On Duke's new filecard, he is a Major. This is very disappointing to me as I am a NCO and I like Duke. And now, he's an officer. It does explain why is is younger though but whatever, I'm still disappointed. Not mad, disappointed.

This is disappointing to me not only because I like Duke, but also because Hollywood almost refuses to give the NCO Corps it's due. Movies are almost always about officers and the junior troops. The NCO is kind of left out. NCOs are the backbone of the Army. We are advisers to Officers (every Officer has an NCO counterpart.) Role Models for the junior Soldiers. We conduct 90% of the training.

The Army is currently celebrating "The Year of the NCO." This happens every 15-20 years. This adds to the disappointment. I guess I was just psyched and now it seems that I have been mistaken again. I will always take solace in knowing that Hama knew the important of the NCO Corps (a lot of the Original Joes were NCOs, Snake Eyes, Stalker, Gung Ho.)

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I agree. I think it takes a lot away from Duke. The fact that he turned down commissions to remain an NCO (and his reasoning for doing so) was integral to his character...

Ah well, Hollywood these days. What can you do?

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I think they may have changed this. If you play around with the Action Battlers Duke he says "Master Sargent Conrad Duke Hauser" and I cannot remember where/which book, but it listed him as a Master Sargent. But really does it matter? Just ignore the filecards and play with the toys the way you want to play with them! Heck my daughter has Cobra Commander and Ripper as good guys now thanks to last years Joe Con.

Michael
Bulletman Big B

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Makes it easier to write out Flint that way...
I never understood why Duke was/is Hasbro's Golden Boy anyway so I'm not surprised.

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Well, if it makes you guys feel any better, the "Tough Troopers" Duke toy still says "First Sergeant Duke reporting for duty!"

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What? Don't all 10 man teams include 2 officers? You know General, Major, and 8 enlisted.


That was sarcastic by the way.

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meh, these days you're lucky to get any officers out in the field...

but either way, the kid playing Duke doesn't look like an E-8 or an O-4, they should have made him an E-5 and let him work for the stripes... course I haven't seen the movie so maybe he does.

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I agree with this: as a kid, there was the leader, and designated drivers, and specialities. I am not sure I even knew what a 1SG was when issue 22 came out and Duke was introduced.
Later, as i got more into the military, rank mattered, but not to my friends.....They were just like, Ok, whatever, he is still flying the helicopter.

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I'm with you Stan -- despite all my "Duke-hate", I still like the way he was originally introduced - his appearance in issue #24 really established the character for me, and along with the filecard, he was the perfect SF NCO. That's how I still think of him - but the cartoon and other media elevating him to some super-douche soured me on "mainstream" Duke.

But with the actor they chose - some kid who couldn't possibly have the life experiences that Duke has (even today with people making E8 earlier and earlier), I'm fine with him being an officer -- although making him a Major is pushing it to (unlike Josh Duhamel in TF2 - his character is totally believable as a MAJ). My only issue is -- don't call him Duke, call him Falcon. He seems to fit the Falcon mold much better than Duke. But since there's no real "name recognition" for Falcon, we're stuck with Duke as an officer. Doesn't bother me near as much as making Ripcord an E8 Pilot (according to his new filecard) and a Wayans Brother. Marlon could have been any number of characters - established or brand-new. Why bother naming him Wally Weems? And just like the cartoon, we have everybody and their brother flying aircraft, it seems.


So even though I always flick you "LASER BLAST" in the Duke vs Flint debate - I still think originally-conceived Duke is one of the best characters in Joedom. Too bad Hasbro/Sunbow/Marvel/DDP didn't keep it that way


And I agree with NCOs/Enlisted leaders getting the shaft in Hollywood. Look no farther than Star Trek -- EVERYbody's an officer except for the occasional red shirt. How many friggin' Ensigns are you going to have on one ship, anyway?

But I digest....

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I'd go for the switch to officer myself.
If his character role is to be the main "Field Leader" and be giving orders to even many officers on the Joe team it would ONLY make sense for him to actually, maybe, uh, outrank them. I just don't see the need to "cling" to the outdated and improper notion as he's been used in the past regarding his rank.

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In the book that takes place before the movie,That's just my guess/hope

I imagine a lot of it is that Hollywood -- here the Producers more than anyone else, possibly the writers as well -- don't understand what an NCO is. And because they don't understand, they presume that the populace won't understand.

"He leads his unit, and gives orders? But, officers lead and give orders."
"OK, ok. Let's say he's this Master Sergeant thing. We want to make his second a pilot. ... What do you mean only officers are pilots, and even a lowly Lieutenant can order him around?"
"We hear this Flint guy's popular too. Let's set him up in the sequel. Warrant Officer? What the heck's that? Waitaminute. It's also under the Lieutenant, but over the highest Sergeant?"

"Look, let's just simplify this. He's the hero of the flick, he's in charge of his squad before joining GI Joe. We'll make him an officer. People can understand officers in the lead."

Heck, look at the A-Team, that had three officers (Col, Capt, Lt.) and one enlisted (Sgt) and they got on fine.

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Maybe he graduated college with a bachelors then went straight into officer's training.

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O-1 Second Lieutenant
O-2 First Lieutenant <---- Assuming he was an O-2 and not an O-1
O-3 Captain <--- Skiped this one
O-4 Major

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As anyone who's read my duo stories knows, I cherry pick canon and tend to ignore developments that run counter to the way Larry originally concieved of these characters. Making Duke an officer is a prime example of missing the point. Duke wet nurses officers ( except maybe for Hawk, whom I imagine he shares a mutual respect with) and, like that original file card essentially says, embodies everything that the traditional idea and representation of an officer is not. I think this development may bother me more than any other changes they've made to core characters for the movie.