Ever since I was a kid, one of my favorite things in life has been G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The cartoon, the toys, the comics—I was hooked from the start. The Joes weren’t just another military team; they were larger-than-life heroes, specialists in their own fields, each one with a unique personality and skillset. And let's be real—who didn’t want to storm Cobra’s base or parachute out of a burning Skystriker?
Podcast, explaining it all!
So, naturally, when I started running DC Heroes RPG games, I had to bring the Joes into my universe. But where do you put a top-tier black ops unit in a world where Batman, Superman, and the freaking Justice League already exist?
At first, I slotted them under the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations)—a division created to handle threats that even the government wasn’t prepared for. Think of them as the boots-on-the-ground unit when metahumans and terrorists collide. They weren’t just taking on Cobra anymore; they were going toe-to-toe with the likes of Kobra (DC’s snake-themed cult), the League of Shadows, and Intergang.
Then, 24 hit the airwaves, and CTU (Counter-Terrorist Unit) became the gold standard for elite response teams. It had everything—covert ops, field agents, tech specialists—so naturally, I restructured G.I. Joe into a branch of CTU. They still had their military roots, but now they operated in a world of political espionage, metahuman threats, and high-stakes black ops missions. Duke? Now a seasoned CTU field commander. Snake Eyes? A shadow operative who’s taken down League of Shadows assassins. Flint? Running joint ops with Gotham’s Special Crimes Unit.
Integrating G.I. Joe into the DC Universe has been one of the best parts of my games. It gave me the chance to run missions that felt like a blend of military thriller and superhero action, where the Joes weren’t just fighting Cobra—they were going up against LexCorp-backed black ops teams, alien tech smugglers, and rogue metahumans.
I’ve got tons of G.I. Joe write-ups in my GM Binder, and I’ll be rolling them out here on the Gotham Database—stat blocks, team breakdowns, even some alternate versions of the Joes in a DCU setting.
So what do you think? Where would you place G.I. Joe in the DC Universe? DEO? CTU? Something else entirely?
Stay tuned, because knowing is half the battle—and rolling high on your skill checks is the other half, write ups coming soon!
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