Skybound Entertainment’s G.I. Joe’s Silent Missions Beach Head #1!

This is writer Kelly Thompson, and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hey, it's Jesse

Rass here, and you've made the great escape into

comics by jumping inside the pull bag today.

You've just jumped inside the pull bag. Join

TFG1 Mike and the rest of the comic crew here

at the GCRN as they make their great escape into

comics. From DC, Marvel, and Image to IDW, Boom

Studios, and Xenoscope, we have everything right

here. We cover things like Transformers, He -Man,

superheroes, TMNT, and Radiant Black. Yeah, we

have all that and so much more. It's all inside

the pull bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

So without further ado, it's time to talk about

the comics we're reading right now here inside

the pull bag. The first thing I'm going to ask

you is. how have you liked that don't answer

this now obviously but how have you liked the

skybound gi joe stuff and i'm not talking about

real american hero i'm talking about the other

stuff the energon stuff yeah the energon stuff

gi joe will return after these messages well

hello everyone it is i tfg1 mike coming to you

with this little programming note i mentioned

in the previous episode that This episode was

recorded a year ago, and it was. I actually don't

remember when this episode was recorded, but

please enjoy myself and Mike Irizarry from What's

On Joe Mind as we discuss the Skybound Entertainment

Silent Mission, G .I. Joe Silent Mission Beachhead

One -Shot from a year ago. Now, back to G .I.

Joe. You've just jumped inside the pull bag.

This is episode 581. Holy crap, folks. We've

got 19, 18, 19 episodes to 600. I'm, of course,

TFG on mic. I probably already said that, but

I don't know, because I'm crazy. Returning? I

don't remember the last time he was on. I don't

even remember if I did a Comic Origins with you

or not. I forget. We did. Okay. Look, man, after

580 episodes of a podcast in 12 and a half years,

I totally understand where you're coming from

on that. I'm lucky I can keep every episode straight

in my head. Like, Oh, what episode was that?

I'm like, that was five 70 or that was four 37

or that was, uh, I couldn't, I couldn't give

you a number as to what I was on. It was about

maybe a year and a half ago. I think we were.

Yeah, it was about a year and a half ago. And

I'm sure I'll have the link in the show notes

for Mike. There is a comic origins reading comic

origins, but he has returned because. Skybound

Entertainment, Under Image Comics, along with

Hasbro, has started the G .I. Joe Real American

Heroes Silent Missions five -issue series. We're

going to get to that, but first of all, you are

a huge G .I. Joe fan, for those that don't know.

Yes. You are a huge Beachhead fan, for those

that don't know. Also, yes. That didn't listen

to the other episode. Why are you a huge Beachhead

fan? You know, it goes back to the toy, mostly.

The file card on the toy, I think, painted a

colorful personality for this character, and

he just kind of resonated for what I thought.

A military hero was. And then, of course, the

G .I. Joe cartoon was on at the time. I was,

of course, a child when that was on. And he was

fine there. Like, it's not really my favorite

version of the character, but there are some.

I know he got played as the straight man against

some of the more comedy elements of the show

a lot. But there, too, he was always a competent

soldier. He was a tough nut to crack. when busting

Cobra skulls. And so he was pretty cool there

too. But it's kind of taken a life of its own

as an adult collector. It was, it was, I was,

I was active in the forum scene back in 2003

to about 2008. I was an admin at Joe sightings

.com. I was an admin at Joe battle lines. and

active in a few other places as well. And my

handle on those sites was always Beachhead. And

so as we rolled through that second wave of my

fandom in G .I. Joe, he just became a character

that I was associated with more than I personally

associated with. Gotcha, gotcha. Like somebody

would say, oh, hey, did you see what Beachhead

did? And they would be talking about me. And

so there was kind of a, you know, almost a bound

identity there. And so it's taken a life of its

own here in what I'll consider wave three as

I've just become, you know, an avid collector

of anything that has to do with my guy, you know.

beachhead and um i have very many of the version

one figure yeah i don't know exactly how many

right now which is a it's it's a cop -out i know

i but i i honestly just haven't counted for a

couple of weeks more than 50 more than well we'll

say almost somewhere around 200 okay that's what

i figured yeah it's around 200 yeah It was one

of those where we did an episode, for those that

don't know, I have also hosted What's On Joe

Mind for the last 14 years. 14 years next week,

we're recording this days before we do our 14th

anniversary episode. And people won't hear it

until God knows when, but yay, happy anniversary.

Right, right. I know. We'll probably be working

15 before that one. Oh, hey, now. Come on, now.

I'm not that. No, no, no. But thank you for that

late anniversary greeting. I appreciate it. So,

anyways, where were we going with this? So if

the cartoon isn't your favorite version of him,

what is your favorite version of him? Honestly,

I tend to like the picture that, again, that

the file card painted way back when we first

saw him in 1986. And that was a card that was

written by Larry Hama. And that's who we've seen

in the book, the comics all these years, even

though he hasn't been a real major player in

the comics. Beachhead seems to be a guy that

he likes to present as one of the top agents

on the team. When there's a hairy mission, Beachhead

tends to be involved, even if you don't get to

see too much of him personally. This is really

the first time we've seen Beachhead in a spotlight

in the run of the homiverse, right? And I hate

that term, but for ease, we'll use it here. And

so, you know, Larry, he's one of those guys that

Larry has liked to use, but has never given center

stage. And so I was excited when this one was

announced. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, as soon as

I saw it, I was like, hey, it's time to have

Mike back on the show. Right. You see what I'm

saying? It just became associated with me. Yeah,

exactly. What is your overall opinion of the

G .I. Joe side of the Skybound Energon Universe

stuff? I'm actually really enjoying it. I know

that's not a popular, or I shouldn't say it's

not popular, but it's certainly not the only

thread you see out there if you get on Internet

Fandom and all, but that's Internet Fandom for

you. Anytime something is different from... From

what's been rolling around in your own personal

head cannon for the last 30 or 40 years, it's

just instantly bad and we shouldn't accept it.

But I don't feel that way at all with this. I

had my concerns. I have to admit, I was always

a guy who, when the question was asked, hey,

do G .I. Joe and Transformers exist in the same

universe? I was always very much a no, they don't.

That was always my answer, even though it did

happen back in the day when the Transformers

book was canceled and Larry Pama was given the

orders to include Generation 2 Transformers stuff

in the G .I. Joe book. But that part of their

history seems to have been forgotten. So it almost

like it got... got retconned out by ignoring

it for 20 years. So, um, I, I was hesitant. I

have to admit, I had some misgivings, but the

way they've set it up has been pretty cool. Um,

I I'll, I'm not a big fan of the void rivals

book. I think it just kind of, it's pretty slow.

It just feels like it's exposition. Really? Yeah.

I just, I can't, I can't connect to it. You know,

it just, I I've, I appreciate what it's doing.

It fills in a lot of gaps, but on the whole,

it's not something that I'm excited to read every

month. The Transformers book is okay. I think

the body counts a little high for as early in

the run as we are. It's one of those where I

don't think the creative team is necessarily

respecting that. Transformers is a big universe

with many diverse characters that has been established

over decades, and everybody is somebody's favorite.

And I understand not everybody can have a major

role, but we've already seen some pretty popular

characters just kind of show up for two panels

and then get aced. So that leaves me a little

cold when it's been done as often as it's been

done. And I'm glad that... Go ahead. Go ahead,

Mike. No, go ahead. Finish it. Finish it. I'm

glad that G .I. Joe hasn't necessarily gone that

way, R .I .P. rock and roll. But one of those

characters had to go early, right? Yeah. You

knew that was going in. Yeah, in G .I. Joe they

did. So I'm not, you're the diehard here. I'm

not. I'm on the outskirts. I have obviously been,

I do a podcast, my buddy Jesse. His podcast,

another comic review. That's mainly where we've

been covering the Energon universe stuff. And

I sometimes will syndicate it over here on the

pull bag with this silent mission stuff that

we're going to be talking about here in a few

minutes, folks. I'm just doing five weeks straight,

five episodes, 581 to 585, just one issue per

and just having a run. of these silent machines

because as you said briefly off air these essentially

exist outside of because they're a part of the

real american hero homoverse even though yeah

that doesn't yeah i get it it's easy it's lazy

i almost have to use it because it's been adopted

but i hate it yeah it doesn't know so like for

me i remember watching an episode here or there

But I more so remember Cobra Commander showing

up at the end of Only Human. You never want to

mess with a terrorist, Mr. Draft Cobra. At the

end of Only Human in Season 3 of Transformers.

Transformers, right. Yeah, so this, when the

Energon stuff came out, I was like, okay, I'll

give it a shot. And what do you think? Cobra

Commander, I'm not a horror guy, so Cobra Commander

was a little much for me. It wasn't scary scary.

It wasn't like Freddy Krueger kind of thing.

It wasn't like Jason kind of thing, but it was

still... I remember reading from the creative

team on Cobra Commander, this is meant to be

a horror book. This is Cobra Commander doing

horrors. Okay. Eh, whatever. I think Scarlet's

my favorite of the individual character books

so far. I love Kelly Thompson's writing and the

art in that was really good. Duke just seems

to be... That book was action. I loved the story.

It was non -stop. You got in at the start of

the ride and you were just going 50 miles an

hour the whole way. Yep, absolutely. Duke, it

seems like they didn't know what to do with Duke.

I think Duke was the first one, right? Yeah.

By rule, it became the prequel book for G .I.

Joe. Yeah. And so I think Duke was more reliant

on plot than some of the other, than certainly

the Destro book was, than the Scarlet book was,

and the Cobra Commander book was. Those three

characters kind of got to have their own arc,

whereas the Duke book was more about the beginnings

of G .I. Joe. And so it had a bigger scope, and

so it was a little bit messier to try and rein

in to the five -issue format that they had set

up for these things. So I gave it a little bit

of leeway on that. I liked it. I appreciated

that we got to meet some of the team then, so

we didn't have to worry about that and could

just hit the ground running. When we hit the

main ongoing. Yeah. And then Destro, ugh. See,

I liked Destro. Because we're not going to have

the opportunity to give him that kind of a spotlight

to necessarily get into his driving force, his

rationales, his motivations. And so I think Destro

is necessary because he's going to be a real

important part of the book proper. He needed

some time to breathe so you knew what he was

about going in. Destro was the first time I'd

ever read anything by Dan Waters, who wrote,

I believe it was Dan that wrote Destro, if I

remember correctly. So that's the first time

I had ever read anything from this person. I

would... rather have Kool -Aid Man write Destro

than have Dan write anything else in G .I. Joe

and unfortunately he's going to be writing Jinx

in this silent well thank god he's not going

to be writing it because it's a silent mission

but it's one of those things where after we read

Destro's series I was like oh man I hope this

ongoing is going to be so much better than the

end of this oh I was so Between the end of Destro

and the third arc of Transformers, I was so close.

Right now, as of this recording, Transformers

19 just came out. I can't wait until issue 25

when they get a new writer for Transformers.

I don't feel like... daniel warren johnson is

a bad writer i just think oh no three arcs is

too much for one person that wants to constantly

deal with star scream constantly wants to and

i don't mind this part but this is what he does

he throws in wrestling moves which is kind of

cool seeing the transformers do wrestling moves

but overall like that's not what we're there

for and i just feel like it yes Every book is

better with suplexes. Every single comic. Every

one of them. Okay. All right. I just feel like

at the end of that run or the end of issue 18,

I'm just like, oh, man, I am so exhausted. I

need fresh written blood here for Transformers.

Right, right. I hear you on that. And I'll throw

in that I need. I almost need smaller stories

at this point. Like, it's been 18 issues of cataclysmic

events in Transformers, and I'm just tired, right?

I'm exhausted. Yeah. And the other thing is,

Skybound, under Image Comics, Skybound Entertainment,

under Image Comics, I always have to say that

because I have to remind myself that it is an

imprint of Image. They... do and do not do the

spotlight or the single issue or the standalone

or the whatever obviously we have these gi joe

silent missions that we're doing here but there's

still five of them it's yeah yeah yeah and and

they did the five issue miniseries why in the

sam hell do you throw it look we all know most

people know that i've read comics for any amount

of at least more than two years 1 to 6, 7 to

12, 13 to 18. Those are three full arcs of six

issues each. That's three story arcs. Why in

the hell they got to throw in a wrench like doing

a Starscream origin story in 13 and 14? That

is what screwed me up. For that second story

arc to start. And then we go to a star. No, that

should have been a separate thing. That should

have been the Starscream two issue thing that

we had for 13 and 14. That should have been a

five issue miniseries all about Starscream somewhere

separate other than the ongoing. See, I'll appreciate

that they did not pad out more in a story that

they didn't feel they had, right? That's true.

I'm sure it was considered. These guys, comic

book writing these days is... I feel like everybody's

got a whiteboard and they make the trees out

to see where things lead to and what comes back.

You get what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying.

I get the feeling that when the Starscream story

hit the whiteboard... I think it was probably

given that consideration and then just like,

well, really, I don't know where we'd be padding

it quite a bit to, to get to five issues and

the timing would then be off with the rest of

the book. And so I, I get it. I appreciate it.

I don't mind taking a step out. Like that was

you, you brought up those two issues. I was going

to bring up the most recent issue where you just

kind of have a, a Megatron flashback. Yep. um

i i kind of appreciated the break yeah i didn't

mind the megatron break because it was one issue

and then it's gonna start again you know it's

gonna i mean we didn't see much and i mean other

than you know him going through the trial five

million times but you know right i mean we we

needed to we needed to figure out yeah megatron

a little bit so that's a little bit anyway We're

here to talk about G .I. Joe, folks. And this

series, this five -issue series that we have

here for the Silent Missions, is all because

of G .I. Joe, Real American Hero, Silent Missions,

Editions 21. I'm assuming you read this, right?

Because I didn't read this. Read which one? The

original, the 21, the landmark one that started

all of this. Okay. How have you not caught up

with that by now? Yeah, I'm in the Transformers

camp, man. Look, I get you, but when people put

together lists of greatest single issues in comic

book history, G .I. Joe number 21 shows up on

those lists. Oh, I'm sure. Even if you don't

care to go and reread the whole thing, which

I would still recommend doing up until about

issue 100, after that it's a little bit optional

but before that it's a really good book so so

i would say you know at some point sure do that

for yourself but you really have to read issue

21 it's if nothing else you you can see it like

it It feels less special now because so much

of the visual storytelling cues from that book

have been aped and copied a million times since.

Yeah. It's that big of a trendsetter. Yeah. Okay.

So it's required reading for comic book fans.

Even if you don't bother with the rest of the

series, issue 21 is required reading. Join us

next week, folks. It's that. It stands alone

on its own. Does it plug into the bigger story?

Yes. But at its heart, is it Snake Eyes and Storm

Shadow fighting it out in Castle Destro? Yeah.

And it's encapsulated pretty well in those 20

-odd pages. Yeah. Very cool, very cool. So tonight

we are starting with Beachhead for the silent

missions. He gets the first issue. According

to the copy here on Image's website, superstar

creators present unforgettable all -new G .I.

Joe silent missions. The face of comic books

changed forever when G .I. Joe Real American

Hero number 21 introduced fans to the silent

interlude, an action -packed story with no dialogue.

Now in the standalone silent issue from Phil

Hester. Wrote Green Arrow and a bunch of other

stuff. Fan favorite Beachhead is trapped in a

DMZ and hunted by the forces of Cobra. But can

Beachhead save himself and the war orphans he's

vowed to protect? Of course he can. Why can't

he? He can do anything. He's a badass, man. That's

right. So as I mentioned, writer, penciler, Phil

Hester, Travis. Heimel or Himmel is on, is on

inks. And then Lee Lockridge is the colorist

for this. Oh man. Like I wasn't sure, like if

you did the reverse of this and take the images

out, it's just a prose novel. Like if you just

had a script and like it, it's literally just

a prose novel. So I wasn't sure like how well

I was going to be able to follow this, but it's

fairly easy and you, you get it fairly well.

And it's, I really dug it. Yeah, I thought this

was super fun. I mean, it's dark as hell, but

it's super fun. Yeah, look, Phil Hester is a

hell of a get for Skybound to do a G .I. Joe

book. Phil Hester is apparently a big G .I. Joe

fan. I've gone online and I've seen a lot of

fan sketches that he's done. He hasn't done a

whole lot with G .I. Joe in canon. But it's apparently

a favorite of his to sketch for fans when he's

out and about on the convention circuit and what

have you. So it's really cool that he gets a

chance to do this. I was thrilled when I saw

that he was going to handle my favorite character.

And as far as the story itself goes, it's fine.

I have a complaint that what you read, which

is off of Image's website, it's not at the front

of the book, right? Like the actual comic could

use that setup. Yeah. But I, but I like that

it starts out slow. So, okay. So as, as we're

going through this and as always, folks, we usually

go page by page here around these podcast parts.

I like that. It's that we start with the helicopter

crash. Sure. No, no, no, no. I'm not saying that

we needed to, to set up the story itself, but.

but a couple of sentences to set up the location.

Oh, okay. Literally, the two sentences that you

just read off of the Image website could be on

the inside cover of the comic. They are not.

If you're not plugged into the Image website,

as many fans of this book probably aren't. You

know, that would be just a couple of sentences

of lead -in that would be a nice, would help

set the tone, would help set the mood. I just

noticed this on the creative page, on the front

page, under the Silent Missions logo. With deepest

respect to Larry Hama, Steve Aliobla, okay, you

can pronounce that, and George Broussos. And

with deepest apologies to letterers everywhere,

especially Pat Pruso, I'm like, oh, you guys,

come on. But yeah, you're right. But I get the

concept. The concept is you need to figure it

out. Again, I don't look at these comics as,

and I don't, even with the Energon Universe stuff,

I don't look at these as... Hey, kids, come read

this comic. This is, hey, 40 -something -year

-old G .I. Joe fans, come read this comic. It's

for us, is who it's for. I agree with you. I

mean, you could have had, like, unknown DMZ.

Two words up at the top left, or whatever kind

of thing. But you're just supposed to use your

imagination. I guess that's the whole point,

is we're supposed to use our imagination as far

as to where the hell they are. Yeah, but even

if you go back to the original issue 21, there

was a couple of sentences on the inside cover

to explain what was going to happen. So I don't

think they're breaking their own rules by just

saying, in this issue, Beachhead is trapped behind

enemy lines in a foreign DMZ and has vowed to

protect. War orphans, the war orphans who helped

nurse him to health, you know, just something

that would have been enough. Yeah. But instead

we're just kind of, we'll just kind of get into

it, I guess. We'll make it up as we go along.

Yep. So anyways, page one. Yes, page one. We

do get right to the action. Like you get a couple

of panels. These kids are feeding pigeons on

the roof of the building they live in. And you

see. Before you get halfway through, they can

see the damaged helicopter above them on its

way down. And it bounces off of their roof, which,

I mean, amazing that anybody walked away from

this. Yeah, exactly. And then on page two, in

the full -page splash, a couple of Cobra troops

and Beachhead are just flying out of the plane.

Yep. Like it's Sunbow all over again. Hey, man.

You know. And Beachhead is bound. So he's not...

These guys are not going to have good landings.

But they are at least falling out of a low -flying

helicopter onto this roof. So it's not as bad

as it could have been. It's not as bad as it

could have been. But yeah, no, I... This is just...

Looking at this again, it's like, oh, wow. And

I literally just read this like 20 minutes before

we started, folks. And I'm like, this is real.

I wasn't sure how cool these were going to be.

And so far, I'm digging this. Yeah. Well, again,

it helps. They spent big on creative talent for

these books. Yeah. So we have probably the biggest

name. Well, the name that I knew the most about.

in, in, as far as the five creators doing these

five issues is Phil Hester and they put him in

the lead off spot and that's probably on purpose.

Oh yeah, absolutely. So anyways, uh, by page

three, you, you see the, uh, the two orphans

who were feeding pigeons a moment ago. Uh, we

got a better look at them. Uh, the, the older

sibling, the, the girl is horrified as she should

be that these. These men have fallen out of an

exploded helicopter onto their roof and are tumbling

all over the place in ugly fashion. Whereas the

younger one, the boy, and the look on his face

is important. He is smiling. He's excited. And

you see in front of him, he's been playing with...

He's got a soldier in one hand and an alien monster

in the other. So this is like right out of his...

Imagination. Yeah, like he was playing, and then

he looked up, and it's actually happening right

in front of him. Yep. So it's a neat reaction

there, and it's important for later in the book.

Yeah. So magically, everybody who fell out of

the helicopter, the two Cobra Troopers and Beachhead,

are alive and conscious. And they get into a

fight. Right. Beachhead has managed to get his

arms in front of him. which is a bad problem

for, for Cobras. He already looks, he already

looks beat up. Uh, clearly he had been taken,

he had been taken captive in some off camera

fight that happened beforehand. Yeah. Immediately

goes about taking down the first of the Cobra

troopers, chokes him out. Uh, you see him go

down. The, the, the, the orphans are huddled

over by the chimney. Uh, one of them pulls a

gun or rather the second, uh, Cobra trooper pulls

a gun and one of the orphans yells out to beachhead

to warn him. So then beachhead has, is busy choking

out the first Cobra wheels around and, and, uh,

does that cool action movie thing where he, he,

uh, the, the twists around and, and, and the

Cobra troop takes all the bullets. That's right.

Cause you know, make do with what you got. And

Beachhead takes the opportunity to, to cover

behind a different chimney. Cause chimneys are

the best cover ever. I mean, I know there's not

a lot of cover. They're made out of bricks. They're

good covers. That's true. So then we, we roll

over to page. What is that? Five, three, four,

five. Yeah. Maybe something like that. Five beginning

of page five. Uh, we see Beachhead reestablishing

himself. He's standing behind the chimney. The

other trooper, the one that fired at him. has

grabbed the young boy by the collar and is now

pointing the gun to his head and threatening

him. He is yelling something at Beachhead to

come out with your hands up. Beachhead complies

and is immediately met with a bullet in the leg

and another one that hits the side of his head.

Beachhead not looking too good right about now.

Yeah, he was already beat to hell, and now he's

got one piece of lead in him and a head wound.

Yeah, that's not good. He is obviously stunned

or worse. Yeah. The Cobra Trooper comes up. Looks

like an officer. He's got the placard on his

helmet. Comes over to do the double tap and finish

the job, and the piece of roof that he is leaning

on gives way. Yep. It did just have a helicopter

bounce off of it after all. That's true. Everybody

go crashing down, down, down, down. So he, by

sheer stroke of luck, goes over the side. And

Beachhead is about to join him as the roof decomposes

and loses its integrity. But the two kids save

him. Miraculously. They, they grab him by the

legs and, and they, they pull him back to, to

safety. They get them on a, on a, on a bed sheet

and they kind of work him down the stairs to,

to the apartment that they're living in. Yeah.

I love this, this whole scene, this, the, the

following, the crumbling of the bill, the side

of the building, the falling, them trying to

essentially pick him up or pull him down further

or whatever. And then. Essentially, like you

said, carrying him away to their apartment. I

absolutely love this page. This looks so good.

Right. I had somebody say to me that that was

totally unrealistic because there's no way that

these two kids would know to do these things.

And I just kind of shook my head at it because

I don't have the experience of growing up in

a war -torn country. but I'm going to guess that

I would have some really impressive survival

skills if I did. Yeah. So, so these kids knowing

how to transport somebody bigger than them and

knowing, you know, basic first aid, how to clean

wounds, you know, basic field triage, things

like that. Yeah. I get it because when I was,

when I was these kids age, I, I would. You know,

be running to ask mom where the band -aids were,

and that's about the best I was going to pull

out. We grew up soft here in the U .S. of A.

Well, yeah. So if you can't comprehend that these

kids did not grow up soft. Yeah, I don't know

what's, yeah. Yeah, I got nothing for you at

that point. Yeah, no, nothing for you. But yeah,

like, yeah, I mean, yeah. I've done a lot of

talking, Mike. How are you feeling? No, I'm loving

this. And the way you're saying about the like,

yeah, you're absolutely right. Because and this

is just my stupid American bias, apparently.

But I keep seeing these damn I keep seeing these

damn pigeons. I'm like, oh, it's a New York City

roof. And then I realized, no, it's not. It's

a damn foreign country. New York City is not

a DMZ, at least not yet. Right. Give it time.

There was some run back in the 70s and 80s where

I think some of the residents would have disagreed

with you. Okay, well, you know. But yeah, you're

right. These are not American children. These

are children in some war -torn country. Some

children in a demilitarized zone somewhere. And

there are two of them. Now, I can see if it was

just the boy by himself or the girl by herself.

Right. Not being able to do this, but since they,

and it seems like they've done this before. Right.

Because. I get the impression that despite the

fact that they don't look very similar, that

they are related. Oh, yeah. I assume. And I think

by the time we get to page seven, we see the

pictures on the wall of the apartment that they

have taken Beachhead to. Yep. In which you see

the boy and the girl, they're a little bit younger.

And standing behind them is their mom, who's

got a stethoscope around her neck. Yep, so doctor.

So right there, they were paying attention, and

either they picked it up from watching mom, or

mom was smart enough to teach them the basic

tenets of first aid. And there's a first aid

kit handy. We also see a picture of either dad

or grandpa with war medals, and another one's

by the pigeon coop. So clearly they are taking

care of dad, grandpa's pigeons. Yep. And that

explains why they're on the roof. So great use

of the space. Yeah, absolutely. Again, Phil Hester

is one of the best. He is, even without actual

words in the book. Because again, visual storytelling

is an interesting medium. We have to infer all

of this. the look that she gives him on this

next page, the, the, the six panel page here,

she just kind of like looks back at, at the,

at her brother or whatever. It's like, Oh, okay.

Huh? Uh -huh. Yeah. You know, second half of

page seven, seven, uh, the, the girl is beginning

to dress speech heads wounds. Yep. Uh, whereas

her little brother spies his big hunting knife,

uh, on his, on his, uh, utility belt. and reaches

for it. Because again, he's been playing soldier,

and now there's a real soldier in front of him,

and he is enthralled. She kicks his hand. Yep.

And starts giving him orders. You can tell that

she's telling him to focus, that this isn't playing

around, and that she needs his help if they're

going to save Beachhead, and she kind of kicks

him out. Yep. So the boy goes back to the roof,

or he goes down to the base, rather, where the

trooper had fallen from the roof. Yep. And salvages

his pistol and belt, complete with Cobra sigil

on it. Yeah. And brings it back. Yep. Well, they

bring it to who? Who's that guy? Well, I mean,

it brings it back to the apartment first. And

again, you see more of his toys. Yeah. Soldiers

and monsters. And so she, his sister, doesn't

see the belt, but sees him holding the gun. You

know, holding something, hiding something. Yeah.

And then goes over to... you know, to see what

they've got to eat, what, what they can possibly

feed beachhead to get them on his feet. Uh, they've

only got one can of sardines and then she sees

the gun that he's stashed with his toys. Yeah.

Um, so she takes it because she, she's a very

bright girl and understands that this kid in

the state of mind that he's in does not need

to have a firearm and, but also understands.

that this is something that is valuable and can

be traded for something useful. So she heads

over to the de facto, I'm going to guess local

mobster. Yeah. Guy who can get a hold of things

that are difficult to find in demilitarized zones.

As you can see, he's a big guy. you know, big

shiny head. Um, and his, his goon is next to

him with his big baseball bat, brandishing it

in front of the crowd. Uh, she, she gets to the

front. She waves this, this Cobra bag in front

of him. And, and so he trades it for a first

aid kit. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah, no, this is. And,

and, and a CB or radio or some sort of radio,

some sort of something. Yeah. Cause she got to

call somebody, but then. Right. She hustles away.

Yeah. She hustles away, but then Cobra shows

up. Oh crap. Right. So Cobra shows up. Uh, they,

and Terry, they, they see the, uh, the mobster,

the local mobster, uh, with, with the Cobra belt

or, or, and, uh, he sells her out. So clearly

he knows who this girl was. They were in the

same town or whatever. And, um, And so the girl

comes back. She's got the radio and the first

aid kit and goes back to the apartment. She sees

smoke coming out. So she sprints into the apartment.

She sees her brother and an awake beachhead.

And they are firing up the stove. So she is a

little bit at ease. She presents the radio to

beachhead. Beachhead is, I mean, he's beat to

hell. Yeah. His head is bandaged. His arm is

bandaged. He's got a crutch. He is maskless,

I think, for the first time in the Hall of Earth.

Yeah. Not ever. IDW had a couple issues where

he did not have a mask. And so she presents the

radio to him, and he goes over, and he starts

calling for help, trying to get a signal. And

you see the brother is taking the hat that was

on his head, and he is cutting. eye hole into

it. He's trying to make his, his hat like a balaclava

like beachhead has. Yep. And a beachhead is over

at the window trying to get a signal on this,

this phone radio thing. And, uh, it's like, it's

very, it's, it's probably a very Eastern block

phone. Yeah. Most likely. Absolutely. Yeah. And

so, uh, beachhead, uh, goes to the window and

he sees the local, you know, goons. Yeah. Uh,

with, with some, uh, what looked like alley vipers

heading towards the building with, with full

gear, uh, and then tells the girl that he's got

to go up to the roof in order to get a signal,

puts his mask back on. And you know, the, the

Cobra Cobra hits the building and it's time for

beachhead to go back to work. Yup. So he, uh,

there's, there's floors missing. There's open

ceilings. A beachhead gets an alley viper tangled

up in some cables, pulls them upward. And then

in the, in the hubbub, the other alley vipers

just full the pull, you know, full fill the,

uh, the, the, the captured alley viper full of

lead. And it brings most of the rest of the ceiling

back down on them, but it also brings, brings

enough noise that beachhead can go somewhere

else. Yeah, exactly. I love that page. That might

be my favorite page of the whole book. Right.

So top of that page is all the, it's all the

background in the, in the solid color, the gray

color. And then the second page is the second

part of the top of the page is the red color

and all the silhouettes are in white. Oh, that

is so good. Right. Everybody's looking up. Everybody

thinks that beachhead is still above them. And

then in panel two, we see, we look down by their

feet and there's beachhead with a big knife and

instantly. stabs up through the floor, uh, through

an alley viper's foot. So now, now the, the confusion

is on and they're looking for ways to get out

of that room because they understand now, Hey,

we're sitting ducks and this guy's good. Yup.

Um, heading towards an exit, a stairwell, and

there's a refrigerator coming down. Yeah. Uh,

and so, so beachhead has managed to get to himself

behind this refrigerator. It falls on top of

the alley vipers. He takes one of their guns

and he opens up on the alley. Meanwhile, glad

it was a refrigerator and not the kitchen sink

because that would just be too on the nose. Well,

right. Maybe, maybe he could have thrown the

kitchen sink after. Yeah, exactly. Meanwhile,

the kids are on the roof. The boy is wearing

his beachhead mask, and the girl is trying to

get as high as she can so that Eastern Block

phone picks up some bars. Cut back to the remaining

alley vipers. Beachhead is pulling one through

a wall. Then, you know, he's preparing to deal

with the last two. When suddenly a little stone

hits one of them, bounces off of his helmet.

And lo and behold, the dumb brother is back.

In his beachhead mask. Yes. With a slingshot.

I saw that and I was like, oh, kid. Yeah, this

little guy, he's brave, but he's dumb. He does

not quite understand what he's up against here.

Those alley vipers open up. Beachhead dives from

out of the shadows, tackles the kid and gets

him to cover, but takes some more glancing shots.

As beat up as he has been to this point, he's

even worse off now. As the alley vipers recover,

the boy leads Beachhead to the sewer, the drainage

pipes. At which point they get out of the building,

or they get out of the room, and the alley vipers,

unfortunately, see them. They clamber up to the

roof where the girl is, and the alley vipers

emerge. Beachhead is barely conscious. The brother

is holding him up, and the girl, in a bit of

quick thinking, releases all the pigeons. So,

when I was reading this, my first thought...

This page. I was like, okay. I know what she's

going to do, but I wonder how they're going to

make it look. And I was like, okay. Got it. Yep.

Right. It's straight up John Woo. It's straight

up John Woo doves is what this is. Even though

these are pigeons and not doves, this is the

first thing I thought of was that goddamn dove

in Mission Impossible 2. All doves are are fancy

pigeons. They are direct cousins. So she agitates

all the birds. The birds fly out of the coop.

They distract the alley vipers. And then when

the birds clear, there's a dragonfly, a tomahawk.

Tomahawk, yep. And they've got, you know, Stalker

is a machine gun trained on them out of the side

of the tomahawk. Scarlet and Lifeline are in

there. Scarlet is giving a very Scarlet -like

smirk. And holding her hands in the air. And

you see the alley vipers in turn, their hands

in the air later, we got the, we're on the last

page now. And, uh, everybody's aboard the dragon

flight or the dragon. There I go again. Everybody's

aboard the Tomahawk. Tomahawk. Lifeline is patching

up beachhead. Uh, you see stalker doing sit rep

in the front. Uh, but beachhead is sitting with

the two kids. He is, you know, I imagine he's

thanking them for all of their help. Yep. Um,

and the, the boy. He's covered in a blanket,

but he's still got the mask on. Yep. And Beachhead

reaches over, pats him on the head, and then

takes the mask off of him and throws it out of

the side of the chopper. Yep, and it lands. And

it lands where some of the folks who are left

behind are foraging for some supplies in the

building that just came down. Yeah. So there

again, this kid, all issue long, he's wanted

to play soldier. And the message that we get

Beachhead giving him wordlessly is, it's not

worth it. It's not worth it, kid. This is not

the life you want to live. No, yeah, you have

your whole life to live ahead of you. Pick something

else. He is deliberately messaging that he's

not trying to be a hero. He's trying to do a

job. Yeah. And it's an ugly job and a messy job,

and it's probably something that haunts him.

I would assume so. When he closes his eyes at

night. Yep. But that's where we end, with the

tomahawk flying off in the distance. Yep. Absolutely.

And it's... So I guess on the whole, I did enjoy

this one. I really dug it. It's a tough ask when

you have a character who's, again, getting his

first real spotlight, his first real solo spotlight,

and you're doing it in a story that has no dialogue.

Yeah. Right? Yeah, that's true. That's a big

ask. Yeah. But I think Phil Hester, uh, did a

great job of, of avoiding some of, I mean, I'll

call him beachheads character weaknesses in the

sense that he doesn't, he doesn't have a really

well -defined one, even though he's been around

for almost 40 years, but you know, there's not

a huge character in the comic universe for him.

Uh, but he got there by focusing on some of the

secondary characters in the book, you know, the,

the, the girl, the boy, uh, the local goon. Uh,

we got a lot of reaction shots from the Cobra

troopers and the alley vipers. And so, you know,

a lot, lots of little things to, to, uh, to pass

that. And so he, he got to just play beachhead

as, uh, the upstanding unstoppable hero, right?

Like snake eyes light, if you will. Um, but Hey,

that, that's kind of what he is, right? Well,

Beachhead can and does talk, though, right? I

mean, granted, this is a silent mission. That's

the whole point of this concept. But in normal

fashion, in a normal comic, he actually does

talk. He's not a snake eyes. Right, right. But

what I mean by that is that as he has been presented

in his limited spots in the comic book, you get

the impression that there are very few guys on

the Joe team that could take Beachhead in a fight.

Yeah, that's very true. Snake Eyes is the man,

obviously. Scarlet is pretty well the number

two. But after that, Beachhead's in that group

of guys that you just don't see getting beaten

up very much. It took being incredibly outnumbered

and completely outgunned to make him the underdog

in this story. That's what we know about Beachhead.

But again, it was a great job. I was thrilled

when I saw that Phil Hester got the spotlight

for my favorite character. I think he did him

a great deal of justice. I would give this one

on a whole, I'd give it a B+. I wish we got a

little bit more. It felt like a quick read, but

I think that's just part of not having dialogue.

Yeah, I wish we could have had... I mean, again,

we understand the concept here, folks. We get

that. But I do wish that this did have dialogue,

because I think that would make it better. This

was a good enough story that I think if you had

given it dialogue, given it a B story... This

could have been a four -issue arc or a five -issue

arc or whatever. This could have been its own

little mini saga. The bones are that good there.

But as it is, for a one -issue standalone with

no ads in the middle, there's no dialogue, but

it was still well -paced. We had our action times

and we had our not -action times. what was on

camera to, for lack of a better term, what was

on panel was used very effectively in both situations.

So it was used very well. And the thing is, I

say this all the time, you need, whether it's

a single issue, whether it's a standalone, whether

it's a one -off or whether it's an ongoing series,

every issue has to have a balance of action and

story. There are some series and ongoings that

do action one issue less on story. They do more

story in another issue and a little bit less

on action. But because these are intended to

be silent mission number ones, one offs, we're

not getting it. I would love for us to get a

beachhead number two. Right. Not in that way,

folks. You know what I mean? But, you know, like

radio jokes. 16 years in, it's still not too

good for poop jokes. No, never. That's right.

But it's one of those things where I honestly

think they should find somebody, whether it's

Phil Hester or whether it's somebody else, find

somebody that wants to do a... five -issue, four

-issue miniseries about Beachhead or something.

Maybe, I don't know if they're going to bring

him into the Energon universe section of this,

because I know this is obviously Real American

Hero, and it's all whatever. Beachhead is actually

listed in... Oh, that's right. He is in the,

uh, the, the advanced notice for issue seven.

So when the second, that's right. That's the

second story kicks off with the, the, the, the

dark ops GI Joe team Flint. That's right. Yep.

Beachhead is part of that team. So yes, we will

see him at, at a time of, of release. That story

arc is probably over, um, by now. Yeah. Yeah.

I have celebrated my 60th birthday. Really? You

don't look over 45. Right. It's 10, 15 years

down the road. But at the time of recording,

that's next month. Yeah. So we will see him in

Energon. Hopefully he's not a guy who shows up

for three panels and is killed. But he is on

the cover, so I have the impression that he's

going to be a big part of that team. Yeah, that's

good. He's the focus of the cover. Yeah. So,

anyways. That's very good. He was in... What's

the magazine with all the previews? He was in

the previews. Yeah, absolutely. What's the name

of the magazine? The one that's named after the

word of the thing? We don't know. It's not even

that late. Yeah. I can't even blame that. It's

10 o 'clock somewhere, man. It's 10 o 'clock

somewhere. That just means that I should have

been drinking five hours ago. But yeah, so far,

Silent Missions, I'll probably give this five

out of five. I had no issues with this. I thought

I was going to have issues with not having actual

dialogue, but I was able to follow the story

along very well. It's a very enjoyable story.

Beachhead's a great character. I've always known

he's been a great character, but like you've

said, not really used all that much. At least

not in comics. Yeah, lack of spotlight kind of

thing. I think the only one I can think of that

has less of a spotlight than him is Barbecue.

Oh, no. There's lots of Joes that show up far

less than Beachhead does, even. But again, it's

not that Beachhead's never around. Yeah. It's

just that he's never the focus of what's going

on. Even if you go to the cartoon, that season

two of Sunbow, he's in just about every damn

episode, but he's never the focus. So even there,

you don't get a real good feel for his character.

He's a competent soldier. He can be kind of a

jerk when you agitate him. I want a stone cold

righteous attention. Your chin is down. Your

chest out. Your gut in. Your face mean. Because

you are rough, tough, fighting machines. Thank

you. It's a real pleasure to see that one of

you is a real trooper. It's a matter, man. Let's

look sharp, eh, compadres? Better, sweetheart?

Don't you call me sweetheart. You six rawhide,

you're going to learn soldiering. Hey, there's

only five of you. Where is that gold -plated

goof -off, Lieutenant Falcon? Terrific question.

Man said he had some errands to do. Go to the

tail of a wallpaper's footlocker. Weird stuff.

I think he had a date or something. I'm going

to see what you rawhides are really made of.

You get kind of the basic of things. He had a

lot of respect for the guys that he knew put

their time in in the uniform. Leatherneck and

Wetsuit were always the comic shenanigans for

him to play off of, but he respected those guys

because of the work they put in. There's that

famous episode where Mainframe and Zorana kind

of hook up. like beachhead lets mainframe kind

of just ignore her clearance levels and things

like that because he trusts mainframe he knows

mainframe is put in the time so like there's

there's an honorable guy in there just not necessarily

the world's most likable guy but but again he's

never the focus of the episode so you know in

a season where we got three episodes about leatherneck

we got nothing about beachhead Well, here's hoping

with the comic series, we can get more. I would

love, I would love for them to ride this wave

of GI Joe popularity and bring back special missions.

Cause there's the GI Joe is a, there's 500 guys

on the GI Joe team. Yep. There there's just stories

to tell and, and you can do it. And I'm not saying

that it has to be like the old days where every

issue is a new issue, but you can tell. four,

five, six issue stories in special missions.

Yeah, absolutely. You get a new creative team

on for each story and we get five issues about

Shockwave or six issues about Shipwreck. You

talk about a guy who just has no function in

the comic books. Shipwreck. As popular as Shipwreck

is, Shipwreck is a non -entity in Larry Hama's

books. So it would be cool to see something with

Shipwreck in that world. Poor Shipwreck. Never

gets the respect he deserves. All right. Mr.

Mike, what do you got coming up? What's on your

mind? As I said, our 14th anniversary episode

is coming up. We record that this Wednesday.

These days, I know our beginnings. We're in the

humble world of audio -only podcasting. In recent

years, we have gone to live streaming once a

week, talking about G .I. Joe news. We do that.

We've bounced around a little bit, but for the

time being, we are Wednesday nights at 9 p .m.

Eastern on YouTube. You can find us at, our channel

name is W .O .J .M. what's on joe mind and uh

we're there and again most most wednesdays we

are there for it's usually a couple hours it

is currently the the show is uh me and my brother

rob are our our our group's resident comic book

expert and um and a lot of times we've got phil

donnelly from articulated points he's kind of

our our regular sub as we go through some some

casting stuff. Uh, and we kind of rotate that

third chair around. So you never know who you're

going to get. And then sometimes the third chair

is a guest with something to plug. Sometimes

we've got a host in the third chair and we've

got a guest in the fourth chair. Who's got another

exciting project. Uh, we're, you know, it's not

just GI Joe. We, we kind of tackle some, some

adjacent style properties and, and, uh, small

toy manufacturers. We've, We talked to Troy McKee

from Call Sign Longbow quite a bit. Our former

co -host Carson Metaxas is on from 3D Joe's.

He's got Operation Recall, so we're very plugged

into that. We've had Ben Conway from Skeletron

on a couple times, and we keep playing tag on

getting him back in. So I expect we'll have him

back very soon. So there's all kinds of guys

that we go to regularly. Mark Gerwig is kind

of in the rotation. He's one of the guys who

does the G .I. Joe 3D printing podcast and is

the driving force behind Mark II Design. This

dude just does incredible stuff on that 3D printer.

His first time on our show, we asked him, it's

like, hey, do you have any projects you want

to show off? And he just reaches down under his

desk. and busts out this classified scale, so

six -inch scale, two -seater shark. You know

how in the old cartoon show, when they made the

shark toy back in 1984, it was just this big

open cockpit because it had that gigantic hunk

of plastic deep six to stick in it. Well, nobody

likes that. That's the worst G .I. Joe ever,

is that deep six. And so Mark, with the classified

figures, well, no, I want the shark to be like

it is on the old cartoon series where you got

a front seat and a back seat. And so that's what

he did. And he just busts out this huge shark.

And me and Rob and our other host at the time,

Mark Weber, we just sat there with our jaws hanging

open. When Mark Gerwig is on, it's always a cornucopia

of crazy stuff. He has his own show, too. Most

Sunday mornings, the G .I. Doe 3D Painting Podcast

is live. We try and touch a lot of bases in the

community and talk to all kinds of different

folks about all kinds of different things. The

week after that, we'll be back with another guy

who's in the rotation quite a bit, Roger Taft.

who is one of the publishers of the After Action

Report books. Oh, very cool. And he will be on

with Greg Augustin, who is doing a Command Files

series. And that Kickstarter will be getting

going. So again, I know no one will hear this

until five years from now. Shut up. But this

is the sort of thing that we do. Most weeks,

there is not enough G .I. Joe news proper. to

fill two hours at a time. So we try and get out.

I feel like if we've done nothing else in 14

years, we've built a community. Yeah, absolutely.

And we've been lucky enough that the folks in

our community are people that try to create and

give back to that same community as well. And

so it's almost comedy levels of wealth. That

we have to pull from, from just the folks that

we're friends with. And, you know, we, we get

outside of that when we can, but my God, I need

somebody to stop doing stuff to, to make windows

some, some weeks. But, uh, but that's, that's

what I got going on. Mr. Blanchard. That's what

I have going on. What's on Joe mind every Wednesday

at nine on YouTube. W O J M. What's on Joe mind.

Tune in. We'd love to see you. absolutely the

link will be in the show notes folks as always

uh it is also it is also available if you if

you still want to do audio uh if you're not a

youtube guy we still do take the the audio from

those episodes and repurpose it so wherever you

get your podcasts what's on joe mind is there

absolutely i will have at least three links in

the show notes now youtube An Android version

and an Apple version, because apparently you

need both, even though Android is superior. Anyway.

I have no real horse in that race, man. I have

a MacBook right now, but it's because somebody

made me a really good deal. Before that, I was

just a career PC guy. Exactly. All right, folks.

No ad break in this one. I don't feel like editing.

more than i actually have to right now and besides

like he said this isn't going to come out until

like 2079 or something it's in the time capsule

we're shooting it to the moon that's right to

the moon alice to the moon oh boy thank you for

joining us here inside the pull bag if you'd

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us out and all the podcatching clients you choose

to use because we are audio only. We don't do

video. Nobody needs to see this face. Thank you

very much. It's true. I have Mike as a friend

of mine on Facebook and I can only go to his

page if someone reads it to me as I look in a

different direction. That's right. Don't look

directly into the sun. I have software that reads

the contents to me. That's right. You can follow

us on Twitter. Yes, we still call it Twitter

around here. I don't care what anyone else says.

It's for the best. whether they're a billionaire

or not, uh, at geek cast radio for the network

at the pull bag for the podcast. I am at TFG

on Mike. You guys got a Twitter thing or are

you done with that platform? Uh, we are there,

but it's inactive. We are, we are more active

on, uh, we are actually still active on, on Facebook

where again, we got the same name as, as the

show on YouTube. Uh, we are also on Instagram

at what's on Joe mind. And we are on, uh, uh,

blue sky at what's on Joe mind. Very cool. Very

cool. So we, we, we are keeping, keeping our

toes in the communities in those spots. There

you go. That works. Uh, speaking of Facebook

geek cast radio network over on Facebook, as

well as the pull bag. Join us next time when

we will be discussing in episode 582 Skybound

Entertainment's G .I. Joe's Silent Missions Jinx

number one. Oh, God, I hope that is well written

because I swear if he screws that character up

like he screwed up Destro. I was hoping to never

have to read that person's writing ever again.

Dan Waters didn't do that book. Destro? Yes,

he did. No, no, he didn't do Jinx. Is he? No,

Danny did Jinx. Which one is? Wait a minute.

Hold on. Let me look at this. I'm not familiar

with Danny past that, but she did. Dan Waters.

I think Dan Waters did. I think he did the Duke

book. Okay, so this is what the preview time,

folks. G .I. Joe, Real American Hero, Jinx number

one, released April 9th. So this is way back

in the past, folks. I got it in arm's reach.

I haven't read it. Now in a standalone silent

issue, the chart -topping team of Danny, Arkham

City, The Order of World, and Dan Waters, Destro

Universal Monsters, Creature from the Black Lagoon,

lives, put the iconic G .I. Joe ninja, Jinx,

in the most dangerous mission of her life. She

has 20 seconds and 20 pages of real -time action

to escape a Cobra base on a snowy mountain of

death. Okay, as long as he's only doing, like,

the story beats and he's not actually... Some

of the writing, it's the writing that he does

that I had a problem with. Some of the language

he used, not language as in, oh my fucking god,

but language as in, like... saying the wrong

like the wrong way to say something like the

wrong way i don't know if that dialogue was a

little clunky in spots i'll give you that yeah

that's that's what i mean about why i don't like

him as a writer it's the dialogue that i had

the issue with on on on mr waters's run so hey

if if danny is the lead i'll i've never read

anything from that person so we'll we'll see

I haven't read it per se. I did look at the first

couple pages. The art is interesting there. It

was reminiscent of, remember that Brad Scioli

Transformers G .I. Joe book? It kind of reminded

me of that. Tom Scioli, you mean? Right. Thank

you. Thank you, Tom Scioli. And again, I don't

mean that as an insult. Right. No, no, no. It's

a very stylized take. Yeah. And, um, on, on the

thing. So I, again, I, I have to sit down and

actually read it. I've got that one in the spirit

book. Yeah. Uh, kind of next up on the pile.

It just, it was, this was a crazy week. Yeah.

So they're all crazy weeks. Oh, hell. Um, um,

if you'd like, uh, again, like I said, my brother

is the comic guy. You just don't. You just want

to pass me off onto your brother. I see how it

is. The thing of it is, I need him to get out

there and help with the PR. But again, he's always

willing to stop and talk about comics. So if,

if you, I'll give you his email address. Sure.

Uh, so yeah, Danny is the co -writer. Waters

is the co -writer. So they're co -writing this.

Like I said, hopefully it's more Danny than Mr.

Waters is, but she is also, I assume it's a,

she, I would assume that too. I believe that

they are a thing. Okay. No, but, uh, there's

no, there's no dialogue for him to clunk up.

So that's, that's true. There we go. I keep forgetting

it's Silent Missions, folks. Right. I think ultimately,

and are we still recording? Is this going to

show? I can cut it out if you want. I'm not going

to say anything bad. I just didn't want to necessarily

start working blue. Oh, we're explicit around

here. You can say whatever the fuck you want.

Right, right, right, right. But I mean, there's

a difference in the occasional curse word and

working blue. So we've both been around this

block long enough to know that. But anyways,

I think ultimately it's the blessing and the

curse of this little mini -series, if you will.

That it's got a ceiling that you're not necessarily

going to get past, right? Because Silent Interlude,

issue 21 of the old Marvel run, it's the original,

and it's really good, right? So it's always going

to be the best. You're just not going to clear

that one. Yeah. But... not having dialogue in

your issue not having b stories to run through

your issue i think it kind of raises the floor

yeah i agree right so there's not a whole lot

to bog down your book as can happen sometimes

there's uh any number of comics i can remember

over the years where where the main story is

great and that's what you're reading for and

then you know look i'm a spider -man fan so um

lord knows you're you're tuning in Sometimes

because you want to see Spider -Man fighting

the Scorpion. And then there's some B story involving

Betty Brant at the Bugle that you're just like,

why is this getting four pages? Why is this happening?

I don't care about Betty Brant. I'm here for

Spider -Man, the guy on the cover. And I know

world building and depth and all that stuff,

but sometimes you're giving you're giving spotlight

time to uninteresting characters, and that's

not going to happen here. Jinx is on the cover.

That whole book is about Jinx. Spirit is on the

cover of the next one. That whole book is about

Spirit. Beachhead was on the cover of this one.

That whole book is about Beachhead. Yep, absolutely.

And again, with the degree of talent that they've

enlisted, nobody's going to fail this assignment.

I gave a school -style letter grade. It's okay.

Nobody's getting a D on this assignment. Nobody's

getting an F on this assignment. The worst they're

going to do is a C -. Yeah, absolutely. But the

best they're going to do is a B+. Yeah. But that's

fine. That's great. Look. Look, if you could,

if you could promise me a B minus to a C plus

on every book that I bought, I would be a much

happier person at the comic store every week.

Yeah, exactly. And yeah, no, I'm very much like

just the way I'm just cycling through just really

quickly, like 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five,

four, three, two. Well, like, wow, that jinx

story looks really good. even counting it up

even going backwards through the book so so hang

in there right it's the best best advice i can

give you there's only if you don't like dan waters

there's only so much damage he can do thankfully

there's no words for that one thankfully all

right folks i think that's gonna do it for us

for now i am tfg and mike with Mike, here's Harry

from What's On Joe Mind. As always, make your

greatest game in the comics, and we will catch

you next time here inside the pull bag. Later,

everybody. Jinx, why aren't you dueling Lieutenant

Falcon? He didn't show. Guess he was too chicken

to take me on. Either that or he heard you're

one bad luck lady. Who says so? Everybody, the

word is when you're around, things go wrong.

Yeah, well, they usually turn out right in the

end. What in blue blazes are you doing? Sparring.

Any problem with that? Yeah. Your eyes. Keep

them open. But I... Mouth closed, eyes open.

Yes, sir. And don't call me sir. Pathetic! Don't

bother to unpack. You ain't staying here long.

Care to try it again? My way? As my blind ninja

master used to say... The keenest eye is that

which looks inward. Facebook .com slash ThePullBag

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