My old pal “Mr. K” has a new blog, and a new post defending the greatness of Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe comic against the dismissive reaction of Sean T. Collins. Having completely missed both incarnations of Joe (no violent entertainment in our house!), I don’t have a dog in this fight, but Señor K makes a good point that for many kids, even Marvel’s renowned “realist” settings were completely imaginary:

G.I. Joe was a great comic book to read, especially as a kid, because it located a towering battle between good and evil under the cover of suburbia. … This was genius to a child to whom Metropolis and Manhattan were equally fantastic and fictional. I didn’t recognize that the Kingpin was based out of the Flatiron building, but my family drove by a dozen towns like Springfield every time we went on a road trip.