G.I. JOE #20
Home is Where
the War Is

Cover Date: February, 1984
Writer: Steven Grant
Penciler: Geof Isherwood
Inker: D'Agostino and Tartag
Cover artist: John Byrne
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: George Roussos
Editor: Denny O'Neil
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Summary (by Russ Humphress):  Running across open ground toward a wooded area, Clutch, Wild Bill, Scarlett, Flash, and Gung Ho are being strafed by an unidentified airplane. After they dive for cover in the tree line, Gung Ho takes out the aircraft. As the Joes make their way through the woods, negotiating a minefield, Clutch seems to be in a big hurry to get somewhere. He suddenly comes across Hawk, who turns out to be a cardboard stand-up hiding a Cobra trooper. After dispensing with the trooper, the Joes come to an electrified fence which Flash takes out by snapping a few wires. The team hops the fence, and crosses some open ground, to find the real Hawk and another officer waiting by the VAMP, and we find out this was all a training exercise after all. We also find out that Clutch is leaving on furlough to his home town, Asbury Park, NJ. He takes off in the VAMP, with Stalker in the passenger seat, and they arrive at the bus terminal just as the bus starts to pull out. Clutch Hot rods in front of the bus, stopping it, and begins his vacation.

Several hours later, Clutch departs the bus and begins walking across the bridge toward home. He's just decided to flag down a ride when a hotrod stops within inches of hitting him. The car is driven by Billy Kline who is immediately established as an old school chum. As the two reminisce, we find that the car was built by Billy's company, Watash Automotive Inc. Billy takes Cutch to show off his factory, and subsequently offers him a job testing and racing cars. As they pass a door marked Top Security, Clutch promises to keep the offer in mind. His inquiry into the contents of the room is jokingly evaded. Billy shows Clutch to a bachelor pad apartment at the plant, for Clutch to stay in. As he's showering, Clutch overhears part of a phone call, but Billy tells him its nothing to worry about. Billy then hastily excuses himself, and heads for the security area. Clutch follows him, but can't open the lock on the door. While he's standing there though, the door is opened by a Cobra trooper. Clutch dives for cover in the auto-shop while four Cobras fan out with orders to kill him. Clutch takes out one Cobra with a wrench and the drops a car on the other three.

After retrieving a weapon, Clutch heads back to the Security area, only to find his friend in the company of numerous Cobra agents in a Cobra weapons factory. Clutch tries to get the drop on the Cobras, but instead Kline gets the drop on him, and knocks him unconscious.

Sometime later, Clutch wakes, bound and hanging from the ceiling. Billy explains that Cobra is holding his family, and he couldn't take any chances on anything happening to them. He seems on the verge of apologizing when he is silenced by one of the Cobra's who reveals their plan to use Clutch as a test subject for the compact Jetpack Billy's company has built for Cobra. Clutch will fly the jetpack allright -- under Cobra remote control. Billy hugs Clutch, and they exchange words, but as the jetpack is activated, we see it was an excuse for Billy to slip Clutch a knife. The Cobras celebrate the jetpack's success, but decide to end the test, and Clutch in the bargain. Clutch manages to free himself from the ropes, just as the jetpack's engine goes out, and he begins falling. He manages to hot wire the pack at the last second, but since he can't really control it, he drops out of the pack over some nearby water. Clutch decides to singlehandedly stop Cobra before the jetpacks become a prime getaway device for Cobra agents. Several hours later, Clutch arrives at his old school and looks up Mr. Vilsky, his old auto-shop teacher, to ask a favor.

That afternoon in an Asbury Park suburb, two Cobra agents are guarding an otherwise normal looking house, as a seemingly well-armored hotrod speeds up the street. Clutch heads the hotrod right at the house, jumping free at the last second, and taking the Cobra troops by surprise as the car slams through the front wall. Clutch takes out the Cobra guards, and tells Billy's wife and daughter to pack and leave, while he picks up the phone to call some friends.

Later that afternoon, a G.I. Joe team lead by Hawk survey the surroundings outside the plant. Clutch throws a rock to draw the guard's attention, and then punches him out, and we see that the guard is from Arbco Security. The Joes split up, with one team going in through the skylight, and another blasting in the door. The Cobra's are caught off guard, but their leader shoots Billy and makes to escape with the prototype jetpack. As Hawk radios for Airborne to stop the Cobra, Billy is revealed to be wounded, but not seriously, and he tells Clutch where to find another jetpack he built without the Cobra's knowledge. In the sky, the Cobra flies right past Airborne on the Falcon glider, but is followed almost immediately by Clutch with the other jetpack. Clutch and the Cobra trade shots -- both ammo and verbal, then Clutch decides to ram the Cobra. He punches the Cobra, but his jetpack cuts out. He tries to hang on to the Cobra, but is kicked away, ripping the Cobra's jetpack off in the process. Both of the combatants begin falling toward a gas farm below. Clutch once again manages to restart his jetpack just in time, but both the cobra and his pack fall into a tank, setting off a tremendous explosion.

Minutes later, Clutch lands next to the Joes, as Billy, on a stretcher, is being loaded into an ambulance. Billy offers for Clutch to stay with him and his family for the rest of his vacation, but Clutch decides he's "had about all the rest and relaxation" he can stand.

Commentary: This was the issue which got me into comic collecting, so I'm a little biased toward it. I'd read one issue previously (14), but this was the one that started me buying for the next 135 issues. This was the first issue to focus almost exclusively on one member of the Joe team. This was also one of the few issues written by someone other than Larry Hama. Stories like "Home Is Where the War Is" helped to establish that the Joe team, as well as being excellent soldiers, were also people. They had homes, and friends, and families. I've always thought that that focus on developing characters was one of the biggest successful draws of the comic.

The Arbco Security guard, and in fact the whole story, furthers the "Cobra is everywhere" theme that was common in the early issues of the comic. The Cobras are still depicted as fanatical and arrogant, but not to the same extreme as those in issue 8. Clutch's fight in the auto shop shows he can improvise a weapon out of almost anything, as was previously shown in issue 7 when he knocked out a Cobra with the VAMP's microphone.

Finally, a couple of small technical glitches with this issue: First, when clutch first comes too on page 11, his feet aren't tied, but two panels later, they are. There really hasn't been enough time for anyone to have tied his feet, plus they would have done it while he was out cold anyway. Second, on page 18, clutch asks 'Doc' how Billy is after he's been shot by the Cobra. Doc is Caucasian, and wearing a green uniform, rather than his normal colors. This was pointed out by a reader in the letters column of issue 23, and was acknowledged to be a coloring error. In later years, this sort of thing would have brought on a deluge of "No-Prize" entries.
Reprinted in:
  • G.I. JOE Comics Magazine #7 (December 1987). Digest format from Marvel Comics. Includes issues #18 and #19.
  • G.I. JOE: Volume 2 (June 2002). A trade paperback collection from Marvel. Includes issues #11-20.
  • Classic G.I. JOE: Volume 2 (March 2009). A trade paperback collection from IDW Publishing. Aside from some slight changes made to the cover, this is a reprint of the earlier Marvel collection. Includes issues #11-20.