A Look Back at the Iconic 1986 GI Joe Episode “Arise, Serpentor, Arise!
Story by Mitchell Smith
Welcome to the Outpost. Today I’m taking a look at the the 1986 episode 1 of the 5 part miniseries Arise, Serpentor, Arise! At this point in Gi Joe history there were many great characters established. Even some of smaller characters had action figures with file cards and may have had a larger part in the comics. At the time it was hard to believe there could be a lot of new and exciting characters created. Millions of kids like me had become accustomed to characters like Rock ‘N Roll, Scarlet, and Lady Jaye. 1986 shuffled in a new crowd while also retaining some signature characters like Duke, Shipwreck, and Wild Bill. On the Cobra side Cobra Commander, Destro, and Scrap Iron are still at the helm of the evil terrorist organization Cobra. Episode 1 very quickly establishes new Joes and Cobras, and as we know many would become staple characters. Mainframe , Dial-Tone, and Slip-Stream are a few new Joes and on the Cobra side the Battle Android Troopers or BATS were just awesome.
Today BATS are very close to reality and robots and drones are already being used for military and hostile police situations. Among Zartan and his Dreadnoks, he recruits his siblings Zandar and Zarana, but also adds 2 new Noks Monkeywrench and Thrasher who had a Mad Max feel with his Thunder Machine. Another key moment at the beginning of the episode is Flint establishing the pecking order of command. Hawk being first, then Duke, then Flint, and finally Beachhead. Hold onto your suspenders though, not only did this 11 year old have some major overload of characters and vehicles, but one of the biggest real live stars at the time joined the Joe team and enters the scene with long lasting authority.
Sgt Slaughter one of the biggest stars in what was known as the WWF at the time, enters and single handedly stopped a Cobra attack on Joe Base and aims to whip the Joes into shape. On the other side Cobra introduces Dr. Mindbender who proclaims Cobra needs a new leader and has a dream of a spiral of light that is DNA which was relatively new news to the general population back then. Mindbender sets a plan in place to collect DNA from some of the most ruthless past leaders in history and create a clone Serpentor. I remember this day Sept 15, 1986. Back then we had to buy the tv guide to see what was on tv for the week. I had already marked the day and was thinking about it all day in school. The bus ride home was long but I knew GI Joe would soon air once I was home. We had a Zenith consul tv sometimes you had to wack it on the side to get it to work. Nevertheless I watched this episode and the next day on the ride home I pretended to be a BAT riding the bus into the Joe Base. Overall this was a superb episode and really set up for the next four episodes and the rest of the season. Who loves this episode? Make sure to check back for our next discussion.
