“G.I. Joe is the code name for America’s daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world!”
It’s good to see that some things never change. Land, sea, or air, G.I. Joe is there! If Cobra ceased to exist, would G.I. Joe be disbanded? It seems strange that G.I. Joe is apparently the only opponent Cobra has, especially when you consider that Cobra is an international organization. Is there a British version of G.I. Joe?
Those questions and a lot more were not answered in the second G.I. Joe animated five-episode miniseries, The Revenge of Cobra. This time, Cobra steals a special laser from G.I. Joe and uses it to power a weather machine. As usual, Destro does all the work, and then Cobra Commander ruins everything by pushing the machine too far. The machine breaks into three separate pieces, all of which land in different and very dangerous parts of the world and continue to create havoc. The Joes and Cobra fight to retrieve the three parts. Duke, meanwhile, gets captured again and ends up fighting in the arena of the Cobra Temple again.
It’s the same basic plot as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, just with more emphasis on showing off all of the toys that the audience could then demand their parents buy them. This episode features Zartan and his Dreadnoks, and whenever they’re on screen, they might as well have a price tag on their foreheads, because who wouldn’t want to be Cobra’s master of disguise?
In G.I. Joe terms, a five-part miniseries is the equivalent of a 90-minute film. There’s a lot of action packed into those 90 minutes, and there’s a cliffhanger every 18 minutes. The animation is sleeker than in A Real American Hero, but it’s still clunky in that ’80s way that will either make you feel nostalgic or bored. Snake Eyes is given next to nothing to do, which is a mistake, because everyone knows Snake Eyes and Scarlett were the only members of the team who really mattered. If you watch, be prepared to hear “Yo Joe!” every two minutes.
There are a lot of battles in The Revenge of Cobra, but no one ever dies or is even seriously injured. What would G.I. Joe and Cobra do without each other?
