Welcome to 2025. We’re still in something of a vacation mode here at The Video File. To start the year off, we’re easing in with a mostly off-topic article that has no direct connection to either video or home theater, but that we hope some of you will enjoy anyway. Freshly unboxed is an item that will go on display in my increasingly cluttered home theater room – the new Skybound compendium reprint set of Marvel’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic book.
Technically, this package actually arrived on my doorstep a couple days after New Year. I should also note that this is a present I gave to myself, having backed a Kickstarter campaign that launched in June of 2024 and only started shipping product just before year-end. Nevertheless, its delivery falls within the general holiday time frame and is something I was excited to receive. I just need to find a good spot to store it near my collection of vintage G.I. Joe toys and other ephemera.
| Titles: | G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (#1-155 + Special #1) G.I. Joe: Special Missions (#1-28) G.I. Joe Yearbook (#1-4) The G.I. Joe Order of Battle (#1-4) G.I. Joe and The Transformers (#1-4) |
| Original Publisher: | Marvel Comics |
| Original Publication: | June 1982 – February 1995 |
| Reprint Publisher: | Image Comics |
| Reprint Publication | December 2024 |
| Primary Writer: | Larry Hama |
| Format: | Comic Book |
The G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero phenomenon was a critical part of my childhood that I still have enormous emotional attachment to today. One key aspect of the brand’s success was a tie-in comic book published by Marvel Comics, written primarily by Larry Hama. At its peak in 1985, G.I. Joe was Marvel’s top-selling subscription title. While the company’s famous superheroes may have moved more copies off newsstand racks, A Real American Hero had more dedicated subscribers than the Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, or the Fantastic Four.
Marvel’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero lasted 155 issues, from June of 1982 to December of 1994, its abrupt ending prompted by Hasbro’s cancellation of the toy line. That run was interspersed with several popular spin-off titles, most prominently G.I. Joe: Special Missions from 1986 to 1989.
The official final issue of Marvel’s A Real American Hero was quickly followed in February 1995 by a one-shot G.I. Joe Special #1, which reprinted the story from Issue #61 with different artwork. When originally published in 1987, Marvel’s editors had rejected the initial penciling by artist Todd McFarlane and had that issue redrawn by Marshall Rogers (who’d worked on Avengers and Silver Surfer around that time) instead. However, when the success of his Spawn comic shot McFarlane to industry prominence in the early 1990s, the publisher tried to cash-in on his growing fame by pulling some of his old work (previously deemed inadequate) out of the archive for one last grab at G.I. Joe fandom.
Contrary to common assumption, Hasbro did not cancel G.I. Joe in 1994 due to declining popularity (in fact, the toys had a sales resurgence in 1992), but rather due to internal corporate politics surrounding its acquisition of rival toy company Kenner. Following the merger, the remaining Kenner personnel took over action figure production in the new restructuring. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t want to work on what they felt was an aging and dated brand, and pushed for G.I. Joe to be redesigned and rebooted into a 1990s aesthetic.
The result of that was the steroid-pumped G.I. Joe Extreme, accompanied by its own new comic book at publisher Dark Horse. Unsurprisingly, G.I. Joe Extreme was a tremendous failure on toy retailer shelves and the comic was canceled after just eight issues.
The Skybound Era
Sorry for getting side-tracked there, but the point I’m getting to is that the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic actually lived on long past 1994. The title was relaunched at publisher IDW in 2010 with a so-called Issue #155 1/2 , that picked up the original story continuity with writer Larry Hama once again at the helm. That ran for another dozen years through Issue #300, whereupon the licensing rights transferred to Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment (published through Image Comics). Even today, Hama continues to churn out new issues at Skybound, where his story is currently up to Issue #312 as of the end of 2024.
At Skybound, Hama’s A Real American Hero remains an independent entity, separate from the canon of the label’s other new G.I. Joe titles in the shared Energon Universe. As a celebration of the writer’s long tenure on the book, Skybound licensed the rights to republish all of Hama’s G.I. Joe work at Marvel. In late 2024, both a standalone reprint of Marvel’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1 as well as a softcover compendium book of the first fifty issues were released. The latter can be purchased at many comic book and online retailers, including Amazon. Subsequent volumes collecting further issues will be released later.
However, many dedicated fans (myself included) had already backed Skybound’s Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year, and bypassed the retail compendium in order to wait for the more comprehensive, deluxe box set, which has finally been delivered.
Although I already owned a complete collection of Marvel’s G.I. Joe comics prior to this Kickstarter, my copies were a mishmash of original printings and reprints mixed together, and most were in poor shape, with faded ink and pages tattered from numerous re-readings. I’ve never particularly considered myself a comic book collector, and it took me years to even bother to put the issues in plastic sleeves for some moderate amount of protection. The opportunity to get a fresh set of all the issues in clean condition with vibrant printing and a display-worthy presentation was something I didn’t want to miss.
Depending upon pledge level, several options for the Kickstarter compendium were available, from as little as a PDF of just the Volume 1 book (the first fifty issues) to the full set of four hardcover books in a physical box with a bunch of bonus swag. The box itself was also offered in two variants, with artwork themed to either G.I. Joe or Cobra. I picked the Cobra box, and in discussions online, that seems to have been the more popular choice. (High-rolling backers also had an opportunity to buy both boxes at double the price, but I had no need or desire for that.)
The full Compendium Set collects all 155 issues of Marvel’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, as well as all issues of G.I. Joe: Special Missions, the G.I. Joe Yearbook, The G.I. Joe Order of Battle, and the G.I. Joe and the Transformers limited series. It does not contain any of Hama’s work for IDW on Issues #155 1/2 through 300, though hopefully Skybound may try to license those at a later time. Nor does the set contain any issues of G.I. Joe European Missions (Marvel’s reprints of a British comic originally called Action Force Monthly), or any G.I. Joe comics from other publishers, such as Devil’s Due Press, Dark Horse, Blackthorne, Dreamwave, or the many non-Hama titles from IDW. Those were all out of the scope of this project.
The Unboxing
As noted, my shipment of the Compendium Set arrived in early January. Impressively, the package was not just single- or double-, but actually triple-boxed for safety. Perhaps that was excessive, but I appreciate how well it protected the contents, especially given the current state of the package delivery industry. (Fed Ex flagrantly ignored the note posted on my door asking for all packages to be left inside the porch, and instead dropped my box outside in the rain. The driver didn’t even bother to ring my doorbell.)
The Compendium Set box itself has new, unique artwork on the front and back.
Panels open from the top to reveal the four hardbound book volumes inside. (Scroll to the right for another photo.)
Each book compiles approximately fifty comic issues. Pages are printed on newsprint, but of a higher quality than the retail standalone issues or softcover compendiums. The printing is crisp and, in comparison, colors and contrast are slightly richer than my copy of Skybound’s solo reprint of A Real American Hero #1. The packaging, presentation, binding, and print quality all mark this as a premium product for collectors. The entire set makes a handsome physical collectible that will look great on display.
Copies of the Compendium Set also come with a number of bonus items that vary by pledge level. My own contained dedicated copies of G.I. Joe Special #1 and G.I. Joe Yearbook #1, as well as a foil cover copy Issue #21 (the most famous issue of the series’ run). Strangely, I received two copies of Issue #21, which I think was a mistake.
Note that, although Yearbook Issues #2-4 are printed in full within the contents of the compendium volumes, Issue #1 is only partially reprinted there. That’s an intentional choice, not an error. The first Yearbook was mostly a reprint of A Real American Hero #1, and Skybound deemed it unnecessary to duplicate those contents within the already-large compendium books. The separate full reprint of the issue was added for completist collecting purposes. (See the “Order of Contents” section below for further information about this.)
Meanwhile, the extra copies of Issue #21 and Special #1 are arguably redundant to material also readable inside the compendium books.
Other trinkets I received include some posters, trading cards, art cards, a pin, a sticker, a bookmark, and a sew-on patch.
Qualms
Perfection is rarely achievable with anything in life. As impressed and pleased as I may be with the Skybound Compendium Set, I’ll admit to having a few reservations that hold me back from total satisfaction.
My first gripe is that none of the bonus items will fit inside the Compendium Set box itself, which is only large enough to fit the four hardcover volumes. Personally, I consider most of these (save perhaps the bookmark) to be cheap junk that I have little to no use for. Yet I feel compelled to keep them lest my collection not be “complete.” If they can’t be stored or displayed with the Compendium Set, that leaves me no choice but to throw them into a separate box where I’ll never look at them again. I really wish I could keep all this stuff together.
With about fifty issues each, the four compendium volumes are very thick and heavy books, and as such may be awkward or difficult to read. I hesitate to actually sit and page through the books, for fear of wearing out a spine before I’ve even half-finished a volume. Personally, I’d have preferred that this set be broken down into multiple smaller books – say, twenty thin volumes of ten issues each (or at least ten volumes of twenty issues each). That would have made the comics easier to read.
When I reviewed Skybound’s reprint of Marvel’s The Transformers Issue #1 last year, I made note of the appearance of a few typos in the text, resulting from a faulty digital scan of the original comic issue. While I haven’t had the chance to actually re-read every issue of G.I. Joe yet, I’ve seen discussion online that some of these issues also share that problem.
The Order of Contents
My biggest frustration with the Compendium Set is that none of the books has an index or Table of Contents – nor even page numbers. This becomes a rather significant problem considering how the contents are organized. Skybound’s Compendium Set includes not just all 155 issues of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, but also all of its spin-off titles published during the same era. In a decision not all fans agree with, issues of A Real American Hero, Special Missions, and the G.I. Joe Yearbook are intermingled with one another, in something that’s meant to resemble chronological order (yet decidedly isn’t).
This was done so that readers can follow the handful of storylines that cross over between A Real American Hero and Special Missions in their original sequence without needing to jump back-and-forth between compendium volumes. The Yearbook issues also contained new short stories and recaps of prior events that are most meaningful when read in order. That logic makes sense to me, but the lack of page numbers or a Table of Contents makes finding a particular issue incredibly difficult if you don’t already know where it belongs in the chronology.
The placement of many issues also doesn’t line up with their actual publication dates. For example, the Yearbook issues were published annually in March of 1985 (alongside A Real American Hero #33), March 1986 (with ARAH #45), March 1987 (with ARAH #57), and February 1988 (with ARAH #68). For some reason, Skybound has placed Yearbook #2 late, between ARAH #52 and Special Missions #1, while the partial contents of Yearbook #1 are shuffled all the way to the end of Compendium Vol. 2, after ARAH #76!
Other issues of A Real American Hero and Special Missions alternate in fits-and-spurts with little correlation to when they were originally published. If Skybound has some rationale for this reading order, it doesn’t make much sense to me yet.
At the back-end of Compendium Vol. 4, after A Real American Hero #155, are found all four issues of Order of Battle (a “Who’s Who?” assortment of character profiles) and G.I. Joe and the Transformers (which is not officially part of the Hama continuity), as well as Special #1 . Again, some sort of guide that explains where to find all these issues would have been incredibly helpful, at next-to-no extra expense to the publisher. Why wasn’t that included?
For reference (assuming I haven’t missed something), the contents appear to be organized as follows:
- COMPENDIUM 1
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1
- “Operation: Lady Doomsday” main story
- Pin-up profile of the HAL laser cannon
- Diagram of the PIT headquarters
- “Hot Potato” backup story
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #2
- Pin-up profile of Scarlett (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #3
- Pin-up profile of Breaker (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #4
- Pin-up profile of Flash (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #5
- Pin-up profile of Stalker (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #6
- Pin-up profile of the VAMP jeep (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #7
- Pin-up profile of MOBAT tank (originally published in ARAH #1)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #8-50
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1
- COMPENDIUM 2
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions preview “Best Defense“ (originally printed as a backup story at the end of ARAH #50)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #51-52
- G.I. Joe Yearbook #2
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #1
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #53
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #2
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #54-56
- G.I. Joe Yearbook #3
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #57-58
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #3-4
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #59
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #5
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #60-61
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #6
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #62-63
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #7
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #64-65
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #8
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #66-67
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #9
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #68
- G.I. Joe Yearbook #4
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #10
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #69-71
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #11-13
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #72-74
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #14-15
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #75-76
- G.I. Joe Yearbook #1 (story recap, character bios, and misc. notes only)
- COMPENDIUM 3
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #77-80
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #16
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #81-82
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #17-18
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #83
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #19
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #84
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #20
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #85
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #21
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #86
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #22
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #87
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #23
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #88
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #24
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #89-90
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #25
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #91
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #26
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #92
- G.I. Joe: Special Missions #27-28
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #93-113
- Misc. character pin-up illustrations (originally published in ARAH #152)
- COMPENDIUM 4
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #114-155
- G.I. Joe and the Transformers #1-4
- The G.I. Joe Order of Battle #1-4
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Special #1
Since Skybound didn’t bother to provide a breakdown of the issue order, I hope this list proves useful to anyone trying to make sense of these G.I. Joe comic compendium reprints. I expect that I’ll need to refer back to this page as I read through the books.
Late Addendum
It’s been brought to my attention that the original publication of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Issue #1 contained several additional pages that were shuffled to later in Vol. 1. I’ve updated the contents list above.
The issue also contained relevant ads for the G.I. Joe Mobile Strike Force Team fan club and the mail-away Cobra Commander action figure that do not seem to be reprinted in the compendium, unless they’ve been moved to some other random location I haven’t come across yet.
I should also note that, from what I’ve seen, none of the issues in these compendium volumes contain the original “Postbox: The PIT” letters page, which I believe started at Issue #7.
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