Duke (G.I. Joe)

Duke is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero the animated series and comic books. In the original animated series, he's the lead protagonist in the first season and a recurring character in the second season.
==Personality==
When Duke is in command, he bellows his orders like that of a seasoned general. The troops follow him without question. He is capable of assessing situations and come up with quick solutions. Even high-ranking officers who know him well respect him and would even listen to his orders. And to think that he is only an enlisted man is to underestimate him.
==Biography ==
Duke came in at a time when the Joe Team is at their lowest point. The Pit is destroyed and their commander, General Flagg is dead. He took over field duties and brought the team a major victory over Cobra: The capture of Cobra Commander.
However, that victory was short-lived as the Cobra ninja Storm Shadow rescued the Commander.
He also took part in the invasion of the Cobra-controlled town of Springfield. He also played second-in-command to Hawk during the Cobra Civil War. He was also involved in the mission to push Cobra out of Trucial Abysmia, but intelligence vastly underestimated Cobra's presence there and resulted in the deaths of several G.I. Joe members. He would recover from that experience and lead the defense of the Joe headquarters, the Pit, against Cobra. 
==Powers and Abilities==
===Abilities === 
*Peak Human Condition: Duke, as a US Armed Forces Sergeant, is in top physical condition (from frequent missions and extensive experience in the field), though not even near to Snake Eyes's level. Hence, it took an entire group of Cobra Troopers to overpower Duke.
* Peak Human Strength: Over years of extensive training, Duke’s strength is at the maximum limit of human conditioning. He was able to sent Baroness flying with a single force kick, break steel chains that tied him to a tank, as well as bending a metal bar with his bare hands.
*Peak Human Durability: Duke is exceptionally durable, swiftly recovering after being sent flying back by a superhumanly strong blow from Destro, though this was also due to Duke's bulletproof vest.
*Gifted Intelligence: Duke is quite intelligent and well-read, notably reading quite a bit of historical literature (and being impressed when Red Star quotes him with a saying by a famous Russian general). His intellect mainly extends towards his superb understanding of warfare and military science, as well as his considerable tactical, strategic, leadership, and networking skills. Duke's tough military attitude, however, does occasionally make him seem less intelligent than he actually is.
* Master Leader: Duke, as an experienced US Armed Forces Sergeant, is an extremely skilled leader (with General Hawk even referring to him as "the finest special forces officer that [the USA] has ever produced").
*Master Tactician: Duke is a highly skilled tactician, as well as an expert in special operations and counter-insurgency, able to come up with an effective strategy to bring down a Bio-Viper by attacking it from both fronts, and an equally effective one to destroy Cobra Commander's powerful super-weapon.
*Expert Networker: Duke, as an elite US Sargent, has a network of professional and social contacts to further his ambitions.
*Master Combatant: Duke, as a US Armed Forces Sergeant, is a highly skilled armed and hand-to-hand combatant (though not quite on par with Snake Eyes and Kenshin), able to take down quite a few Cobra Troopers, and even momentarily able to hold his own against the extremely skilled Storm Shadow himself (notably blocking his sword slashes several times), though he was ultimately brought down by him. Duke as a soldier was trained in Modern Army Combatives Program (Wrestling, Judo, Muay Thai, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo and Escrima), advanced unarmed and armed combat techniques.
*Knife Mastery: Duke is experienced with using a knife in combat. This is best demonstrated when he used his combat knife during his fight against Storm Shadow and Cobra Commander.
*Expert Marksman: Duke is a highly skilled marksman, able to use any weapon in US inventory, landing several shots on some of Cobra Commanders' monstrous troops.
*Indomitable will: Duke has immense determination and strength of will, due to believing in the importance of taking active initiative when one wanted to make a difference.
* Multilingual: Duke is fluent in English, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, at least some French, and some Italian. He might be lingual in other languages.
*Expert Vehicular Driver: He is proficient in driving cars, motorcycles, trucks, jets, tankers, helicopters, motorboats, submarines, and some types of trains and utility vehicles.
==Gallery==
Category:G.I. Joe characters
Category:Males
Category:Protagonists
Category:Heroes
Category:Colonels
Category:Sergeants
Category:Animated characters
Category:Comic characters