the vynsane asylum

I could check the local comic shops down in the valley when I get home. Earth-2, ComicSmash, Secret Stash, etc. Between the half dozen peppered nearby my apt, I'm sure I can rustle up one or more of what you are looking for. maybe. Gimme a list.

Devil's Due talks a big game, but with only one viable franchise, one not so viable one ( Are they even still making Micronauts comics?), and a bunch of unheard of indy books, I'm sure they play it pretty close to the vest, fiscally, and cant afford to keep printing TPBs indefinitely.

It's odd that the ones that are OOP are the ones you'd think would be most popular: Master & Apprentice, Master & Apprentice II, Transformers vs GIJoe II (but not I or III)....

It's kinda funny that the paperback collections are supposedly a way to keep stories available without reprinting the originals, and to be more economical. For what people are asking for those, I could easily buy the original issues for a lot cheaper. It's like Marvel's GIJoe/Transformers crossover. The issues are worth $1 each at most, but the paperback (with the bitchin' Wildman cover) is like $50 and up.

Making it worse, it is on the same site as this and this. Go ahead. Cleanse your pallet. I'm not kidding when I say those are two of the best comics ever written. Especially the second one. I think I'm over to the Best of All Time thread to log that one on the list if it's not already there.

According to the solicits I've been reading, the end of the WWIII saga is the end of the series. Does this mean Devil's Due is losing the license? Looks like.

Which begs the question, is the next publisher going to continue this epic continuity started way back in 1981? Or are they going to attempt a "Reload" scenario and start from scratch?

The license is up for grabs in summer 2008.

I'd be fine if whoever gets it continued the world set up in the Marvel series, up through maybe issue 12 of the Devil's Due series. After that point, it got stupid. Serpentor dying every second issue, only to come back the following issue? Every dead Cobra (especially Skelton) coming back for vengeance? The Red Shadows coming from nowhere, decimating both teams, then suddenly vanishing into the realm of dangling plot threads?

America's Elite looked decent to begin with, but I had such a bad taste in my mouth after the end of the first series that I couldn't get into it. Also, for a book to supposedly want to tone down the ninja mumbo jumbo, the ninja stuff got stupid. Snake Eyes dying, his body being stolen, and him being resurrected some time later as a bad guy? Retarded and impossible. Say what you will, but everything ninja that Hama stuck in volume 1 had a factual basis. Even Storm Shadow's faked death and the Hard Master imitating Snake Eyes' heartbeat.

The only bright spot beyond the first several issues from Devil's Due was Cobra Commander totally pwning Serpentor like the punk bitch he is.

Luckily I was able to find my brother's collection of old Marvel Joes at my folks' place today. I reviewed issue 21 quickly - still SO sweet. Oddly enough they wound up in my car.... not quite sure how that happened.

I guess I have a run up to issue 82 with only one missing, and a smattering of issues later than that. I'm going to try and shop for cheap, "Fine" grade issues to finish off the run.

maybe you can get The Law to investigate the strange transfer to your car...oh wait, you ARE The Law !!!

JJ, the later issues are the hardest to come by. I'm actually missing the last three, since they came out over the summer. I ordered (and prepaid ) for them before going home from college for the summer. When I went back to pick them up, the fucking store had gone out of business! I hadn't bought them at home since I thought I had them waiting for me! And I'm not willing to drop $150 each for them, either.

However, a site called cobraaa.com had digital versions of the entire series up a few years ago. I wasn't able to download the entire run before someone apparently told them to cease and desist, but I did get the last 40-odd issues or so. If you just want reading copies, let me know.

Will do, thanks!

Okay, I have to admit it. I read maybe one issue of GI Joe as a kid. I watched the cartoon until 86 or so. I still have a bunch of childhood Joes, and... ah fuck it:

I have to ask one question: DOES ANYBODY LIKE SERPENTOR?

Really?

I don't think I've ever heard a complimetary thing ever written about Serpentor. Why do they keep bringing him back if everybody hates him? I mean, it would be funny to see CC pop a few caps in his ass, or otherwise send him out the hard way, but to me, Serpentor marked the moment the show got really stupid. The miniseries was alright, and had he died at the end he might have become a cool character... but Jeez. He sucks.

Pretty much everyone hates him.

Here's the deal: All the characters and personalities in the original toyline, up to a point, were created by Larry Hama, who was an editor at Marvel and who wrote the book himself when he couldn't convince anyone to take it. He is easily one of the best comics writers of all time, and it showed in GIJoe.

However, Hasbro had control of the property. They would occasionally commision covers and air TV commercials (remember those?) without the issue having been written. They had the final say on who appeared in the book and who didn't. And they wanted Serpentor. Hama apparently thought Serpentor was the dumbest thing since Snigtad Flornbi, but he had to include him. He wrote Serpentor as a figurehead, dreamed up by Mindbender to inspire the troops. But his DNA wanted more.

At some point a couple of years later, Hasbro apparently saw sales were in the toilet, and gave permission to drop Serpentor from the book. He became the first toy-based character to die. During the Cobra Civil War, wherein Destro fought Serpentor and they both fought the ineffectual Cobra Commander II (while the real deal was presumed dead), Zartan shot an arrow through his head, killing him instantly.

About two years after that, Hasbro allowed the book to become a bit more hardcore, though still very much based on the toyline. Hama brought back the original Cobra Commander to take charge and turn Cobra into a real threat again. His first act: burying a landlocked freighter under a volcano (long story, and not as stupid as the "short version" sounds), with several "traitorous" Cobras (including Firefly, Zartan, Mindbender, Raptor, the frozen corpse of Serpentor, and even his own son, Billy). Billy and Zartan escaped, and the others were presumed dead when crews counted the bodies.

However, no one remembered Serpentor's body being in there. To add insult to injury, Firefly mutilated the face of the corpse and dressed it in his clothes, so the body was mistaken for Firefly.

Everyone hates Serpentor. Except for the guy in charge of Devil's Due (the current license-holder), who has brought him back from the dead several times in the few years they've held the license. I'll bet anything their dwindling sales have a lot to do with his hard-on for the least popular character of all time. Even Crystal Ball sucks less.

Damnit Jon, you just HAD to get 'Nark goin' on a Serpentor rant, didn't ya ?

Be thankful he didn't bring up Duke at the same time. I'd still be going.