Not only has Max Allan Collins penned the novelization for Stephen Sommers’ summer blockbuster G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, but he’s also gotten the chance to play around further with the property, simultaneously delivering an original prequel novel in G.I. JOE: ABOVE & BEYOND.
Consider it an origin story — not of the high-tech, desert-based international organization known as G.I. Joe, which remains a secret to 99 percent of the population — but of two of its core members: Conrad “Duke” Hauser and Wallace “Ripcord” Weems. Good pals, they’re “mere” members of the U.S. military before being drafted by Gen. Hawk to join G.I. Joe’s elite team. Already included among its members are highly trained specialists like the lovely Scarlett, the gung-ho Gung-Ho and the masked, mute ninja known as Snake Eyes.
An immediate threat to the world occurs when an arms dealer approaches the president of San Sebastiao with an opportunity to buy new pulse-weapon technology. He’s either going to sell it to this South American government, or to the drug lords they vow to fight. In so many words, Prez Vicente tells the dealer to go to hell, and not long after, the leader gets a taste of the business end of said pulse weapon. Oops!
Once news of Vicente’s assassination spread, it’s up to G.I. Joe to put a stop to the weaponry being used by the wrong hands, of course, and damned if I didn’t get a slight charge every time Snake Eyes is depicted silently slithering his way into one ambush or another. Because ninjas are cool.
With Collins at the helm of a tie-in, you can expect it to be more than pure product — an honest-to-God story. That’s the case here, delivering several action set pieces as he demonstrates why each and every G.I. Joe member is worthy of the “Real America Hero” tag. His soldiers chew Double Bubble and hum the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE theme — how much more patriotic can one get?
The one thing that bothered me was the dialogue of Ripcord, an African-American. Most of it is jokey and playa-smooth, in the manner of so many characters onscreen today. I’m going to assume Collins was just sticking to the character as written for the film, but still, it’s an annoyance.
Luckily, there aren’t any others of note. The story moves fast, with economy and ease, and much of it provides the pure-joy jolt of many a men’s adventure series, with hotheads and their hardware, but stripped of the technical terms that would render it gun porn.
Don’t misunderstand: ABOVE & BEYOND isn’t to be held to the same level of the author’s original novels of crime and mystery, but it’s certainly a nice seasonal diversion while you’re awaiting his next one. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BABY BLUE RIP-OFF by Max Allan Collins
• BLACK HATS by Patrick Culhane
• BYLINE: MICKEY SPILLANE edited by Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers Jr.
• DEADLY BELOVED by Max Allan Collins
• DICK TRACY by Max Allan Collins
• DICK TRACY GOES TO WAR by Max Allan Collins
• THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
• THE GOLIATH BONE by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
• A KILLING IN COMICS by Max Allan Collins
• THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
• MY LOLITA COMPLEX AND OTHER TALES OF SEX AND VIOLENCE by Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens
• QUARRY’S LIST by Max Allan Collins
• RED SKY IN MORNING by Patrick Culhane
• ROAD TO PARADISE by Max Allan Collins
• STRIP FOR MURDER by Max Allan Collins
• TOUGH TENDER by Max Allan Collins
• THE WAR OF THE WORLDS MURDER by Max Allan Collins
