Shout! Factory presents G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - The Full Sunbow Series

Part 4 (of 5) - Discs 13 through 16

Seems kind of odd...it took me three pages to get through Season One, and I'm going to plow through all of Season Two in just one! Of course, Season Two is only 30 episodes in comparison to Season One's 65...

Like with the previous pages, I've placed links to all of the JoeGuide Episode Summaries so folks can see what the episodes are all about.

DISCS 13 through 16

Disc 13 (Season Two)
66. Arise, Serpentor, Arise (Part 1)
67. Arise, Serpentor, Arise (Part 2)
68. Arise, Serpentor, Arise (Part 3)
69. Arise, Serpentor, Arise (Part 4)
70. Arise, Serpentor, Arise (Part 5)
71. Last Hour to Doomsday
72. Computer Complications
73. Sink the Montana

Disc 14 (Season Two)
74. Let's Play Soldier
75. Once Upon a Joe
76. The Million Dollar Medic
77. Cobrathon
78. The Rotten Egg
79. Glamour Girls
80. Iceberg Goes South

Disc 15 (Season Two)
81. The Spy Who Rooked Me
82. Grey Hairs and Growing Pains
83. My Brother's Keeper
84. My Favorite Things
85. Raise the Flagg
86. Ninja Holiday
87. G.I. Joe and the Golden Fleece
88. The Most Dangerous Thing in the World

Disc 16 (Season Two)
89. Nightmare Assault
90. Second Hand Emotions
91. Joe's Night Out
92. Not a Ghost of a Chance
93. Sins of our Fathers
94. In the Presence of Mine Enemies
95. Into your Tent I will Silently Creep

I will have to say right up front that, by and large, I liked Season One a LOT more than Season Two...but I'm not sure if I'm alone in that regard or not. Still, even with a dip in quality (in my opinion) there is still some entertainment to be had in the second season as well.

Disc Thirteen is obviously higlighted by the Arise, Serpentor, Arise 5-Parter, which follows the familiar trend of the first three, with a dastardly COBRA plot that G.I. Joe has to try and stop by scattering all over the globe. The animation seems to have taken a slight downward trend, but the story seems right on track with most of what came before, with Buzz Dixon doing the writing chores. Disc 13 also features Computer Complications, which introduces the relationship between Mainframe and Zarana that has fueled the cartoon fan community a bit.

Fourteen has a series of farily unremarkable episodes, including the Million Dollar Medic which accentuates Lifeline's paficism, and involves his new found girlfriend flying a gold-plated helicopter (it reflects lasers!) to defeat COBRA. Yeah, I'm not making that up. Cobrathon, at least is a pretty good episode with many '86 era characters showcased and some decent action as well. Perhaps the highlight of this disc, though is Once Upon a Joe, which features Shipwreck telling a bedtime story that shows a bunch of Joes in superdeformed state, and it ends up being surprisingly hilarious! Being in the format it's in makes it easy to overlook the rediculousless, as they seem to embrace it with this episode and do so remarkably well.

The fifteenth disc picks things up a bit with a neat spy thriller featuring a very James Bond-like character, showcasing Lady Jaye and Flint. In a somewhat rare bought of continuity, Raise the Flagg picks up where Sink the Montana left off as COBRA and G.I. Joe do battle for an anti-matter device buried under the sea. My Brother's Keeper has some strange parts to it (like the battle between Sgt. Slaughter and Dr. Mindbender in the middle of a science fiction convention), but also has a focus on Low Light which is pretty cool, too.

Rounding off Season Two is Disc Sixteen, which has some interesting episodes as well. Nightmare Assault is a particularly well-written episode by Marv Wolfman, who explores the inner psyche of some of the Joe members as COBRA uses some technology that gives the Joes vivid nightmares. Low Light gets especially nice coverage in this one, too. Not a Ghost of a Chance is also a pretty neat episode involving the Night Raven, Conquest, and a prototype jet that actually is pretty entertaining and doesn't fit any super-rediculous concepts.

Sins of our Fathers is another pretty cool episode that follows up from Skeletons in the Closet, and sort of picks up where that left off. Of course, G.I. Joe ends up fighting against a super-sized insect by the end of the episode, but intermingled there's at least some sort of continuity and some cool action sprinkled throughout.

In the end, Season Two just falls a bit flat compared to Season One in my opinion, but that's not a reflection of this set. In Season Two we get the Leatherneck/Wet Suit comeraderie, but there's a bit too much strange focus on family stuff, the action took a big downward turn, and the animation began to suffer a bit in ways that I didn't notice quite as much in Season 1. It's funny, because for the most part I prefer characters like Leatherneck, Beachhead, and Zandar over the more commonly used Gung Ho, Duke, and Bazooka, but I just found the stories from Season One more watchable and enjoyable, even twenty-seven years later.

However, as I said, this is not a reflection of the DVD Set itself. From beginning to end, these DVD's are excellent! The quality in video and audio is comparable to the RHINO releases, we get the FULL run of Sunbow episodes minus the movie, (but all indications seem to show that it's coming at some point). I love the functionality of being able to watch the 5-Parters in one stopless stretch, without skipping episode-to-episode as well, that's a very cool feature.

By and large, I am VERY happy with this set. It's everything a G.I. Joe fan, a cartoon fan, and especially a Sunbow fan, could have ever asked for. Terrific presentation, great breakdown disc to disc, and lots of extras.

Speaking of extras...Page 5 will debut tomorrow, where I talk about all of the special features, and give the set its overall grade. Don't miss it!