Collecting comics can be weird and confusing. And even moreso when there is a licensed property that switches between publishers several times over 40+ Years. G.I. Joe is one of those properties, with one story that has run continuously through three publishers. There’s seriously over 20 comics titled “G.I. Joe #1” published over the last 40 years.
This originally began as a response on a social media post, but I’ve decided to expand it and leave it here as a “quick-start” guide.
Big shout-out to YoJoe.com/comics for clearing up the Devil’s Due era for me.
Marvel Comics
The first GI Joe comic was published by Marvel Comics. GI Joe: A Real American Hero (“ARAH” for short), written by Larry Hama, began in 1982. That series ran for 155 issues.
Marvel also published a bunch of “Special Missions” side-story issues, a four-issue “The Order of Battle” series giving profiles on all of the characters and vehicles, and “Tales of GI Joe,” which reprinted the first 15 issues of the main series.
Additionally, Marvel UK printed GI Joe under the name “Action Force.” Because British comics are published on a different schedule as American comics, sometimes new stories were needed to fill in pages. Marvel published these in the U.S.A. under the name “GI Joe: European Missions.”
While the Joes were kept separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe, did crossover with another Hasbro property. In 1987, a mini-series with the Transformers was published, appropriately enough titled “GI Joe and The Transformers.” Marvel’s Transformers book was cancelled in 1991. In 1993, the Transformers were brought back with the name Transformers: Generation 2. That 12-issue series was preceded by issues 140-143 of GI Joe featuring some of the Transformers characters. Similarly, some of the Joe characters appeared in a few issues of Transformers: Generation 2.
The last Marvel issue of GI Joe: A Real American Hero was released in 1994, and ended with the GI Joe team disbanding.
Dark Horse Comics
Later in 1994, Dark Horse Comics acquired the license for GI Joe. They published a four-issue mini series just titled GI Joe, although it was based on the “GI Joe Extreme” relaunch of toys and cartoon Hasbro were producing at the time.
After that, there were no GI Joe publications for nearly seven years.
Devil’s Due
In 2001, Devil’s Due Publishing acquired the GI Joe comic book license. When they started, Devil’s Due was their own studio, but published through Image comics, so many of the covers have both the Image Comics “i” logo and the Devil’s due “DDP” logo. Eventually, Devil’s Due began publishing their own stories separate from Image, and the Image “i” is no longer present.
The first Devil’s Due series picked up after the events of Marvel’s GI Joe: A Real American Hero #155. What was intended to be just a four-issue miniseries ended up selling so well that the decision was made to continue the series, which ended up running for a total of 43 issues. Confusingly now, this series was also called GI Joe: A Real American Hero, but is designated as volume 2. These 43 issues are the only issues of ARAH not written by Larry Hama.
Alongside DDP’s output, in 2002, Marvel began reprinting their A Real American Hero run in trade paperbacks. Five volumes were released, covering issues 1-50.
After its cancellation, ARAH v2 came back with a new #1 issue, retitled GI Joe: America’s Elite. That series lasted for 36 issues between 2005 and 2008. That makes a total of 79 issues, plus the following:
Several “Declassified” mini-series and one-shots the detailed the origins of several popular GI Joe characters. The first a six-issue miniseries titled Snake Eyes: Declassified, and featured a retelling of how Snake Eyes went from becoming a regular soldier into the silent ninja commando that has become the most popular GI Joe character. Next up was GI Joe: Declassified, written by Larry Hama, and was a 3-issue miniseries detailing the formation of the GI Joe team. This was followed by a Scarlett one-shot, and a three-issue Dreadnoks miniseries.
There was also 18 issues of GI Joe: Front Line, a series that told various extra stories set at different parts of GI Joe history; GI Joe: Special Missions, 48-page issues that usually featured multiple stories in a single issue, each one highlighting various Joe or Cobra characters; Master & Apprentice, featuring the origin of Snake Eyes’ apprentice, Kamakura; Master & Apprentice II, featuring the story of Storm Shadow’s appearance, Junko Akita; Battle Files, a profile book for the characters and vehicles; and a six-issue Storm Shadow miniseries.
That’s a total of 118 new issues.
DDP also published four volumes of GI Joe vs. The Transformers, which were all set in their own side continuity.
In 2004, Devil’s Due also tried rebooting the GI Joe universe with a new continuity called GI Joe: Reloaded. This series lasted 14 issues with two “reborn” one-shots, one each for the Joe team and Cobra.
Finally, DDP also published a six-issue miniseries based on the 2005 cartoon GI Joe: Sigma 6.
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave held the Transformers license between 2002 and their bankruptcy in 2005. During that time, they published a Transformers/G.I. Joe miniseries, set in alternate universe during World War II.
A second Dreamwave Transformers/GI Joe series from Dreamwave, sub-titled “Divided Front” was intended to be a six-issue miniseries, but only the first issue was released before the publisher went out of business.
IDW Publishing
In 2009, Ideas + Design Works Publishing (IDW) got the GI Joe comic license. Between 2009-2012, reprinted all of the old Marvel stuff in trade paperbacks as GI Joe Classic. 15 books collect all 155 issues of the Marvel A Real American Hero series.
In 2010, IDW hired Larry Hama to come back and pick up with NEW issues of the Marvel GI Joe: A Real American Hero run. They started with a free comic book day issue numbered 155 1/2, and then picked up at issue 156 for the first proper issue. This run ignores the Devil’s Due stories. The IDW issues of ARAH lasted until issue 300, when IDW lost the GI Joe comics license.
In 2013-2015, IDW reprinted the Devil’s Due A Real American Hero comics in 6 trade paperbacks as GI Joe: America’s Elite: Disavowed. These are now considered an alternate, non-canonical universe to the Larry Hama-penned ARAH series.
But the FIRST thing IDW did was start a brand-new IDW GI Joe universe that ran as a series of miniseries. The Wikipedia entry for this universe lists the chronological reading order for the events of this universe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe_(IDW_Publishing). There’s 243 Joe-related issues in this continuity spanning 49 trade paperbacks.
About half of that universe’s events are collected in chronological order-based hardcover volumes called G.I. Joe: The IDW Collection. These cover the first 22 trade paperbacks, but are out of print and very expensive now. And those hardcovers are not to be confused with GI Joe: The Complete Collection, which reprints all of the Marvel ARAH series in 8 hardcovers.
Even though the books were MOSTLY separate, 2016 saw the Revolution event, where Hasbro properties GI Joe, Transformers, ROM, MASK, Action Man, and Micronauts all crossed over for the first time. This was followed in 2017 by FIRST STRIKE.
After the events of 2018’s Transformers: Unicron, IDW rebooted both the Transformers and GI Joe lines in new universes. GI Joe Vol 6 (2019-2021) only ran for 10 issues with a one-shot finale issue titled “Castle Fall.”
IDW also published a ton of movie tie-in comics with the two live-action GI Joe films; an adaptation of the GI Joe: Renegades animated series; A three-issue alternate universe series titled GI Joe: Sierra Muerte; a crossover between Street Fighter titled Street Fighter X GI Joe; A crossover with J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl; inclusion in the two IDW Infestation events; And a 13-issue Transformers vs. GI Joe series by Tom Scioli that is an absolutely insane series but so much fun.
Seriously, if you’re interested in the IDW GI Joe books, use the Wikipedia link above. There’s SO FUCKING MUCH of it.
Fun Publications
Fun Publications put out the monthly GI Joe Collector’s Club magazine, but also released 10 issues annually at conventions between 2008-2017 titled GI Joe vs Cobra. Fun Pub also put out “GI Joe vs. Cobra: Direct to Cobra” 1 and 2. All of the Fun Publications comics are now considered canon to the Devil’s Due “Disavowed” continuity.
Skybound Entertainment
In 2023, Robert Kirkman (Invicible, Walking Dead), who is one of the Image Comics partners, acquired the GI Joe and Transformers comics licenses. Both series concurrently as part of a shared “Energon Universe,” along with a new IP, VOID RIVALS.
The GI Joe stuff started off with four miniseries: Duke, Cobra Commander, Scarlett, Destro, and then led into a proper GI Joe series. While you CAN read the GI Joe stuff on its own, the events of Duke spin right out of the events in the first story arc of Transformers. Similarly, several Transformers characters have appeared in Void Rivals. So it’s probably best to read everything. Fortunately, because the Energon Universe is less than two years old, it’s pretty easy to get caught up on everything.
Skybound ALSO re-hired Larry Hama to continue the A Real American Hero series, previously published by Marvel and IDW, picking it up at issue 301.
Finally, Skybound have begun reprinting the original Marvel series in 50-issue Compendiums. There was a Kickstarted in 2024 for all of them in leatherbound hardcovers, but a retail paperback was released in time for Christmas. Volume 2 is coming in fall 2025.
As confusing as the history of GI Joe comics is, I hope that helps clear things up, at least a little bit!