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Have you read “Tales from the Cobra Wars”?

Do you have a favorite story from the anthology?

The story “Snake Eyes” is, well, about Snake Eyes. It's pretty good, but too much super-ninja Snake Eyes. I'm real tired of the super-hero Snake Eyes.

There are other very good stories but there are two elements that a re a bit much. Too much Duke and Scarlett seems to get injured in nearly every story that she is featured in. Poor girl.

My absolute favorite story in the anthology is “Exorcist” by Max Brooks. This story is an apparent transcript of a possible recruit for the Joe team, one that specializes in the psychiatric care of soldiers.

There are a couple key quotes from the story that just rocked me to my core.

“Do you know that this is the first time in American military history that the number of suicides has surpassed combat deaths? Do you understand what that means? MORE SOLDIERS ARE KILLING THEMSELVES THAN ARE BEING KILLED BY THE ENEMY!” (author's emphasis)

“I mean... just one of them, the ex-model, just treating her alone would buy me a sailboat.”

“And some of the others, your sniper, your EOD, your SEAL... cool code name, that one, very phallic.”

The implication from this story is something that is rarely touched on in this fantasy toy world of ours. Sure, I know that these are toys, but for many of us, they occupy “real worlds.” I know, not real, but you get the idea. They are just toys.

But what about the psychological impact of such combat conditions against Cobra for so many, many years? How tough is it on the soldier's psyche? Especially these elite soldiers – they are still just human beings. Same goes for the Cobra troops. How much death and destruction can soldiers bear before they reach the breaking point?

How mentally fragile is Snake Eyes? Not the super Arishikage-mind-set mega-ninja, just the man. And in reflecting on the characters behind these toys, think of those out here right now, fighting and dying for freedom – the Real American Heroes.

I just finished the anthology, and it was pretty good for the most part. A couple stories were not as strong as others. I did love "Message in a Bottle" as I always love to hear the story from the Cobra point of view.

However, I just minutes ago finished "Exorcist" by Max Brooks. I have served for over 18 years, and still proudly serve. Never has a piece of military fiction moved me so. His look at PTSD and how it's regarded, and what it's doing to the Army is phenomenal, and should be required reading for anyone who serves. Absolutely brilliant.

I just ordered the book, so I can only comment on your post (and the books pints) without context, but we were discussing this today (myself and a bunch of Army SF guys). Our conclusion, in generalities, is that you don't seem to see much (or AS much) of the PTSD in elite units, as the selection processes used to produce them both weed out those more prone to it, as well as mentally harden most of the trainees to conduct against it. You could easily make the argument that the easing of boot camps across the branches has in fact increased the probability of the average service member to suffer later.
We get all our suffering out of the way up front.

Related to this thread in a tangent-like manner:

SEALs better at handling stress.

I've read reviews of the book at other sites and, as you might expect, the opinions run the spectrum from 'loved it' to 'hated it'. A couple of stories had technical discrepancies. For example, if I recall correctly, one story described the M249 as being chambered for a 7.62mm cartridge. Someone that is intimate with the SAW would immediately see the error, but I guess it didn't bother me a whole lot because the storytelling was pretty good. In another story, the number of Joe personnel assigned to the mission changed in mid-stream, as if the author just forgot. My guess is that he probably did!

Despite some questionable editing and a couple of stories that weren't up to par with the others, I'd have to say that I enjoyed this quite thoroughly. In fact, it was not long after reading Tales from the Cobra Wars, that I was inspired to start writing my own Joe-themed fiction.

Started doing a story by story review of this on HISS Tank and stopped because I wasn't enjoying the stories.


I would love for IDW to make another attempt at this, as I think novels would be a great way to get more Joe stories out there. Something along the lines of Del Rey's Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Tales From The Cobra Wars was mostly a disappointment. A couple decent stories, some really bad editing, and some not so good stories.