Duke (G.I. Joe)

Duke
G.I. Joe character
First appearance	1983
Voiced by	Michael Bell (Original) Ted Harrison (DIC Series) John Payne (Spy Troops & Valor vs Venom) Frank Frankson (Sigma 6) Steven Blum (Resolute)
In-universe information
Affiliation	G.I. Joe
Specialty	First Sergeant
File name	Hauser, Conrad S.
Birth place	St. Louis, MO
SN	RA 213-75-7793
Rank	E-8 (First Sergeant)
Primary MOS	(11Z) Infantry Senior Sergeant
Secondary MOS	(13B) Cannon Crew Member, (91F) Small Arms/Artillery Repairer
Subgroups	Tiger Force, Star Brigade

Duke is a fictional character from G.I. Joe, a line of military-themed toys. The character is featured in two series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, appearing in both the animated series and comic books.

He is portrayed by actor Channing Tatum in the 2009 live-action film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Fictional character biography

Duke is the code name of First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser. He is field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe Team after Hawk. He is one of the key characters of G.I. Joe and a fan-favorite. He is generally regarded by fans as a main character, despite not appearing in the comic series for a number of issues, nor was he one of the very first wave of original toys.

He hails from St. Louis, Missouri and is fluent in French and German, as well as several Southeast Asian languages. He was at the top of his class at Fort Benning, has undergone Special Forces training and worked with South Vietnamese Tribesmen. He was also an instructor in four different Special Forces schools. Despite his accomplishments, he has repeatedly turned down any officer commissions offered to him. He believes a commander's place is with his troops, not behind the battle lines. In the cartoon, he is the older half brother of Lt. Falcon.

Action figures

As of May 2009, Duke has had 32 different 3 3/4" figures and at least 7 different 12" figures.

Vintage/Modern

Duke was one of the first mail-away figures created in 1983 for the G.I. Joe 3 3/4" action figure line of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. He was later released in 1984 as part of the third series. A new version of Duke was released in 1992. The figure was repainted and released as part of the Battle Corps line in 1993. A new version of Duke was released in 1993 as part of the Star Brigade line. Throughout the years, he served as the Field Commander, and served as a member or the leader of several of the special teams including Tiger Force (1988), Star Brigade (1994), Armor Tech, Night Force, Anti-Venom Task Force and the Heavy Assault Squad.

25th anniversary

Duke was released in a box packed with Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, Roadblock and Gung Ho, created from an entirely new mold that was based heavily on the original design. He was also released in several single packs (with one including his Jet Pack featured in the opening credits of the G.I. Joe Movie), comic packs, movie packs (packaged with the greatest battles DVD) and multi-packs. Duke was one of the only G.I. Joe figures to be released in a special package for the G.I. Joe: Resolute animated series.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

To coincide with the launch of the new movie, Hasbro released at least two figures based on the Duke movie character. For both releases, he is listed as Conrad "Duke" Hauser.

The first, classified as Desert Ambush, features Duke in a desert camouflage uniform. The second, classified as Reactive Impact Armor, features him in the movie style black uniform.

Comic series

Marvel

Duke first appeared in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #22 (April 1984). Duke is not a member of the original G.I. Joe Team line-up. He came in after the death of General Flagg to help straighten the team out and become the new field commander. However, he and Roadblock first act as security for the funeral of Flagg; they shoot down an attacking Rattler plane. His first mission was to lead an effort to keep Cobra Commander prisoner in a mountain base. However, the Cobra ninja Storm Shadow rescues the Commander.

He also took part in the invasion of the Cobra-controlled town of Springfield. He also played second-in-command to Hawk during the Cobra Civil War. For a while, he led the G.I. Joe special team Tiger Force. He was also involved in the mission to push Cobra out of Trucial Abysmia, but intelligence vastly underestimated Cobra's presence there. Duke's squad is captured and a mis-interpeted order leads to several men being shot dead by a S.A.W. Viper. Doc, Heavy Metal, Thunder and Crankcase are slain immeadetly. The Viper is wounded and the survivors escape in a Cobra Rage tank. It is destroyed, killing Crazylegs, Breaker and Quick Kick. Duke and the other two survivors, Cross-Country and Lt. Falcon, make it back to friendly lines safely.

He would recover from that experience and lead the defense of the Joe headquarters, the Pit, against Cobra. He continued working with G.I. Joe until its disbandment.

Devil's Due

After the disbandment, Duke went to take on black ops assignments for a secret government agency for a few years. It was during one of his missions that he discovered COBRA's attempt to make a comeback. He helped rally the effort to have G.I. Joe reinstated. By this time, Duke had a different edge to him, taking more risks and sometimes putting teammates in danger. But when Hawk was incapacitated in a COBRA assassination attempt, Duke took up his injured mentor's causes, fighting the corrupt Jugglers while holding the team together in the wake of the loss of their leader.

America's Elite

When the team was reorganized in the America's Elite series, Duke disappeared, going off on his own mission to locate Cobra Commander. During his search, he was captured by a group of B.A.T.s under the control of a Crimson Guard who also had a grudge against Cobra Commander and wished to locate him.

Larry Hama, who wrote the original G.I. Joe comic book, always expressed great frustration with Duke. His main problem with Duke was that everyone else involved with G.I. Joe - the Hasbro toy line directors and the writers handling the show - all just treated Duke as if he were interchangeable with General Hawk, which Hama feels stilted Duke's character development in the comic book. Also, he felt that Duke's personality did not fit with the role of a master sergeant (Hama always regarded Stalker as the more natural "first shirt") and also felt that design wise Duke looked too much like Hawk (both had blond hair and blue eyes in the comic book, but Hawk had black hair and brown eyes in the cartoon as a means of differentiating him from Duke).

Alternate universe series

G.I. Joe: Reloaded

In this series, Duke is a double agent working for Cobra due to his distress over the U.S. government's willingness to create destructive weaponry. In the final issue, he confronts Scarlett in a sewer system. She gains the upper hand and kills him with a knife to the back.

Fun Publications

In the mirror universe created by Fun Publications Duke's counterpart is Secretary of Defense Conrad Hauser, serving in the administration of U.S. President Joe Colton. In the story Eye in the Sky Hauser had to report to the president on the loss of control of an orbital defense satellite to the evil alien robots called the Autobots, and it's eventual destruction thanks to the efforts of the heroic Decepticons.

Cartoon

A Real American Hero

In The MASS Device, (the first G.I. Joe mini-series, released in 1983), Duke is the field leader of G.I. Joe, under the command of General Flagg. Flagg is replaced by Colonel Sharp in Revenge of COBRA (the second miniseries, released in 1984). By the beginning of the first season, the role of commanding officer frequently alternated between Duke and Flint, the warrant officer introduced in the Revenge of COBRA mini-series. This was due in part to the series writers trying to balance the regulation of characters based on the prominence of their action figures.

In "The Synthoid Conspiracy", Duke was not only taken prisoner but replaced with one of Destro's synthetic doppelgangers in an attempt to get the G.I. Joe team disbanded permanently.

Though the comic books and file cards say Duke is from St. Louis, Missouri, the MASS Device mini-series said that Duke was from Iowa. It was shown that Duke and Cover Girl were in a relationship as they were seen kissing each other in Cobra Claws Are Coming to Town.

In the second season, Hawk replaces Duke as commander of G.I. Joe. Duke becomes second-in-command, while Flint is the third man down. Duke was voiced by Michael Bell.

Duke appears briefly alongside Torpedo in one of the series' Public Service Announcements about the dangers of swimming alone.

The Movie

Duke was responsible for foiling Cobra's first attempt to take over the BET machine and captures Serpentor. With the aid of Cobra-La and the Dreadnoks, Serpentor escapes and gets his revenge during a second attempt to obtain the BET machine. Duke is critically wounded when Seperntor impales him in battle. His injuries cause him to slip into a coma. A voice-over line near the end of the movie indicates Duke recovers from his injuries. This makes the second time that Duke has lapsed into a coma - the first being in "The Traitor" two-part story where his condition prevents him from letting the other Joes in on Dusty's triple-agent status.

It should be noted that Duke's original fate in the movie was to die at the hands of Serpentor. However, due to fan backlash regarding the death of Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie, Hasbro asked for a re-edit so Duke would merely fall into a coma following Serpentor's venomous attack, and a later edit added dialogue indicating he was awake again.

DIC

Duke was absent for the entire first season with the exception of "The Mind Mangler" in which he was prominently featured looking much the same as in the previous series. He later reappeared with a much different hairstyle for the second season rejoining his reckless maternal half-brother Falcon. He looks younger and retains the same personality.

Sigma 6

Animated series

In G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Duke is the leader of the G.I. Joe team. He has retained much of his personality from the A Real American Hero series. He is still that same hard-charging, man-of-action type of leader he's always been, albeit looking much younger and with a new hair-cut which is remarkably similar to that of Duke Nukem. He is still willing to go into the most dangerous situations rather than send a member of his team to do it. This Duke is much more comfortable being the military man than engaging in social situations such as in the first season episode "Vacation".

One other physical differentiation of this Duke from previous continuities is the scar on his right cheek. So far, it has not been explained how he acquired it.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Duke
G.I. Joe character
File:Gijoe-bw-poster-duke-med-sized.jpg Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
First appearance	2009
Portrayed by	Channing Tatum
In-universe information
Affiliation	G.I. Joe
Specialty	Soldier
File name	Conrad Hauser
SN	234-55-GI89
Rank	Captain (O-3)
Series	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Duke appears in the 2009 film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra played by Channing Tatum. He is part of General Hawk's team. Contrary to his original back-story, he is as a newcomer to the G.I.Joe team; all Joe rookies are already established, well-trained soldiers. Also in the 2009 film, Duke identifies himself as a Captain while conspicuously wearing the rank of Major (Army) or Lt. Commander (Navy). There is no reference in the film to him ever performing duties as a First Sergeant. He was also engaged to marry Ana Lewis, (who would end up becoming the Baroness) but left her at the altar because of guilt due to the apparent death of Ana's brother, Rex. But later, she saves him, and they kiss. After, they run away together and at the end of the movie, they kissed, again.

Video game

Duke is featured in the 1985 G.I. Joe computer game.

Other media

• Duke appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "More Blood, More Chocolate" voiced by Skeet Ulrich. In the "Inside the Battlefield: The Weather Dominator" segment, it was mentioned that he and Snake-Eyes were captured by COBRA and forced to battle each other, a recurring gag in that segment is that Duke couldn't understand what Snake-Eyes wrote on the Etch A Sketch. In "PS: Yes In That Way," Duke introduced the G.I. Joe team to the newest recruit named Calvin and ended up nicknaming him "Fumbles" for his clumsiness. After another of Calvin's clumsiness during the introduction, Duke makes "Fumbles" the team's janitor. When Calvin defects to Cobra and snipes the G.I. Joe team, Calvin only left Duke alive. In "The Ramblings of Maurice," he and the G.I. Joe members award Roadblock with a chocolate statue. After Junkyard ate the chocolate statue and died, Duke spoke at Junkyard's funeral and had Junkyard's name added to the Wall of Fallen Heroes. Dissatisfied that not enough died, he bet that Cobra's Wall of Fallen Villains is full of names.

External links

• G.I. Joe Comics Home Page: Duke
• Template:JoeWiki
• Template:Imdb character
• Duke at YoJoe

References

• Hidalgo, Pablo (2009). G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide 1982-2008. Random House. ISBN 9780345516428.
• Bellomo, Mark (2009). The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994. Krause Publications. ISBN 9780896899223.