by generalsjoes | Apr 16, 2010 | Comics and Cartoons, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Comics
I figured with all of the attention Dr. Venom is getting on the site this week, it would be neat for me to spend a few minutes talking to one of the most influential folks behind the character of Dr. Venom. Mike Vosberg was the artist on the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic way back in those days, and the look was the immortal Cobra scientist was born from his hands. But trust me, you know Mike Vosberg from a lot of other things beyond just G.I. Joe. He was the man who drew the comic pages for the Tales from the Crypt TV series, and he has also done storyboarding for countless Hollywood projects.
For these few minutes, though, I talked to him about G.I. Joe, and about Dr. Venom specifically. Some of his answers are interesting…and for anyone who thinks Grand Moff Tarkin is a good head for a Venom custom, turns out there’s a reason for that! Click the “Read the rest of this Entry” link below to read the full interview, and a huge thanks to Larry Hama and Mike Vosberg for setting up this interview!
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by generalsjoes | Apr 15, 2010 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Collectors Club
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Part 4 is below
Quickly and quietly, Venom scuffled through the Pit. Even with alarms sounding due to the Venom readings, he and the Cobra agents slipped past security and made their way to the control center of the massive Mobile Headquarters.
Approaching the control room, Venom spied Breaker kneeled by the locking system, preparing to lock down the Pit against incoming intruders. But Breaker didn’t realize just how close they were.
One of Venom’s specialized Cobra Troopers launched a barrage of gas, hoping to take out Breaker and the control room beyond. The G.I. Joe communications officer spun on his heels, then quickly pressed a combination of buttons, easing the door slowly shut. Venom snarled, and behind him, he heard boot steps stomping briskly through the solid metal hallways.
“Get us inside! NOW!” he shouted to his team. Breaker was already slumping to the ground as the doors slowly slid shut. Without hesitation, Venom quickly grabbed one of his Cobra team and shoved him harshly toward the door. The trooper fell on the ground and the door slid closed against him, snapping his ribs and causing him to cry out in pain..but the door stayed open.
Slipping a gas mask over his smirking face, Venom stepped over the fallen trooper with his other squad mates just behind. Inside the Control Room, Venom quickly learned just how much of a prize he had just won.
General Hawk sat in the command chair, stunned.
The gas had leaked into the control room, and a trio of Pit Commandos stumbled to the ground, unable to get their gas masks on quite quick enough. Hawk pulled a mask from one of their unconscious hands and yanked it over his face, pulling a pistol out at the same time.
He squeezed off three shots, dropping one of Venom’s troopers, before Venom returned fire, sending him scrambling behind cover. Hawk poked his head around his armored chair, and his fingers quickly danced over the keyboard just under a trio of monitors. The computer beeped appreciatively.
Two more Luger shots sent Hawk back-pedaling… right into the waiting arms of two of Venom’s Cobra Troopers. They grabbed him roughly just as Venom was clutching the shoulders of the trooper who had fallen to the floor, blocking the doorway. Out in the hall, Pit Commandos in gas masks stormed down, weapons raised, but unwilling to fire indiscriminately without knowing who was inside. Venom yanked the trooper from the doorway, and the 3 foot thick titanium slab slid closed with a clang.
The Pit was his.
A few miles away, skiing over the desert sands, a familiar orange vehicle rolled along under the darkened sky. Just above an equally yellow colored single-manned helicopter whipped through the brisk desert air.
Two single blips appeared on the viewscreen where the Adventure Team Commander was looking, seated just behind the Land Adventurer in the small ATV. They had been on their way to participate in testing the latest G.I. Joe mobile command headquarters…but now it looked like trouble.
“That’s General Hawk’s personal channel!” shouted the Commander over the open Comm.
“I see it, too,” radioed the Air Adventurer as he steered his helicopter towards the darkened metallic elephant that loomed just before them. The Sea Adventurer covered his eyes slightly as they approached, and gripped the helicopter skid even more tightly.
“We’ve got trouble, Adventure Team.”
CLUE #4
Sometimes by air, sometimes by land, and even by sea, he never saw active duty
Some used to be twelve, now they are four
But he was eight, rarely seen before
Adventure Team fights by sea, air, and land
Yet his only expertise was out in the sand
Who is this character? Search GeneralsJoes.com to find out what Hawk thinks of him!
by generalsjoes | Apr 15, 2010 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary
Hey everyone, Gary here adding to VenomFest 2010! For those of you who know me in the online fandom or at the conventions KNOW that I have been a very VOCAL member of the community who has been calling for a Dr. Venom figure. Now, I admit, I have not been the lone voice – there have been others. Without their constant pestering of the club they may not have ever considered him; and to have him as the enemy antagonist against the Adventure Team is an awesome way to tie-in the two mythos.
What is the allure of Dr. Venom? I don’t know, many things I guess. I know I liked his character ever since I was a kid. In the first 20 issues, Venom was by far the most evil of the henchmen. I even remember in the letter’s section at the end of each issue, fans asking Hasbro for a figure way back then. I was kind of surprised to discover that until the club’s official announcement, Venom appeared in the second most number of issues to NOT have a figure made after him. A travesty!! Seriously, characters that have appeared in less issues, or less cartoon eps get a figure (see Big Lob), but not Venom?? Let’s face it, his Marvel lifetime spans less than 10 issues, but what a 10 issue stretch it was! Venom’s legacy lasted MUCH longer. It was his Brainwave Scanner that provided the fictional element to shift a plot rather quickly. Plug anyone into the scanner – make them good – make them bad – reprogram them – whatever!
How does one boil down Venom into the 10 “Best of” moments? There were so many. Here are my Top 10 Best of Venom moments:
10.) Dr. Venom’s Debut: Woah! Who is this crazy mad scientist dude?? You can’t have a top 10 list of his best moments without mentioning his debut. Right off the bat you knew this guy was ruthless, cunning, and without scruples what-so-ever. His debut pre-dates Destro, Bludd and Zartan and frankly his evil streak goes deeper than Cobra Commander. While his debut lacked the tease of Destro, it was set up in a way that you hoped you saw more of him in the issues to come. Ironically, his comic debut is also the debut of Billy – although not specifically named.
9.) Dr. Venom makes Snake Eyes his beeyotch: Venom is the only guy in the comics other than Storm Shadow who took the fight to Snake Eyes. Whether it was hooking him up to the Brainwave Scanner or pistol whipping him with a Luger, SE looked considerably more human versus the good doc. Not bad for a middle aged mad scientist. “Nobody dares to strike Dr. Venom!!”
8.) Dr. Venom – The Casanova: What isn’t Venom an expert on? Apparently he has thoughts on the matter of love. Venom real quickly picked up on the fact that there was a bit more to the Destro-Baroness relationship than being evil colleagues. Following the explosion of the Baroness’ HISS in Operation: Night Attack, a distraught Destro stood on the verge of a breakdown, all the while being chased down by Clutch, Scarlett and Hawk. Never without a pithy thing to say, ol’ Venom graced us with this: “Doesn’t he (Destro) realize that love is simply overestimating the difference between any one given woman and another? Bah! Gross sentimentality is such a waste.” You’re all heart Doc!
7.) SNAKE Armor Inventor: Ah, probably something you didn’t know. Yes, the good doc invented SNAKE Armor. Servos help the person in the suit to move its legs and arms. Servos in a suit…..where have I heard that concept before?? Similar to the Brainwave scanner, the suit taps into the “pilot’s” mind for control. It was proven in issue #19 that a strong willed person can overcome the SNAKE mind control and assume operation of the armor. Also, SNAKE Armor cannot shoot at anything in Cobra Blue.
6.) SE uses the Ninja Death Trick TWICE on Venom: Ah yes, it was when SE was strapped into the Brainwave Scanner that he pulls out the famous Ninja Death Trick. This trick allowed SE to slow down his breathing and heart rate to the point where he appeared deceased. We witnessed the first time SE did this in issue #10. SE dups the trick again in #12. Venom places SE inside a their Sierra Gordo “legitimate business front” building and set it aflame. While riding away on his escape boat, the vision of the burning building causes Venom to recall a dojo a scene collected during SE’s first encounter with the scanner. Venom knows he’s been had, but still writes off SE as going to die in the burning building. Later Venom realizes what we all know now – try as you might, you just can’t kill Snake Eyes.
5.) Team Venom escape the flooding bunker: Good thing the Doc was a man of science and not brawn. He realized that he had to flood the bunker in order for the pressures to match inside with what they were outside in order for the heavy door to open. Heck, even The Mythbusters proved this. The doc may not be Mr. Wizard-like friendly, but it was with his know-how that allowed he, Kwinn and SE to escape a watery grave.
4.) Cheesy Bond-like quips: While not a poet on the level of Major Bludd (then again, Dr. Seuss is more of a poet than Bludd), what is a evil henchman without a vocabulary full of cheesy quips? Check out a couple of these on for size. I picked 5 for space, but if anyone is curious, I can post the rest in the comment section:
- Venom maximum cheese: “So it was Cobra Commander who sold me out! He must be having quite a big laugh on me right now as he attempts to use my toxin without my secret catalyst… In fact, the laughter must be infectious.”
- Don’t cross Venom because: “Dr. Venom never forgets!”
- Venom while holding a syringe full of his toxin greeting Scar-Face at the Libyan airport: “Welcome to Libya, Scar-Face, it’s time for your…inoculation”
- Venom’s last evil diatribe after shooting Kwinn in the back: “So, what have you got to say now? No more mumbo-jumbo aphorisms about weasel spirits? No last lunge to try to strangle me with your last breath?”
- Venom’s Last Words: (Grenade) “…Fallen from a dead-man’s hand…” WHAMM! The grenade goes off killing Venom.
3.) The escape from Sierra Gordo: What do you do when you are part of an odd-trio of characters and you are trying to fly out of a banana republic before it melts down into a civil war? Well, fly out of course!! On top of being a top knotch evil scientist, Venom is apparently a multi-engine certified pilot. What does the team spy sitting on the tarmac at Sierra Gordo International Airport…..a WWII era British Lancaster Bomber! HOW CONVENIENT! Not only was Venom able to pilot that bucket-o-bolts out of there, but he was able to do it while feather propping engine #2 to start, all the while getting shot at and dealing with a skeptical Kwinn as your default engineer. Surely one of Dr. Venom’s more prouder moments.
2.) Father of the Brainwave Scanner: In issue #10, he explains how it works on Snake Eyes: “…the electrodes attached to Snake Eyes head are recording his brain-wave reaction to the visual image on the TV monitor. In this case, it is an apple…the computer will continue to flash thousands of images and record their corresponding brain-wave signature until it has amassed a personalized vocabulary of the subject thinking patterns reduced to digitized (images). Very soon, our image vocabulary will be complete, then we can REVERSE the process! The computer will be able to ‘read’ the subject’s thoughts, enhances them and projects them as a visual image on the TV monitor.” Wow, what a mouthful Doc! The Brainwave scanner was also instrumental to the creation of Serpentor. Dr. Mindbender tweaked it to give the ability reprogram people. The entire town of Millville became a victim of it. The Scanner was also important to the later reprogramming of Storm Shadow, Billy, Destro, Zartan and the Baroness at the end of the Marvel run. You would think this would be #1, but that goes to the last moment we see Venom…..
1.) Death of Venom: What a way to go Doc! Blast Kwinn in the back only to have him turn around and toss a live grenade at your feet. KA-BLAM-O!!! At the end of it all, four lay dead and we have an end of an era! What did we learn from this? Bad karma comes to those who shoot others in the back.
So there ya have it! Venom’s top 10 moments – as I see them. In my opinion the 10 issue run from #10 to #19 were some of the best issues ever in the Joe Marvel Universe. I had a GREAT time reliving these moments! When you are done reading all of GeneralsJoes VenomFest articles, head on over to the club site and order yourself the Dr. Venom/AT Commander set. I can’t wait to see Dr. Venom carded. It is LONG overdue and it will be a beautiful sight to see!
When shall we start the campaign for Billy?? Anyone? Anyone??
by generalsjoes | Apr 14, 2010 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Collectors Club
PART ONE | PART TWO
Part Three is below…
Deep inside the Mobile Pit, activity was no more frenzied than it was in the lower level hallways, but suddenly an alarm flashed on the hallway wall. Spectrographic analyzers built into the surface of The Pit had picked up something… Cobra’s Venom serum? Here?!
Mutt and Junkyard were the appointed Anti-Venom agents here at the base, so they mobilized immediately.
When the lights started flashing, Venom halted. If the Pit could sense the Venom protocols even before deploying it, certainly they already had the antidote in the water treatment tanks? He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
Suddenly the door burst open, and Mutt charged in, lifting his silenced Mac-10 submachine gun. One quick burst dropped one of the Cobra agents, but Dr. Venom threw himself into the middle of the room, arms flailing.
“Help me!” he shouted. “Cobra has kidnapped me and is forcing me to do their evil deeds!!”.
Dr. Venom had appeared before Mutt’s time, so he did not look familiar, and the G.I. Joe dog handler halted, just for a second. It was just long enough.
Venom yanked his Luger forcefully from the other interior pocket of his white labcoat and pumped three rounds into Mutt’s chest. Junkyard leaped, but one of the Cobra troopers swatted him aside with the butt of his weapon. Both went down.
Venom smiled as his evil trickery even amused himself.
CLUE #3
This Eskimo warrior holds his pride
Unlike the vitriol Venom hides inside
Venom’s evil revealed by the tracker Kwinn
The spirit of this beast Venom carries within
Search GeneralsJoes.com for the answer to this riddle!
by generalsjoes | Apr 14, 2010 | Comics and Cartoons, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Comics, IDW
USA Today uberfan writer Brian Truitt has posted some cool details and a couple of cover images from the upcoming Issue #155 1/2 of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, coming for Free Comic Book Day on May 1st. As if that weren’t enough, he also spends some time interviewing the immortal Larry Hama, who talks about the return to his familiar stomping ground. Hama reveals some tidbits about the issue (which becomes an ongoing series with #156):
“Issues 155 ½ and on take place mere months after the events of No. 155: G.I. Joe headquarters has been mothballed, and the team’s been dispersed to different places all over the world. The Cobra organization is still alive and slithering, though — Cobra Commander is literally dreaming of rolling H.I.S.S. tanks into Washington, D.C. — and it takes full advantage of having no real American heroes running around. “They have to somehow get back together, and all the Cobras are trying to track them down and do them in,” Hama says. “It’s everybody against the Joes.”
Check out the full interview right here!
by generalsjoes | Apr 13, 2010 | G.I. Joe
Check out Part 1 right here!
PART TWO
Dr. Venom and his Cobra squad moved towards the Mobile Pit. Three guards in gray camouflage slowly paced back and forth. Sgt. Stone adjusted his beret as his eyes scanned the horizon, though he honestly didn’t expect to see a thing.
Truth be told, he didn’t see a thing. Silent Cobra agents slunk through the sand and fired quick bursts of silenced weapons fire, taking down the two Pit Troopers. Sgt. Stone only had time to turn before Dr. Venom himself hit him with a face full of knockout gas. He collapsed, silent in the sand.
Venom lead his Cobra team into the mobile headquarters, quietly weaving through lockers, hallways, past the central elevator and into the Medical Center. This was a huge, impressive technical marvel, but it only carried a skeleton crew at this time, and he was about to take care of that little problem as well.
In the Medical Center was the Pit’s water supply. Venom swiftly pulled a bottle from his coat and examined it.
“The Venom protocols…” he chortled. “What is this a joke?” Since returning, he’d only spent a scant few moments researching the accomplishments of Dr. Mindbender since he had been gone. He was fairly unimpressed. Still, these “Venom Protocols” had promise…force-feeding animal genetic markers into a human test subject was just the kind of dastardly experiment that made Dr. Venom smile.
He approached the water supply, getting ready to pour.
CLUE #2
Honor and valor aren’t Venom’s strength
So be sure to keep him at your left arm’s length
When Valor fights Venom he leads the evil team
Is he real, or just one of Hawk’s bad dreams?
Who is this, and what does General Hawk think of him?
