Thrasher (G.I. Joe)

Profile

Thrasher was spoiled as a child by his middle-class parents, who never disciplined him in fear that this would "stifle energies he might need later in life". His parents never denied him what he wanted, even when those things caused destruction or disaster. After his parents were crippled in a car wreck, which may or may not have had anything to do with Thrasher's repair work on their brakes, Thrasher wandered into the swamps where to do whatever he wanted. There he met Zartan and the Dreadnoks, who welcomed him in as one of them. Thrasher derives a slight pleasure from inflicting suffering on others.^[1]

Toys

Thrasher was first released as an action figure in 1986, packaged with the Dreadnok

In the Marvel Comics G.I. Joe series, he first appeared in issue #51. According to dialogue, he had wandered off into the swamps some time ago. He returns because the swamp held nothing left to smash. Further more, the pollution had killed off all the wild animals so there was nothing left to strangle. Later, in a conflict with the Joes, he purposely drives the Thunder Machine through a moving train, using the guns to create a hole.^[3]

In issue #69, Thrasher,

When the country erupts in civil war, the three take Thrasher's

Thrasher is younger in this continuity. He is a stable technological genius, maintaining a Dreadnok camp deep in the Australian outback. He is loyal to Zartan to the point of betraying other Dreadnoks. However Zartan betrays him as soon as it is beneficial.[10]

Animated series

Sunbow

He first appeared in the

Thrasher was voiced by Ted Schwartz.^[13]

G.I. Joe: The Movie

Thrasher also appeared briefly in the 1987 animated film G.I. Joe: The Movie. In one scene, he teases a woman named "Heather" as she is changing out of her dress. "Heather" then throws him into a nearby lake and reveals herself as Zarana in disguise.^[14]

Other works

Thrasher's figure is briefly featured in the fiction novel 6 Sick Hipsters. In the story, the character Paul Achting spent four years collecting G.I. Joe figures to set up a battle scene between the Joes and Cobra. As he imagined the characters in his head, he described the Dreadnoks as "an elite team of maniacal mercenaries allied with Cobra for this battle", with the figures lying in the thick of the shag carpet, and Thrasher as "the psycho, mounted on the Thunder Machine, a red and black behemoth that was as postapocalyptic as Mad Max himself".^[15]

References