One of the more interesting things about Sunbow G.I. Joe animation, as it went, was how things took on a life of their own... in one particular case. Thunder was a character positioned for something, but that thunder became a dud. Best laid plans and all that, right?
Duke and Scarlett were portrayed as a romantic pairing, though subtly and without overt declarations right out the gate in "The MASS Device" mini-series. Both were vocal and assertive leaders, and certainly were attractive soldiers.
This dynamic was easy to script and animate. A kid would easily see Duke as "heroic male lead," and Scarlett as "heroic female lead," and sure, they needed to be together. All-American Blonde action hero, redheaded female soldier. Almost on the nose, central casting.
They were positioned in many ways, as well, "team mom and dad." Much like how Optimus Prime in Transformers is the "team dad" for the Autobots.
Flint and Lady Jaye were more openly affectionate, and as Sunbow G.I. Joe went on, these two became the leads. It was clear they were an item.
While Duke was a man of action, Flint was more tactical in nature. Some might call him cocky, but Flint's skills backed up his coincidence. He was that damn good. They mostly operated as duos on missions, where Lady Jaye was cool-headed, typically utilizing covert skills, and Flint employed his strategic and tactical approach in mission leadership. This created a proper "battlefield couple" for G.I. Joe to mirror Destro and Baroness.
Lady Jaye was a natural flirt, perhaps unintentionally. Her empathetic nature did result in being "inviting," so to speak, but as it was, it could create moments of jealousy with Flint from time to time. This was done, in part, to code her as a woman that boys watching the show would crush on.
These two pairings were power couples in Sunbow, but what does this all have to do with Thunder of all people?
Simple! The Sunbow Series Bible did indeed romantically link Thunder and Cover Girl, likely as a way to give the tank crew some emotional texture and to elevate Thunder from his C-list status. It came off as a throwaway concept with little care given to it.
They both drive tanks! They hang out in the motor pool! Must be love! But that pairing never really materialized on screen, and the reasons were pretty telling.
Selling a Toy:
G.I. Joe figures had three basic ways to sell themselves as a product wholly unto themselves (excluding wider promotional advertising, commercials, comics, and cartoons).
Visual/Role/Character
Did the character look cool? What did the character do? And finally, what was the character's personality? I'd argue that for a figure to be successful, it needed to hit at least two of these three, ideally all three.
Snake Eyes looked cool, was a commando/ninja, and was a man of mystery. That's probably the biggest, easiest example. Destro looked cool; he was a weapons supplier, and he used his family legacy to justify his evil. That's a villain example.
Thunder looked... fine? He was ok'ish, but very much visually coded as support Joe.
The helmet he wore obscured his face, with a big visor and headphones. It gave him a "rabbit TV antenna" look. The colors of his figure were dark brown, green, and black. His mouth had a frown. The figure was not very dynamic and off-putting in some respects.
Despite the special helmet, he still came off generic. Uniformity worked to an extent with G.I. Joe as a collective team, but a child naturally wants individuals. Nothing about Thunder popped.
Then Thunder was a vehicle driver, packaged with the Slugger. Putting aside command figures and their personal vehicles (Destro, Fred VII lol, Overlord, Serpentor, Sgt. Slaughter), the only three G.I. Joe vehicle drivers who really mattered were Ace, Wild Bill, and Cover Girl. From the very beginning until now. The ace jet pilot, the country helicopter pilot, and a fashion model turned tank driver.
just to remind you who the hero is!
Cobra vehicle drivers were, for the most part, just variations on Cobra troops and Vipers, and other Joe drivers were just echoes of Ace/Cover Girl/Wild Bill. So, Thunder's only propping was if a kid liked the Slugger, and even then, all he'd be doing was driving it. Cover Girl had more upside, could be used apart from the Wolverine, because a female figure naturally created more play patterns.
The "I Like Loud Stuff" Personality:
So, he's already generic-looking and behind the eight ball as a vehicle driver. Thunder seemed like a guy happy with his role, proud of his roots, but if the character wasn't chasing polish or prestige, then a kid would look elsewhere for heroes.
There's nothing wrong with not being flashy, and sure, Thunder was dependable and had working-class grit. That doesn't mean much when other Joes were flashy, more dependable, and had more grit. In a large, expanding G.I. Joe toy line in the '80s, grabbing a child's attention required style as well as substance.
Ok, so he was a noise enthusiast. They had to give Thunder something, anything to help him "stand out," but that's all they could come up with?
Sensory coding as a personality quirk would not be too compelling to children unless in the proper context (Soundwave in Transformers, Daredevil in Marvel comics). This was all very basic here.
Snow troop likes snow. Desert troop likes heat. Metal-Head yells, "Bang Bang!" Big Brawler likes brawling. Tank man likes noise. They didn't even try to give Thunder a compelling personality quirk in his filecard. Pathetic.
Filecards offered sketch overviews as placeholders until adaptive media could flesh a character out. If Thunder didn't get a big spotlight in a comic and/or cartoon, then all he had going for him was the noise-loving stuff. The rhythm of battle, like a drummer in a hard rock band, was corny. It's just damn corny.
Along Comes A Sailor:
Screentime economics became a factor. The cartoon had 22 minutes to show a bit of G.I. Joe slice of life, Cobra attempts a scheme, G.I. Joe stops it, while promoting an assortment of figures and vehicles.
Shipwreck was also mentioned in the Sunbow Bible and was given much more care in who he was and why he was compelling. He even got a special debut in "The Revenge of Cobra," re-playing the beats of Han Solo. Shipwreck could be the fool, the rogue, or simply a man who liked the ladies.
I'd rank Cobra Commander's shrill voice by Chris Latta first. Then Mary McDonald-Lewis raspy performance as Lady Jaye.
The third most memorable would be Neil Ross' iconic Jack Nicholson-esque drawl, "the sailor has drank too much coffee," which helped Shipwreck make a breakout star and a fan favorite in Sunbow by both viewers and the writers. That vocal charisma gave Shipwreck narrative gravity that Thunder couldn't match (funny thing, he was also voiced by Neil Ross).
Shipwreck was a salty, streetwise sailor with a mischievous streak and a knack for surviving trouble with a grin. He wasn't bitter. He rolled with the punches and enjoyed life.
"He can go on a three-day liberty ... and come back smiling," how'd that get slipped in in Shipwreck's file card? LOL.
This was a much, much stronger file card than Thunder's. The trope of sailors going out, drinking, brawling, and chasing romance was baked into pop culture long before G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
Shipwreck had that very classic sailor swagger. He was the kind of guy who hit port, found a bar, maybe flirted with someone he shouldn't, got into a fight, and still considered it a great time, whether he had a successful romance or not. It could be a wild night, a good story, or both. He'd have fun regardless.
Thunder was a vehicle driver with limited narrative flexibility. Typically, they'd want to focus on tanks, and maybe he's driving one. Ok, and? Unlike Shipwreck, who could be dropped into land, sea, air, espionage, comedy, or emotional arcs, Thunder was tethered to the Slugger. That's a hard sell for writers trying to build character chemistry across varied missions.
Thunder had two hero moments, both in the "Battle for the Train of Gold" episode. He used the Slugger to blast through a door and then knew a guy who had fast horses to catch up with Cobra's bullet train, which created a humorous interlude with the Joes having to quickly learn how to ride them.
In "Bazooka Saw A Sea Serpent," Thunder and tanks are stuck in traffic. LOL
Unintentional Romance/Accidental Canon:
Back in the late '90s, G.I. Joe online was very much a proto-form. It wasn't what Transformers fandom was, with a big massive fandom.
RodZD's Zartan's Domain was the featured site. It outdrew all others and perhaps put him at odds with other influence seekers. But as it was, he was a BIG backer of Shipwreck and Cover Girl. I'll try to basically make the same points RodZD made way back when.
The loop with Shipwreck was that he'd make a play for a lady and get shot down, mostly. Scarlett slapped him in part 1 of "The Synthoid Conspiracy." LOL. But he'd also have success elsewhere, with Satin and Mara. He had no problem shooting his shot.
"The Germ" was an excellent episode of G.I. Joe.
There was Cobra-on-Cobra violence between a Crimson Guard and Cobra grunts, which wonderfully showed the class divide within Cobra. A dangerous bacterium (which Cobra had stolen) and an experimental growth serum (Cobra had developed in-house) got mixed together accidentally because of the internal battle. The resulting threat: an ever-growing bio-germ roaming across the United States, destroying everything in its path.
Airtight failed to destroy it with his solution, which actually caused it to split two, but the always opinionated Shipwreck stumbled onto the solution when he remarked, "I still think we ought to try poisoning it..... what we need is a candy-coated solution."
So, the doctor who "helped" create the germ explained that apple seeds do contain cyanogenic acid, and one would need to ingest massive amounts of seeds to do any harm, so that became the final push of the episode: G.I. Joe mobilizing, forcing the germ(s) to consume large quantities of apples.
As the supply of apples was slow-moving, Shipwreck, ever the cheeky sailor, tried to charm Cover Girl with his usual swagger. But instead of swooning, she delivered a swift elbow to his gut, making it clear she's not in the mood for his antics. Ouch!
Different lady, shot down again. Same loop as with Scarlett, huh? Hmm. Not quite. This did take a bit of a turn, though, much to even Shipwreck's surprise.
Well, later on, Shipwreck, with his reckless bravado, was barreling down this germ, throwing one apple at a time, "this might be the one to stop it," he reasoned. Cover Girl was CLEARLY concerned for Shipwreck's well-being, figured out the one thing that'd get him to agree to a tactical retreat.
"If you leave now, I'll go out with ya," she offered.
Shipwreck excited, followed her lead, "Anchors away! When are we gonna go out?"
"The sooner, the better!" Cover Girl joked as they ran towards the river. "What'll we do?" Shipwreck questioned.
"Go swimming!" Cover Girl explained as they jumped in the water. "This is the best date I've had in weeks!" Shipwreck crowed.
Cover Girl used the only extraction maneuver Shipwreck would listen to, the emotional bait of a date (that rhymes). This highlighted both Cover Girl's no-nonsense attitude and Shipwreck's role as comic relief and a lovable rogue. They clashed and bantered like real people. They're even color-coded as opposites: earthy tones for Cover Girl's uniform, the blue sea going blue for Shipwreck sailor look.
A Model And A Sailor End Up Arrested:
Then there was "Twenty Questions," where Cover Girl followed Shipwreck to the Colorado Rockies as he was trying to prove that Cobra existed to a big-time news reporter (just where a sailor would be, Alpine joked). Her concern for Shipwreck's safety was once again at the forefront of her mind, and the episode showed Cover Girl's willingness to go off-book to back him up.
But Cover Girl's not in any way interested in Shipwreck. Right? Riiight.
And then in "Lights! Camera! Cobra!" Cover Girl found Shipwreck in a bar, and ended up caught up in a fight, and both got arrested. LOL.
Plot Loop Patterns:
Cover Girl's decisions to track him down across episodes showed a pattern:
Cover Girl was often the one who chose to be near Shipwreck, even when he was being reckless. This reversed the Pepé Le Pew loop in Looney Tunes. Here, Cover Girl, supposedly "disinterested," was always chasing after Shipwreck anyway.
The writers accidentally stumbled upon low-key romantic tension. Shipwreck and Cover Girl had clashing archetypes. The gruff sailor vs. the poised model-turned-soldier. It made for fun tension and banter. Thunder and Cover Girl, both being grounded and competent, lacked that spark of contrast.
In G.I. Joe Renegades, Shipwreck named his ship after the model, Courtney A. Krieger, aka Cover Girl. They were first "officially" canonized in G.I. Joe: America's Elite #20, published by Devil's Due in February 2007. In that issue, the two were shown playing poker with other Joes during downtime, and it was casually revealed that they were dating.
Thunder and Cover Girl as a couple would've been a quieter, more easy going pairing. Two professionals bonded by shared duty, common professional skills, and mutual respect. ZzzzZzzzzz. It all would have been, frankly, boring.
This reflected a broader Sunbow tendency. The writers and fans favored certain characters. Shipwreck was impulsive and a contrast-driven character; Thunder just didn't have much going for him, so he never got the screentime necessary. Shipwreck naturally charmed Cover Girl, even if she'd rarely admit it.
Of course, the big issue was whether a guy like Shipwreck would want to be domesticated, to settle down? I think "No Place Like Springfield" 2-parter showed, yes, he'd be down for that eventually.
But if Mara did get cured later on by Doc, and Shipwreck and Cover Girl were dating, that'd be a little awkward, huh? I'm sure Shipwreck would make an inappropriate joke about maybe them three getting together and... Cover Girl guts him in the stomach again, "Just kidding!" he'd admit.
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