Welcome to the 1st edition of The Comic Box. This is a discussion thread for the GI Joe comics. We start at Marvel’s #1 and move thru the series every Wednesday. It’s a chance to give your thoughts, opinions and remarks about the comic in question.

GI Joe #1. Operation Lady Doomsday/Hot Potato.

Dr. Burkehart is the lead scientist of the Doomsday project. It can be used for good or evil. Cobra kidnaps the doctor to probe her brain so they can use her knowledge for evil. GI Joe must go in and extract her.

Also included in the original comic was Hot Potato. It was a short story starring Snake Eyes, Scarlet, and Rock n Roll. Taking place in a desert, the two Joes must get a sensitive tape w/ information out of the country. Can they do it, just the two of them?


-Image from yojoe.com-

Please discuss!

Being a younger fan, this wasn't the first joe comic I ever read, but rather I managed to get it in its paperback form when Marvel released the first 50 issues. I find that in the older issues there's a lot more dialogue than in the newer ones, but I think it was necessary in order to introduce so many new characters all at once. I especially appreciated that we got to see all of the faces of our joes in the first few pages so that we knew who was going to be a part of this elite unit.

Also we get Cobra Commander's arrogance right from the get go, seriously, would it kill that guy to be humble, just once?

My favorite scene in this comic has to be near the end when the Mobat and the laser cannon (I forget the name, somebody will remind me I'm sure) and we see them from an aerial perspective. And I don't remember ever seeing anything like that in a comic series and from the comics I own, which isn't all of them, I don't recall seeing a tactical battle like that again. Which really is too bad because it was a really neat perspective. Anyway thats my two cents and perhaps a couple of nickels. All Canadian though, maybe it doesn't stand up to the American dollar as much, haha.

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I have a new site for my table top tactical strategy role playing game for action figures and miniatures. There's also diostories there too! Check it out at: http://thewayofwar.net/

Dersham, are you talking about the F.L.A.K. ?? (Field Light Attack Kannon). That is a really cool weapon!! I have one & love it!!


First off, I am a comic collector, BIG TIME!! I can still remember going into the local pharmacy to pick up my latest issue of 'Star Wars' & 'Superman' & seeing this cover. I lOVED it!! I picked it up immediately & brought it, 'Star Wars' & 'Superman' to the counter-no candy bar for me that day!! And this comic was TOTALLY worth it!! I poured through this in no time, then started to read it all over again!! The artwork was amazing, the story was sweet & the fact that these people were a great team was so cool! I knew that I would be back for more!
This one comic book fueled so much imagination through the years that it's incredible! From this comic the future of toys & how boys AND girls could play was forever changed. And the bad guys were bad!! But they were still cool, in spite of all that!!
I'll probably comment more once others put their .02 in-(Canadian, American-don't matter, it all spends the same!!)

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Non illigitamus carborundum~Vos mos non effrego mihi

Coming soon: 'JoeSpecialOps'

The FLAK was simply field artillary. He should be referring to the HAL as it was being towed behind either the VAMP or the MOBAT.

Cool, a book club!
I know this is a year away but will this go twice-weekly when we get as far as Special Missions?

I came to the series much later and still don't have an original copy of #1 yet, but "Tales Of" and the comic packs have helped!

I think this is a great beginning for the series, introducing us to the team very believably -- it's our introduction but they already know each other and we get to see some endearing character interaction -- then involving all the vehicles works within the mission so there's not a lot of overt exposition.

Nice to see the villains getting a little depth from the get-go as well, with the conversations between CC and the Baroness, the deception used for their getaway and the fact that the Joes do confront and even wound CC proving he's not some unreachable supervillain.

I'm especially impressed with the portrayal of Dr. Burkehart, who is much more than a captured scientist plot-device but instead presents an opposing viewpoint and stops the comic being thoughtless Jingoist shooting-the-badguys fare. She also allows the Joes to show how they truly are heroes by explaining just why they're doing what they do. This balance of differing philosophies is something I felt Hama carried through the entire run, either earnestly as in this issue or in a more satirical sense later on.

I think Hot Potato was actually reprinted in the Marvel UK Action Force comic as I'm certain I've read it. If I'm right, it's a good character focus, further clarifying just how courageous, loyal and honourable the Joes are as well as being a key foundation of Snake Eyes' mythical status!

*whew!* Gotta pull out my comics to be ready for next week now!

I got this under the x-mas tree in 1982. The nite before, I received 6 Joes. My parents had packaged them back to back so it was 3 packages. I was so pumped. I don't even remember when I got the VAMP and RAM. Anyway, I got the giant sized edition which I learned 20 yrs later (or so), that it was pretty darn rare.

I loved the story. I was instantly hooked on the toys and the comic only helped. It gave me adventures. There were many times I had RnR on the RAM, pretending to go thru the desert. But the main story, that was great fun. Unfortunately, I was still pretty young so going to the comic shop wasn't about to happen with my parents and well, I didn't hook up with another Joe comic until #16. I did grab the digests to fill in the blanks. (those were the lil comics, had about 4 stories under the cover, etc)

And just for the record, the original newsprint Joe comics were the best, imo. The reprint they did for the comic packs look like utter crap. At least the TPBs aren't quite as bad, but there was something special about newsprint back then.

AND the comment about too much talking and text... I never noticed that. I noticed it MORE with Image comics; Spawn in particular. Seems to me that comics of today utilize text to get thru the story instead of action.


We'll discuss #2 next week. I'll be relying on the TPB.

I didn't read G.I. Joe #1 until many years after it came out. I think I've said before that in my childhood, I wasn't into Joes at all. I had a few, but I was really only interested in Transformers and He-Man. I think G.I. Joe was a little too realistic (and therefore boring) for me. I didn't really become interested until I was in the 7th grade (around 1991), when my brother got into them! Naturally I was "too old" for toys by then, but I did start reading the comics.

I picked up Yearbook #1 (which reprints "Lady Doomsday") at the local comic book convention, WonderCon, and read it in the car on the way home. I'd seen episodes of the cartoon, and this was very different from that! I couldn't believe that people were dying-- Including a whole village of innocent people killed by Cobra! To a 12 or 13 year old, this violence seemed pretty "grown-up" and I wanted more, so I began reading the comic as it was coming out at the time, in addition to picking up back issues whenever I could find them.

I think #1 serves as a great introduction to all the characters, and just as Cobra never quite seemed as menacing on TV as they did in the MASS Device mini-series, I don't think they were ever presented as mysterious and evil as they looked in this issue. The fact that they were all so loyal to Cobra Commander and acted like they were in some cult or brotherhood or something was sort of dropped before long, and that, in my opinion, weakened their status a bit.

And of course, that issue gave us one of the best lines ever in the comics: "Ain't no lie, I love to fly!"

I'm on my lunch break from work right now, so I'm pressed for time, but if I think of more to say about it, I'll be back later tonight.

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is on indefinite hiatus...

I love that line. I throw it down every now and then to see if people get it. Which I'm pretty sure, they don't. One could say that the comic was just a big ad for the toy(s), but in terms of #1, they did a wonderful job. Who didn't want a JUMP after that? Or a million Cobra troopers? Or a camera that turned into a gun? Well, ok, maybe not that one.

I thought this was a great way to start the series off. And the difference between comic and cartoon was like a continent wide!

Same here. I didn't even know the comic existed until one day I happened upon Specail Missions #1, which is still one of my all time fave issues. The first regular Joe comic I saw was #67, and it took me years to backtrack and get them all. For me, the earlier issues are the best, right up until just after the Cobra civil war. After that the ninjas took over and it all started to go inexorably downhill. This particular issue though was a great scene setter and really was a great starting point for the Joe story.

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"The future's uncertain and the end is always near." - The Doors "Roadhouse Blues".