Marvel Comics has proven that you can "have your cake and eat it, too" by having two separate continuities (the original and Ultimate universes).

Devil's Due had several different Joe 'verses, mostly centered around Transformer crossovers, but none of them seem to have had tremendous sticking power in the collective minds of fans.

Personally, I prefer solid timelines in which character age over sliding timelines, in which they don't.

I know this puts me in a very small percentage. Here's what I'm wondering, if IDW were to put out two Joe 'verses (one solid and one sliding) would you buy them?

I've always seen GI Joe as a story that should be an ensemble cast. In theory, characters like Short-Fuze and Alpine should get more screen time and Snake-Eyes should get considerably less. Likewise, older characters should become background characters take their places. Kamakura should be the center bad ass while Snake-Eyes begins to slide out the back door. This is just my take on things, of course.

What are your thoughts? Could you embrace multiple Joe universes?

I've been of the idea that they can reboot sort of each year. They can do like Power Rangers really. They don't have real actors so they can bring back whoever they want from year to year without a problem. They can put a character aside for a year and bring him back the next if they want to make that character "new" again. They can focus on select groups with one shot apperances when they can be worked in. They can have Cobra Commander at the core, but have "new" evil factions. Cobra can be at the core every time.

There's tons of ways it can be done and each year the line can reinvent it's self without actually giving up what it is. The main popular characters can always make apperances. You can have Hawk always there to introduce each team each year and have Duke there to brief each team each year. There would just be new "field leaders" each year. Basically taking the Power Ranger idea, Hawk and Duke would be the ones that bring the Power Rangers together and are there at the base leading. The "field leader" would be the Red Ranger. Just to put it in a way that's been done on Power Rangers.

It could work and do very well if it was done right. There's no real reason that it couldn't be done. It would open tons of doors. The sky's the limit if it were set up like this. Like with Power Rangers, everything ties into each other, it's just not really explained how. You just know that it is and know there is continuity. It's just a continuity that wouldn't get bogged down by "facts".

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Like them or not I've got the feeling that we are going to end up with several universes over the next few years.

The live action movie is near future, but also from what we've heard is how Cobra gets started in the near future so that's a new GI Joe universe.

Comic books are going to be both a main line and a different movie line so that's two different comic book universes even if IDW picked up right after either Marvel or Devils Due.

Since any most movie cartoon is likely to be different from anything else yet another GI Joe universe.

Good thing with several universes running at once is that if you don't like one of them you are not totally out of luck since you've got others to fall back on.

I'm a fan of the Marvel/DD universes. But I also love the idea of several different Joe 'verses.

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I'm with JMan.
GI Joe should be like a live Power Ranger show with tights (like in the movie) and some plastic helmets fighting in a giant plastic robot the forces of Cobra who would unleash rubber monsters week after week.

Each year we could have a new "power"
Gi Joe Dino Rage, GI Joe Racing Power, GI Joe Kung fu magic, GI Joe Animal booster...

What? It wasn't your point? Sorry 'bout that I'll calm down and I'll go watch Go Onger

Seriously, I don't mind multiple continuity.
In the 80's we had both the comic and the cartoon which were different.

Today we'll have the movie and the comic which might follow Marvel's and DD or restart the whole thing, we'll see.

I know all our favorite characters should only be advisers by now, but I don't want my heroes to age and fade away to give some place to a newer generation. I want them in the field kicking and shooting.

Oh and bring back all the characters DD killed. That wasn't cool, man, Not cool at all!

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I think Duke should awake from a coma, wander into the bathroom where he finds Lady Jaye, Flash, & Mainframe in the shower and learns everything since 1994 has just been a dream.

-CJack

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Hehe, I know you're kidding, but I'll give an example more of what I'm talking about for those I might have actually confused.

Picture the first year we see a scene in the ocen where oil rigs are attacked. I big scene of sea vehicles are shown. Finally the scene brings the focus on a guy laughing like a bad guy and we see Cobra logos. Now we see Hawk talking to a team of G.I.joe members explaining how a "new threat attacking our oceans" have come about and a team of specialists has been put together to counter act them. Torpedo, Wet Suit, Deep Six, ect. are revealed and Hawk hands it over to Duke to brief the team. Duke announces a field commander and it goes from there. For that year we get sea vehicles and aquatic themed figures.

Now the next year "a new threat has happened attacking from the air". That can lead to jets, gliders, etc. Then another year "a new threat has come from beneath the ground. We then see Earth drilling weapons and stuff like that. Another year can be the jungle, another year can be the desert, another year can be a fortress found in the mountains. And on and on.

I could see it working and working well. It would make each year fresh. They can even go with specifics such as a "technology attack" which introduces robots on both sides. Space can be included. They could even keep it more in the eyes of kids by doing a theme for the first half of the year and bringing in a new theme in the second half.

Tons and tons of options that would sort of take from the Power Ranger idea without actually having guys in camo tights and themed military zords, hehe. I think it could be the thing to actually bring G.I.Joe back in a huge way.

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The way J_Man presents his idea could work and work well for a TV show to toys synergy, and the comic line that follows it.

I also liked the way Reloaded began -- but Duke as traitor kind of killed that particular universe.

The movie also will spawn its own separate comic universe, which is good.

None of these, however, are the main through-line of GI Joe. Up to now, this line has stretched from Marvel #1 through America's Elite #36, no matter how much some of us wish to ignore sections of that history. (Mine includes a lot of the Eco-Warriors and ninja Scarlett eras).

When IDW starts their through-line, their central GI Joe book, I hope that it will either be a reboot, or a new cast -- but really, a reboot. The reason being, after WWIII -- even if Cobra goes out with a whimper -- that world is really messed up. There needs to be a retribution against Cobra. MARS will be dismantled for their part in overthrowing the US and UK governments. The US and UK -have- been taken over, no matter how briefly. DDP has sent the Middle East into a hot war -- truly, everywhere is a hot war zone.

I'm just not sure what good GI Joe can do in a post-DDP-WWIII universe. They wouldn't be used against Cobra; they'd be used to rescue hostages from opposing countries. They might be called upon more for occupy and control, not in and out. This isn't a world where a counter-terrorist group can sweep in, complete a mission, and leave again; the areas are /too/ unstable.

The point of an ongoing comic, to me, is to maintain the status quo; it's the fundamental difference between a comic book and a movie. (Movies require resolution.) Take Batman: Batman fights the Joker. The Joker nearly wins, but Batman defeats him. Bats sends the Joker to Arkham. Later on, the Joker escapes, and the cycle begins again. You can still have character growth within this cycle, but the cycle is necessary. The cycle is what brings back people who have read for a while long ago; it gives readers a certain measure of what to expect. The cycle /can/ be modified; the Joker can win a battle: ie, maiming Barbara. Killing Jason. Ultimately, however, he must be caught and not killed -- not unless you have prepped a new Joker in the wings.

With GI Joe, its cycle must include a nemesis. I'll even be a little broad with that. That nemesis can be Cobra, the IGs, Headhunters, Red Shadows. GI Joe needs to foil the nemesis' plans, or at least, the nemesis' -overt- plans. The nemesis must be able to have a 'foot in the door' peskiness, but never be able truly to exploit that inroad. Once they do, once the nemesis gets -too much- power, then something lie the last two years of America's Elite /must/ follow. And, once you open the door all the way to a world-wide hot war, how do you close it again?

You'll note I didn't mention characters in the GI Joe cycle. While I adore Scarlett and Breaker and the rest of the original 13 like anyone else, this is the military. People get hurt, people die. That's why there's triple redundancy for every position.I seem to recall reading that the US Special Forces maintain this triple redundancy: One battalion is 'on alert', a second 'in training', and a third 'on leave' at all times. That way their operational battalion has had both prep and rest for the high stresses of the work their asked to do. The nice thing about cycling people in and out is, if a writer wants a particular character, that character can be pulled from leave or out of training to join the current ops squad. (Yeah, sorry Downtown. We like Short-Fuze better. )

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J-Man, your second idea made me think of MASK.
The concept would be great for GI Joe.

Hawk or a young Joe Colton receives a call (on a cool techno communicator watch) from the president or the UN or whatever and rushes to his secret HQ where he uses a computer to assemble the perfect team of operatives and vehicles for the said mission.
(Could also look like the classic mission impossible show where he selects dossier while having a drink in his plush apartment).

One central character and a rotation of team members to put different characters in the spolight in each episodes. Stories could be two or three parters to be better developed.

That could be the cartoon universe.
The comic could stay the way it is aimed at a more mature audience.

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I would like to see a Gi Joe series where they can do the theme every year, I would love to see an Adventure Team theme that, seeing as a current Gi Joe series would take place in the 2000's, the Adventure Team would take place in the 80's/ early 90's, and maybe a futuristic show like Battleforce 2000, with the next generation of Joes, led by an adult Kamakura, but they could call it Battleforce 2035.

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GIJoe already has multiple universes.

The Sunbow cartoon. DIC. Stand-alone stories in choose your own adventures. Mini-storylines in the mail in catalogues. International take on the property. The Hama-verse, and the Devils Due splinter verse. The shortlived S6 cartoon. Heck, the filecards don't jive with everything presented in any Joe media, so it stands on its own. I just put it in line with Transformers. There are many takes on the same Cobra vs. GIJoe conflict.

I want the new comic to be a new take on the story, not a rehash stuck under the thumb of the Hama verse. Its time to move GIJoe forward with a fresh take, imo, and get back the ability to use all the iconic characters. Devils Due really missed the boat picking up from the end of the marvel series, imo.

Obviously, some people get picky about "continuity", but really, GIJoe has only has a few.

1) Marvel/DDp Comics
2) DDP Joe/Transformers Comics (it's one Universe for all four miniseries)
3) Dreamwave Joe/Transformers Comics (Aborted)
4) GIJoe Reloaded Comics (Also Aborted)
5) Action Force/GIJoe Comics (You can cram the Battle and Marvel UK stuff together, they really don't contradict)
6) Sunbow/DIC Cartoons (despite opinions, they are meant to be the same Universe)
7) Spy Troops/Valor vs Venom / Sigma 6 Cartoons (the CGIs were retconned into a 20 year old backstory, but its the same Universe. The comics don't contradict either).

Trying to force one-offs like the "Choose Your Fate" books and toy-insert mini-comics is just getting picky. They're not meant to be "Universes".. they're just marketing and merchandising tools. It's also futile trying to find reasons to separate things that are undeniably linked. Retcons and revamps are just the nature of a new licensee taking on an existing fiction. When you clear off all that dead weight, G.I.Joe has had a relatively small number of alternate realities, or different tellings of the "Real American Hero" story.




Granted, we're likely going to see a few more added in the next year or so. But probably not that many:

8) Movie (IDW's doing a good job of keeping the Transformers movie continuity in line with the films, which technically comprise one Universe between them. I imagine the Joe Movie comics will do the same).
9) IDW Comic reboot (if it happens, that'll definitely count as something separate
10) Post-Movie Cartoon show (same thing)

Even then, only 10 legitimate continuities in all, if we look on the bright side. Even better, if all three are successes, and we accept that Dreamwave's crossovers and JoeReloaded were unsuccessful and forgettable, that still brings the Major Joe Continuity count to 8. Not bad, all in all.

You're forgetting about one continuity.

In the mid 1980's, Blackthorne Publishing printed a fully licensed "GI Joe in 3D" story. I can't remember if it was one or two issues, but it existed and seemed independent of the Marvel continuity.

It wasn't horribly done, but it's still forgettable.