Series 2 is, in a way, similar to Beast Wars in the Transformers universe. Hasbro needed something to keep veteran Joe fans, who may have started in ’82 when the new toyline first released, interested, while also harnessing new fans. Thus, Series 2 introduced a ton of new characters and vehicles, while giving other veteran characters a new appearance and even a different voice, in some cases.
The result wasn’t bad, but the characters and vehicles aren’t as timelessly awesome as the original Joes (from the early 80s that is). You got oddball characters like Scoop and Captain Gridiron, as well as a bunch of new Vipers (Frag, Laser, Range, Alley, Night…). Then again a lot of the new characters were rather cool, like the Night Creepers, Desert Scorpions, and Heavy Duty, to name a few. Some of the vehicles were badass as well — Cobra’s VTOL aircraft, the Hurricane, and GI Joe’s Hammerhead and Sky Raven rank amongst my favorites in the cartoon and the toyline. And ultimately that’s what these cartoons and comic books are all about, getting the audience hooked and interested in buying the more expensive toys. We may not have realized when it we were young, but it didn’t matter — it was still a lot of fun. And even knowing that nowadays, I’m still able to enjoy these old shows.
Certainly not all cartoons do well in the test of time, and I think both GI Joe series’ suffer from that. Series 2, with its lower quality animation and voice acting, and writing for that matter, didn’t do itself many favors in that regard. Most episodes in season one are decent to good, but so few are really ‘great.’ The opening five part story arc, Operation: Dragonfly is pretty special, with plenty of character introductions and mystical stuff, but then you have episodes like “Granny Dearest” and “”An Officer and a Viperman” that are nigh forgettable. “Night of the Creepers” ends up being one of my favorites, with a goofy, but fun story about the Night Creepers and Low-Light’s irrational fear of the dark and ghosts.
Shout!’s Series 2, Season 1 set is nicely packaged in a standard-sized DVD case with two double-sided page-style disc holders, holding four discs. Each disc has a different Joe character for artwork. The inside artwork provides an episode list for each disc, and the outer artwork is nice enough, featuring the 1987 “metal” Cobra Commander (as I used to call him), standing over Earth. Disc menus are basic, featuring a Joe character standing next to your only two options: Play All and Episodes. There are audio or video options nor any extra features at all. I would have liked to have seen subtitles included, or a way to string together multi-part episodes without the credits playing in between each. As far as the image and sound quality, it’s TV quality, which is sufficient. The complete lack of extra features was a disappointment, although I guess I’m not too surprised. Hopefully — most likely — Shout! will do a Series 2 Complete Series later this year that will contain a few extras.
At the end of the day you can compare the Sunbow and DiC series in numerous ways and it’s apparent that the Sunbow series was simply a better production. That said, I still had a fun time watching this, despite its flaws. This is largely due to the vivid nostalgia that I experienced, which obviously isn’t something all readers will get out of this show. But if you’re like me and have so many great memories of GI Joe during the late 80s and 90s, Series 2 is a hoot.