Victory at Volcania Parts One and Two

[Swindle]

Victory at Volcania, Part 1

So this at least has a decent Cobra plot, sitting up this long range laser weapon that can attack either things in space or the world, powered by the lava under a volcano. Cobra takes over the GIJoe's R&R island.

Here's one of my big problems: The joes have no real personalities. Bullhorn and Salvo get some screen time, couldn't tell you a bit about them. On the other side of the island, Cobra takes out the GIJoe airfield. Here's another problem, when we ever say Sunbow do scenes where it was Cobra bombarding GIJoe HQ air to ground, they were amazing and you felt the danger. There's no real sense of location because the effort on background as so little.

I do see Duke, Scoop, Sgt Slaughter, Lady Jaye amoung the Joes, but all are mute. Lady Jaye does a wink as they are on the run and jumps down a hole.



Zarana and Baroness are in this episode, but say nothing.  Cobra Commander's battle armor helmet looks particularly bad, very much a bucket head.  



I want to point this out, when Bullhorn and Salvo are prisoners, their guards change three times: 




Laser Vipers, to SAW Vipers, to CG Immortals.  

Metal Head hits his head 4 times I believe in this episode: 












Joes take back the airfield by replacing CG Immortals.  Lady Jaye looks cute in the outfit. 



Civilians don't have much credibility as animated characters in DIC.  Some kind of sketchy bug eyed animation weirdos.  




The episode is ok, but Hawk's midlife crisis is hardly as compelling as the kind of stuff set up in the Sunbow two parters.  2 1/2 stars out of 4. 

[Bravo]

I'm doing the watch along thing with you.

On vacation but Bullhorn has his grenades and mask with him and face paint on. Same with many other joes.


Undertow (and others) using Annihilator smg's even though Annihilators don't appear in season 1.

When Grid-iron almost gets tackled, there's a hatless bearded Slaughter!

Mute Duke and Slaughter remind me of mute Flint in Synthoid Conspiracy...second in command, but then Scarlett seems to be the one taking up from fake Duke's indecisiveness.

Hawk seems put out to pasture here, but was previously active in Revenge of the Pharaohs. Doesn't make sense. Unless he became a scapegoat for the events of that episode.

Some greenshirts are like Duke clones, reminiscent of old coloring/activity books.

The Cobra transport copter capable of spawning endless Rages! Also, Metal-Head's automatic reloading launchers...where to the missiles come from? Who knows?

Zarana dives from the HISS 2 turret in classic Cobra fashion, but no one else does! Gridiron killed some folks? Nah, because all these rides are turret operated.

Avalanches on a tropical island? Also, Alley-Vipers, where there's not really even a town.

Yeah, the changing of the guards.

So where is this island? Central American style temple, but far away from any mainland it seems.

LJ makes a grunting noise, actually.

An even bigger cargo sub! Cobra's outdone themselves! But still need rails to move heavy equipment?

So there was no other island Cobra could've used for this plot?

Yelling YO JOE! make Crimon Guard Immortal uniforms turn green.

There's no actual specific CALIFORNIA RIVER BRIDGE. But Cobra already destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge in SUNBOW, I think, so...

Mohawked civilians!

Yeah, the basic story is serviceable, but DIC's lack of economy of story telling, proper action scene storyboarding and no character development, mean the episode is Joes running away from Cobra for most of the episode.

[Swindle]

Victory at Volcania, Part 2

This one has alot of action, so it doesn't drag. I am getting tired of Rages in action, though. They are way way over used.

The Dominator does land and transform into ground mode, but the animation is behind a window, and straight on, probably as good as DIC can do it.




Gnawgahyde is briefly seen, but mute.







I guess they couldn't do the Tarzan yell, but I enjoy seeing Metal Head swinging from vines to catch back up to the battle.





There's a pandcake quality to the vehicles at times which annoys me. They don't look like real vehicles. Why would the General be deployed on the R&R island? or the Avalanche for that matter?



Grid Iron does help up a mute Lady Jaye, always had it in my head vaguely they were supposed to be a DIC romantic pair.

There's no command presence back at JoeHQ, so Freefall and Topside are the voice for that side of things. The UN is deploying a war fleet to take out Cobra, not taking their weapon seriously, since when does UN have this kind of military power, huh? GIJoe is following to avert catastrophe. Freefall seems like a Ripcord replacement. Rock and Roll shows up as they are leaving.







Metel Head begs to use CC's space guns and as I can see kisses Cobra Commander's feet five times. This is where good Metal Head humor comes, with Cobra Commander's exacerbated reaction to him, the things I do to keep my employees happy.










There's these crystal caves Destro ends up holed up in with a makeshift throne. I do kind of like this, a small reminder that he is more than just 'help' and has his own dreams to rule. Joes get ahold of a Rage (AGAIN) and turn the tables (AGAIN)! There's a creative storyflow that makes this very much by the numbers. Included a Lady Jaye booty shot.





So, Hawk and Ambush climb the mountain, get past Cobra's forces, destroy the space lasers. Metal Head misses, so the UN battle felt is ok. And Cobra looks completely outmatched by the incoming Joe mobilization force. I would add the Cobra command center/space gun kind of remind me of the Super computer in Superman 3. Zarana and Baroness booties before Metal Head get them out of the way. Also, there's green shirt Freefalls in purple/pinkish helmets coming in on the island.









Cobra Commander has had it with GIJoe destroying his super weapons and is leading a charge to destroy the Joes on the island, but the rest show up and he's forced to turn tail and run. Into a sub, reminds me of them getting out of there on a sub in Haul Down the Heavens.

Aftermath has LJ manning the grill, Pathfinder back to gater wrestling, Hawk and Ambush on a date in speedos (no one wants to see that, ugh!) and a cringe joke as the UN feet starts bombing the island. Neither Topside or Freefall (another half hearted attempt at a joemance in DIC, I suppose) bothered to tell them Cobra was defended. Complete with that annoying joke music to end the episode. *eye roll










2 1/2 stars out of 4. Watchable, but I'd take any Sunbow 2 parter over this.

[Bravo]

Grid-Iron has to use football terms, because he's Grid-Iron.

Laser fire from a GI JOE Hammer destroys Rages. A missile from a Cobra Rage barely damages a Hammer. Okay.

"Why don't we use the giant mortar on the General to bombard the volcano..."
"Because, that would be too easy!'

Volcano but not a Rock-Viper in sight.

"Like shooting Bozos in a barrel." That's not an expression, CC. It's not even a good play on words.

CObra relies on AA guns instead of AA missile launchers and where are their Hurricanes?

GI JOE relief force includes Retaliators carrying Cobra Hammerheads.

The landing joes have a strangely all olive colored RAIDER at 20:08, it looks like. Or is it an Avlanche? I guess it is.
The Joe's purple helmeted "rust shirts" appear.

Sky Dive! Non-speaking cameo...shouldn't he be in charge of the rescue force?

It's been like 2 days and they are repairing the bridge already! Sure they are!

Relaxing on an island that just had a volcanic eruption or at least a lot of lava flows.

Friendly fire is hilarious, funny this episode aired months before the Gulf War where Friendly Fire was no so much fun.

A lot of repetitive action, little to no character development on the Joe's side. Cobra equipment losses high for Dic.