The Pit (G.I. Joe)
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The Pit is the fictional headquarters of the specialist G.I. Joe team from the 1980s Marvel comic book created by Larry Hama. It is a multi-level underground base complete with training facilities, living quarters, a briefing room, and heavy equipment storage.
Three versions of the Pit have been presented as existing within the comic books.
[edit] The Pit (or Pit I)
The original Pit was secretly located underneath the Chaplain's Assistant School's motor pool within Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, New York. Most of the characters in the school, with the exception of members of the G.I. Joe team, had no idea of the Pit's existence.
According to a blueprint provided in the comic book (issue #1 of the series as published by Marvel Comics), the original incarnation of the base is five levels deep. The first level houses heavy vehicles and weapons, with the second level containing electronic communications and briefing rooms. The training area is situated upon the third level, replete with swimming pool, whilst the fourth level contains an armory and living quarters. The fifth level houses computers and generators and is where classified documents are located.
The base is represented as able to withstand a direct hit from a five-megaton warhead.
Within the comic books, the secret nature of the Pit was soon revealed, Hama utilising the secrecy of the base's location and it's discovery as a major plot point. Cobra attacks the base in G.I. Joe #19 (Marvel Comics), destroying the motor pool facade, and revealing it to be an armored fortress, somewhat reminiscent of the G.I. Joe headquarters in the cartoon series. The base is heavily damaged, but the Joes successfully fool Cobra into thinking they destroyed it.
[edit] Pit II
The second version of the Pit is shown within the comic books to be a repair and improvement of the original. According to a blueprint provided in the comic book (G.I. Joe #22, Marvel series), it is rebuilt to six stories in depth, depicted as having been designed to be more defensible and impregnable. Among the improvements shown to the reader, are the addition of a helicopter launching pad near to the motor pool; improved nuclear blast protection; an ICBM missile silo; an earth boring machine located at the lowest level, to facilitate an escape; a small nuclear power plant; an additional level with R&R facilities; larger living quarters to accommodate increasing number of Joes; and detention facility to hold prisoners. Latrines are also added, a feature missing in the original Pit blueprint. The renovation could be considered something of an engineering feat, being represented as having taken about six months to complete within the time-frame of the fictional universe.
Reconstruction is seen by the reader to begin in G.I. Joe #22 (Marvel series), with the creators presenting the base as re-open in G.I. Joe #33. The second Pit is not to last long however, as it is again used as a plot device within the comics, a partial retread of the previous storyline presented, with Cobra learning the exact location of the Joes' headquarters, infiltrating and attacking the Pit from within in G.I. Joe #53. After the attack, the Joes no longer have a permanent headquarters, and operated as a nomad unit. This status, however, is not to last long either.
[edit] Pit III
Pit III is located within the fictional universe as being in a desert in Utah, with its exact location not revealed to the reader.
No blueprint was provided to readers, however, the base is presented to readers[issue # needed] as appearing externally to be a small outpost ringed by fences with three quonset huts. The reader is shown, through the action depicted within the comic books, two entrances to Pit III. The first being a trapdoor located in one of the huts, and the other a sand-covered, mechanically-controlled ramp also leading underground. This entrance is shown as being used for heavy equipments and vehicles.
Despite G.I. Joe's status being depicted as that of a nomad unit after the destruction of Pit II, the need for another Pit is shown to the reader to arise through the plot based upon the need to secretly house the Defiant shuttle complex. Signs of the base are shown as being immediately visible to the Cobra during construction via spy satellites, but in spite of this, the Joes are presented as having more success defending this base than previous Pits.
Cobra are shown to try to destroy Pit III three times:
- G.I. Joe #83 - Cobra attempt a direct assault. However, an informant tipps off the Joes, and we are shown Cobra destroying the huts only to find no entrance. The creators then reveal that the Joes have simply moved the huts a mile from the Pit's actual location.
- G.I. Joe #100 - Cobra try to destroy the Pit from the inside by activating two brainwashed Joes: Clutch and Rock n Roll. Instead of destroying the headquarters, the creators have the two Joes fight their programming and pass out instead.
- G.I. Joe #130 to 131 - Led by the original Cobra Commander, the creators depict another direct assault on the base. Although shown to be caught by surprise, the Joes manage to hold off Cobra's attacks and take the fight to Cobra. However, the writers reveal that the Joes' success in this battle is that of a pyrrhic victory; it is revealed that the Cobra Commander's primary aim is to document the success of Cobra's ability to defeat U.S. radar systems and market this ability to his clients.
Pit III is shown to be deactivated along with the G.I. Joe team in #155. The base is reactivated after the reinstatement of G.I. Joe during the first Devil's Due G.I. Joe comic series.
