Well like I said, we don't really NEED deaths to have a mature GIJoe story.
Larry Hama's comics pretty much proved that. The series made it over one hundred issues with very few deaths. And even following the Trucial Abysmia storyline, there were few deaths. Yet up until Ninja Force's instroduction, the comic kept going strong with great stories and great characters.

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RIP Minouche, 1994-2009.