One & Done - DARKLON

"He's a good one to talk about other people's clothes.  He could get arrested for impersonating a household appliance!" - Dr. Mindbender, G.I. Joe Issue #90.

EVADER DRIVER - DARKLON

    In 1989, Destro continued to add to his Iron Grenadier army and in doing so, he brought in another field commander - Darklon.  Darklon, came with a vehicle (the Evader) and was simply listed as Evader Driver on the file card.  Darklon, however, was much more than an ordinary vehicle driver.

    According to the file card, Darklon is a distant cousin of Destro.  He operates from his "cast-iron" castle located somewhere in the Alps.  He has his own private army who, prior to joining the Iron Grenadiers, could be hired by the highest bidder to do battle.  It also mentions that Darklon is motivated by simple greed.

    The figure for Darklon is quite bizarre.  He wears a textured, long-sleeve, olive drab shirt with some random black stripes on it.  He has one glove that matches his shirt and one black glove.  His pants are red with the matching random black stripes.  He has crazy orange boots - one that goes up to his knee and the other that goes up to his thigh.

    Darklon covers his face with a mask.  This is a common trait with villain characters in G.I. Joe, but what is weird, is that is literally looks like a mask.  On the back of his head, it appears he has a olive drab balaclava on.  On the front, he has a black facemask.  Though it is not painted, you can see the band that holds the mask on, behind his head.  This makes it look as if he is wearing a Halloween mask...

    The figure came with one accessory and the Evader vehicle.  The gun looked like a sci-fi Gatling gun or something.  Very strange, but that is how Destro's crew usually rolls, with weird, futuristic weaponry.  The vehicle was also strange.  It was like an armored, low-sitting motorcycle-type thing.

From the Hasbro 1989 G.I. Joe catalog.

    Darklon came out the year I was hanging up my hat on G.I. Joe.  This was the year I stopped buying vehicles and only got some of my favorite figures.  So Darklon, a vehicle driver, was out.  I really liked the concept of the Iron Grenadiers, so if he was single carded, I might have gotten him back then.  I ended up picking him up as a collector later on.

    Darklon is interesting to say the least.  I like the Iron Grenadier army in general, I like the idea of him being related to Destro, and I like the idea of him being a capable commander in his own right...  To me, I feel this figure is bizarre on all levels.  The uniform, the gun, the vehicle...  It's all very hodge-podge.  It's like they had 30 great ideas for a character, but instead of weeding some things out and creating one solid figure, they just threw all the ideas in at once.

    Darklon, dude, you are alright.  Unfortunately, in the grand scheme of all things Iron Grenadier, he's just a little lower on the list.  I think Darklon is going to end up with a rating of 3 out of 5 Halloween Facemasks.  You know, the ones from the 80's with the rubber band that holds it on?

    So what are your thoughts on Darklon?  Did you like or dislike him?  Did you feel Hasbro should have had his own Darklonian Troopers to command?  Let me know your thoughts below.

More thoughts and considerations on Darklon...

--- He was sadly removed from the original comic run.  Cobra blew up his castle in Issue #146.  Strange as I would have thought Darklon was long forgotten at that point.

--- He used something similar to his gun in the comics.  It shot tranquilizer darts and knocked out Road Pig.

--- Poor guy didn't even make it into the DIC Series of cartoons.  Wait, that might be a good thing!

From the Marvel G.I. Joe Comic, #90.