Robotech!! Sure everyone could hop in a Skystriker,they were a highly trained special mission force werent they? Im living proof anyone can fly a plane!! I can really. I think now there could have been some things that could have been different in terms of the reality of some of the equipment and their functionality. Didnt it get your imagination going as a kid of how you could play with your Joes? It did with me!! It was a great platform to which the possibilities were limitless with what we could do. As adults we are faced with the cruelty of reality and what war is really like and what is possible and whats not. I love the fact that there were jetpacks. Harsh reality, those things would burn the shit outta your legs and lower back!! Cobras jumping out Fang helis and deploying a chute in time to make it. Yeah right. You know what I say to it all??? F**K it! We got a kickass toyline that has lasted for 25yrs and still strong as ever. Look at some of the things we produce as a hobby/obsession? The best dio stories are here, custom figures and vehicles. All because of what we watched as kids 25 yrs ago.

it seems like the 3 of us are on the same wave pattern. i usually get downhearted here on joe dios because when i started all the vets hated the cartoon. since, i have noticed more and more people who not only tolerate, but enjoy the cartoon.

When I was a kid I did not like the cartoon because nobody ever died.. I wanted blood! Anyhow I only got to see like one or one and a half episode because when I was young we had no cable TV.. Sigh.
Cant even remember the episode just a lot of shooting.
I liked the comic though, not because it had a lot of death and mayhem but because if you did not want to read superhero stories it was pretty much the only choise exept for some old war comic and agent stuff. I did not like Destor or Serpentor because they were to supervillany in my oppnion. The comic had a lot good stories but also a lot of bad ones. I saw some GI Joe cartoon episodes on Youtube and they were funny in a childish way I think that the writers of the show were held to extreme care bear standards and that they tried their best with what they were allowed to do.

That's why they often treated it more as high adventure/James Bond stuff. Hasbro was funding the cartoon out of pocket to sell toys, anyway, not explore war and combat. The comic came about because it was illegal for them to make a toon before FCC regulations changed. Had things turned out differently, the comic debuting after the toon...the comic probably would be a whole different animal (total kiddie fare, like part of Marvel's Star group).

As to being true to something...true to what? Hasbro owns the property. They wanted a new lead hero character, rather than just making a new version of Hawk (which they did eventually anyway). Hasbro even wanted to intro Serpentor as if he'd been the true leader of Cobra all along. Imagine how fandom would've reacted to that. They wanted Slaughter, Fridge and even Rocky Balboa. What we dismiss as dumb, they used to keep fickle kids interested. And ARAH lasted a looong time, longer than any of its competitor...only to be killed off by Hasbro-Kenner corporate politics.

I guess that's where my loyalties layed, the comic and cartoon were just extensions of the toy line, since I "found" it first. Not that's the toy line was flawless, far from it.

Not feeling the argument. Thankfully, GIJoe is not a monotheistic mythos.

You want your realistic take on GIJoe, I prefer more of a Bond/Indy Jones action/adventurism with sci-fi elements. GIJoe does not begin, it does not end with the Hama-verse.

I can rewatch 20 Questions time and time again, any day of the week. The episode is that good. ;)

Good call, Swindle. I was talking to a guy the other nite and he was taking the DD stuff with a grain of salt. I do too. But I was thinking, "What if there was no Hama-verse and it started with Devils Due?" Would be take that as canon? Would we as kids? What if the Devils Due was the 1st intro to the GI Joe comic for us (not knowing of the Marvel run, let's say)?

I feel Hama did a good job in the beginning but due to Hasbro politics and the popularity of the toyline, things just got way out of hand. We all know that Hama wanted nothing to do with Cobra LA (and put his foot down). We all know that Hama hated the Serpentor concept (and was able to kill him off about 25 issues later).

As for the cartoon...

I too was one of those kids who would rush home after school just to watch GI Joe. IIRC, it was on at 3.30pm. I loved the cartoon as a kid but I did have questions now and then. Usually it had to do with, "Why they no use Airbourne more? Why no Torpedo? I wish they use Snake Eyes like he in the comic!"

And when the movie came out... "Why Snake Eyes just stand there with a pistol trying to fend off a big bug dude? Why he no use his ninja skillzzzzzzz!?!?!"

I enjoyed the cartoon for what it was worth as a kid. It really made some of the characters (Duke, Flint, Shipwreck, CC, Bludd, Destro, Baroness, Zartan, etc) so I can't see them any other way. It's very hard because I'd rather do my own thing and play off the filecards. The comic helped with other characters (Stalker, Snake Eyes, Scarlet, etc). I can't watch the regular episodes all that easy cuz it just makes my eyes roll more often than not.

BUT the mini-series stuff was pretty cool to me.

Sure, using a net to halt a space shuttle launch is whacked but anyway... It was definitely for kids. Like ARAH, some things are better left in the past, yes? (errrrr, that's my opinion on ARAH figures as you all know.)