Bazooka was an ’85 Joe, and it can’t be overstated how strong the character roster was for a couple of years there. While there were exceptional characters being made before and after, the triple threat of ’84 ’85 and ’86 is hard to top.
Bazooka was destined to be an early favorite due to his choice of weaponry, which was, obviously, the bazooka. You don’t name yourself Bazooka and decide to carry a switchblade into battle. As someone who liked it when a character could nuke a tank all on his own, I had to have Bazooka the moment I saw him. And he did not disappoint. He blew up so many damn Cobras. He just went nuts on everything.
One interesting thing about GI Joe—at least for me—is that many of them came with a removable helmets. Now, you always had a choice there. Was this guy going to be a helmeted guy, or was he doing to ditch the helmet? For instance, Roadblock came with a helmet, but he just didn’t look right wearing it, so he often strode into battle with his giant naked head offering up the perfect target. Bazooka had to have the helmet to feel “complete.” Apparently the G.I. Joe cartoon showrunners felt the same way, because they opted to keep him helmeted as well. Every media seems to follow suit. The helmet is so much a part of Bazooka’s look that he feels off without it on. I like to think of him always wearing it, even when showering and sleeping. Even when making sweet sweet love to a random woman, Bazooka is still wearing that helmet.
Bazooka debuted in the sweet spot of prime animation time, so he managed plenty of screen time, while his time on the printed page was minimal. I don’t know if Larry Hama didn’t care for the character or it was just a case of too many characters and not enough space, but I always wanted him to do more in the comics. In later cartoon and comic canons he’s been killed off, so Bazooka is kind of the Rodney Dangerfield of G.I. Joe: no respect.
The cartoon depicted Bazooka as rather slow-witted, but on my personal battlefield he was closer to the “decisive fast-thinker” that was outlined on his file card.
When in doubt, I nearly always deferred to the file card for pertinent characterization. Besides, I couldn’t see an idiot somehow finding his way onto the most elite military team in the world. Of course, saying that now I realize “decisive fast thinking” doesn’t mean you’re smart, just that you can make a bad decision quickly, like using your match to test for a gas leak. So it’s quite possible I don’t know what I’m talking about. Besides, Bazooka mainly blew stuff up when I needed him to, so that was enough for me.
Bazooka felt like the kind of guy that used his rocket launcher to do pretty much anything. “Turn out the lights, Bazook,” one of the Joes would say, and Bazooka would blow them up. Eventually they’d stop asking him to turn out the lights.
Bazooka wore a red football Jersey, so naturally I ended up having him team up with the Fridge on occasion. I never had Captain Grid-Iron, which is probably some type of shame, because the three of them could have created some kind of football sub-team along the lines of Tiger Force. Like “Pigskin Force.”
Speaking of Tiger Force, Bazooka also had a Tiger Force version, but I never ended up with that one. I liked Tiger Force well enough, but it didn’t feel right having Bazooka in anything but his traditional outfit. Much like having him without his helmet, he had to wear the red shirt, the green pants and the helmet to feel like Bazooka. And he also had to use his little rocket launcher to do pretty much anything. Like flush toilets. Bazooka flushed a toilet with his rocket launcher, and he pooped nude, while still wearing his helmet. Because that’s exactly how decisive fast-thinkers poop.