G.I. JOE - ABOVE & BEYOND

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Written by Max Allan Collins

Copyright © 2009 by Hasbro Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Paramount Pictures

All Rights Reserved.



In the prequel to the movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the book Above & Beyond deals with the G.I. Joe team - an elite United Nations Special Operations Force - on a parallel mission with Lieutenant Duke Hauser's elite American covert insertion team, in secret support for Hauser's team as both teams search for advanced weapons that are being sold by weapons dealers.

In this book, you get to know a little bit more about the individual Joes, including Cover Girl - who did not last very long in the movie. I actually grew to like Cover Girl in the book and felt rather sad knowing her ultimate fate in the movie G.I. JOE: The Rise of the Cobra. There are two missions, the first mission dealing with the sophisticated weapons that the weapons dealers are dealing with. The final mission is the one that is mentioned in the movie and deals with super soldiers - along with Duke's doctor brother-in-law. This second final mission leads into the movie and the terrorist organization that they will deal with. I felt the pain of Duke, whose pain was a consequence of that last mission. This prequel book is a little more believable to me than what the movie had portrayed.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Written by Max Allan Collins
Based on a Story by Michael Gordon, Stuart Beattie, and Stephen Sommers

and the Screenplay by Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, and Paul Lovett
Copyright © 2009 by Hasbro Inc.
Copyright © 2009 by Paramount Pictures

All Rights Reserved.



 A convoy of nano-tech weaponry, weaponry made from molecular robots - is ambushed by aggressive super-soldiers that are called Vipers. The convoy is rescued by a top secret elite team of soldiers from all branches of the armed forces called G.I. JOE. Survivors of the convoy, Duke and Ripcord soon join the team G.I. JOE as they go after the nano-tech weaponry the Vipers stole from the convoy before the Vipers can deploy the weapons. The Vipers collaborate with a weapons dealer, who basically is in charge of a group of terrorists - that will soon become the terrorist organization called COBRA.

This is a fairly straight-forward novelization of the movie with very little additional material to add to the adaptation, which makes it a little disappointing coming from Max Allan Collins. I expected a little more bite in the style from a novelization from the usually dependable Collins - especially after watching the movie, which was more commercialized. I wanted to see more of the envitonmental impact of the nano-technology weapons of grey goo eating all of the metal it touches, like when they ate the Eiffel Tower.

See movie review:
G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.