Over the years of "The End," I think the book I'm still most surprised to have found was
Conan the Barbarian #275, so now one of the books I'm most looking for (on the cheap!) would be
G.I. Joe #155. That would be the last issue at Marvel, although it would be relaunched multiple times and Larry Hama has since continued the narrative and I think the numbering. This title was re-used later as well, although without continuing the numbering. From 1989,
G.I. Joe Special Missions #28, "Condor" Written by Larry Hama, art by Herb Trimpe.
This opens with what I believe was a reoccuring point in the
Joe books: avoiding satellite observation; as the Joes scramble a launch of their space shuttle, the
Defiant. (Interesting link there, to 3-D Joes!) Cutaway from there, to another spendy toy: the carrier
U.S.S. Flagg in the Caribbian. The Joe team had been building a stealth base in the fictional Central American country, Punta del Mucosa; which was next to Cobra's new country, Sierra Gordo. The base was supposed to be secret, but the bodyguards for Punta's
presidente have pretty obviously sold him out. Cobra Commander explains to his new arms dealer, Darklon, he's allowed the Joes to finish their base, because he wanted to destroy it while they had planes on the ground, and make it costly for them. Wild Weasel leads a flight of radar-proofed Cobra Conquests, to shoot missiles at the
Flagg. One gets through the anti-missile defenses, damaging the steam catapult launch systems, so most of the planes were stuck, except for Dogfight and his little prop-driven
Mudfighter, but what can it do to jets?
Joe stealth pilot...what's-his-name, manages to get his
Phantom X-19 into the air from the base, and engages the Cobra
Condor bomber and its supporting
Stellar Stillettos...this issue feels expensive as hell. (The stealth pilot's code-name wasn't used in Marvel comics, since it was Ghostrider! The joke in the book was, the guy was since childhood just militant about not being noticed; his teammates admit they can't remember the guy unless they're looking right at him.) The ensuing dogfighting isn't as good as
"Shake Down" but is still fun. I do have to wonder what kind of reference the artists got for something like this: I'd hope a bunch of toys, but kind of doubt it. The title wraps with a little closer from Hawk, encouraging readers to follow the continuing regular book.
Dude, how awesome would it have been had they used the toys for reference!? I mean guys like Alex Ross do it all the time now. I mean they were right there!!! Unless of course Marvel was too cheap to supply the creative teams with actual toy props & made them buy their own…which sadly makes more sense for a major company to do.
ReplyDeleteI actually used to own the aforementioned Ghost Rider & his fancy jet, I just didn’t pay attention to the fact that his name was a joke, nor that he was essentially the non-mutant version of Forget-Me-Not.
And look at Duke being the faithful company man he is by shilling the main book. He really is a good soldier.