Duke (G.I. Joe)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

G.I. Joe Team's First Sergeant: Duke

Duke is a fictional character from G.I. Joe, a line of military-themed toys. He is featured in two series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6. He appears in the animated series, comic books, toyline and movie. His first appearance was actually in the first G.I. Joe miniseries in 1983, and was not added to the comic book until 1984.

Duke is the code name of First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser. He is field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe Team after Hawk. He is one of the key characters of G.I. Joe and a fan-favorite. He is generally regarded by fans as the poster child for G.I. Joe because he is usually the first character they recognize and identify with.

His file states that he hails from St. Louis, Missouri and is fluent in English, French and German, as well as several Southeast Asian dialects. He was at the top of his class at Fort Benning, has undergone Special Forces training and worked with South Vietnamese Tribesmen. He was also an instructor in four different Special Forces schools. Despite his accomplishments, he has repeatedly turned down any officer commissions offered to him. He believes a commanders place is with his troops, not behind the battle lines.

1 Cartoon
- 1.1 A Real American Hero
- 1.2 Sigma 6
2 Comics
3 Action Figures

[edit] Cartoon

[edit] A Real American Hero

Duke was the field leader of the G.I. Joe Team. Some time later, the original commander, General Flagg dropped out of the series and Duke took full command.

He led the campaigns in stopping several of COBRA's major attempts to take over the world such as the MASS Device and the Pyramid of Darkness. Cobra once tried to replace him with a synthoid clone but that attempt was also foiled.

Throughout much of the first season the lead role of commanding officer frequently alternated between Duke and Flint, the rugged warrant officer introduced in The Revenge of Cobra miniseries. When Duke was captured and held captive by Cobra for the bulk of that mini-series, Flint, apparently the second-in-command, stepped in as the G.I. Joe team leader. This was due in part to the series writers trying to balance the regulation of characters based on the prominence of their action figures. To a certain extent, Duke and Flint were almost interchangeable throughout the first season and, at times, their personalities almost seemed to be exactly the same, though Duke tended to be more stern than Flint. As a leader, Duke always put himself forward as the commanding officer first and the friend second, but sometimes he would let his softer side shine through, such as when he let Dusty take time off to take care of his mother.

Some time later, Hawk replaced Duke as commander of G.I. Joe. Duke was not dispensed as he is given second command, while Flint was third in command. It has been assumed by some fans that Hawk was always there, but acted only in an administrative role. Other fans assume that Hawk was always in charge and that Duke was just "minding the store". (See also Cartoon/Comic Confusion in Hawk)

Though the comic books and file cards say Duke is from St. Louis, Missouri, the MASS Device mini-series said that Duke was from Iowa. Scarlett also mentions that Duke is 6' 2", but this may be a joke on her part; her exact words, "Six foot two, eyes of blue," is probably an allusion to Ray Henderson song, "Five foot two, eyes of blue."

In the cartoon series, it was implied that there was potential romantic tensions between Duke and the jaunty Scarlett (whose romantic feelings lean towards Snake-Eyes in the comic book), and also that Cover Girl had a crush on Duke. As a result, many fan fiction writers have written stories revolving around a love triangle of Snake-Eyes, Scarlett and Duke.

In G.I. Joe: The Movie, Duke was responsible in foiling Cobra's attempt to take over the BET machine and in capturing Serpentor. With the aid of Cobra-La and the Dreadnoks, Serpentor escapes and gets his revenge in a second attempt to obtain the BET machine. Serpentor critically wounds Duke but his half brother Lt. Falcon avenges him in the end.

The Sunbow writers had planned to kill off Duke in the movie in an attempt to clear out some characters and bring in new ones and to acknowledge that people do die in wars, in response to criticism of the show's "sanitized" depiction of violence. However, parental and children response to Optimus Prime's death in Transformers: The Movie forced them to change their minds. Any references to Duke's death has been replaced with statements that he went into a coma. At the end of the movie, it was announced that Duke recovered. Despite the changes, many fans and viewers who were not able to follow the dialogue still assumed that Duke died in the movie and this led to some confusion. The writers for the animated series have stated that if the scene after Duke is stabbed with Serpentor's snake javelin is watched without audio, going just by the reactions of Lt. Falcon, Scarlett and General Hawk, it is obvious that Duke dies.

From beginning to end, Duke was voiced by Michael Bell, who also provided many other character voices, including Major Bludd, Xamot, Clutch, Lift-Ticket, and Blow-Torch. Bell's voice is always heard shouting "Yo Joe!" in the opening when the Joes head into battle, even though the opening credits were later changed to show the rugged warrant officer Flint leading the Joes into battle.

[edit] Sigma 6

Duke from G.I. Joe: Sigma 6

In series G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Duke is the leader of the G.I. Joe team. He has retained much of his personality from the A Real American Hero series. He is still that same hard-charging, man-of-action type of leader he's always been, albeit looking much younger and with a new hair-cut. He is still willing to go into the most dangerous situations rather than send a member of his team to do it. This Duke is much more comfortable being the military man than engaging in social situations such as in the first season episode "Vacation".

One other physical differentiation of this Duke from previous continuities is the scar on his right cheek. So far, it has not been explained how he acquired it.

[edit] Comics

Duke is not a member of the original G.I. Joe Team line-up. He came in after the death of General Flagg to help straighten the team out and become the new field commander. His first mission resulted in the capture of Cobra Commander. However, that victory was short-lived as the COBRA ninja Storm Shadow rescued the Commander.

He also took part in the invasion of the COBRA-controlled town of Springfield. He also played second-in-command to Hawk during the COBRA Civil War. Later on for a while, he led the G.I. Joe special team Tiger Force. He was also involved in the mission to push Cobra out of Trucial Abysmia, but intelligence vastly underestimated COBRA's presence there and resulted in the deaths of several G.I. Joe members. He would recover from that experience and lead the defense of the Joe headquarters, the Pit, against Cobra. He continued working with G.I. Joe until its disbandment.

After the disbandment, Duke went to take on black ops assignments for a secret government agency for a few years. It was during one of his missions that he discovered COBRA's attempt to make a comeback. He helped rally the effort to have G.I. Joe reinstated. By this time, Duke had a different edge to him, taking more risks and sometimes putting teammates in danger. But when Hawk was incapacitated in a Cobra assassination attempt, Duke took up his injured mentor's causes, fighting the corrupt jugglers while holding the team together in the wake of the loss of their leader.

When the team was reorganized in the America's Elite series, Duke disappeared, going off on his own mission to locate Cobra Commander. During his search, he was captured by a group of B.A.T.s under the control of a Crimson Guard who also had a grudge against Cobra Commander and wished to locate him.

Larry Hama, who wrote the original G.I. Joe comic book, always expressed great frustration with Duke. His main problem with Duke was that everyone else involved with G.I. Joe - the Hasbro toy line directors and the writers handling the show - all just treated Duke as if he were interchangeable with General Hawk, which Hama feels stilted Duke's character development in the comic book. Also, he felt that Duke's personality did not fit with the role of a master sergeant (Hama always regarded Stalker as the more natural "first shirt") and also felt that design wise Duke looked too much like Hawk (both had blonde hair and blue eyes in the comic book, but Hawk had black hair and brown eyes in the cartoon as a means of differentiating him from Duke).

[edit] Action Figures

Duke was one of the first figures created for the G.I. Joe 3.75" action figure line of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. There have been numerous versions of the Duke action figure issued over the years in the 3.75" size since 1982. Later on, Duke was inaugurated into the 12" G.I. Joe: Hall of Fame series. There were six versions of the 12" Duke issued, including those from the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra, and the Valor vs. Venom series. When Hasbro shifted to the 8" Sigma Six figures, Duke was in the first wave of the new series.

G.I. Joe

v • d • e

Toy Line