Hello everybody, hoodedCobraCumander7.net here. It's time for a GI Joe comic book review we are picking up where we left off so we are on issue number 28. In the previous issue we wrapped up the two-part snake eyes origin story. We also had a bee plot in which a squad of shows infiltrated a Florida swamp to investigate Zartan's cabin. In the cover we have an unidentified cobra vehicle we later learned that it's a rattler. Although the vehicle on the cover doesn't exactly follow the rattler design, it is attacking the GI Joe Mobak tank. Issue 28 is titled Swamp Fire, not to be confused with the Dreadknock Vehicle Swamp Fire. Ripwire, Torpedo, and Mut are returning from their mission to the freighter that operated as GI Joe's main sea base until they got the USS Flag. This issue was written by Larry Hama with pencils by Marie Severin. Marie Severin! Marie Severin was a legend, no wonder this issue looked so good. I did not recall that Marie Severin was involved with GI Joe and that is super awesome. Mut and Torpedo catch us up on the events of previous issues. This was common in these comic books of this era. Any issue could be someone's first issue so you kinda had to get people caught up on the story. Duke Wild Bill and Roadblock arrive on the Dragonfly helicopter and wow! Duke gets to ride inside and Roadblock has to ride outside on this skid. Rank has its privileges. Torpedo points out where the cabin is on a map, we are definitely going to get a battle. Cobra Commander and Firefly are at Zartan's cabin, but Zartan believes the Joe's are going to amount a full assault on that location. So Zartan and the Dreadknock say to hell with this, we're outta here. We get a brief interlude where a couple local police officers are waiting on a freight train. Drager asks for directions and then the GI Joe Mobat tank burst out of the train and accidentally side swipes the police cruiser. These two characters, Chief and RL are drawn to look a bit like Laurel and Hardy and I think that's one of the references. Chief also has some similarity to Jackie Gleason's character, Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit. And these two characters are similar to the Sheriff and Deputy Duane from Superman 2. The Sheriff was played by Clifton James. The Clifton James played Sheriff Pepper in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die in 1973. What we have here is a trope that would have been very familiar to readers in 1984 when this comic book was published. Back at the freighter we get a new vehicle, it's the killer whale, my favorite vehicle. Wild Bill and Doc occupy the Dragonfly helicopter. Duke cut her roadblock and deep sticks occupy the killer whale and we are off to fight Cobra. Destro has some Cobra Ratlers stashed away in empty oil tankers and it is a toy accurate Cobra Ratler this time. This is great. The Baroness flies back to the Cobra base in Springfield while Destro and Wild Weasel fly back to the swamp to attack the Joe's and rescue Cobra commander from the cabin. Back at the cabin, Firefly discovers one of the computer panels is fake and behind it is a video game style control panel. Somewhere on Route 56, the chief and RL are trying to pull over the mobat tank but stealer driving the tank just ignores them. The local police are totally in the right here. They have jurisdiction. The Joe team must have been given some special police powers by Congress because they often operate inside the United States and that would normally be illegal. Before we move on with the story, I want to pause and mention what a great job Marie Severin has done with these vehicles. These are mostly toy accurate vehicles, certainly more toy accurate than many issues we've gotten in this series. Firefly discovers the hidden computer panel controls a robot army of robot soldiers and his tanks. In Universe you could consider these robot soldiers to be precursors to the Cobra bats invented by Dr. Mindbender. They are like an earlier version of the bats. They are not quite as advanced. They are totally remote controlled and not autonomous. In reality, the Cobra bats would not have even entered the early design phase by 1984, so any similarity is totally coincidental. The chief decides he's going to threaten the Joe's with a shotgun if they don't pull that tank over, but he finds himself face to face with a robot army. A battle ensues, chief joins in and blasts the robots with his shotgun. There are too many robots and his tanks so breaker calls for backup. The killer whale diverts through the swamp to assist. There's another little cutaway with an older couple watching TV as the killer whale whizzes by. This is a reference to the painting American Gothic. Back at the battle, the MOBA tank and the police car are attacked by Cobra rattlers. In a brief one-page break from the action, the Baroness has returned to the Cobra base in Springfield and goes to the detention section where a major blood is imprisoned. The Baroness seems to be offering him a deal for his freedom. No doubt we will find out more about that in future issues. Destro and Wild Weasel are using thermal imaging to target the MOBA tank and the police car. The Joe's are desperately throwing buckets of water on the MOBA's engine to cool it down so it will not show up on the heat detectors. It's too late for the police car to get blown up. Fortunately, the chief and RL managed to escape. The Joe's successfully cooled down the MOBA's engine so it no longer shows up on the thermal targeting system in Destro's Rattler. Just then the killer whale shows up and they open fire on the Rattler. His plane takes some damage but he manages to turn around and spray the Joe's with bullets. Roadblocks gun was destroyed, deep six was hit but his gun still works. They still have one more chance to kill Destro. Destro is bearing down on them. Deep six discovers his turret will not elevate. He cannot aim his gun at the attacking plane. Roadblocks says, no, we don't give up like that. He takes the gun off the turret and puts it on his own back. So deep six can fire back at the Rattler. Destro bales out just before the Rattler is destroyed. Look at the cabin wild weasel has arrived to rescue Cobra Commander but since the Rattler only has one extra seat he can only rescue Cobra Commander. Firefly will have to find his own way out of the swamp. He is not happy about it. In the aftermath of the battle we see the Joe's wounded, this is something Larry Hama often included. These were not battles in which nobody got hurt. This was not the animated series. These battles had real consequences. As Firefly trudges through the swamp planning his revenge against Cobra Commander, he meets up with Destro who also seems to be happy with revenge against Cobra Commander. The issue ends with Zartan and the dreadnocks on their motorcycles heading north. North Miss Tessmucker. They know the Joe's came from the north and they want to find the Joe's hidden base. Next issue beach whale, the deadliest fish not in the sea. I liked this issue very much. It's not easy to follow the legendary two-issue origin of Snake Eyes story. This issue returns to staples of GI Joe. The story introduced new vehicles because of course they have toys to sell. It's done in a very fun way though. This story didn't move the plot forward very much, but we got a lot of excitement and action. I love Marie Severin's artwork here. It's very solid. The faces are all distinct. The uniforms are mostly correct. And she makes an effort to draw the vehicles mostly toy accurate. How did a legend like Marie Severin get involved with GI Joe? It's probably due to Larry Hama. Larry was an industry insider. He knew everyone and that was a benefit to the GI Joe series on more than one occasion. That was my review of GI Joe number 28. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did please give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to the YouTube channel and share this video. I have a lot of vintage GI Joe toy and comic book reviews in my back catalog. Please check them out and stay tuned for more. Support the channel on Patreon. It helps me continue doing these videos. I will see you next time and until then remember only GI Joe is GI Joe.