Who Is GI Joe?:

GI Joe is a pop culture phenomenon that burst onto the scene in the early eighties depicting the battle between an elite government organization named GI Joe and a terrorist group called Cobra. Only GI Joe stands in the way to prevent this evil from taking over the world. The GI Joe universe sport many colorful characters on both sides that have captured the imagination of many fans around the world.

Main Characters:

GI Joe
Hawk
Duke
Snake Eyes
Scarlett
Heavy Duty
Stalker
Breaker
Roadblock
Cobra
Cobra Commander
Destro
Baroness
Zartan
Storm Shadow
Dreadnoks
Firefly
Major Bludd
Viper

Location:

GI Joe – The Pit.
Cobra – Cobra has many bases, but their primary headquarters is Cobra Island.

First Appearance:

Toy Line – (1982)
Comic Book – June, (1982)
Cartoon – “The MASS Device” (1983)

Created By:

Hasbro and Larry Hama

Powers:

Although the members of GI Joe and Cobra are not superheroes per se, they all show various signs of expertise in the areas of martial arts, weapons, explosives, and many other areas of the military arts.
Characters like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are martial arts experts to the extreme, both being ninjas. Duke, Hawk, and Cobra Commander are all excellent leaders and strategy experts. Zartan is a master of disguise and Wet Suit is a master diver and SEAL. Each GI Joe team member is an expert in their respective areas.

Team Affiliations:

GI Joe:
US Army
United Nations
Cobra:
Dreadnoks
Crimson Guard

Currently Seen In:

GI Joe, GI Joe: Origins, GI Joe: The Best of GI Joe,

Interesting Fact:

The GI Joe characters and universe that we know now aren’t actually the first incarnation of GI Joe.

The classic action figures first were introduced in 1964 as twelve inch figures. The action figure line was revamped in 1982 into the current line we know today. This was partly done to reduce costs in production.

Origin:

GI Joe is a secret part of the US Military. They wage a secret war against terrorist organizations and threats to the world. There are few that know of their existence and they fight not for public fame or glory, but to defend America and the world in any situation.
Wherever there is trouble, GI Joe is there.

The GI Joe team is comprised of highly trained military specialists, each a pivotal member, with expertise in small arms, martial arts, heavy weapons, demolitions, communications, espionage, and other areas. They are the best of the best the world over and lend their skills to protect America and freedom everywhere.

Opposed to them are weapons dealers, terrorists, dictators, and the like. At the forefront of their list of enemies is the terrorist organization Cobra. Led by the brilliant but megalomaniac only known as Cobra Commander, they seek to rule the world using a plethora of schemes devised to catch GI Joe off guard.

There have been many comic book versions of GI Joe. The first was with Marvel Comics that lasted 155 issues. The series was written by Larry Hama, who created many of the GI Joe characters. Hama also wrote most of the ID cards found on the back of the GI Joe action figure packages. Image Comics also started a series, which went over to Devil’s Due Publishing. When Devil’s Due lost the rights to the series, it was then picked up by IDW Publishing. Although there are differences between the versions, the basic plot and characters are very much the same.