G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #40 - Video Review by 80s Comics

o, Joe, are you ready to experience the review of one of my favorite GI Joe issues of all time? Issue number 40. I read this a thousand times, which is why it’s super beat up. Got Roadblock blowing things up on the cover, looking angry, looking awesome. Issue 40 from October 1985. Now we all know Cobra Island, right? Cobra has their own island, their own country. Well, there was a time before Cobra Island when they just rented space to be the world’s biggest terrorist outfit or whatever. Well, this issue and issue number 41, which I’ll cover next, tell the story of Cobra Island. This is a lot of fun. This number 40 here is titled Hydrofoil, as in the Cobra Hydrofoil, one of the greatest Cobra vehicles of all. This story starts out with GI Joe airlifting.

Sorry, the story starts with Shipwreck being awesome, talking like a pirate, pushing around the other Joes because nobody can assemble a sea base or do anything on the water like Shipwreck. Shipwreck is the lord of the ocean. Basically, Shipwreck is Poseidon with tighter jeans and a sailor’s hat. That’s why we love Shipwreck. There’s Cobra Commander, there’s Zartan, the only smart one of the bunch, and the awesome Cobra Sub, which is about to run over a bunch of fish in the Gulf.

So let’s see, Gung Ho jumps onto a raft with a giant wrench because Gung Ho is going to assemble this thing all by himself. We get some backstory here with Candy, who is Ripcord’s girlfriend or whatever. And the Dreadnock. We’ve got the Cobra Sub going into their Cobra Lair. Cobra, for those who don’t know, is like a really well‑funded outfit of James Bond bad guys. Pretty much the same concept. And here’s a bunch of Cobra hydrofoil pilots. And notice that Cobra Commander complements their outfits. Ah, so I can’t do his voice. So these are, just imagine Starscream, so these are the hydrofoil pilots. Nice uniforms, very smart, quite modern. But pretty is as pretty does. Hmm? You’re such an incompetent, evil leader.

GI Joe sets up their giant mega block space in the water. Cobra has giant flat screens before giant flat screens were a thing and introduces one of the greatest toys of all time. It’s hard to say if I like the hydrofoil more than the Night Raven. Ideally, you need one for the air and the other one for the water, and as far as ground assaults go, just crash the hydrofoil onto the ground and push it around. It’ll work just fine. For that matter you can drive the planes around on the ground. Nevermind.

I’m losing track, but I love the hydrofoil. I have no idea whatever happened to it. I probably blew it up when I was a kid. I had a habit of breaking my GI Joes, like pulling them apart and cutting them, like soldering them back together as different characters. I was a weird kid and I’m still weird, but I just don’t have the time to do that anymore. There’s the, what is that thing, the whale. So GI Joe has like one hovercraft, and Cobra gets three hydrofoils. This really isn’t fair.

But the hydrofoils attack this base in the water. But there’s actually a plot. I forget if it’s Zartan or the Crimson Guard that comes up with it. Because you know Cobra Commander didn’t do shit. They’re trying to trick GI Joe into blowing up this building. And you’ll see why. There’s the Shark, I had that, came with Deep Six, I believe. There it is. That’s the building which is killing all the sea creatures. The US government is going to nuke them because they care about the sea creatures, I guess.

It seems like they’re killing a bunch of sharks. Well, let’s nuke them. All right. This is a good line of dialogue here. Barbecue doesn’t really do all that much in, well, anything really. “Those blasted Cobras are tearing my base apart,” but Barbecue, who’s the GI Joe fireman, says, “No, they’re shooting holes in it and setting it on fire. I’m the one who’s tearing it apart.”

Clearly Shipwreck should just shoot you in the back. You’re doing more harm than good. So we get this great battle scene. This really fun battle scene between GI Joe and the hydrofoils. We get Transformers on video cassette. We get Barbecue jumping on things with a giant axe. There’s the hydrofoil again. Those are so cool. This issue was penciled by Ron Wiggum, who I think always does a nice predictable job with the GI Joe books. Rod Wiggum. Rod.... Rod Wiggum.

That’s a nice job drawing all the vehicles. You gotta wonder if he was just surrounded by all the toys to use for inspiration. There’s Ace with a calm look on his face. “I’ve never dropped a nuclear bomb before.” What good are you? And the ending of the issue turns into the end of…

View to a Kill, sorry. I wanted to say Living Daylights, that’s the next one. View to a Kill. Do you think View to a Kill and The Living Daylights are kinda easy to mix up? I mean, granted, one’s got Roger Moore at the end of his career, the other one’s got Timothy Dalton at the beginning of his very short career, but combined they have the two best James Bond theme songs of all time. You got Duran Duran for View to a Kill, A‑ha for Living Daylights. It’s really a win‑win. And then they went straight downhill from there once again.

GI Joe never goes downhill. Well, it does eventually, but many, many issues later. Issue 40, it’s at the top of its game. This is a really good 80s comic. Got a great issue of GI Joe. Highly recommended.