The G.I. Joe Order of Battle #3

History

The Order of Battle miniseries was conceived as a G.I. Joe equivalent of Marvel's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe—an alphabetically organized reference work that translated the character dossiers from Hasbro's action figure filecards into illustrated comic-book profiles. Larry Hama, who had authored those filecards as part of his ongoing collaboration with Hasbro, scripted every entry, while Herb Trimpe—veteran Marvel artist and regular presence on the G.I. Joe property—handled all pencil art across the entire four-issue run. Issue #3 published in February 1987 covered the Cobra side of the conflict, filling a structural gap left by the first two issues, which had been devoted exclusively to the Joe team; the Rocky Balboa licensing situation, which had come undone between the publication of issue #2 and issue #3, required an unusual printed retraction to appear in this very issue.

Trivia · 7 facts

• Published February 1987 by Marvel Comics (cover-dated); written by Larry Hama, penciled by Herb Trimpe, inked by Joe Delbeato, edited by Howard Mackie, with Tom DeFalco as Executive Editor and Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief.
• Issue #3 is the Cobra-dedicated installment of the four-issue Order of Battle miniseries; issues #1–2 profiled the G.I. Joe team and issue #4 covered vehicles and equipment.
• Carries full one-page profiles—presented in alphabetical order—for the following Cobra characters: Baroness, B.A.T.S., Big Boa, Buzzer, Cobra Commander (identified here as 'Enemy Leader'), Copperhead, Crimson Guard, Croc Master, Crystal Ball, Destro, Dr. Mindbender, EELs, Firefly, Major Bludd, Raptor, Scrap-Iron, Serpentor, Snow Serpents, Storm Shadow, Strato-Vipers, Tele-Vipers, Thrasher, Tomax and Xamot, Torch, Vipers, Wild Weasel, Zandar, Zanzibar, Zarana, and Zartan; Cobra Soldier and Cobra Officer appear as picture-only pin-ups with no written bios.
• Contains the formal printed retraction of Rocky Balboa's inclusion as a G.I. Joe team member in issue #2, acknowledging that a licensing deal with Sylvester Stallone's character had fallen through; this retraction also appears in issue #4 and Rocky was removed entirely from the subsequent trade paperback collection.
• Big Boa's profile appears here despite the character having been conceived specifically as a Cobra opponent for Rocky; because Big Boa was not based on a real person, his toy and comic appearances were unaffected by the Stallone licensing collapse.
• Zartan's profile in this issue is a revised version of his filecard bio, with references to dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia edited out of the text.
• The entire four-issue series was later collected in a 1987 Marvel trade paperback (128 pages, softcover) that reprinted all profiles with four new character additions (Chuckles, Falcon, Fast Draw, and Jinx) and removed the entries for Rocky, Sgt. Slaughter, and the RAM.

Cast · 28 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The G.I. Joe Order of Battle

Variants (1)