GI Joe, since 1982 has had "Futuristic" elements, however, I don't see them as any more advanced than the gear they show on the TV series "FutureWeapons". Flash's Laser rifle and Grand Slam's HAL were both, in my opinion prototype weapons. I can deal with futuristic weapons, and I can even suspend my disbelief enough to believe you can build an Army and have them (most of them anyhow) wear masks.

Ninjitsu? I can believe some of that, but when Ninjas can bring back the dead...hmmmm? I like ninja's in the Stephen K. Hayes vein...practioners of the old ways, but carrying Mac-10's with silencers as their primary weapons, not ninja Swords and blowguns.

As for the Serpentor thing, Cloning is REAL. I don't know a lot about HOW it works, but cloning a person is Possible, and I could see a well funded terrorist organization paying scientists to do cloning and genetic manipulation experiments. And to violate international laws about doing it.

I could go with the comics up to the point that everything lead back to ninjas and the brainwave scanner. Too much ninja crap spoiled the military aspect. The space stuff....WAY TOO FAR OUT FOR ME! My friend Scott and I used to collect GI Joe from 1982-1989 and we both agreed when they went into space, it was time to quit! I STILL bought the Defiant Launch shuttle complex AND even the crusader, but did not buy the "StarBrigade" figures.

The cartoon was way too corny for me. I watched it, but they kept changing the time and channels it was on so I lost touch. I wasn't too impressed with it. Everytime a plane got shot down, the pilots ejected. No one ever got shot. Except for the movie, no one even ever got hurt as far as I can remember. It was for kids, but what kind of Military cartoon caters to kids who are too little to accept that people get hurt and killed in war? And look at how bad cartoons are now! Buggs Bunny is actually edited, because it was too violent! They say that the original Seseme Street was too dark and brooding for todays kids.

Sorry, getting off track......I think the comic stayed realistic, but towards the end it "Jumped the Shark" and totally got lost in it's own crap. The new series is a little TOO SERIOUS and brooding. I like it, but I hate the fact that they lost great characters like MainFrame, Flash, Chuckles and Lady Jaye. I haven't read it since they started the WWIII thread, so I dunno, maybe it has gone @$$ over teakettle into the sewer as far as realism goes.

The Cartoon was only GI Joe in that it shared the same name and characters. I can't see someone who is a terrorist with Cobra Commanders sniveling voice. And Destro sounded like a cheap knock off of James Earl Jones. I won't even touch Cobra-La! oi! What a goat-rope!

But that's MY OPINION.