Duke (G.I. Joe)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| G.I. Joe character | |
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| Duke | |
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| Affiliation | |
| Series | G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 |
| Voiced by | Michael Bell |
Duke is a character from G.I. Joe, a line of military-themed toys. He is featured in two series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, appearing in both the animated series and comic books.
Contents |
[edit] A Real American Hero
[edit] Character Overview
Duke is the code name of First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser. He is field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe Team after Hawk. He is one of the key characters of G.I. Joe and a fan-favorite. He is generally regarded by fans as the poster boy for G.I. Joe because he is usually the first character they recognize and identify with.
His file states that he hails from St. Louis, Missouri and is fluent in English, French and German, as well as several Southeast Asian dialects. He was at the top of his class at Fort Benning, has undergone Special Forces training and worked with South Vietnamese Tribesmen. He was also an instructor in four different Special Forces schools. Despite his accomplishments, he has repeatedly turned down any officer commissions offered to him. He believes a commander's place is with his troops, not behind the battle lines.
[edit] Action Figures
[edit] Vintage
Duke was one of the first mail-away figures created for the G.I. Joe 3.75" action figure line of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. There have been numerous versions of the Duke action figure issued over the years in the 3.75" size since 1982. Later on, Duke was inaugurated into the 12" G.I. Joe: Hall of Fame series.
[edit] Modern
[edit] 25th Anniversary
[edit] Comic Series
[edit] Marvel
Duke is not a member of the original G.I. Joe Team line-up. He came in after the death of General Flagg to help straighten the team out and become the new field commander. His first mission resulted in the capture of Cobra Commander. However, that victory was short-lived as the COBRA ninja Storm Shadow rescued the Commander.
He also took part in the invasion of the COBRA-controlled town of Springfield. He also played second-in-command to Hawk during the COBRA Civil War. For a while, he led the G.I. Joe special team Tiger Force. He was also involved in the mission to push Cobra out of Trucial Abysmia, but intelligence vastly underestimated COBRA's presence there and resulted in the deaths of several G.I. Joe members. He would recover from that experience and lead the defense of the Joe headquarters, the Pit, against Cobra. He continued working with G.I. Joe until its disbandment.
[edit] Devil's Due
After the disbandment, Duke went to take on black ops assignments for a secret government agency for a few years. It was during one of his missions that he discovered COBRA's attempt to make a comeback. He helped rally the effort to have G.I. Joe reinstated. By this time, Duke had a different edge to him, taking more risks and sometimes putting teammates in danger. But when Hawk was incapacitated in a Cobra assassination attempt, Duke took up his injured mentor's causes, fighting the corrupt Jugglers while holding the team together in the wake of the loss of their leader.
[edit] America's Elite
When the team was reorganized in the America's Elite series, Duke disappeared, going off on his own mission to locate Cobra Commander. During his search, he was captured by a group of B.A.T.s under the control of a Crimson Guard who also had a grudge against Cobra Commander and wished to locate him.
Larry Hama, who wrote the original G.I. Joe comic book, always expressed great frustration with Duke. His main problem with Duke was that everyone else involved with G.I. Joe - the Hasbro toy line directors and the writers handling the show - all just treated Duke as if he were interchangeable with General Hawk, which Hama feels stilted Duke's character development in the comic book. Also, he felt that Duke's personality did not fit with the role of a master sergeant (Hama always regarded Stalker as the more natural "first shirt") and also felt that design wise Duke looked too much like Hawk (both had blond hair and blue eyes in the comic book, but Hawk had black hair and brown eyes in the cartoon as a means of differentiating him from Duke).
[edit] Out-Of-Continuity Series
[edit] G.I. Joe: Reloaded
In this alternate reality series, Duke betrays the team and works for Cobra. He ends up slain by Scarlett, stabbed in the back during an underwater fight in the sewers.
[edit] Cartoon
[edit] A Real American Hero
In "The MASS Device" (the first G.I.Joe Miniseries, 1983), Duke is the field leader of the G.I. Joe Team, under the command of General Flagg. Flagg is replaced by Colonel Sharp in "Revenge of Cobra" (the second miniseries, 1984). By the beginning of the first season, the role of commanding officer frequently alternated between Duke and Flint, the rugged warrant officer introduced in The Revenge of Cobra miniseries. This was due in part to the series writers trying to balance the regulation of characters based on the prominence of their action figures.
To a certain extent, Duke and Flint were almost interchangeable throughout the first season and, at times, their personalities almost seemed to be exactly the same, though Duke tended to be more stern than Flint. As a leader, Duke always put himself forward as the commanding officer first and the friend second, but sometimes he would let his softer side shine through, such as when he let Dusty take time off to take care of his mother.
Though the comic books and file cards say Duke is from St. Louis, Missouri, the MASS Device mini-series said that Duke was from Iowa. It is implied that there exists romantic tensions between Duke and the jaunty Scarlett (whose romantic feelings lean towards Snake-Eyes in the comic book), and also that Cover Girl had a crush on Duke.
In the second season, Hawk replaces Duke as commander of G.I. Joe. Duke becomes second-in-command, while Flint is the third man down.
[edit] The Movie
Duke was responsible for foiling Cobra's first attempt to take over the BET machine and captures Serpentor. With the aid of Cobra-La and the Dreadnoks, Serpentor escapes and gets his revenge during a second attempt to obtain the BET machine. Serpentor critically wounds Duke but his half brother Lt. Falcon avenges him in the end.
The Sunbow writers had planned to kill off Duke in the movie in an attempt to clear out some characters and bring in new ones and to acknowledge that people do die in wars, in response to criticism of the show's "sanitized" depiction of violence. However, parental and children response to Optimus Prime's death in Transformers: The Movie forced them re dub his death scene with a line stating "He's gone into a coma." At the end of the movie, it is casually announced that Duke has recovered. The Series' writers have pointed out that if the scene is viewed without audio, going just by the reactions of Lt. Falcon, Scarlett and General Hawk, it is obvious that Duke dies.
[edit] Sigma 6
[edit] Action Figures
[edit] Comic Series
[edit] Animated Series
In G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Duke is the leader of the G.I. Joe team. He has retained much of his personality from the A Real American Hero series. He is still that same hard-charging, man-of-action type of leader he's always been, albeit looking much younger and with a new hair-cut which is remarkably similar to that of Duke Nukem. He is still willing to go into the most dangerous situations rather than send a member of his team to do it. This Duke is much more comfortable being the military man than engaging in social situations such as in the first season episode "Vacation".
One other physical differentiation of this Duke from previous continuities is the scar on his right cheek. So far, it has not been explained how he acquired it.
