The Greatest Expert Team on Earth G.I. Joe

I have an unashamed love for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, not for the toys, the cartoon, or the comics, but for the entire franchise. So entrenched was G.I. Joe in my developmental childhood years that it's impossible for me to look at the franchise objectively. Hasbro successfully pegged me in it's target demographic.

There are a lot of reasons why G.I. Joe was so successful. The biggest thing that appeals to me is the direct and obvious influence of classic superhero tropes. This should come as no surprise since the franchise was created by comic book writer Larry Hama. He managed to take a lot of characteristics and distill them down into easily recognizable and broad costumes and code names.

But the comic book influence extended into the cartoon as well. Again, this comes as no surprise when you realize that guys like Marv Wolfman, Steve Gerber, Denny O'Neil, Paul Dini, and Gerry Conway all wrote for the show. These guys, who when not busy writing classic Marvel or DC comics, turned in some classic G.I. Joe episodes.

I've been watching the cartoon lately and I'm honestly impressed with how well most of it holds up. Sure, there's continuous animation mistakes, some odd censorship here and there, and lamentable plots every now and then, but the stuff that's good...it's really good. I find that pretty impressive considering that, not including the two mini series that aired a few years prior, they belted out 85 episodes in two years and followed that up the next year with a feature length movie.

In the coming weeks I'm going to list my Top Ten Favorite Episodes. There's a lot to love in those 95 episodes and feature movie, and it was actually harder than I expected to whittle it down to ten episodes. In fact, only two of the classic comic writers I mentioned before had episodes that made the cut.

There are a number of great episodes that, for one reason or another, just didn't make it into my top ten. The Movie, for example, was fantastic really. It had a really nice character arc with the new recruits(along with some of the funniest interactions with my personal favorite Joe Beach Head), sweet Sgt. Slaughter scene's, and some crazy Lovecraftian nonsense of a finale. I loved it. It's too bad that Hasbro chickened out of Duke's death. There was a really strong dramatic climax with Falcon(voiced by the awesome Don Johnson) that was neutered by slapping Duke in and out of a coma instead. Yet, for whatever reason, my mangled childhood memory of the movie was of Duke indeed dying. It wasn't until I watched it many years later did I realize that it was a coma. I suppose that's a testament to the visual storytelling, which clearly tells a story that can't be undone by two hastily added lines of off screen dialog.

Of course, I also remembered Arnold dying at the end of Predator, so maybe I was just a dumb kid who didn't pay attention.

Regardless, I'm not a dumb kid anymore, despite the opinions of my closest friends and family, and there's a lot to talk about when it comes to G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Sure, it was produced by a toy company trying to sell toys, but there was some genuine love and craft that went into G.I. Joe that truly connected with and inspired children's imaginations.

Ultimately, I think that speaks more toward it's merits than anything else.