G.I. Joe: Above & Beyond

by Max Allan Collins

IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE, THERE ARE MANY HEROES.

Part of an elite covert military team, Lieutenant Duke Hauser and his buddy Ripcord Weems are dispatched to the small oil-rich South American country of San Sebastiao to help quell a revolution. The multinational peacekeeping force known as G.I. JOE has secretly sent special ops to support Duke’s unit. Their other Find out who’s playing both sides of the conflict by supplying each with the same advanced lethal weaponry. But it turns out the devious culprit has raised the stakes–promising to deliver an army of super soldiers in the near future. If Duke’s squad and the G.I. JOE team can’t stop the revolution, halt the proliferation of weapons, and eliminate the threat of laboratory-produced warriors, a dark plot toward world domination will soon be launched.

Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Action, Science Fiction, War

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 19, 2009

About the author

Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.

He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.

Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black

Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ

Reviews

[Tyas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I approach this book carefully. The writer is one Max Allan Collins, the guy behind Road to Perdition (okay, I’ve only watched the film, but I enjoyed it), but who’s also the one who ruined Akamiya Kia’s Batman with his adaptation which separated the visual from the text.

As a massive G.I. JOE fan as a kid, what can I say? This book can’t compare with Larry Hama’s script for the comic, which was witty, entertaining, and effortlessly cool. And I still don’t understand why they need to do radical alterations to the characters – after all, we love G.I. JOE because of:

1) the characters (despite Torpedo wearing his diving outfit even on land and Snow Job sporting his white, thick furcoat even at sea), and

2) the great internal conflict/schism in COBRA (Cobra Commander wants Bludd to kill Destro who loves Baroness who later joins forces with Bludd and after Dr Venom loses favour with the Commander, Dr Mindbender steps in and tries to create a supersoldier named Serpentor who becomes so popular that he dethrones the Commander who has to struggle for survival with Destro in the ruins of the Pit and then the Commander gets killed by a Fred clone who takes his outfit to replace him … that sort of conflict. You’re still with me?)

So, ahem, the characters. They seem to be a jumble of characters selected almost at random (I can hear the designing team shout, No they’re not!): Scarlet and Snake Eyes must be there, of course, they’re just classic.

Duke – an embodiment of the ideal American hero, ‘which he is’? Oh okay. I can see that, with that American hunk on that movie poster… But okay, Duke has always been a crew-cut blond anyway.

But Ripcord, a black? Uh, I mean, if you need blacks, there are characters like Roadblock (who appears working side-by-side with Duke several times in the comic, perhaps an inspiration for the Duke/Ripcord combo in the film?), Alpine, Stalker (who appears a little in this novel, in passing)… why change good old Ripcord? Is it just because the name sounds cool? Although I have to admit the idea of making Breaker a French of Arab-descent is quite interesting; I just hope we won’t miss his bubblegum. It was Snow Job who got to masquerade as an Arab in the comic, by the way.

The story itself? Quite boring, although there are moments of true laughable comedy. First Duke and team (not G.I. JOE, he and Ripcord are not yet members of the elite international force) have to save some scientists from a crazy East Europe country named Uzekurkistan (cheap!), only to find that the deadly weapons they made have been shipped to an oil-rich South American country called San Sebastiao, which soon is plunged into the brink of a civil war after the good friendly democratic president is assassinated. So an American team is sent to prevent it all from happening in the name of justice and democracy (and also to protect American interests I presume?), while G.I. JOE, an international secret force, works undercover, without the knowledge and any contact with the American team; the JOEs must ensure that the mission is accomplished while making it all seem to be the work of the American team. (You might start to wonder now, But wasn’t G.I. JOE originally an American team… oh whatever…)

I still yet have to watch the film and to read the novelization of it, but I’m still worrying about a thing: The new flick puts G.I. JOE in a new setting, which is today, under the shadow of 9/11*, no doubt, but away from what made it great the first time: the Vietnam War. G.I. JOE was built on the ashes of the war in which America was torn and defeated; things got more complicated because fellow comrades Stalker and Snake Eyes joined G.I. JOE while their buddies Storm Shadow and Wade Collins sided with COBRA. I’m still wondering whether the movie would be too simplified, compared with Hama’s original script.

Let’s just see. Meanwhile, you can pass this novel if you think your time will be more worthy spent reading other more interesting books. It was a nice time-filler for me, though, queueing up in immigration and tax office next.


*I like it when Vice Presidente Ansalmo used the Middle East as an example of how the American team couldn’t just jump in and make everything alright.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly simple tie in novel for the upcoming major motion picture. I like the characters and the general story line but found the writing style to be bland and rudimentary. I would only recommend this novel if you are a huge Joe fan such as myself or want to have the background knowledge for the upcoming movie.

[Darby]

Need to read before watching the movie, makes it more clear.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never would have even looked twice at this book if it wasn't written by Max Allan Collins. He's one of my favorite authors and I know if he writes something there's usually a pretty good chance I'll like it.

That said, the level of suck I was expecting from this movie actually grew. Max's novel was okay as a stand-alone story, but there was stuff tying it to the movie that made me cringe. Just tired, awful cliches that have been done a thousand times.

But that's the movie. Like I said, this prequel novel is okay. Collins gives us a pretty good intro to Duke and Ripcord (who aren't Joes yet), but the Joes that appear are almost interchangeable.

None of the movie villains appear (as their movie selves) which was kind of a surprise. The book deals with an arms dealer so I was at least expecting a mention for Destro, but there's nothing.

Still, this book will probably be a thousand times better than the movie.

[Miles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This prequel is actually quite a bit better than the novelization that follows it. I'd be inclined toward a better rating if they weren't using the G.I. Joe name in conjunction with it, though. Pretty much all that has been retained from the G.I. Joe franchise are some of the character and organization names. In light of that, it's hard to see this as anything but a cash in. Still, at least it was reasonable value for the money.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very weak plot with one dimensional characters. The book did have some action scenes, but you didn't really care if any of the characters got killed or not.

[Nick Bucher]

Good book. A little language but not really bad. I like GI Joes so I liked the book.