Creation Story
Zartan’s file card did more damage than any comic page.
Larry Hama wrote the biographies printed on the back of Hasbro’s packaging for roughly the first decade of the line, and Zartan’s is the one Hasbro had to revise. The original card gave him paranoid schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder as part of his profile. Mental health organizations complained, and Hasbro removed the line. The card also lists him as a ventriloquist, linguist, escape artist and martial artist, gives his birthplace as Nice, France, a detail later files quietly dropped, and enters his name as UNKNOWN.
The name on the front of the card took a detour too. In development the character was Captain Chameleon, after the colour-changing gimmick the figure was built around. Hama named him Zartan instead, an anagram of Tarzan, and Hasbro went with it.
In 1984 a toy company and a writer with a military background built a mercenary around plastic that reacts to sunlight. Hama turned the gimmick into a Cobra asset who works for money and answers to nobody in the chain of command. In a war comic where everyone else salutes somebody, Zartan stands apart.
The record cannot establish whether the figure or comic reached people first. Zartan’s third-series figure has a year, 1984, and no source supplies a month or ship date. The comics have cover dates: June and July 1984.
First Appearance: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #24
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #24 carries a June 1984 cover date, which puts it at the front edge of the Copper Age. It runs 32 pages and cost 60 cents. Larry Hama wrote it and Russ Heath did both pencils and inks, with colours by George Roussos, letters by Rick Parker and Denny O’Neil editing.
The issue is a Cobra Commander escape story. Duke and his team are holding a base in the Rocky Mountains. Storm Shadow gets the Commander out on a CLAW, and while that is happening Destro and Major Bludd are conspiring to eliminate the Commander, planting a homing device in Storm Shadow’s sword. Duke goes after the Commander in a Sky Hawk and loses him. The Commander reaches headquarters and names where he intends to go to ground: with Zartan.
That beat is why the market sells this book as the cameo. The character arrives as a destination in somebody else’s plan, one issue ahead of the book that introduces him properly. Copies are listed and graded as the first Zartan appearance, and that is accurate. It is also not the issue collectors reach for first.
First Full Appearance: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #25
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #25 is cover-dated July 1984. Larry Hama scripted, Frank Springer pencilled, Mike Gustovich inked, Rick Parker lettered, George Roussos coloured, and Denny O’Neil edited.
The book runs two threads. In one, Roadblock and Short-Fuze are moving Storm Shadow to Alcatraz. In the other, Cobra’s leadership travels to the Everglades to find the man Cobra Commander named an issue earlier. The Joes engage Cobra in the swamp, and the fight puts Dragonflies and a SHARC against a Water Moccasin.
#25 is Zartan’s first full appearance, and it carries the debut of the Dreadnoks in the same book: Buzzer, Ripper and Torch, a biker gang installed as Cobra shock troops. Two collector firsts in one issue is a lot for a licensed book to carry.
The character it introduces is built on two abilities. He can alter his skin colour at will to blend into his surroundings, and he can imitate anyone he chooses to an exact physical and vocal likeness. The impersonation is the one the run keeps returning to. In issue #48 he walks into the Pit disguised as the wounded Joe Ripcord and nearly walks out again by cycling through Doc, Tripwire, General Hawk and Gung-Ho. In #91 he takes the identity of the Arashikage Blind Master in order to mentor a boy named Tyrone.
The skin trick belongs to the toy. Hasbro’s 1984 Zartan came packaged with the Chameleon Swamp Skier at $3.99, moulded in UV-reactive plastic that read white in its natural state and turned dark blue in sunlight, with thermal stickers on the chest and thigh armour that ran maroon when cold, aqua at room temperature and blue when hot. That is a piece of 1984 materials engineering pressed into service as a superpower, and the comic had to make a character out of it.
G.I. Joe #24 vs G.I. Joe #25
The split follows the familiar Wolverine pattern at a smaller scale. #24 is earlier. #25 is the book people want.
| G.I. Joe #24 | G.I. Joe #25 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cover date | June 1984 | July 1984 |
| Credits | Larry Hama, Russ Heath | Larry Hama, Frank Springer, Mike Gustovich |
| Zartan in the issue | Cobra Commander names him as the man he is going to ground with | Cobra’s leadership travels to the Everglades to hire him |
| Also in the book | Storm Shadow’s rescue of Cobra Commander, and the homing device planted in his sword | The debut of the Dreadnoks: Buzzer, Ripper and Torch |
| How the market labels it | First cameo appearance | First full appearance |
| Collector position | The earliest book with him in it | The key, and the one that carries a second first |
One more piece of the figure matches the comic. Hasbro’s 1984 Zartan shipped with a removable face mask that stores in his backpack, the impersonation half of the character rendered as an accessory.