The issue's cover is distinctive as it heavily features a pale cranberry red background. This color hadn't been seen on a G.I. Joe cover since #8. It was a dramatic splash of color to offset the dark Cobra blue and olive drab of the Hovercraft. The perspective of the cover flows from left to right. It's reminiscent of the #29 cover which also featured the Hovercraft: just in a a different role. There's a lot of action packed into just a few items. And, the Rattler, Hovercraft and ASP all convey aspects of the story. Comic covers were never meant to be 100% representations of what was inside the book. Instead, they were a composite to give the feel of an issue. And, the #36 cover delivers on that.
The Snake Eyes/Scarlett story line is also pretty good. It features Fred along with a group of Cobra goons. These generic guys appeared a few times in the early issues. This might have been their final comic appearance. They are '30's mobster archetypes. But, they work in conveying that they're bad guys and dangerous. Scarlett and Snake Eyes dispatch them. Seeing them all killed with impunity is, again, kind of jarring. But, they were foils to show the capability of the protagonists. The culmination is that Fred "dies" by falling off the ferry into the cold water. (He lives, of course.) But, the big reveal is that Snake Eyes's face is so horrid that Fred loses his mind upon seeing it.
The book opens with a strong portrait of Cutter, Deep Six and Doc. This version of Deep Six, wearing standard clothing instead of his bulky dive suit, is actually how I think of the character. He appeared more in the comic in this outfit than that of his actual "action" figure. Yet, we never got a toy version of Deep Six that was anywhere close to this above water look. It really seemed that Larry Hama liked the Deep Six character. He played significant roles in several comic issues. And, he got more comic time than many of the standard carded figures that were released through 1984. And, while we got a nearly perfect update to the Deep Six undersea diver in 1989, we never did get a way to represent the character out of the water. Topside is the closest representation. And, the "crewman" Deep Six was a staple of late 1990's and early 2000's customizers. It's one of the missing figures that I'd gladly buy in the ReAction+ line just because it's never been done.
This issue went on sale in March of 1985. It has a few notable debuts. It is the first time we see Cobra hydrofoils that were based on the Moray design. They are Cobra blue, though. At the end of the issue, we see the debut of the USS Flagg. (Though, it's not really noted as being significant.) The odd thing is that this also marks the debut of the MMS. For some reason, the MMS didn't appear in G.I. Joe #1. (I don't think the FLAK did, either.) And, it wasn't until this issue, four years later, that the 1982 toy finally appeared in a comic panel. It got to blow up a Rattler and was then destroyed in the fiery aftermath. The most notable debut, though, is the notion of a "Sea Rattler" and their white-clad pilots. In the early days of online collecting, the white Rattler pilot was an oft requested new figure should the Joe line return. The line did return. But, we never actually got this white Rattler pilot. In an alternate reality, there would have been a #36 Comic Pack with the proper Deep Six, the Rattler Pilot and one of Fred's "thugs" or a "Rubber Mask" Snake Eyes.
This issue spins three central plots. The two aquatic adventures are intertwined, but also separate. The destruction of the G.I. Jane was done to pave the way for the USS Flagg to appear later that summer. The land battle at the atoll was a somewhat self contained story that had no bearing on the overall except for a throwaway line as the Cobras watched the Joe triumphantly depart. A Cobra Trooper mentions the larger Gulf operations as foreshadowing for that summer's primary plot. The Snake Eyes/Scarlett plot, though, was another step forward in converting G.I. Joe into the Snake Eyes story.
The Hovercraft arc is interesting because the Joes pretty much decimate the Cobras. But, the real takeaway is that the good guys are always smarter than the bad guys. It's a trope that's all too easy. But, as a kid, seeing the good guys blow up the capable, but not quite smart enough bad guys was a lot of fun. The crew of Torpedo and Snow Job is kind of random. It seems like this is a last ditch effort to show off some '83 characters as their figures would have been selling through for the last time. Seeing Torpedo on the Whale triggered another memory for me. I had a standard crew for my Whale. Cutter and Shipwreck manned the helm. BBQ sat behind them as the requisite firefighter. But, Torpedo always manned the hidden recon sled underneath the Whale. I never remembered he was there when I was a kid. So, I had forgotten about his involvement on every Whale mission I undertook during my childhood heyday.
The Jane arc balances out the Whale story since Cutter, Deep Six and Doc lose. While they destroy the Rattlers (it was still a bit jarring to see pilots and others die in the comic when I was 11), the Jane is also destroyed. The Joes hadn't lost a piece of equipment of that size since the pre-fab HQ was blown to bits back in #19. I suspect this was done to remove the Jane and bring in the USS Flagg whose toy would appear on retail shelves later in the year. When taken in that context, the Jane's demise seems kind of cheap. But, as a kid, the story was pretty intense.
One enduring memory associated with this issue is the carton that says "Snax" on it. It appears in one of the integral panels to the Snake Eyes/Fred story. It seems a silly thing to fixate upon. But, my friend down street always thought this spelling of the word and its appearance in the comic was hilarious. Even when we were in high school, he'd mention Snax from time to time and we'd chuckle. I remember this issue, specifically, for this reason. It's that one weird thing that makes this issue matter to me. We all have weird pneumonic devices that recall certain aspects of childhood. For me, it's "Snax".
The main thing that bothered me about this issue, though, was some of the internal artwork. Look at the faces and body positions in the panel posted below. The grotesque mouth poses seemed out of place. In looking at the creative team, the entire issue was penciled by 4 different people. So, that may explain some of the oddities among the pages. I did love the guns that were drawn in this issue, though. Until the end of my childhood collecting days, I wanted weapons that matched up with those wielded by Fred and his minions in this issue.
Early Joe comics aren't worth much. They were printed in massive volumes. And, many copies survived through to today. In pretty good condition, this is a $5 or $6 book. Of course, graded copies will cost more, especially the 9's and 10's. But, just a couple of years ago, all the non-key Joe comics were about $1 or $2 purchases. The pandemic pricing destroyed comics, too, I guess. I'm not sure I'd pay $5 for this issue. But, comics from the '80's seem like they should be cheap. The fact that they're over 40 years old isn't as much of an issue as it was when looking at items from the 1940s back in the 1980's. These '80s items were produced in unfathomable numbers and lack any real sense of rarity. Even with a strong childhood connection to the comics, I haven't been compelled to finish my original Marvel run. I'm not missing many. (I was pretty thorough when I was a kid.) But, maybe it will become a focus now that my desire to find any unowned figures is pretty much at a dead end, too. Rereading these old issues is fun because you do find some new stuff when looking at it for the first time in 2 decades. But, the real value is remembering stupid things like "Snax" and fondly recalling those bygone days when such things were fresh and funny.
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