I've been reading comics for something like 35 years. I know the tricks and tropes of panel-to-panel storytelling. I know the rhythm of page turn reveals. It is very hard for a superhero/action/adventure comic book story to get me biting my nails. Joshua Williamson: I'm going to be sending you one helluva manicure bill.
Every new issue of G.I. Joe leaves me filled with equal parts excitement and fear, in a way I haven't truly felt in probably 30-ish years. I have to hand it to Williamson: killing Rock 'N Roll, a generally beloved Joe (and my drag persona's future husband) in Issue Numero Uno worked. No character feels safe — no body part feels safe, especially. Characters have kept their lives but lost their hands and eyes. As far as thrills go, this is top-tier superhero (well, superhero adjacent — G.I. Joe has way more in common with the Avengers than Zero Dark Thirty, okay) storytelling.
And now Williamson and his co-conspirators — artist Tom Reilly, colorist Jordie Bellaire, letterer Russ Wooten, and editor Ben Abernathy — have devised an entirely new way of keeping me on my toes, because — SPOILER ALERT — they just killed a canonical, triple-threat (Hasbro, Sunbow, and Marvel) Dreadnok off panel. Bye bye, Thrasher, we didn't even know ye in the Energon Universe.
And if you need a reminder of who Trasher is was:
The bloody reveal comes in G.I. Joe #15, the quiet middle chapter of "Dreadnok War." Mind you, this "quiet" chapter includes an off-panel death and Cobra Commander tearing into Buzzer's jugular with his teeth. G.I. Joe is going to bring the crazy. But Thrasher's fate comes up during a quiet moment between Buzzer and Ripper, the two bros having finally reunited after Ripper's defection to Cobra back in the Cobra Commander limited series. Ripper compliments Buzzer's new chainsaw "hand," an alteration he made after a certain Nemesis from Cobra-La tore into him and the D-list Dreadnoks.
"I have to be real careful," Buzzer says. "Remember Thrasher? He came in for a high five one time and I forgot ... And, well, there was so much blood. I couldn't get the stains out my trailer."
"Dang, I liked Thrasher."
Now, we don't see a body, and we know that Energon Universe characters can take quite a licking and keep on ticking. Buzzer, Cobra Commander, and Major Bludd have all suffered grave injuries and come back with enhancements. But the implication here is that, if the pretty boy punk rock 'Nok was coming in for a high five, that Thrasher at best got his hand sliced off. Worst? Buzzer sliced him in two.
Now, how do I feel about this? I'm a little panicked now that I know major character deaths and/or dismemberments can come in the form of a word balloon and not a grisly action panel. Great. No place is safe. But how do I feel about Thrasher, a not insignificant character, being disposed of without ever making a proper on-panel appearance? It's kind of a bummer — but it does explain why his signature vehicle, the Thunder Machine, is in the comic and he isn't.
But then again, Thrasher was always kind of the worst — and that was his whole deal. His 1987 filecard says it all: "Even by Dreadnok standards, this guy is pretty low. He derives a slight sensation, which almost registers as pleasure on his primitive central nervous system, from inflicting misery onto others."
So if a character's going to bite it in an info dump, maybe it deserves to be the spoiled rotten brat, a middle-class punk rock poseur whose primary weapon was a lacrosse stick. Of course every character is somebody's favorite, and maybe this fate could have befallen Zanzibar, the only Dreadnok sillier than Thrasher.
But on the other hand, the non-chainsaw one: if this opens the door for Thrasher to be introduced as a cyborg or something? I'm not mad at it.
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