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??
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!
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 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?
The fine folks at JoeCanuck.com have announced a new contest, which sounds pretty cool! Check out the details below:
Time to let your creativity show!
We here at Joecanuck love the “Joecanuck Universe” that we’ve created. Black Ice, the H.A.T.E tank, Snowbank and of course Joecanuck himself, as well as all the other figures and vehicles that are part of our universe are things we are very proud of.
However, we want to see what YOU would do to add to this universe!
As such, we’re holding a contest to see how YOU would do it! We realize that not everyone is a customizer, so we’re not making this a ‘customs’ only contest. You can submit whatever you like. Art with a bio, blueprints of a vehicle, a short comic, dio, or of course a custom figure or vehicle! If you want to do something different than those, go ahead, but check with us first via a PM. This is about creativity, and different people have different creative gifts so we don’t want to leave anyone out!
The Rules:
1) Each board member may submit one (1) entry to the contest.
2) Board Members must have a post count of above 5 and be a member for one (1) month to participate
3) Entries may be in the form of your choice, but note rule #1 above, so make sure you choose the format you’re happiest with
4) Entries will be accepted until 10pm EST on Friday, May the 14th
5) Voting on the entries will begin Monday, May 17th and close Sunday, May 23rd.
6) Entries must be entirely new ideas, not existing Joecanuck or GIJOE universe characters/equipment. Entries should be submitted to contests@joecanuck.com
Include your real name, your board name and your email address! If you have any questions, ask them in this thread!
The fine folks at Hasbro and Hunter PR have graciously donated 4 Rise Of Cobra figures to be given away as a contest prize here on Joecanuck. To add to that, I am personally throwing in a Target Exclusive Python Patrol CONQUEST (MIB) to the kitty.
Also, your entry will be used in an upcoming Joecanuck universe comic by our artist and story writer, Jason Loo!
So, get those art supplies ready and let’s see what you come up with! Legalities: *Rights to characters/items created for this contest will become property of Joecanuck.com and can be used by Joecanuck.com without further permission from the creator/member. Joecanuck.com will allow the creator/member to use their creations for their own personal non-profit uses (personal customs, fan-fiction, dios,) but creator/members are prohibited from the sale of said character/items in any way.
Creator/Member = the person(s) submitting the entry to the contest.
Credit to HissTank.com sister site TFW2005 for breaking the news that Advertising Age, a marketing website has revealed some tidbits of information about the upcoming “Hub” Kids’ TV channel that Hasbro is working on alongside Discovery Kids.
The juiciest part of the article states:
“The newest kid on the block, The Hub, also has the added pressure of what will likely be one of the last big cable network launches ever — second only, perhaps, to Discovery sibling the Oprah Winfrey Network. But Margaret Loesch, CEO of the joint venture, is banking on more than two decades of experience in programming to children from her days as a producer of Hasbro programs such as “GI Joe,” “My Little Pony” and “Transformers,” all of which are expected to appear in revamped form when the network launches Oct. 10.”
Wow. October 10th? And we haven’t seen a single character design or heard a hint of story? That seems a bit far fetched, but I guess anything’s possible. It wasn’t real long ago that we heard some rumors about voice actors, and that is really early in the production phase. I guess time will tell.
Personally, I’m not getting my hopes up real high. Let’s face it, if they’re going to try and gear a hard-edged special forces military team to kids…well… it’s not going to be a hard-edged special forces military team. Not sure what the end result will end up looking like this time around, but it will be cool to have a G.I. Joe cartoon on the air again.
Time will tell what the end result is. More often than not, they’ve been misses, not hits.
You didn’t think I’d forgotten about the “Take Back the Pit” contest starting today, did you? Of course not. The first installment, and the first clue is below!
Dr. Venom still remembered the dubious look he got from Cobra Commander when he made his return. Certainly he didn’t expect a genetic mastermind like Venom to be so easily destroyed? Sure, it has been over two decades, but these things take time.
The Commander had looked even more dubious when Venom told him his plan. Yet, he still donated a trio of Python Patrol Stuns and the use of a squad of one of his most unique troopers that would prove useful to this Cobra agent.
Slipping over the desert sands, Venom remembered what the last location of the G.I. Joe Mobile Command Center had been in the Utah desert. Could he hope G.I. Joe still had a presence there? Cobra intelligence had said that G.I. Joe was possibly testing a new mobile headquarters in this region of desert…a state of the art mobile version of their underground bunker, The Pit. He wasn’t convinced, but he made the trip anyway. Turns out Cobra Intelligence had improved in the last twenty-five years…looming before them was the mammoth slant-armored behemoth that he instantly recognized from the stolen documentation…he had found The Pit.
He and these Cobra Troopers silently disembarked from the stealth cloaked vehicles and moved towards the mobile base as it rested atop four trios of monstrous rubber tires. Security was slim…after all, this was just a test run, and nobody was supposed to know, right?
Venom gathered together his mysterious Cobra squad…
CLUE #1
Like the Mass Device Element, they’re not light.
But you see them best when it’s not bright.
Who are these Cobra Troopers, and what does General Hawk think of them?
It’s less than a month until Iron Man 2 hits the big screen, but you can go ahead and stock up on all your Iron Man 2 figures early! Find all the great new armors like the Mark VI, Mark V Suitcase Armor, and War Machine in our huge Iron Man 2 section.
We’ve also got new preorders on the site for Star Wars and Marvel Universe figures, so guarantee that you don’t miss these great figures by preordering today!
And don’t forget to check out the Past Generation Toys Blog, PGT on Facebook, and PGT on Twitter, because we’ve got contests, reviews, news, and articles to keep you updated on the world of toys!
Remember a few days ago when I mentioned that it looked like the floodgates might be opening? Well, they’re still open, and Gyre-Viper is there collecting it all. He posted a few updates at HissTank here and here with some very cool pictures of upcoming items, and cancelled items.
I’m especially loving that Alley-Viper. LOVE the fact that he has the Resolute headgear as well as the more standard stuff. Very cool looking items here. Three more weeks from today and we should be seeing a lot more at JoeCon. Check out the mirrored images below, and once again, a huge thanks to Gyre-Viper for keeping the “dead time” between toy releases fairly eventful.
G1 fans should absolutely love this.
I have loved pretty much everything I’ve seen from Transformers: War for Cybertron so far. Everything from the updated designs (which still retain a lot of the great classic elements) to the mid-game transformations, to the cinematics. I even got to see some gameplay at Toy Fair and loved that, too.
But this goes well beyond the level of coolness that even War for Cybertron has achieved so far. Some enterprising YouTuber, Grimbot the 3rd has actually taken the footage from the initial trailer for War from Cybertron and mashed it with sound effects, dialog and music from the Generation 1 cartoon. Yes, it is much, much, MUCH cooler than it sounds. This just rocks!
Someone hurry up and make a G.I. Joe video game worth playing so we can do this with the Sunbow stuff! Check it out embedded below.
