G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide, 1982-2008 Paperback – July 7, 2009

At first glance, this book looks like the perfect reference to the world of GIJoe: A Real American Hero. Unfortunately, though it is a worthy effort at such a volume, it suffers from some rather serious flaws.First, and definitely worst, is an attempt to integrate the various disparate GIJoe continuities (prior to Rise of Cobra) into one. This sounds like a good idea, and sometimes works well, such as mentioning the 1970s career of Joseph Colton (the "Original Joe") leading a civilian group called the "Adventure Team," apparently based on the 1970s Adventure Team toys. And, sometimes, seemingly contradictory elements are melded together more flawlessly than might be expected. For example, Bazooka was described in the comic and toyline as "decisive and quick-witted," but was a ludicrous moron in the TV series; here, it says his manner of speech makes him seem stupid and causes others to underestimate him, but he's really quite smart.The Marvel and Devil's Due continuities work quite well together, since Devil's Due published a continuation of the Marvel series set about a decade later. The trouble comes from trying to integrate these with the 1980s cartoon and the totally unrelated Sigma Six series, as well as the early 2000s Valor vs Venom and Spy Troops series of figures. For example, the bio of Lt Falcon, who was a screw-up in the cartoon, mentions his addiction to a Cobra-produced drug from a later episode of the DiC cartoon (the series that took place after the movie); this is completely incompatible with the noble character as he appeared in the comic. Cobra Commander's biography gives his Marvel origin as a disgruntled former used car salesman, but mentions his Cobra-La origin from the animated movie as a separately-circulated story. This seems like a good way to handle it, except that Roadblock's bio treats GIJoe: The Movie as fact, and specifically refers to Cobra Commander's further mutation from the movie, which simply cannot be made to jive with the more realistic comic version (who has always been 100% human).Possibly silliest, and most confusing, are the attempts to integrate totally unrelated series that happened to share a name. GIJoe: Sigma Six is referred to as a scaled-down version of the team, but most references seem to place it somewhere in the second year of the Devil's Due series. Valor vs Venom, which didn't even warrant a comic or TV series, appears to take place just prior. It's confusing, and most entries indicate a timeline was worked out to reconcile all this, only it's not anywhere in the book, and some of the entries make little sense (even to GIJoe geeks) without such a reference.Second, the choices as to who and what are covered in detail are sometimes confusing. There are a few strange omissions. For instance, why would Short-Fuze, a minor character who largely went unused during the entire series, warrant a bio entry as opposed to, say, Airborne, a fan favorite of some importance on the team, or even a character like Shooter, whose importance to the GIJoe origin story only appeared in a later comic? Why give Crystal Ball, widely acknowledged as of trivial importance, an entry but not Croc Master? Why list William "The Refrigerator" Perry (who was only released as a mail-away figure) in the complete roster of Joes, but not mention Sergeant Slaughter? (I can't stand Sergeant Slaughter, but the figure was in continuous production for the longest of any GIJoe, and he played a huge role in the cartoon.) For that matter, why is there no complete roster for Cobras?Third, there are no artwork credits anywhere in the book. Given how heavily this work rests on reproduced comic book covers and images, this is a shame. There are some beautiful images here, and these talented artists deserve at least the mention of their names on an appendix page. For that matter, there's no "real world" information at all. This wouldn't have to be in-depth, and would be more useful than the "bonus material" of two previously-published short stories from IDW Publishing's new GIJoe comics.Perhaps I've spoken at too much length about the flaws, though. If you're a GIJoe fan wanting a quick reference guide, or even a novice wanting a basic "roadmap" of what's come before, this book is well worth picking up. The pros of this book do indeed outweigh the cons. Just don't expect it to be the perfect, complete guide that the title "The Essential Guide" would indicate.

Item arrived in good condition

This guide is kind of awesome… to a point. If you’ve ever wanted a true handbook of the GIJoe and Cobra characters beyond the file cards, this might interest you. It actually provides bios of the characters from the comics incorporating details from the SunBow animated series and the post-Marvel Comics comic series. While a true buff will know exactly which story-lines come from where, some readers like myself will not. Unfortunately, the book gives brief looks at some characters and expanded looks on others. While some characters like Duke and Scarlett get full bios, others get personality profiles. The book really should have stayed consistent and taken a cue from the Marvel Handbooks with a constant template throughout. I know characters like Low-Light and Lifeline may not be that popular, but it still would have been nice to have first appearances and complete bios on everyone instead of partial profiles on many. It should be noted Sgt. Slaughter is not included in the book (possibly because of a lapse in the licensing permission with the WWF). The Silver Brigade from the personalized Hasbro promotion is omitted too.

This is actually a nice guide to the G.I Joe animated series, and the comic books. It gives a brief on almost all the characters of both G.I. Joe & COBRA (even some of the least known characters). There are sections on the special vehicles (from land, air & sea), as well as a breakdown on some of the comics & TV series storylines.If you are a G.I. Joe fan (or just someone trying remember wonderful memories from your childhood), I would recommend this book to you.

Pages are torn, and there is some sort of plastic barcode stuck to one of the pages and it’s tearing thru. Definitely not what I was expecting for that price.

This book covers a limited amount of characters and events in the GI Joe universe, meshing together comic book, cartoon, and file card histories into a cohesive whole. While a great many popular characters are overlooked, several characters have very well-rendered entries. Sadly, the limited focus and range of subjects serve to decrease the value and enjoyment of this work.

My book I ordered was in great shape and exceeded my hopes as far as color photos and details

This a great coffee table book for anyone that is a fan of GI Joe. The book contains a wealth of information on all the major characters along with the various weapons, and vechicles that they use. A definite must-have for all Joe fans. Yo Joe!

'G.I Joe vs Cobra' is probably the best guide to the G.I Joe characters and comic-book history available at the current time.Just short of 200 pages long, and published in UK magazine-style format, the book contains detailed entries on the most prominent Joe characters, including Hawk, Duke, Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, Roadblock, Flint, Lady Jaye and various others, as well as similar entries on the key agents of Cobra, such as Cobra Commander, Destro, Storm Shadow, Zartan and the Baroness.Each entry contains 'fact-file' information such as identity, military speciality and training, rank and birthplace, as well as detailed character origins and history (which refers primarily to the events of Marvels G.I Joe comic series of the 1980's to early 1990's). In addition to these detailed entries, there are numerous entries for many of the lesser known Joe and Cobra personnel - perhaps 30 entries for each faction - and also a complete roster of both the Joe and Cobra organisations.Also included are entries on many of the vehicles used by the Joe and Cobras over land, sea and air (and even space), with each entry including information such as weaponry, range, top speed and special equipment. As with the personnel files, there is also a summary of all of the Joe and Cobra vehicles that appeared during the series.Finally we have Joe 'Mission Reports', which detail a number of prominent stories and events occurring across both the comic-book and animated series, such as the invasion of Springfield, the Cobra Island civil War and the Weather Dominator.In all circumstances each entry is illustrated with a combination of either original artwork commissioned just for this book, stills taken from the animated series, art lifted from the pages of the comics book, or packaging art taken from the G.I Joe toy line. The information in the book is accurate up to the beginning of the IDW comic book series, first published in about 2009.In terms of criticism there are a couple. Firstly, whilst it is probably the best guide available, it is still far from definitive as it only contains specific entries on about 50% of the Joe and Cobra characters. Secondly, the mission reports section confusingly mixes up examples of stories from both the comic book and animated series, despite the fact that it is well known that the two had no direct influence on each other and never crossed over in any official capacity. As well as the only fleeting reference to the animated series, there is no reference what so ever to the Joe toy line - sections on both of which would have made this a much more conclusive guide to the franchise.So whilst the book does have a somewhat amateur feel about it in some respects, it is still an admirable effort and an entertaining read - although almost all of its content refers to the original G.I Joe comic series, so it may be of limited interest to those who arrived late to the Joe franchise.