“Yesterday’s” Comic> GI Joe (Extreme) #3

Considering where Mayday is about to grab LT. Stone, that’s not the way to stop a falling man.

GI Joe #3

Dark Horse (March, 1996)

Quick Stryke is captured by Rampage. Meanwhile, Mayday lets Iron Klaw get away in order to rescue Stone and Clancy, with Stone not happy that Klaw wasn’t priority #1. Luckily one of the other Joes shoots the plane down so Iron Klaw doesn’t escape with all of the Ferti-Gel, just enough to learn of its weapon potential, and to kill the Duchess, assuming command of SKAR and giving it the new mission of world domination. The Joes turn their attention to rescuing Quick Stryke, and meet Rampage and the other two toys characters top soldiers of SKAR.

What they got right: We finally learn what SKAR stands for. (Soldiers of Kaos–maybe the Duchess was a Get Smart fan?–Anarchy, and Ruin.) Again the comic does a better job introducing characters than the weekly cartoon did.

What they got wrong: I rather liked the Duchess. Pushing her aside lets Iron Klaw be the Doctor Doom knockoff Hasbro made him to be, and that’s disappointing.

Back in 1998, Dr. Johannson and our focus soldier are the only survivors. Lt. Li…actually, he interrupts her trying to say his real name. Scarred after the encounter he’s chosen a new name…GI Joe…and is determined to find the bomber. It’s short but it sets up what I hope will be a continuing feature in the next miniseries, which we’ll look at next week. I hope we learn his actual name someday, too.

Recommendation: This is rather enjoyable, and I’m not usually into military stories. At the very least it’s better than the show, and I need to keep bringing that up for GI Joe fans who were turned off by Extreme. The comic is better and worth a look.

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