“So I says, ‘Coulson, I’m sure your group of non-powered agents can handle it. We’re pretty busy over here fighting Galactus!’ Haha! And he fell for it! Everyone knows Galactus is over in the Fox Cinematic Universe.”
One of the biggest problems with shared universes in any medium, especially when it comes to super heroes, is where is everybody when you need them? How come Iron Man or Thor never showed up to help Cap in Captain America: Winter Soldier? Whenever the Joker shows up to taunt Batman, why can’t he call Superman to take care of him in seconds? It’s one of those things that Tom Kelly would tell us all to not think about too much.
After the cut, Robot Chicken tackles this subject with an eye to skewing Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
G.I. Joe was the sort of 80s animated series that didn’t necessarily excel in answering questions, but here’s one that maybe should have been answered: where exactly did Cobra find all its soldiers? Knowing may have been half the battle, but maybe you could cut the battle by another half if you could dry up Cobra’s recruitment. Instead, there’s a ton of generally faceless guys who seem to line up in order for the Joes, a military unit with the loosest uniform standards in the entire American Defense Department (thanks for that joke, Robot Chicken), to punch out by the dozen. Its a good thing the Joes couldn’t shoot any straighter than Cobra could, because that would have been rather messy.
Seriously, where do groups like Cobra find recruits? Who lines up to join them? I suppose the same question could be applied to modern world terrorist organizations, but unlike them, Cobra had a whole island that everyone knew about. I am sure a more pro-active group like Seal Team 6 would have stormed that place and taken out the top leadership in about a minute and a half (again, thanks for the joke, Robot Chicken). Cobra had cheap equipment, and most missions had the Joes rounding up the foot soldiers by the hundreds to, I dunno, go to prison somewhere. And its not as if Cobra is alone here.
Gabbing Geek 