G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

Following the initial two mini-series, the regular series began airing on September 16, 1985 concurrently in line with the second season of the Transformers series, debuting with a third five-part story, The Pyramid of Darkness. A public safety lesson was usually featured at the end of each episode, using G.I. Joe characters in brief scenarios to impart safety tips to children. These lessons gave birth to the catchphrase: "And knowing is half the battle".

In each episode's opening title sequence voice actor Jackson Beck states that, "G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly-trained, Special Mission force. Its purpose: To defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world".

Because the cartoons were produced as a vehicle to sell the toys, each episode typically focused on a particular G.I. Joe character.[citation needed] The animated series was not directly tied to the comic book produced by Marvel Comics, although several concepts, such as the Oktober Guard, Springfield, and Serpentor were all featured in the comic book and the animated series.

Season 2 featured former WWF and then-current AWA professional wrestler made cartoon hero Sgt. Slaughter, who first appeared in the five-part season-opener Arise, Serpentor, Arise! However after a 1990-91 WWF storyline in which Slaughter "turned traitor" during the first Gulf War, Slaughter was disassociated from the franchise.

Click to expand...

Duke is the code name of First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser. Duke was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and is fluent in French and German, as well as several Southeast Asian languages. He was at the top of his class at Fort Benning, attended U.S. Army Special Language school, has undergone Special Forces training, and worked with South Vietnamese Tribesmen. He was also an instructor in four different Special Forces schools. Despite his accomplishments, he has repeatedly turned down any officer commissions offered to him. He believes a commander's place is with his troops, not behind the battle lines.

Duke is field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe team after Hawk. In this role, he has served as a rugged leader by example, a precise giver of orders, a source of history and knowledge, and a fair settler of disputes. As the team has fluctuated in size and structure over the years, Duke has supervised the training of the non-commissioned officers in G.I. Joe, as well as leading special units such as Tiger Force and Star Brigade.

After the G.I. Joe Team disbanded, Duke disappeared. It was later learned that he'd been performing Black Ops for a secret government agency, his missions of which are still highly classified. One such mission was to locate and detain the mercenary Major Bludd, which led to evidence that Cobra Commander had returned, and hastened the reinstatement of G.I. Joe.

Duke returned to active duty in G.I. Joe when the team was reinstated, though his maverick and dangerous behavior took some of his longtime colleagues by surprise, and caused him to relinquish his position as field commander for a more behind-the-scenes advisory role.

Click to expand...

She was the first female action figure in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line. The official line on Scarlett is that her full name is Shana M. O'Hara. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Although she is as adept with standard weapons as any of her comrades, her weapon of choice is the crossbow which fires various bolts with specialized functions. Her rank is Master Sergeant, and she serves from time to time as team leader. Her primary specialty for the team is counter intelligence and is additionally skilled in martial arts and acrobatics. Of note, her secondary military specialty remains classified in all of her file cards.

She learned her martial arts skills from her father, who trained her and her three brothers as he was an instructor. She has several black belts in various forms of martial arts. She has long red hair, which she tends to put up into a pony tail. In some of her appearances, it is shown she may speak with a southern drawl or localized Georgian accent. She also graduated summa cum laude from a prestigious university, and passed her Bar Exams to practice law before moving into the military. In comic continuity she also has a sister, Siobhan, who visited her after she lapsed into a coma following the Baroness shooting her at point-blank range. After her doctors proclaimed her brain-dead, Siobahn obtained a court-order to terminate Scarlett's life-support.

Click to expand...

Her real name is Alison R. Hart-Burnett, and her rank is that of Staff Sergeant E-6. Lady Jaye was born on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

She is a Bryn Mawr graduate, and also did graduate work in Trinity College in Dublin, before graduating from intelligence school at Fort Holabird. She is Airborne and Ranger qualified, and an expert with the M-16, M-1911A1 auto pistol, and reflex crossbow. She is also an accomplished actress and fluent in several languages. She has a knack for impersonation, right down to the subject's voice and mannerisms.

In the Sunbow animated series, and in the Marvel Comics series, she has a romance with Flint, the rugged warrant officer. Both first appeared in the Revenge of Cobra miniseries.

Click to expand...

Flint is the Warrant Officer for the G.I. Joe Team. His real name is Dashiell R. Faireborn, and he was born in Wichita, Kansas. He is a Rhodes Scholar and holds a degree in English literature. He graduated with top honors from Airborne School, Ranger School, Special Forces School and Flight Warrant Officers School. As a master tactician, he also oversaw several strategically important rescue missions. Because of his credentials, Duke brought him in to the G.I. Joe Team.

Flint's action figure card describes him as a "Warrant Officer" but his character profile states his grade as E-6 for his original release. All subsequent releases give him a Rank of WO-2.

Click to expand...

His real name is Vincent Falcone, and his rank is that of 1st Lieutenant O-2. Falcon was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

As a Green Beret, his primary function is special operations. His father was also a Green Beret, who served with the 10th SFGA (Special Forces Group Airborne), making Falcon a second generation Green Beret. Falcon briefly served with the 5th SFGA's "Blue Light" counter-terrorist unit as an "A" Team executive officer. He has been cross-trained in demolitions, and is fluent in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Swahili. Falcon is also an expert with most NATO and Warsaw pact small arms.[2] In the cartoon, he is the younger half brother of Duke.

Click to expand...

Roadblock's real name is Marvin F. Hinton and he was born in Biloxi, Mississippi. Before he enlisted in the U.S. Army, Roadblock wanted to be a gourmet chef and towards that, was working as a bouncer in order to earn enough money to attend Escoffier School in France. An army recruiter managed to convince him that he could learn to be a chef in the Army. After enlisting, Roadblock found Army food appalling and transferred to infantry where he excelled at using heavy weapons. Roadblock is one of the biggest and strongest members of G.I. Joe. He often carries a fully-loaded M2 Browning machine gun as a personal weapon, which can weigh up to 134 lbs and usually requires a dedicated squad to transport and operate. Despite working in infantry, he still maintains his passion for making good food and indulges in it while engaging in his secondary duty.

Click to expand...

He was always portrayed as a trusted and loyal teammate, and even proved to have a sense of humor, as seen when he broke into a break-dancing routine on-stage, and later in a disguise resembling Boy George in the "Pyramid of Darkness" miniseries. For his first appearance, in the first miniseries, Snake Eyes appeared in his "V1" uniform. For all of his later appearances, he wore a bluish-grey version of his "V2" uniform.

Click to expand...

As an instructor and trainer, he spurs his trainees through the most physically challenging exercises, which he can perform quite easily. He is almost unnaturally strong and can fend entirely for himself in the roughest missions. In fact, he easily fends off several dozen B.A.T.s by himself in 2 episodes of the 2nd season miniseries. He even uses the fingernail on his thumb as a convenient screwdriver to gain access to the circuitry of an electronically locked door and short it open.

Click to expand...

Born in Callander, Scotland, Destro’s full name is James McCullen Destro XXIV, and he is Laird of Castle Destro in the Scottish Highlands. The Destro clan has designed and sold weapons for centuries, and Destro is the head of their current incarnation: M.A.R.S. (Military Armament Research Syndicate). He wears a mask forged from beryllium steel, a tradition dating back to the English Civil War, when an ancestor of his was caught selling weapons to both sides. Forced to wear a steel mask for his crimes (neither side wanted to execute the ancestor because they still wanted the weapons he sold), the Destro clan has since turned it into a symbol of pride, passing it down from father to son for over 20 generations.

Click to expand...

The Baroness made her first animated appearance in the G.I. Joe mini-series, "The MASS Device". Her animated incarnation was a master of disguise, even pretending to be a camera man in a film crew. She has since been replaced by Zarana in this field. She is romantically involved with Destro, who often expresses frustration with her. On one occasion, Destro's disrespect for the Baroness led to her destroying his ancestral home in an act of vengeance. The Baroness tends to try and set both herself and Destro up as Cobra's leaders, and shows contempt for other members of Cobra, such as Cobra Commander, Tomax and Xamot and the Dreadnoks. She is not directly involved in the plot to create Serpentor in Season Two, but is later seen loyal to him.

Click to expand...

In the first season of the original 1980s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon, Cobra Commander is the leader of Cobra, described in the show's opening theme as "A ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world". His face is always covered, either by a featureless chrome mask concealing his entire face or by a hood with eyehole cutouts. He wears a blue military uniform, occasionally sporting a cape and carrying a sceptre, depending on the occasion. His distinctively raspy voice was provided by Chris Latta, who also provides the voice for Starscream in Transformers.
Although only Cobra Commander's eyes are openly exposed, it is clear from this partial view that he is a blue-eyed Caucasian. His reason for wearing the mask was not expressly divulged, but in the episode "Lights! Camera! Cobra!", Destro interrupts his unmasked privacy during a meal and is repulsed at what he saw (which is not shown on-screen), prompting the Commander to wryly muse "It takes a strong stomach to watch me eat, eh, Destro?", implying that he may have some unsightly deformity. This is later confirmed in G.I. Joe: The Movie, where he is revealed to be a member of a lost civilization of highly evolved reptilian humanoids who evolved alongside humans, though hidden in deep caverns. These beings developed technology much like humans, though based their machines and tools on organic material manipulated by genetic engineering. Cobra Commander was a bald-headed scientist from this tribe whose face is shown to have been horribly disfigured as the result of a laboratory mishap involving a weapon composed of "genetic mutating spores", resulting in several extra eyes to sprout onto his head in random places, forcing him to wear special masks so he could see clearly without disorientation. Despite his deformity, he was chosen by Cobra-La's ruler, Golobulus, to venture out into the world, "raise a mighty army", and destroy the so-called human civilization which had driven them into exile.
Cobra Commander frequently led assaults himself, but often vacillated between being a coward at heart, usually the first to turn tail in retreat whenever the tide of battle shifted unfavorably, or pushing his troops to seize victory at all costs, berating them when they turned to retreat. Impatient and frequently hysterical, he was prone to fits of rage when things went badly, often launching into extended rants. He was also greedy and egotistical, often mistreating his own troops to the point of mutiny, and on multiple occasions saw his plans foiled by his own arrogance.

Click to expand...

Unlike the comic, the cartoon series never explored the relationship between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. He was often being bandied about as a counterpart to G.I. Joe member Spirit, and later on against G.I. Joe member Quick Kick. Also, he remained loyal to Cobra until the end of the Sunbow series. He was featured in the episode Excalibur, where he finds King Arthur's sword.

During Season 2, he sided with Cobra Commander against Serpentor, and was seen helping the Commander in his various plots to overthrow Serpentor.

Click to expand...

Serpentor first appeared in a five-part G.I. Joe episode "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!", voiced by Richard Gautier. He was created through a breakthrough in cloning research by Doctor Mindbender from the DNA extracted from the unearthed remains of Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, and Grigori Rasputin.

Click to expand...