G.I. Joe: Resolute



""All games end today.""

A Darker and Edgier G.I. Joe miniseries written by Warren Ellis, G.I. Joe: Resolute was first released in 10 5-minute installments on the Adult Swim website before finally airing on the channel itself - along with the 10-minute finale - on April 26, 2009.

In Washington DC, Major Bludd is found dead at the Lincoln Memorial, his corpse left there as a warning to would-be Cobra traitors. In Alaska, Destro and the Baroness seize control of the HAARP array, using it to superheat the ionosphere and disrupt global communications. Somewhere in the Pacific, the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier USS Flagg is nearly sunk due to a sabotage attempt by Storm Shadow. Meanwhile, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, Cobra Commander addresses the delegates with an ultimatum: give Cobra control of the world within 24 hours or the organization will launch devastating attacks against civilian targets. As a show of force, the Commander has Moscow destroyed with a particle beam weapon, instantly killing 10 million people.

Struggling to recover from the attack on the Flagg, and with Snake Eyes leaving to fight Storm Shadow in Japan, the rest of the Joes launch a desperate counterattack, hoping to thwart Cobra's plans and defeat the terrorist group once and for all.


 * Animesque
 * A-Team Firing: Duke and Scarlett stand smack in the middle of a crossfire against 20 Cobras and don't get hit once. This was likely in reference to the original series.
 * Bloodier and Gorier
 * Darker and Edgier
 * In the original series, while GI Joe was always depicted as a paramilitary team made up of soldiers (i.e. trained killers), thanks to A-Team Firing and broadcast standards, rarely if ever did the good guys ever kill anyone. In Resolute, Snake Eyes is at his most deadly, Scarlett mercilessly snipes Cobra men and Duke is seen stabbing one to death. The later live action movie continued this trope.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Cobra Commander has clearly been watching all his old episodes and taking notes (he even Lampshades this on several occasions). Fortunately, he still manages to be incredibly entertaining since, despite being significantly more murderous, he's still completely bonkers.
 * Deus Ex Machina:
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Warren Ellis states that he was completely unfamiliar with the G.I. Joe franchise when he wrote the script. That might be, but it definitely at least appears as though he's played Command & Conquer. Cobra Commander acts a bit like Kane and even ends up taking an Ion Beam to the face, leading to Never Found the Body. Kane was a little calmer, though.
 * It wasn't that he wasn't familiar with GI Joe as such, just that no one told him till afterwards that GI Joe was the Action Man he played with as a kid.
 * Executive Veto: Warren Ellis originally planned for Cobra Commander to obliterate Beijing, but the Hasbro executives shot that down. They were OK with destroying Moscow though.
 * Gender Flip: Communications Officer Dial-Tone is female in this continuity.
 * Just Between You and Me: When Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes meet for their final duel, Storm Shadow reveals that his supposed honor was really all just a façade to screw with Snake Eyes, out of jealousy.
 * Kill'Em All: Arguably subverted in Resolute, which promised a high body count and by all means delivered on that promise...with Cobra. While a pretty good amount of known named Cobra characters were killed (some more gruesomely than others) the G.I Joe team was for the most part pretty much intact. The only named G.I. Joe character who was killed is Bazooka, who died offscreen and his corpse is perfectly clean and intact (while some of the Cobras can't quite say the same thing about their fatalities).
 * Not So Harmless: Cobra Commander, vaporizing Moscow just to prove a point, addresses a cadre of Cobra goons. He states that his General Failure tendencies were all Obfuscating Stupidity, designed to make his subordinates think and weed out traitors. Now that it no longer suits him, he's no longer going to tolerate disobedience or failure.
 * Pin-Pulling Teeth: Duke during the Russia infiltration mission.
 * Proof I Am Not Bluffing: Cobra Commander vaporizes Moscow and its ten million people to prove what his weapon can do and what he's willing to do with it.
 * Race Lift: Ripcord, just like anywhere else.
 * Subverted Kids Show: A rare example of this trope taken seriously.
 * Talking to Himself: Due to the small voice cast.
 * Toyless Toyline Character: Only a few of the Resolute versions of the characters were made.