Summary

• Snake Eyes returned from the dead in a unique way, using cloning and memory restoration.
• Larry Hama took the opportunity to replace Snake Eyes with new characters such as Throwdown and Dawn Moreno.
• In the end, Snake Eyes managed to restore his memory and cure his disfigurement.

Death Is Not the End is a feature where we explore the bizarre explanations for why comic book characters (mostly supervillains) survive what seems like certain death. Today we’re looking at how Snake Eyes came back from the dead in the pages of GI Joe: A Real American Hero, just in time for the series to come to an end at IDW.

GI Joe: A real American hero penned by Larry Hama is a fascinating series because Hama tries to bring as much realism as possible to his portrayal of the military heroes in these comics about a military strike force, but at the same time, I mean, we’re basically talking about a group of superheroes as military agents, so there’s no real way to be REALLY realistic. Instead, what Hama does really well is give the comics the AURA of reality, even when the stories are clearly exaggerated and outlandish.

So if characters are killed in GI Joe: A real American hero over the years Hama has GENERALLY taken a “when they’re dead, they’re dead” approach, but of course there are notable exceptions to almost every rule, and in the case of the most famous GI Joe character of all time, Snake Eyes, Hama definitely made an exception for Snake Eyes’ return from the dead.

How did Snake Eye die in the pages of GI Joe: A Real American Hero?

In GI Joe: A real American hero #213 (by Larry Hama, SL Gallant, Brian Shearer and J. Brown), Serpentor broke into the GI Joes’ headquarters and had a giant robot under his control. It seemed he was about to destroy the Joes with his robot when it stopped working. Meanwhile, Snake Eyes attacked Serpentor with a grenade and they fell from a deck into the floor below where the grenade exploded, killing them both. Right after that, we saw that the giant robot had been defeated by one of the newer members of the GI Joe team, Throwdown, a protégé of Snake Eyes, who stopped the robot but suffered severe burns in the process. He grabbed Snake Eyes’ mask and put it on…

In this way, Snake Eyes was replaced by Hama, among others.

How did Larry Hama replace Snake Eyes in the comic?

As I wrote a few years ago, Larry Hama had two options to replace Snake Eyes.

Throwdown’s real name was Sean Collins. He was born Sean Broca to a former Cobra Crimson Guardsman. After his father’s death, he was replaced by a new Crimson Guardsman, Wade Collins, who had fought alongside Snake Eyes in Vietnam. In the final issue of the Marvel version of GI Joe: A real American heroSean wrote Snake Eyes a letter asking if he should join the army. Snake Eyes responded with his own thoughts on military service. This was significant because we never got to hear Snake Eyes’ thoughts on any subject since he was mute. Apparently Sean eventually enlisted and joined the GI Joes.

After Snake Eyes’ death, the Joes needed a new Snake Eyes. They couldn’t admit to their enemies that Snake Eyes was dead. Throwdown’s disfigurement had also severely damaged his vocal cords. He was the perfect choice to take on the role of Snake Eyes. However, Sean had to fake his own death to take on the new role. He couldn’t even tell his own family the truth. So Sean was now basically Snake Eyes.

In the meantime GI Joe: A real American hero #226 (by Hama, SL Gallant and Bryan Shearer) we met a young girl who lived in Springfield (the suburb that was secretly home to Cobra). Her name was Dawn Moreno and she quickly proved to be a gifted athlete. Her strong physical abilities earned her the attention of Cobra Commander. He quickly took her on as his own bodyguard. She was trained by a number of Cobra followers. The citizens of Springfield were routinely put through the Brainwave Scanner. The Brainwave Scanner was a machine invented by an early Cobra agent, Doctor Venom. It could be used to interrogate people and also brainwash them. Cobra Commander had his current chief scientist, Doctor Mindbender, use it to brainwash the citizens of Springfield and make them be loyal to Cobra. Venom had used it to interrogate Snake Eyes in an early issue of the series (so basically 40 years ago).

In GI Joe: A real American hero #229, Baroness decided to use the brainwave scanner to reaffirm Dawn’s loyalty to Cobra. However, something went wrong. As it turns out, when Venom put Snake Eyes in the brainwave scanner, a copy of Snake Eyes’ mind was created. This copy has now been transferred into Dawn’s mind.

She escaped from Cobra custody and fled, struggling with these new thoughts in her head. GI Joe: A real American hero #232 she met Snake Eyes’ best friend Storm Shadow and he accepted her into his Arashikage ninja clan. In GI Joe: A real American hero #244, she finally got her new ninja outfit and more or less officially became the new Snake Eyes.

So those were Hamas’ TWO options for replacing Snake Eyes. However, before the IDW series ended, he also wanted to bring back the original.

How did Snake Eyes come back to life?

At the end of the IDW round GI Joe: A real American heroIn the penultimate issue, #299 (by Hama, Gallant, Maria Keane and Brown), Mindbender brings Serpentor back to life…

Mindbender cloned Serpentor and used the brain scanner to restore his memories. As it turns out, Mindbender had also grown a clone of Snake Eyes…

And at the end of the issue, Snake Eyes is brought back to life and his memories are also returned to him…

But that’s the thing: If you clone a disfigured guy whose voice was destroyed by the disfigurement, you wouldn’t clone the disfigurement, right? And sure enough, when Snake Eyes reunited with Scarlett, he could now speak! And his face was no longer disfigured!

This was the last IDW issue, but amusingly the cliffhanger was immediately picked up in the Skybound series, which began with #301 and continues to this day.

If anyone has a suggestion for a future with “Death is not the End,” drop me a line at [email protected]!