As I mentioned in the "Destro's Voice" thread, I skipped all the webisodes and just watched the whole thing on Cartoon Network last night. My thoughts:

I'll mention what I didn't like first:

1. Deaths: Pointless, unnecessary, shock value. Especially since Bazooka and Major Bludd were both killed off-screen within the first five minutes of the show! There was no point to that other than to tell us that this show is for grown-ups. I think the annihilation of Moscow would have made that point just as easily, without gratuitously killing off two major characters. As Jay pointed out earlier, death in fiction serves a purpose, otherwise it's just death for death's sake. However, although I disagree with Troopsofdoom on the inclusion of such deaths, I am in agreement with him that Storm-Shadow and Zartan could pretty easily be brought back. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Major Bludd and Bazooka, who were both autopsied.

2. Some of the voices: The problem was that they only had like five voice actors working on this thing! Cover Girl only had one line, but she sounded like she had a Southern accent for some reason...? It was painfully obvious in a few scenes that Steve Blum (Duke) was talking to himself as another character. I was impressed, though, with Grey DeLisle as Scarlett, the Baroness, and Dial-Tone. They all sounded relatively different from one another! But -- what was up with Flint's "Batman" voice?!?

3. Snake-Eyes vs. Storm-Shadow: The fight was amazing, don't get me wrong; but it felt totally extraneous to the rest off the plot, and the flashbacks moved painfully slow. I feel like that side-story could have been left out to let the rest of the story breathe a little more.

4. Destro and the Baroness: They came across as kind of incompetent. That whole scene felt like something out of an episode of Sigma Six! But at least they didn't die, I guess...

5. The music: Pretty much a non-entity. I want music to pull me into a show, not lurk, unnoticed, in the background!!

6. The abrupt ending: That was it? No wrap-up or aftermath? And Duke's narration clearly said "On our return to the site...", while the read-out on the screen said "Honor returned to the site...", which, uhh... makes no sense.

7. The lack of "Yo Joe!!" C'mon, not even once??? I counted several opportunities where it could've been used!!

Surprisingly, that's about it. Considering this thing was written by one of my least-favorite comic book writers, Warren Ellis, that's pretty impressive! On to the things I did like:

1. Some of the voices: Though I felt that certain voices didn't fit, I really did like Steven "Spike Spiegel" Blum as Duke (though I obviously would've preferred the return of Michael Bell), as well as the voices for Destro, the Baroness, and Cobra Commander. And the guy playing Snake-Eyes nailed that voice! He sounded exactly like the original version! ;)

(Incidentally, Cobra Commander and Gung-Ho were both played by Charlie Adler, who also played Starscream in the Transformers live-action movie. And all those characters were previously portrayed by the late Chris Latta. Weird coincidence, or something more?)

2. The animation: Probably the very best 2D G.I. Joe animation ever! It was fast, fluid, and gorgeous!

3. The character designs: For the most part, with the exception of Stalker's unfortunate hair, everyone had a very nice update of their classic look. I would love a Resolute Scarlett figure! Destro had an appearance very similar to his Sigma Six character design, I thought, which was not a bad thing. On that note, though, I absolutely loved the Baroness's Sigma Six design. I wish they could have carried it over here, too. Also, Tunnel Rat's team seemed to be wearing outfifts that were a homage to the orange diving suits on the classic cartoon, which I thought was really cool. Oh, and the Flagg looked really neat. Too bad it blew up...

4. Scarlett + Duke: I am by no means a "shipper" (to use the technical term), but given a choice, I strongly believe Scarlett and Duke are a better couple than Scarlett and Snake-Eyes!!

5. The overall story: Except for the "more adult" slant, it reminded me of a classic Sunbow mini-series! Cobra has some huge new threat, and the Joes have to split up, going to different spots around the world, to put a stop to it, before coming together for the big final battle. Very neat!

In summary, though there were aspects I disliked, with the exception of the totally unnecessary killings of main characters, my other quibbles were minor. I would love to see this become a regular, ongoing series, providing they either keep Warren Ellis away from it, or reign him in a bit. Plus, if they could hire a few more actors (and throw in a "Yo Joe!" now and then), that would be nice!

I liked the mini-series (single episode?)

This would be good if it could be continued as an ongoing series. As far as the killing goes, this would not be something for children under 13.

Back in the day, Hama could always figure a way to bring "back" characters (Firefly got out of the locked freighter - Marvel 126) and Storm Shadow has already been killed at least once (oh that's right, he flipped into a trance right before three bullets went through his chest - Marvel 47).

SOOOOO...

The FLAGG could easily reappear, as could Major Bludd, Zartan and all the rest...

"Joe, how could this be?" you might ask.

A tagline or voice at the beginning of a new show saying, these events take place x time before the Springfield incident, or before the FLAGG incident, or whatever they would use to mark time.

Since they like flashbacks (as evidenced by the ninja flashbacks sequences), there could even be flashbacks to what precipitated the good Major's demise.

Not that I want more killing, but in the original Star Trek series, the guy you had never seen before beaming down to the planet was always the one who didn't make it to the first commercial break. Death, isn't that what greenshirts and blueshirts are for? Their deaths would still be tragic, but they would not affect the story arc...

My two cents...

for those who wondered how Duke changed target. He ask Scarlet for a tutorial on the control systemsw of the partical cannon on the flight to spingfield

I thought Snake Eyes was cool and the action and animation was great.
I hate when deaths happen off screen but not when they happens on screen.
My main dislike about this cartoon was that they removed the nuances and personality in the characters making it a more primitive tale alltogether. Adult does not just mean more sex, violence or swearing but American audiences are so starved for these things that they like any kind of product that comes along containing these things. People died all the time in the comics too but it was done in an plausible manner atleast in the marvel series, the devils due series tried to create the shock value a bit. And it did not work. Deaths should have a point even if that point is that death in war can be senseless and sudden. It is not just GI Joe that have gotten more stupid movies and comics in general have less depth now than they had only ten years ago. A comic about Spiderman and Doctor Octopus working to get eachoter to beg for mercy comes to mind. On the other hand death and sex does not mean that the story become more childish either but most often they do.
I also suspect for whatever reason that there was a last episode cut from the show. Either because the animation team could not finish it on time or because Hasbro dont want to pay for it.