Why do most Gi Joe fans dislike Duke

[Battery]

I'm not trying to make an argument for or against Duke, I'm just curious about why fans seem to not like him. My inspiration for this question was seeing a question of whether or not Optimus Prime would've survived the original Transformers movie had the Gi Joe movie been released as it was supposed to be in 1986 and Duke been killed off.

 

I personally think Prime still would've died because had the Gi Joe one came out first and Duke died in it, I don't think there would've been this big backlash because most Joe fans don't like Duke as much as most Transformers fans like Optimus Prime. It then got me thinking "why the hatred for Duke?" I'm interested also whether or not folks agree/disagree with my belief that had the Gi Joe movie been released first that Prime still would've died because there would've been no backlash.

[DPrime]

I wouldn't say most do - just that those who do are very vocal about it. I have no idea why anyone would hate Duke, he's a great figure and character.

 

Probably a lot of people are just tired of how many versions Hasbro has done, though...

[Viper Hunter]

I don't understand the various contempt for the Duke character either, but I'd have to say MOST of it (if any) comes from the more serious fans of the comic books who hated the cartoon. Maybe a few just didn't like the original grinning action figure of him, as I've seen that listed as a Duke hating reason, but for the most part, it's the character relationship to the comic book lover/cartoon hater, fans I believe?

 

I LIKE Duke! He embodies all that is great about G.I.Joe the REAL AMERICAN hero, and his name is even that of one of our greatest movie hero's...JOHN WAYNE "The Duke"! #US1#

 

I'm sick of his constant presence in the action figure line, but I love the character and he's a fav.

[RockSteady]

I like Duke. He's a pretty cool character. I just don't like how Hasbro keeps pumping him out. But I still like the character.

[eleavitt2000]

I don't people inherently dislike Duke. But there are many things about Duke that are irritating:

 

He looked too much like Hawk did in the comic.

 

It looked like Hasbro was trying to replace Hawk, the field commander of G.I.Joe.

 

In the first mini-series, Duke was the main character. His portrayal was pretty good, but Hawk and Stalker were largely ignored or non-existent. Plus, he had an apparent relationship with Scarlet which was contrary to the comic book. Comic book fans probably dislike the discrepancies.

 

Duke figure in 1983 and 1984 was good, but no Duke figures until 1991 when there is 12-inch Target Exclusive Duke that sold out the first week, was impossible to find, and had a Donnie Wahlberg head. That figure is actually pretty good, but the later one in 2002 was better. Oh-oh, is Hasbro going away from the 3 3/4 inch figures?

 

Hawk becomes General Hawk in the cartoon and the figure gets dark-brown hair to not conflict in the cartoon with Duke.

 

Oh, now, we get a decent Duke in tan camo in 1992. The G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero is being rebooted but not everyone realizes it. Then we get another great Battlecorps figure. Then he is Star Brigade leader.

 

Then, what killed it for me with Duke, who I never minded but found irritating was the way how G.I.Joe versus Cobra, Spytroops, and Valor-vs-Venom largely ignored Hawk. Then Sigma-6 ignored Hawk. HAWK IS IN CHARGE, NOT DUKE. And to top it all off Brandon Jerwa made Duke the man-in-charge in a stupid attempt to bring in the cartoon fans and keep the old-comic book fans. Hence, in the Image comic, you get black-ops Duke who is in charge of G.I.Joe and green-shirts. Fortunately, that was toned-down.

 

I guess the answer to why we hate Duke is because Hasbro keeps trying to put him in charge of G.I.Joe when they already had Hawk.

[Crimson Twins]

I guess the answer to why we hate Duke is because Hasbro keeps trying to put him in charge of G.I.Joe when they already had Hawk.

 

 

Maybe if you like Hawk, but that has nothing to do with why I'm not a big Duke fan. I could care less if they replaced Hawk with Duke. I don't really like either. There's not any one thing for me. No real reason. I'm just not a fan. I didn't like his early figures. I thought he was a bit corny in the cartoon. He just didn't gell with me and my tastes. When I thought General Hawk (of General's Joes, not the character) had killed off Duke in one of his dio-stories, I nearly jumped for joy. There are too many senior ranking characters to get wrapped up in him. At least for me.

[obiprime]

I Like Duke and have always seen him as the Most important leader of Gijoe.

[ARROW]

Add a little stem to the "D" and you get a "P".

 

Okay, that's not why I dislike Duke.........actually, I don't dislike the character at all. I don't like the first figure of him a whole lot though. I like the later versions at lot more, especially the more military looking ones.

[SteelBrigade]

I'm a big Duke fan, but I also loved the cartoon growing up so he was the main guy for me, the regular Joe, he was... GI Joe. I still think he was one of the best overall characters in the 80's cartoon, & the new 25th figure is the perfect version thus far in my eyes. #US1#

[ransomz]

I wasn't aware there was a general dislike of Duke. I think he's great. He's kind of like the Captain America of the team.

[Pit Viper]

I think the thing with Duke is that:

 

A) He was not portrayed as a prominent member of the G.I. Joe team in the Marvel Comic.

 

Was seen as unqualified to fill Hawk's shoes as the team's leader in the cartoon. Not only was Hawk originally ignored in the cartoon but Duke is not even an officer so who is he to lead the team?

 

C) Duke is a character that seems to be based too much on his face than others. For example. So long as Flint has a black beret there isn't too much complaint regarding his design. With Duke his face has to be just right because he was never really portrayed as wearing his helmet on the cartoon or his original card art. If the face isn't right then he could be anybody. It seems like he has a different face each time they make a new one.

[punishment-101]

I've always disliked Duke. Hes always been portrayed as to much of a goody goody in my eyes, as faultless, and as a premier role model. While I think most of those qualities are ok I've always felt that he was being portrayed as to godlike a person and I've never liked that.

 

Its really my personal view of Duke's character that makes me dislike him but again thats all my opinion.

 

Like him if you want I say, but thats one bandwagon I won't be jumping on

[ARROW]

Was seen as unqualified to fill Hawk's shoes as the team's leader in the cartoon. Not only was Hawk originally ignored in the cartoon but Duke is not even an officer so who is he to lead the team?

In military Special Forces, and small units, NCO's like Corporals and Sergeants lead the actual teams on operations. In larger troop movements, First Sergeants like Duke would be the guy overseeing the op. Hawk, being a General, is essentially a armchair soldier by nature of his position, because the loss of a unit General on the battlefield is considered to be unacceptable.

NCO's lead the teams as an entity in the field, and Officers lead the entire unit as an administrative entity. You MIGHT get Lieutenants and Captains leading some of the squads, but how many of those ranks are in the GIJOE team, and certainly as combat operators?

The GIJOE team probably operates under the "Chinese Parliment" system when it comes to leadership-everyone has a voice in the mission planning, and the most qualified trooper is the leader of a mission. Given the various expertise present, that makes a lot of sense.

Duke is probably one of the more (if not the most) battle-hardened trooper on the team, so on any given mission, his leadership and guidance is usually first considered.

Ranks mean less in Special Forces, and experience means more.

[DPrime]

Was seen as unqualified to fill Hawk's shoes as the team's leader in the cartoon. Not only was Hawk originally ignored in the cartoon but Duke is not even an officer so who is he to lead the team?

In military Special Forces, and small units, NCO's like Corporals and Sergeants lead the actual teams on operations. In larger troop movements, First Sergeants like Duke would be the guy overseeing the op. Hawk, being a General, is essentially a armchair soldier by nature of his position, because the loss of a unit General on the battlefield is considered to be unacceptable.

NCO's lead the teams as an entity in the field, and Officers lead the entire unit as an administrative entity. You MIGHT get Lieutenants and Captains leading some of the squads, but how many of those ranks are in the GIJOE team, and certainly as combat operators?

The GIJOE team probably operates under the "Chinese Parliment" system when it comes to leadership-everyone has a voice in the mission planning, and the most qualified trooper is the leader of a mission. Given the various expertise present, that makes a lot of sense.

Duke is probably one of the more (if not the most) battle-hardened trooper on the team, so on any given mission, his leadership and guidance is usually first considered.

Ranks mean less in Special Forces, and experience means more.

 

Meeeehhhh... Well your last sentence is correct, certainly. A bit off on the details, though.

 

Basically you'd need General Hawk AND Duke in an organization like GI Joe. An NCO like Duke would NOT, however, be the guy overseeing the operation, though he would likely be there in an advisory situation. He MIGHT be out there leading the team, but you'd more likely have junior officers and less senior NCOs (sergeants, but not usually a top sergeant or sergeant major). The truth is, officers AND NCOs lead in BOTH field and administrative positions.

[Ren]

I like Duke as much as Flint Or Gen. Hawk , they're all basically the same character to me, cartoon wise.

[Eric]

I really liked Duke in G.I. Joe the Movie when he was bitching out and coming down extra hard on Falcon. That was the only time there was truly substance or depth to him. Otherwise, he was pretty boring and I didn't feel much for him. And the whole thing with Hawk has always thrown me a little. Duke seemed kinda pointless, especially when you consider the fact he was pretty much a clone of the original Hawk. If Duke had treated everybody with the tough-love, harsh treatment he gave Falcon, I'd have liked him a whole lot.

[Kenny28]

I'm more familiar with the cartoon than the comic so.....yeah...I've always been okay with Duke.

 

I can see the controversy when it comes to the comic book fans though. That's.....gotta suck....

[SKARAPZ]

i wish Serpentor would stab him with another snake

[Straight Edge]

A large part of the reason I don't like Duke is, admittedly, his redundancy. In the comic, Larry spent 20 solid issues building Hawk and Stalker as the good cop/bad cop Officer/Sgt combo. Once I saw that dynamic (especially as it grew over the years), the more I saw Duke's hard-nose attitude as unnecessary and even annoying.

 

After that, looking back at the cartoon Duke, I found him smug and a bit too self-assured. I like my heroes to struggle a bit, maybe skirt a moral line of some sort. Add to that the Sh*teating grin on that original figure, and Duke just didnt have an O-ringed leg to stand on in my world.

 

So when I wrote my first fanfic, I had him caught in a three-way crossfire, and evicerated by over two dozen bullets. Then the APC his body was in got firebombed by a Cobra attack. It was gruesome.

 

Over the years, I've come to accept Duke's iconic position on the team, and grant him a field leader status on my A-Team. And with the DDP portryal of him as a shadier spook type, then a born-again badass, he's gone through enough to make him interesting (or as interesting as a whitebred posterboy vanilla hero-type ever can be). So when the 25th figures were announced, and Duke was leading the charge, I was happy to have him.

 

Of course my Hawk and Stalker figures will always outrank him, and Flint has an equal leadership role as head of my B-Team, but Duke's earned his stripes in my book by never holding his gruesome fanfic death against me.

[pesatyel]

I think it is more, at least "lately" they have to shove him down our throats as one of the "quintessential" G.I. Joes.

 

I also think it has a lot to do with that "grin" his version 1 had. It just doesn't say "badass". In fact, I use that mold as a different character, G.I. Joe's liason with the United Nations/Interpol (goes by the code name Fast Talk).

 

The filecard might also have a little to do with it. He's tauted as being a real bad ass (again with that grin though, see what I mean?), but the figure doesn't really say that. Heh, plus the version 1 filecard makes him OLD.

[Battery]

Some nice replies. One person mentioned about Duke always being too "goody-good" or something like that, but at the same time, wasn't Optimus Prime the same way in the G1 TF cartoon?

[MaceWinduPreview]

I like Duke and as far as him replacing Hawk, all the better. I always thought General Hawk was a turd anyway.

[Rama Sha]

I love Duke. It was always Snake Eyes I didn't care much for. More Ninja Snake Eyes then Commando Snake Eyes. But saying I hate SE would be going a bit far.

[xhairs]

I wouldn't say most do - just that those who do are very vocal about it. I have no idea why anyone would hate Duke, he's a great figure and character.

 

Probably a lot of people are just tired of how many versions Hasbro has done, though...

 

 

im with you on this Dprime. i like duke but the over kills of the fig has killed the likeness for him. hasbro just over killed us with him.

[BoomBatty]

If Hawk is a fine wine then Duke is a bottle of Coca-Cola.

I never did take to wine. Capice?

 

Duke gets his hands dirty in the team's missions and the whole Black Ops thing only makes him cooler. Hawk is a guy who saw a little bit of action and then got shanked by the Baroness.

 

Hell, in the cartoon, even Serpentor's snake missile (wow that sounds dirty) couldn't stop him. And he bagged Scarlett! F Snake Eyes!

He is like the Capt. of the Football team in high school you always hoped would be pumping gas by the time you graduated college. In this case he leads at work, gets the hot chick and still can kick your @ss. But I forgive him

 

I give Duke two thumbs up.