On Location with G.I. Joe! A Few of the Reasons the Mini-Series Episodes Rocked

By Destro Designs-Viper Studios

For me, there’s nothing like the action and stories of the multiple G.I. Joe mini-series in the Sunbow series.

While I love the choices made for the actual single-shot episodes, it’s the mini-series that are the backbone of the show. So many of them were wild, crazy, and absolutely amazing to watch as a kid.

But the mini-series had those excitement-inducing words:

“To Be Continued…”

Something about that just sent me into full-on imagination mode as I would play out what I thought was going to happen in the next episode. I was basically writing G.I. Joe stories 40 years ago. It was every bit as much fun as playing with the figures.

The stories in the mini-series seemed so focused and poignant. There weren’t any Window Viper jokes or throwaway moments.

It was an all-out brawl for the fate of the world. Cobra was always playing for keeps and swinging for the fences, while the Joes put a shield around the world and fought back.

The M.A.S.S. Device, The Revenge of Cobra, The Pyramid of Darkness, and, of course, Arise, Serpentor, Arise! all have one thing in common:

They are each literal world wars, where Cobra and the Joes duke it out across multiple continents and countries, usually in several major environments all at once.

The jungle and swamp.
The desert.
The Arctic.
The ocean.
And, of course, randomly selected battlefields across America.

This played perfectly into the grandiose way I saw the cartoon.

It was BIG.

As I was just beginning to learn about the world on a more serious level, watching Hawk, Duke, Flint, or Beach Head calling the shots and directing different groups of troops took the seriousness and level of captivation through the stratosphere.

You also got to see all the different specialists in situations and environments where you didn’t normally see them.

You had the Snow Serpents trying to obtain Ivan the Terrible’s DNA while battling the Oktober Guard and a group of Joes decked out in winter gear.

You saw Torpedo leading regular Joes in diving suits against Cobra’s Tube Worms. You had Wet-Suit leading Joes in Devilfishes before going underwater to try to stop Destro—who was also suited up for an underwater mission.

It’s little things like this that completely sucked me in.

Little me couldn’t think about anything else but this cartoon, with all of its craziness and, somehow, its sense of realism at the same time.

Forty years later, I’m still watching.

And those G.I. Joe mini-series are still taking me on a ride around the world.