It’s back to basic training for G.I. JOE.

As if anything was ever basic for the world’s most famous black-ops squadron. 

But if anyone has what it takes to take the Joes, break them down to their bare bones, and build them up again, it’s Larry Hama. Architect of the original G.I. JOE universe, Hama returns to G.I. JOE as part of them team updating and relaunching the property at IDW Publishing.

So for a special declassifying session, CraveOnline caught up with the legendary scribe to talk about his story in this week’s G.I. JOE A NEW BEGINNING #0 and the all-new, ongoing G.I. JOE: ORIGIN kicking off early 2009. 

                                                                                                        
“It’s all about me re-imagining the old characters as if they existed in a much more gritty and realistic world,” Hama reveals. “It’s still a world where fantastic things happen, but there is no blatant sci-fi extrapolation or ninja mysticism that works. Of course, I have to do this within the parameters and limitations imposed by the powers that be.”

 
While not only the opportunity to return to G.I. JOE lore, ORIGIN also offers Hama the chance to work on the Joes the way he originally imagined them: a deep cover, black-ops team. Though a reboot, the scribe describes ORIGIN as a book that isn’t to “change or reinvent, as much as seeing the characters in a different light.” 

“My take is this,” Hama explains. “The original ARH series at Marvel was the fictionalization and ‘kiddy-fying’ of the exploits of a real US black-ops team, in the same way that the animated show was a ‘made more suitable for younger audience’ version of the comic. This is the ‘real life’ version minus the parts deleted for national security reasons.”

And with this heightened sense of realism Hama has infused into the Joe’s rebirth, not only has the tone of the series changed, but so has the structure of G.I. JOE as an organization.

“The unit is ultra-hush,” Hama begins. “Everyone in it is officially ‘dead’ and off the books. It is their job to uphold the Constitution without violating it. It is their job to put their bodies between whatever new and unimagined unconventional threats are arraying themselves against us in the future.”

Taking point from the earliest adventures of the Joes as a fledging organization, the events of G.I. JOE: ORIGIN occur before COBRA emerges as even a whisper of a threat. Instead, the writer explains how the series focuses on what it takes to protect against adversaries constantly raising the stakes to deadlier ends.

And for those wondering who’ll face those unexpected threats in the opening shots of ORIGINS, Hama promises many, fan-favorite, familiar faces:

Hmmm…wonder who that is…?

In the end, Hama describes the #0 issue and G.I. JOE: ORIGIN as an opportunity to see G.I. JOE as he always intended but never existed—until now!

“If readers want a glimpse of the alternate universe that was the basis for the original comic series,” the writer teases, “they might be amused by what they find. “