This is Part Seven in a series.
So, GI Joe. Can the Joes even work in the modern day? Given that they’re not on toy shelves, someone seems to have decided they can’t. I disagree. The Corps, a toy line that is basically GI Joe, is still on toy shelves, and getting large sections, https://twitter.com/ToyboxSoapbox/status/1204871298075299840?s=20
Now, I will admit, I believe that is a picture of a toy store in the UK, but Walmart and Target have their own lines of military characters, I believe the old Toys R Us line was True Heroes, which it seems are the same figures Walmart and Target are selling, just under a different name. And companies wouldn’t be making those toys if they didn’t sell. Walmart and Target wouldn’t have them on the shelves in the quantities they have them, if they didn’t sell. So, they sell.
Additionally, we have many active duty military members with families, and many veterans with families. Children of parents who served will see their parents in the Joes, that figure isn’t just Shipwreck, it’s Shipwreck and that child’s father, mother, uncle, aunt, or grandfather. I know this, because my father served. He served in the 7th Cav in Korea, and in the Special Forces in the Reserves, back when the Special Forces had a division in the Reserves. Both Duke and Flint were my dad, they were some of my favorite Joes. This is a toy line that allows children to imagine their family members as the heroes of the story, that is powerful. That will sell toys.
But GI Joe still won’t sell you say. Then why was Overwatch so popular? Soldier 76 is effectively Duke. Genji might as well be Snake Eyes. Hanzo is Storm Shadow by another name. Lucio is kind of close to Doc. Widowmaker feels like the Baroness but French. Reaper seems like a cross between Cobra Commander and Zartan. Sombra with her implied connection to Reaper feels an awful lot like Zarana. Moira is a gender bent Doctor Mindbender. Doomfist is a cross between Sigma 6 Destro and the Destro that broke off from Cobra to lead the Iron Grenadiers. Tracer reminds me a lot of Lady Jaye. The Omnics as weapons of war seem very close in concept to B.A.T.S. Roadhog and Junkrat might as well be Drednoks. And for a time, Overwatch was the biggest video game in the world, but GI Joe won’t sell.
Then there’s Fortnite, a lot of those designs look like GI Joe characters, Firefly and Snake Eyes come to mind. It’s the biggest video game in the world right now, but GI Joe won’t sell, even though it’s character designs will. I really don’t subscribe to the notion that GI Joe won’t sell, there’s too much evidence to the contrary. I will say that GI Joe needs to change a little to work in the modern world, but it will sell. It’s the most culturally diverse cast of characters of any pop culture franchise in the world and has been culturally diverse since it was re-tooled in the 1980s. It can work in today’s climate, even with the anti-war sentiment.
So, how do we fit GI Joe into the Hasbroverse? Well, we use the Autobots sharing Cybertronian technology with humans as the reason GI Joe exists. The new weapons created from the technology need to be field tested. GI Joe is the special unit that tests these weapons in “real world” conditions. These are weapons that have passed the initial testing phase. Now they are being put in the hands of real soldiers, in “battlefield” conditions to see if they are actually useful or if any changes need to be made before they enter mass production. Remember, part of the deal with the Autobots is that their technology is only used to defend Earth from extraterrestrial threats, not against other humans. As such, the “battlefield” conditions these weapons are tested in are simulations that are as close to the real thing as possible. The insights of real soldiers on the tests and the weapons is hoped to make the weapons more useful and mitigate the issues presented by testing them only in simulations.
One of the weapons manufacturers helping the US Government develop weapons using this new technology is MARS, run by Destro. Some of his weapon designs don’t get approved by the Government or are never shown to the Government as he knows they’ll never be approved. Instead, he sells those concepts to Cobra. Now, the type of technology being worked on at this point, derived from Cybertronian technology, is mostly laser weapons, and simple transformation technology, mainly space saving technology, which implies some mass shifting. Basically, missiles that collapse on themselves and then “unfold” after being fired, allowing a vehicle to carry more missiles into combat. Or bullets that shrink, so soldiers can carry more ammunition. We’re not working on transformations that allow objects to change their function, though perhaps Destro tries for a bit of that, but very simple function changing transformations, if they’re used at all. Perhaps some anti-gravity technology is worked on as well.
So, Cobra starts rolling out with advanced weaponry, provided by MARS. Conventional weaponry can’t really stand up to what Cobra is rolling out, and so GI Joe is mobilized to deal with Cobra, in violation of the agreement with the Autobots, hence why Optimus Prime is so upset with the US Government in what we’re calling Season 3 of our Transformers treatment. GI Joe also finds they need more bodies to deal with Cobra. So, they start pulling in more recruits from various armed services. The GI Joe team is made up of US Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, and Coast Guard soldiers, as well as soldiers from the various Special Forces of the US Armed Forces. In addition to US Armed Forces members, GI Joe also consists of members of the Special Forces of nations allied with the US, it is an International Team.
Now, training for GI Joe involves being taught how to drive any ground vehicle, how to fly planes and helicopters, and how to operate naval vessels. This helps explains why all the Joes can fly and drive anything. Of the new recruits that are brought in to help fill out the team are three people, Matt Tracker and his brother, as well as the man who will eventually become Agent Fowler in Season 3 of our Transformers treatment. Unfortunately, GI Joe gets disbanded as the Cobra threat is dealt with just before Matt Track, his brother, and Agent Fowler graduate from the training program and earn their code names, other than the lack of a code name, they’re fully trained Joes.
That’s pretty much it for GI Joe. Story wise, we just need Cobra defeated, and those three trainee Joes that never graduate from the program before it is disbanded. And from here we move back into Season 3 of our Transformers treatment, timeline wise. When it comes to this series of articles, next we’re going to move onto Sky Commanders. I hope you’ll stick around.
A New Hasbroverse 