Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Almost Joined The G.I. Joe - Here's What Went Wrong

Yes, this is real. Rocky Balboa, the underdog Philadelphia boxer created by Sylvester Stallone for the seminal 1976 sports movie "Rocky," was once included as a member of G.I. Joe. It seems that Rocky's powerful punches — and ability to take them — made him ideally suited to fight the high-tech international terrorist organization Cobra. As such, he became a team member with outlandish ultra-soldiers like Blowtorch, Gung-Ho, Snake Eyes, and, uh, Footloose.

The version of G.I. Joe in question was part of the property's popular rebranding from 1982. The then-new brand was subtitled "A Real American Hero" and is deeply familiar to individuals who are now pushing 50. It was a massive cross-media enterprise launched by Hasbro as a means of taking over a large portion of the toy market. "A Real American Hero" also involved a newly-relaunched toyline, which boasted a new menagerie of cartoonish characters figures that only stood three-and-three-quarters-inches tall (the original G.I. Joe dolls from 1964 were 12 inches). This new brand was further tied to a series of Marvel comic books and, of course, the well-known, full-blown '80s animated series.

This was at a time when toy advertising was still heavily regulated, and toy-based TV shows were only just becoming de rigueur. Hence, the "G.I. Joe" Marvel comics became a key piece of the marketing puzzle. Indeed, the comics preceded the TV series by a year.

Elsewhere, one of the new exciting toy features was a File Card, a small, wallet-sized collectible piece of cardboard that came with every action figure. The file card, like a baseball card, listed the character's vital statistics (code name, function, file name, birthplace, etc.), and kids were encouraged to cut them out and save them. For those who didn't purchase every toy, Marvel Comics handily re-printed File Cards in issues of the miniseries "G.I. Joe: Order of Battle," which was first published in 1986.

And yes, one of the File Cards printed in "Order of Battle" was for Rocky Balboa.

By 1986, when "Order of Battle" was being published, Hasbro's "Real American Hero" brand had already proven to be massively successful. The cross-promotion between comics, toys, and TV shows made the property's many cartoon ultra-soldiers feel like a legitimately important part of the culture (if you were nine).

Likewise, by 1986, Stallone had written and starred in the first four "Rocky" movies (on top of directing the second, third, and fourth entries), making the Rocky Balboa character a very visible part of the American zeitgeist. "Rocky IV" was particularly overblown, as it staged a fight between Rocky and the super-Russian Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), serving as an openly jingoistic symbol for Reagan-era USA-vs.-USSR military posturing. Where the original "Rocky" was sad and downbeat, "Rocky IV" was outlandish and silly. It was that version of Rocky that easily fit into the equally jingoistic "G.I. Joe" universe.

As such, comic book authors Larry Hama and Herb Trimpe published a File Card for Rocky Balboa in issue #2 of "Order of Battle." The card sported a drawing of Rocky that looked nothing like Stallone, declaring him to be the Joes' personal combat instructor. The card's character rundown said that Rocky Balboa, a world-famous prize-fighter, was secretly moonlighting with the Joes merely for the glory of his country. He received "no special pay, no extra privileges, no publicity."

The File Card was made while Marvel and Stallone were still negotiating an agreement. Ultimately, the deal fell through, but a bout of bad timing meant that "Order of Battle" #2 had already gone to press before that happened. As such, Rocky was openly and canonically declared a Joe. The declaration, however, only lasted until the following issue, at which point Marvel Comics issued a retraction.

The retraction read as follows: 

"The character of Rocky Balboa (code name: ROCKY) was incorrectly included as a member of G.I. Joe, in 'The G.I Joe Order of Battle,' Issue #2 on page 10. ROCKY is not and has never been a member of G.I. Joe."

The decision to drop Rocky as a G.I. Joe character has a lot to do with a series of Rambo toys being put out by Coleco at the same time. John Rambo, another character famously played by Sylvester Stallone, was almost identical to G.I. Joe in terms of his ultra-American symbolism by that point. (Similar to Rocky, Stallone's Rambo debuted in 1982's somber and serious "First Blood" before his films became overblown and jingoistic.) As such, the Rambo toys were meant to serve as a direct competitor to "G.I. Joe." Including Rocky as a "G.I. Joe" character would have simply made things confusing and oversaturated the market, so Hasbro stepped out of the way. A representative from Hasbro went on record claiming that Stallone's agents merely became greedy.

Although the folks at Hasbro were already designing Rocky action figures by then, the venture was scrapped ... mostly. In 1987, a year after the Rocky debacle, Hasbro introduced Big Boa. A "Real American Hero" character, Big Boa was a boxer in a mask that came with removable boxing gloves and a punching bag. (I had one.) Either Big Boa was designed to be a villainous counterpart for Rocky or the company had elected to repurpose the parts from the previously-manufactured Rocky figurines for a new toy at the last minute.

Neither Rocky nor Stallone have appeared in a "G.I. Joe" movie.