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Ace
Real Name: Brad J. Armbruster
"When the enemy is in my sights, I'll get him and clip his wings for good!"
Voiced By: Pat Fraley (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Sunbow series), Alistair Abell (Valor vs. Venom), Gavin Hammon (G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout)
Air Force captain, and lead fighter pilot.
- The Ace: This goes beyond his Code Name:
- Ace Pilot: As his name may suggest, he is a well-seasoned pilot.
- Card Sharp: His codename comes from his love for cutthroat poker, which he never loses... and he doesn't even cheat!.
- The Gambling Addict: This would normally not be accepted in the military, but as Hawk states that it's not really gambling since he always wins.
- Captain Crash: He holds the dubious record for more crash landings in the USAF. This doesn't mean he is an awful pilot, but a survivor of the worst dogfights most fighter pilots have ever seen.
- The Dreaded: Some in the upper brass even doubt about sending him on missions fearing his multi-million dollar aircraft ends up as a pile of smouldering junk.
- Cool Plane: Though fully rated on all of the Joes' fixed-wing craft, he's most closely associated with his original plane, the XP-14F Sky Striker note .
- Intercontinuity Crossover: It was implied he later became Sabre Jet of the Earth Corps, who fought against the Inhumanoids. (That said, he didn't look or sound like the same person; most likely the production team hadn't caught wind of this idea.)
- Old-School Dogfight/Sky-Consuming Dogfight: His specialty, and the reason why he was summoned to the Joes.
- Those Two Guys: With Ripcord and Wild Bill.
- Worthy Opponent:
- Wild Weasel. In a memorable Rattler-against-Skystriker dogfight (Vol. 1 #34). Both fought until they were mutually out of ammo, saluted, and flew back to their bases.
- Ripcord, in the poker table.
Air Raid
Real Name: Benjamin R. Thomas
Voiced By: Eric Neal, Malachai Reiser (young)
An Air Assault Trooper.
- Discontinuity: Has been given multiple real and codename variants.
- I Have Many Names: Also known as Airborne.
- Sergeant Rock: A parachute trooper and sergeant that comes with his own assault rifle.
Bombstrike
Real Name: Alyssa R. Stall
"Some people think a great view means a serene mountain scene, mine is clear line to the enemy and an open path from bomb to bunker."
The sister of Barrell Roll and Blackout, Bombstrike became a capable soldier in her own right, serving as a Forward Air Controller in the Air Force before joining the Joes as an infiltration specialist.
- Action Girl: She trains alongside ninjas (Snake-Eyes, Jinx, Budo, and Helix) and has no real problem keeping up. She also proved pretty handy with a lightsaber
. - Ascended Extra: In the ARAH comic, she gets more focus than either of her brothers.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Analyzes intelligence imagery, then makes the call to "pull the trigger or slip away undetected."
- The Fettered: What separates her from the likes of Blackout.Leila: Why did you leave him alive? Aren't you going to kill him?
Bombstrike: No, that's not how we operate. I had no choice with the OPF Insurgents, but killing the Black Major would have been a summary execution. We abide by the rules. - Made of Iron: Survives getting shot in the head. Deconstructed:Bombstrike: Weak load. Hit my skull at an angle and didn't have the velocity to penetrate. So it skidded around through my temple through skin and bone and popped out the back of my scalp. Got a bad headache, but no wound channel through my cerebral cortex.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Plays soccer when she's off duty, and it was there she learned the importance of calculating what will give her team the winning move of the day.
Ghostrider
Real Name: Jonas S. Jeffries
"It's O.K. General, don't worry. Nobody remembers my code name."
The Joes' stealth pilot, not to be confused with the superhero of the same name.
- Alliterative Name: Jonas Jeffries.
- Beneath Notice: His main job is to stay out-of-radar for thats his X-19 Phantom shtick but personally he does just the same and this is apparently of his own volition; his Action Figure File Card points out that he's been trying to be invisible the best he can since he was in second grade.
- Nice Guy: He’s notably cheerful and friendly at all times, and it doesn’t bother him that nobody remembers his namey.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Inverted as the Joes can't ever remember what his codename is, and refer to him as "pal" or "stealth pilot"; sometimes they remember his file name and just call him "Captain Jeffries". This was to avoid confusion during Marvel's run of the comics, especially since they would soon be relaunching their Ghost Rider series.
- Scarf of Asskicking: A long, bright red one.
- Writing Around Trademarks:
- As stated above, Ghostrider was never addressed by his codename in the Marvel Comics continuity because of the risk of getting confused with the similarly-named Marvel Comics superhero Ghost Rider. The trend continued when he resurfaced in the IDW continuation, either because Larry Hama was requested to not use the codename by Marvel's attorneys or because he deliberately chose to continue the gag of not using his codename.
- Transformers vs. G.I. Joe references this practice in the sixth issue, where Ghostrider's introduction has his codename on the provided narration box partially obscured.
Glenda
Real Name: Jane Mullighan
A test pilot and intelligence officer.
- Hair of Gold: Is a very striking blonde woman with a good heart.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed in the Devil's Due continuity to establish the Red Shadows.
- Palette Swap: One for Scarlet. She's blonde instead of a redhead but uses the same action figure model base.
- We Hardly Knew You: Was selected to be killed primarily because of her obscurity.
Payload
Real Name: Mark Morgan Jr.
"Space is the place to sock Cobra in the face."
G.I. Joe's Space Cadet pilot of the team's own Defiant and Crusader Space Shuttles.
- Ace Pilot: ...IN SPACE! Although he's also a USAF Colonel who flies fighters as well as space shuttles.
- Alliterative Name: Mark Morgan.
- The Bridge: His workplace, from there on he has to maneuver in order to survive in an Old-School Dogfight, recover some friendly Spy Satellites or destroy the Cobra's latest Kill Sat.
- In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: …it's a given since standard Space Clothes fashion is very limited.
- Space Fighter: The Crusader doubles as this, for it contained a small recon/fighter jet called The Avenger armed with twin laser cannons.
- Space Station: The original Defiant was part of a full complex, once in space it was docked to a proper station called The U.S. Booster.
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Sadly Payload's most prominent moments in the original Marvel saga came around 1993, when the franchise itself went south and had to draw upon this tired old cliché, having to fight against Cobra's own Sci-Fi mooks and some sort of Space Orcs called the Lunatrix empire.
- Those Two Guys: As friendly and open as he is, his bestie is his taciturn "Mission control guy", Hardtop. He even admits that "Affirmative" and "Over" is the most he hears him to say while working on regular basis.
Skymate
Real Name: Daniel T. Toner
Voiced By: Erik Neal
An Australian Special Air Service (SAS) officer.
- Awesome Aussie: A particularly impressive example of Outback survivalist and super soldier.
- The Bogan: Definitely a lot harsher and more direct than many Joes. Also, very Australian.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: A member of the ASAS.
- National Stereotypes: Is an Australian who uses boomerangs and wrestles crocodiles.
Space Shot
Real Name: George A. Roberts
A tramp freighter captain turned G.I. Joe. Except his tramp freighter is a spaceship.
- Expy: For Han Solo, space smuggler turned heroic fighter against fascists.
- Genre Shift: He's a space smuggler in the G.I. Joe universe.
- Genre Transplant: A starship pilot for a small space cargo vessel in G.I. Joe.
- Shrouded In Mystery: He's from Everett, Massachusetts but somehow became a starship pilot before being recruited by Duke.
