G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero (1982)

Larry Hama's run at Marvel A comic built to sell action figures that its writer refused to treat as disposable. Hama wrote nearly all of Marvel's 155 issues, then returned when IDW revived the book in 2010, and Image picked it up after #300 with the original numbering intact. What sets it apart is how seriously it takes soldiering as a job, and how much inner life Hama gives characters who began as plastic. The skeptic's sampler is issue #21 from 1984, "Silent Interlude": a Snake Eyes mission told with no dialogue at all, which also introduces Storm Shadow. The early issues are uneven, so dip in through a best-of collection before tackling the run from the start.