G.I. Joe vs Cobra: The Essential Guide

Coming July 7th from Del Rey and written by Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo (don't let that scare you, he's a great writer)... an official 240 Paperback coffee table book chronicling the official RAH canon!

The cover's a pretty big turn-off for me but I am curious about the content.

Is there a Hardcover version of this? Those usually have the better looking covers.

According to Pablo, no HC version planned at this point.

The cover is fine to me, especially when you realize that Del Rey had pressure to use images from the movie instead (even though content on that is reportedly quite minimal in the book, thank God).

IrishJedi said:

According to Pablo, no HC version planned at this point.

The cover is fine to me, especially when you realize that Del Rey had pressure to use images from the movie instead (even though content on that is reportedly quite minimal in the book, thank God).

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In that case, this cover is beautiful!!

So who is choosing what is canon and what isn't?

Yeah I'm getting this for sure.

EVILFACE said:

So who is choosing what is canon and what isn't?

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It's licensed, and everything is ultimately driven and approved by Hasbro.

IrishJedi said:

It's licensed, and everything is ultimately driven and approved by Hasbro.

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Same goes for the movie....

IrishJedi said:

It's licensed, and everything is ultimately driven and approved by Hasbro.

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Sounds like I'm out then. I'll stick with the Hamma stuff: Marvel comics and filecards.

I feel that the only thing that could be considered "canon" are the filecards. Unlike something like Star Wars, where the toys were based off the movies, in GI Joe everything is based off the toys, whether it be the old cartoon series, the various comic continuities, or the upcoming movie. Since the filecards came with the toys, that's about all that counts in my book - you can pick and choose what you like from the other media, which is kind of how I look at it.

Looks like a nice book, I may have to pick it up.

DPrime said:

I feel that the only thing that could be considered "canon" are the filecards. Unlike something like Star Wars, where the toys were based off the movies, in GI Joe everything is based off the toys, whether it be the old cartoon series, the various comic continuities, or the upcoming movie. Since the filecards came with the toys, that's about all that counts in my book - you can pick and choose what you like from the other media, which is kind of how I look at it.

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Well, in the case of the original RAH line of figure, the filecards were actually written by Larry Hama. He even came up with most of the character names. So the Marvel comics should be considered canon as well.

IrishJedi said:

Well, in the case of the original RAH line of figure, the filecards were actually written by Larry Hama. He even came up with most of the character names. So the Marvel comics should be considered canon as well.

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I'd say they need to do two volumes. An official cartoon version and a Marvel comic version. Anything else you can flush down the toilet.

IrishJedi said:

Well, in the case of the original RAH line of figure, the filecards were actually written by Larry Hama. He even came up with most of the character names. So the Marvel comics should be considered canon as well.

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I go by the filecards as official canon, but there are some that do differ with their comic counterparts.

Filecard history > others.

I go by the filecards too but some figures (Camo Storm Shadow, Red Star from the Oktober Guard, etc.) existed in the comics long before their action figure counterpart. For those characters I'd take the comics as canon.

I'd personally go with whatever Larry Hama says, because unlike Hasbro these were always CHARACTERS to him first, not products.

thenammagazine said:

I'd say they need to do two volumes. An official cartoon version and a Marvel comic version. Anything else you can flush down the toilet.

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Cobra-La needs to be flushed down the toilet.

Dash said:

Cobra-La needs to be flushed down the toilet.

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There are aspects of Cobra La I actually like, but not as they relate to Cobra Commander, which is kind of key I suppose. I think it's important for CC to be an American-Bred Human Terrorist.

The psychology and implications of our country producing a man like CC is too intriguing to dumb down to him being a first wave commander of some ancient race.

ONLY the Marvel comics and the filecards are canon... and where they contradict each other the comics always overrule.

the cobra la figures were cool but they are not canon.

the cartoon was not canon

and this crappy movie is not canon either.

Sixthscalemagazine said:

ONLY the Marvel comics and the filecards are canon... and where they contradict each other the comics always overrule.

the cobra la figures were cool but they are not canon.

the cartoon was not canon

and this crappy movie is not canon either.

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