SLIGHTLY LESS EXTREME TIMES call for SLIGHTLY LESS EXTREME HEROES

At some point in the late 1990s, a small publisher named Bench Press Studios tried to get a license to publish G.I. Joe and Transformers comics. From the Transformers side of things, negotiations don't seem to have gotten very far - Simon Furman has said in the past that the company contacted him, not much more than that - but discussions on the G.I. Joe end seem to have proceeded apace.

Bench Press apparently snagged Marvel G.I. Joe scribe Larry Hama and ex-Infinity Gauntlet/Silver Surfer artist Ron Lim for their proposed G.I. Joe book, and together they produced a cover and four pages worth of material. I don't know how these got into the hands of the G.I. Joe fandom, but I ran into these pages on the YoJoe.com mailing list some years back, and for posterity's sake, am reproducing them here.

Most interesting in this line-up is the inclusion of Dodger, the only surviving member of Battle Force 2000, and the fact Cover Girl has blond hair a la her cartoon miniseries appearance. Plus, hey, Tunnel Rat before he got the big franchise pushes in Sigma Six and Renegades.