Ranking the Opening of Every Original "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" Cartoon

I have said this before and I am going to say it again, “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” was a big part of my childhood. The episodes aired on weekday afternoons in suburban St. Louis. I would rush home from school to watch my favorite toy line have adventures on my television. The next day my friends and I would talk about G.I.Joe, play with our G.I. Joe toys, and talk about what new G.I. Joe toys we wanted. I was more obsessed with G.I. Joe than I was even with Star Wars. I am still obsessed and even ranked all 95 episodes of the original Sunbow series. Today I’m going to rank the opening credits/song of the first Sunbow run.

Let’s get to it.

#5 The M.A.S.S. Device miniseries

First things first, all of these openings are great. The biggest thing that hurts the first miniseries is that it is the first. The creative geniuses working on the GI Joe cartoon would always find ways to improve the opening, and they did.

With that being said, this opening is still great. It introduces you the concept, the characters and even clearly tells you the enemy is “Destro and Cobra". truly a classic.

#4 Arise Serpentor Arise - Season 2

The dawn of a new era in GI Joe, the reign of Serpentor.

This opening, like it’s predecessors, is heavy on the action and the characters. Actually, there may be a pit too many characters. Still great and when you saw this opening you knew exactly what era of Joe you were getting.

#3 The Revenge of Cobra

The Revenge of Cobra was the second miniseries and saw the introduction of classic characters like Shipwreck, Flint, Lady Jaye, Zartan, Strom Shadow, and many others. All these new characters get great action moments throughout the intro. What places this opening ahead of the others is the great flamethrower morphing into the series title. Greatness all around.

#2 First Season

Yes the first season of GI Joe was after the third miniseries, that is not a typo.

What an opening. The line of Joe vehicles, the massive Cobra airship, all the punching, this is probably the greatest opening to a 1980’s cartoon, or any other cartoon, ever.

Nothing beats this intro, except…

#1 The Movie

The end of the Sunbow era brought the greatest cartoon intro ever made. The song slaps, the action kicks, the patriotism punches you in the gut. I just wish the movie that followed was as great as this opening.

Yo Joe.

RD

RD is the founder and Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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