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G.I. Joe: Special Missions #1; issues 1-7
G.I. Joe Special Missions, Volume 1: Issues 1-7
It takes A REAL AMERICAN HERO to handle these SPECIAL MISSIONS! Presenting G.I. JOE's Special Missions, remastered, recolored, and collected for the very first time!
Collects G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #50 and G.I. Joe: Special Missions #1-7.
Collects G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #50 and G.I. Joe: Special Missions #1-7.
172 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 2010
13 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Larry Hama
1,955 books152 followersLarry Hama is an American writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s.
During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and appeared on Broadway in two roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures.
He is best known to American comic book readers as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero, based on the Hasbro action figures. He has also written for the series Wolverine, Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja, and Elektra. He created the character Bucky O'Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toy line and television cartoon.
During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and appeared on Broadway in two roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures.
He is best known to American comic book readers as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero, based on the Hasbro action figures. He has also written for the series Wolverine, Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja, and Elektra. He created the character Bucky O'Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toy line and television cartoon.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 15, 2021
Very nice collection of these spin off stories from the main Marvel series. A little more adult type missions and more realistic. Nice art and writing make these as always a great read. Recommended
October 28, 2020
This was ACE! Special hard missions, self-contained, with extra violence and grittiness.
MUST read!
MUST read!
May 14, 2022
G.I. Joe Special Missions Vol 1 collects issues #1-7. The Special Missions were supposed to be classified missions beyond the scope of the regular comics. The stories seemed to be grimmer and slightly more violent than the G.I. Joe comics.
This collection brought back some great memories and is a great collection for the G.I Joe fan.
This collection brought back some great memories and is a great collection for the G.I Joe fan.
December 11, 2021
Now THIS is the G.I.JOE comic I remember so fondly from my youth! While Marvel's main G.I.JOE title largely followed the same cast of perhaps ten characters before devolving into endless ridiculous ninja action, this series delivers a stand-alone story in every issue, featuring a select team of G.I.JOEs, carefully picked based on their specialties' relevance to the mission.
What I love about this series is that we really get to spend time with characters who are typically little more than background dressing in the main book. When you have a team with over a hundred members, the only way to get to know them is to rotate them out by story based on their skillsets. This series allows us to spend some time with them, getting to know their personalities and why they belong on the team. The foreword to this volume suggests that toy company Hasbro didn't care as much about this side book, so there were no mandates for writer Larry Hama to include these new characters, or that vehicle or playset. He was essentially allowed free reign to do what he wanted, and he certainly used it.
The missions here also frequently involve a surprising amount of nuance and moral complexity for a comic book based on a children's toy line. One issue for example has a group of Joes forced to make a deal with an ex-Nazi scientist who has the disarm codes for a German plane full of deadly toxic gas that has been recently unearthed from a glacier. One of the Joes charged with his protection, Clutch, is of Jewish descent, and must deal with a group of Israeli soldiers who have come to assassinate their target.
The other thing I like about this book is that, while Cobra is present, they aren't involved in every mission. A couple issues had the Joes squaring off against the Oktober Guard, Russia's answer to the G.I.JOE team, and a few others had them facing armies of other enemy nations.
Some of the stories in this volume include a small group of Joes sneaking aboard a hijacked passenger plane to rescue everyone on board, a naval operation that squares our rarely seen naval Joes against Cobra and the Oktober Guard to recover a damaged submarine, the Joes racing against the Oktober Guard to recover the black box from a downed Cobra Firebat (and it's great to see the interplay between pacifist medic Lifeline and the marine Leatherneck, who is very vocal about how useless he thinks the former is), the Cobra Night Raven dogfighting against two Joe planes (and what's great about this one is we see how one treats their ground crew can make all the difference in a mission's outcome), Outback sneaking out of Eastern European Borovia to get back home to alert his team that his comrades have been taken prisoner, and the Joes using a terrorist attack on the Cobra consulate building as a distraction to plant their own surveillance in the building.
This is absolutely G.I.JOE at its best, living up to the rose-colored glasses of my nostalgia and giving me a highly enjoyable experience. I look forward to reading more!
What I love about this series is that we really get to spend time with characters who are typically little more than background dressing in the main book. When you have a team with over a hundred members, the only way to get to know them is to rotate them out by story based on their skillsets. This series allows us to spend some time with them, getting to know their personalities and why they belong on the team. The foreword to this volume suggests that toy company Hasbro didn't care as much about this side book, so there were no mandates for writer Larry Hama to include these new characters, or that vehicle or playset. He was essentially allowed free reign to do what he wanted, and he certainly used it.
The missions here also frequently involve a surprising amount of nuance and moral complexity for a comic book based on a children's toy line. One issue for example has a group of Joes forced to make a deal with an ex-Nazi scientist who has the disarm codes for a German plane full of deadly toxic gas that has been recently unearthed from a glacier. One of the Joes charged with his protection, Clutch, is of Jewish descent, and must deal with a group of Israeli soldiers who have come to assassinate their target.
The other thing I like about this book is that, while Cobra is present, they aren't involved in every mission. A couple issues had the Joes squaring off against the Oktober Guard, Russia's answer to the G.I.JOE team, and a few others had them facing armies of other enemy nations.
Some of the stories in this volume include a small group of Joes sneaking aboard a hijacked passenger plane to rescue everyone on board, a naval operation that squares our rarely seen naval Joes against Cobra and the Oktober Guard to recover a damaged submarine, the Joes racing against the Oktober Guard to recover the black box from a downed Cobra Firebat (and it's great to see the interplay between pacifist medic Lifeline and the marine Leatherneck, who is very vocal about how useless he thinks the former is), the Cobra Night Raven dogfighting against two Joe planes (and what's great about this one is we see how one treats their ground crew can make all the difference in a mission's outcome), Outback sneaking out of Eastern European Borovia to get back home to alert his team that his comrades have been taken prisoner, and the Joes using a terrorist attack on the Cobra consulate building as a distraction to plant their own surveillance in the building.
This is absolutely G.I.JOE at its best, living up to the rose-colored glasses of my nostalgia and giving me a highly enjoyable experience. I look forward to reading more!
January 31, 2018
A fun collection of 1980s Joe stories, free of overarching continuity. Every issue is its own story with a rotating cast of characters.
Three stars seems a little paltry but I can't quite justify four. Writer Larry Hama's reliance on technical jargon and clumsy exposition can be distracting at times. I know the Joes are hardened warriors but the suspension of disbelief is strained when they're leaping off roofs and discussing the technical aspects of the equipment they're using to do it while all the while being shot at by various enemies. Artist Herb Trimpe's pencil work also gets a little grainy and rough at times.
All that said, this is still a fun read that just about any Joe fan, new or old, would enjoy.
Three stars seems a little paltry but I can't quite justify four. Writer Larry Hama's reliance on technical jargon and clumsy exposition can be distracting at times. I know the Joes are hardened warriors but the suspension of disbelief is strained when they're leaping off roofs and discussing the technical aspects of the equipment they're using to do it while all the while being shot at by various enemies. Artist Herb Trimpe's pencil work also gets a little grainy and rough at times.
All that said, this is still a fun read that just about any Joe fan, new or old, would enjoy.
April 3, 2020
This definitely isn't the cartoon. These are hard hitting, more realistic military stories (at least for a series based on toys.) There's more violence than you'd expect and these Joes will kill in the line of duty. It's not graphic violence but when you consider the source material, as in toys, it's surprising that Marvel published this series in the 80s. These are one shot stories so you get a short, complete story each time. The Herb Trimpe art first the stories well, although sometime seems a little cartoony for the gritty tales.
Overall a strong volume and I'm looking forward to the next.
Overall a strong volume and I'm looking forward to the next.
July 2, 2020
Re-reading my childhood. (And unlike the Endworld novels, I refuse to place Hama's joe comics into my guilty pleasures folder. I credit my initial desire to be a writer back to him and I think he accomplished some amazing things within the constraints of a series based on a toyline.)
In special missions, Hama was relieved of the toy ties a bit. These stories are stronger for it - tackling much larger issues while still maintaining a sense of excitement. A darker tone than the main book, to be sure, but that is to be expected given much of the subject matter.
Reread June 2020. Still very much enjoyed these stories and their slightly more realistic take on the Joe mythos.
In special missions, Hama was relieved of the toy ties a bit. These stories are stronger for it - tackling much larger issues while still maintaining a sense of excitement. A darker tone than the main book, to be sure, but that is to be expected given much of the subject matter.
Reread June 2020. Still very much enjoyed these stories and their slightly more realistic take on the Joe mythos.
July 15, 2016
G.I. Joe Special Missions Volume 1, issues #1-7. These were fun. I like them because they're all one shot issues. The story begins and ends all in one comic, case closed. Sometimes you just want to read a short adventure and be done. Plus I liked that you got to know more of these guys better since usually there was a smaller team doing these covert ops.
June 30, 2024
This was the more realistic offshoot of G.I. Joe, devoid of the sillier aspects that had started creeping into the main series and TV shows at this time. The Joes combat terrorists and go on covert operations. There is more violence, and people actually get killed, unlike the main series where a vehicle can explode and the driver survived the wreckage unharmed. I am not criticizing that aspect of the comic or cartoon since they were intended for small children, just noting the more "adult" tone of this particular series.
Larry Hama's scripts are quite a bit different than on G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero. Herb Trimpe turns his typically fine artwork, which is marred here by IDW's lackluster restoration. There are pages that look fine, others where the lines look like one of the Joes used a bazooka to obliterate them. Some of the re-coloring has a gradient shading to it not found in the original issues, which is highly annoying to me.
Larry Hama's scripts are quite a bit different than on G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero. Herb Trimpe turns his typically fine artwork, which is marred here by IDW's lackluster restoration. There are pages that look fine, others where the lines look like one of the Joes used a bazooka to obliterate them. Some of the re-coloring has a gradient shading to it not found in the original issues, which is highly annoying to me.
January 24, 2018
Compared to the original comic series which spawned them, G.I. Joe: Special Missions showcases a darker and grittier side of the 1980's G.I. Joe universe. The military action is [mostly] more realistic, which makes the Joes more believable as a special forces unit. While I immensely enjoyed this collection, it had its irritating moments, mostly the sexist portrayal of women. I would love to be able to say it's simply a fault of the era which must be overlooked, but sadly the entertainment industry as a whole is still dragging its knuckles in this regard.
January 24, 2024
Historias de complemento a la serie principal, algunas más entretenidas que otras y con su punto más bajo en el apartado gráfico, como suele ser para esta franquicia en la etapa Marvel. Hama, como siempre, no teme manejar un pesado camión
January 28, 2026
I've always loved G.I. Joe. I've read the original ARAH run before and often rewatch the show. This was my first taste of Special Missions. Fantastic! If the comics were serious (compared to the cartoon), then Special Missions is gritty. I can't wait to read the rest.
July 18, 2020
Gritty and unimpeded by continuity, a great combination for compelling storytelling!
April 20, 2022
Very good!
g.i. Joe Special missions are fantastic 80's style action and hard core story telling by the legendary Larry Hama so cool!
g.i. Joe Special missions are fantastic 80's style action and hard core story telling by the legendary Larry Hama so cool!
November 26, 2023
Solid standalone GI Joe material, stories are all pretty short and most would have been better if they had been flushed out a bit more.
January 9, 2012
What can I say but wow...
Take the original intent of the g.i. joe special missions team and subtract the crazy ideas for toys Hasbro produced in the mid-eighties and you receive hard hitting, realistic stories about experts in their militaristic fields on missions which are as close to Black Ops as G.I. Joe are allowed to be by Hasbro. Bravo.
Take the original intent of the g.i. joe special missions team and subtract the crazy ideas for toys Hasbro produced in the mid-eighties and you receive hard hitting, realistic stories about experts in their militaristic fields on missions which are as close to Black Ops as G.I. Joe are allowed to be by Hasbro. Bravo.
April 20, 2022
This volume is AWESOME. They're all done-in-ones, short stories focusing on the Joes facing impossible situations that nobody can know about or whatever, and...MAN, is it awesome. I was all set, when I got finished reading the first story, to say that was my favorite. But then I couldn't, because they were ALL my favorite. Such great, great stuff.
November 6, 2015
Yo, JOE! This is a very short, but quite enjoyable read for anyone interested in this franchise and these characters
June 13, 2016
enjoyable to read old comics
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews