JoeDios.com Forums - When Did GI Joe "Jump the Shark"?

03-01-2007, 07:00 PM

#11

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Quote:

Originally Posted by snakeeater

I reread the entire series about 1 1/2 years ago, and I could feel the quality drop out of the comic as soon as Nunchuck, Dojo, and T'Jbang showed up in issue #117. So Ninja Force pretty much did it for me too. It seemed the comic put a lot of emphasis on these completely boring characters, likely to cash in on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popularity. They even made Zartan look like Bebop when wave 2 came out, orange mohawk? If the toyline had last another year, we would have seen a Ninja Commando Roadpig, I guess he would be a Ninja Force Rocksteady.

Recall that in one of the early Ninja Force appearances, Dojo actually asks Storm Shadow if Ninja Force has a cool battlecry like "Yo Joe" or "Cowabunga"...

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03-01-2007, 07:15 PM	#12
lehsreh G.I. Smurf Offline --> Posts: 3,446 --> Join Date: Jan 2006	it seems for the most part we all agree, snake eyes and the ninja force killed G.I. Joe. i havent read any new comics in the last 6 to 8 months, is devil due doing the same mistake???

03-01-2007, 07:49 PM	#13
yorktownjoe Enjoying the season Offline --> Posts: 5,106 --> Join Date: Nov 2005	Battle Force 2000 was a mistake, and killing them off did not atone for it. I stopped reading in the 120's, and I felt I had held on too long. Not only the stories, but the art began to suffer as well. I only recently read issues past 128. I still haven't seen 155, but folks say it was good. Eco-Warriors... Mega-marines... hallucinagenic color schemes... alas, they all started drinking the same kool-aid that produced Golobulus. The one thing I did really like was how B.A.T.s were portrayed as being nearly indestructible. In the cartoon, they are mowed down by the thousands. But in the comic, they fight on, and the broken pieces fight on, and the spare parts are recycled into new ones. Although not realistic, I did enjoy this idea as a dark edgy side of Cobra. But I never did figure out why Snake-Eyes did not kill Cobra Commander in 108. One cut, and the Commander's "migraines are cured forever..." Anyway, I'm glad jumping the shark made the forum. It is an enigmatic conversation.

03-01-2007, 07:49 PM	#14
Bayer Self-Important Offline --> Posts: 1,034 --> Join Date: Jan 2006	I think that GI Joe "jumped the shark" when the writers sat down in a meeting and agreed to the creation of Serpentor. While in a SciFi venue, the single composite clone incorporating all of histories greatest military minds has some merit, GI Joe was military adventure fiction. This was the single greatest mistake in the storyline but there were more. Other "jumping" moments for me were; The "mass" killings of old favs like Breaker and Doc, The increasingly outlandish characters like Raptor or Raptor Boy or what ever with an unlikely Pogo thing, BF2000 (nuf said), Ninja Force, Eco Force, you name it Force. Then, as I mentioned, there was this bend toward making GI Joe more and more SciFi/X-man. I like SciFi. I like Military fiction. I even like Military SciFi. But the original premise of GI Joe was a counter terrorist force. I can't see the Pentagon, Congress, or the President risking national resources not to mention their careers to fund a budget as tremendous as the one that paid for a space shuttle, an aircraft carrier, an enormous sand crawler, ultra-futuristic testbed fighting machines, or a roster of soldiers that would make what started as a small team of specially trained and skilled soldiers into a battalion strength special operation unit. Uh...sorry. I loved GI Joe as a kid, but I have always felt a little betrayed by Marvel and Hasbro over their loss of the original vision. Marvel generated stories which were elaborate but less and less probable/plausible. the creation of Cobra Island or the Cross-over with the Transformers being a perfect examples. Then the toy line seemed to generate a rather lot of singular one-time only figures and equipment. It took nearly 20 years to get a Quinn figure (who while killed rather early in the series, had more soul than many of the characters who followed). Just my two cents. __________________

03-01-2007, 07:53 PM	#15
Sonneilon aka 'Paul WS Anderson' ;) Offline --> Posts: 7,751 --> Join Date: Jul 2005	Bayer, there was a certain point where the comic had to follow what Hasbro wanted. Larry Hama had no desire to bring in Serpentor, but had to. He did put his foot down on Cobra-La. Now here's the question for us old folks. Do you remember when there used to be ads for the comic book on tv? I believe the 1st issue that tied comic to toy is coming up in next week's Comic Box. Just keep in mind, Hama did what he could with what he was given. With TMNT on the rise, it's no wonder why SE and the ninja got pushed over everything else. But to note, DD doesn't have the same stipulations (hasbro ok's the stories but doesn't breathe down their neck) and yet, things are still bad. Go figure on that one.

03-01-2007, 07:58 PM	#16
ender098 Veteran Offline --> Posts: 3,665 --> Join Date: Dec 2005	I honestly didn't mind Serpentor, but the "let's clone everyone" got old! Serpentor was a sound Idea, but when they killed him off, they had to go "high and right" to bring him back!

03-01-2007, 08:05 PM	#17
lehsreh G.I. Smurf Offline --> Posts: 3,446 --> Join Date: Jan 2006	i must say that i thought the idea of sepentor and cobra island were great ideas. the cobra island war was, in my opinion, GREAT!!! i agree that the killing of the old well known and liked characters was a big mistake. i once said in another post that i like to see characters killed, but instead of the well known characters who were very popular in the cartoon and figures, why not kill off newer characters. i would rather see a hardball killed anyday then a doc. and i hated the space story, the eco warriors ,this might have been to get kids into stopping polution, which is great, but captain planet did well enough. and i hated the d.e.f storyline too. honestly, i know alot of people are going to disagree with me, but i wish they hadnt taken billie any farther then the issues where he was trying to kill cobra commander.

03-01-2007, 08:12 PM	#18
ender098 Veteran Offline --> Posts: 3,665 --> Join Date: Dec 2005	I didn't mind that they killed a few older characters off, I just hated the way they did it. I call it the "Hamburger Hill" Approach. (after the movie Hamburger Hill) it goes like this..... Hi. Meet some guys. (in GI Joes case, meet characters that arent too interesting and we haven't used in a while) and .....BOOM. WATCH 'EM ALL DIE. You never had to to feel for them. Or get to know them. My reaction was "Shit, now what am I gonna do with my ______ ? (Add figure in blank, Doc, HeavyMetal, etc.) I hated when DD killed off Flash and MAinFrame, but they did it classy! I gotta give them that!

03-01-2007, 08:35 PM

#19

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonneilon

Just after the Cobra War for me.

Spot on G. The Cobra civil war was the last great storyline of the Marvel run.

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03-01-2007, 09:43 PM	#20
Self-Modifier Crossover King Emeritus Offline --> Posts: 1,472 --> Join Date: Feb 2005	I started to post this in the Favorite Joes thread in defense of Slice, but I figure I'll put it here since it fits better. The post-100 issues aren't that bad. There's no arguing that the series was past it's prime, but it still had a lot going for it. Yes, the goofy sub-groups are there, but there's lots of good stuff too, including "Destro: Search and Destroy," the battle at the Silent Castle in Trans-Carpathia, the return to Borovia wherein Hawk gets shot (again!), Cobra's invasion of Pit III (which is one of Duke's best moments in the comic series), the Scarlett as a defector storyline, and the Star Brigade story-- which, though I have problems with the existence of Star Brigade, is actually a really good story if you can get past the inherent "wrong-ness" of its premise. Plus there's lots of good soap operatics, which was always one of my favorite aspects of the series, and a good chunk of it was drawn by Andrew Wildman, one of the best artists to grace the pages of the series. __________________ is on indefinite hiatus...