In 2001, Devil's Due Publishing (a spinoff of Image Comics) acquired the comic rights to G.I. Joe and launched a new series, set in the same continuity as the Marvel Comic, with the premise of G.I. Joe being reformed to continue battling Cobra after seven years of inactivity. They published an ongoing title - once again called G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, but later renamed G.I. Joe: America's Elite - and several miniseries exploring the backstories of the characters. Devil's Due lost the comic rights to IDW Publishing in 2008, and their final issue was printed that July. The Devil's Due run has since been republished by IDW under the Disavowed banner, a reference to its non-canonical status following their decision to make a separate continuation of the original Marvel series.
Devil's Due Publishing also released two G.I. Joe comics that were set in their own continuity: G.I. Joe: Reloaded, an Ultimate Universe take on the franchise, and G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers, which consisted of four miniseries exploring a world where the characters of G.I. Joe and Transformers now had connected origins.
Tropes include:
- All Just a Dream: The 33rd issue has Hawk supposedly recovering from Cobra Commander shooting him in the previous issue and enjoying a quiet life of retirement and settling down with an until-then-unseen wife after hearing that the Joes have all but permanently neutralized Cobra by locking up Cobra Commander and killing most of the surviving members of Cobra's top hierarchy. While Hawk does indeed pull through from getting shot, Cobra is still active with few casualties on their side. What makes this revelation especially sad is the Wham Shot of a newspaper article revealing that the woman Hawk dreamed he was married to had died long ago.
- All There in the Manual: Cobra's initial defeat between the end of the Marvel series and the start of the DDP series was explained in promotional material. In it, it was explained a multinational task force met Cobra in direct battle and thoroughly routed them, forcing Cobra Commander into hiding.
- And This Is for...:
- The 31st issue of America's Elite has Roadblock fire at the Interrogator and state that it was for Max Hauser, Duke's father.
- The 36th issue of America's Elite has Storm Shadow kick Scrap-Iron in the face and state that it's for the Soft Master and others Scrap-Iron had killed.
- Ascended Extra: Dr Knox was just an one-shot Cobra scientist from the tail end of the original Marvel run. After Dr Mindbender is Killed Off for Real, she becomes Cobra's main scientist.
- Canon Character All Along: The comic brought back the nameless S.A.W. Viper who killed Doc, Crankcase, Quick Kick, Heavy Metal and Thunder in the original Marvel Comics series, revealing that he survived his apparent death at Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's hands and that his actual name is Robert Skelton. Shortly afterward, he becomes this continuity's version of Overkill, first by taking on Overkill as his codename before eventually being converted into a cyborg against his will by Cobra scientists so that the codename isn't the only similarity with the original character.
- Canon Discontinuity: Originally the Devil's Due's run of G.I. Joe was promoted as a legitimate continuation of the original Marvel series, but when Devil's Due was set to lose the rights to the IP to IDW in 2008, they concluded their run with the World War III story arc, which left little room for any follow-up, forcing IDW to reboot the property. IDW later brought in Larry Hama to write his own sequel to the Marvel series, which ignored the Devil's Due run.
- Comic-Book Time: Averted at first, as the first Devil's Due volume stated that the Joes fought in the 80s and their age showed from time to time. Later it was played straight and the Joes were portrayed younger again.
- Cruel Mercy: When Snake Eyes meets with Overkill in the "Players vs. Pawns" arc, the Cobra cyborg gloats that he was the S.A.W. Viper that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow thought they killed back in the Marvel Comics series and tries to provoke Snake Eyes into killing him. Snake Eyes instead spares Overkill, who gives a teary-eyed look indicating that he finds death preferable to continuing his existence as a half-machine abomination.
- Death by Adaptation: Mainframe, Flash and Lady Jaye are killed off in this continuity.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: While the Headman died from overdosing on his own drug in the DiC G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode "The Greatest Evil", his death in this comic is mentioned in the 31st issue of America's Elite as happening at Tomax's hands. The Devil's Due continuation of the Marvel comic now being rendered non-canon by IDW doing their own continuation presumably undoes the Headman's death, as he was captured alive at the end of his final appearance in the original Marvel comic.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Flash and Mainframe blow themselves up, along with a number of Coil agents.Flash: Mission Accomplished.
- Enemy Civil War: Cobra vs the Coil. While the Joes also face the Coil, they refuse Destro's offer for an alliance against the Coil.
- Evil Chancellor: White House Chief of Staff Garrett Freedlowe - actually Cobra Commander in disguise - tries to have the President replace G.I. Joe with the Phoenix Guard, a unit secretly made up of Cobra agents.
- Formerly Fit: Bazooka is portrayed as this when he volunteers to return to active duty. Having spent the seven years since the Joes disbanded as a night watchman, he is overweight and out of shape (and balding). He later hits the gym and gets back into shape.
- Fun with Acronyms:
- The Storm Shadow miniseries features a group called the Bushido Anachronism Re-enactment Fraternity.
- The Special Missions: Manhattan one-shot has Shipwreck's parrot Polly dream of being part of an organization called Primal Emergency Tactical Squad and battling a team of Cobra-affiliated animals called Brute Enforcement And Slithery TerroristS.
- Grand Theft Me: In America's Elite, the corrupt T'Jbang leading the Red Ninjas turns out to be possessed by the Red Ninjas' original leader Sei Tin, who was dying and cheated death by switching minds with T'Jbang.
- Heartbroken Badass: Flint doesn't take the murder of his wife Lady Jaye very well.
- Legacy Character: Both Croc Master and Sneak Peek get successors. They share the fate of their predecessors, and Croc Master II is even killed in his debut issue.
- Libation for the Dead: Flint empties a liquor bottle onto the ground while visiting Lady Jaye's grave in the fifth issue of America's Elite.
- Nanomachines: The first Devil's Due saga had Destro or rather his son Alexander using Nanomites to take control of Cobra.
- No-Dialogue Episode: The Devil's Due series also had one, as a homage to the Marvel series. Just like the Marvel issue, it was issue #21.
- Not Quite Dead: The S.A.W. Viper who killed Quick Kick, Doc, Heavy Metal, Thunder and Crankcase back in the Marvel series is revealed to have survived Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's attempt at his life. His name is revealed to be Robert Skelton and he takes on the codename Overkill, eventually being rebuilt into a cyborg killer.
- Offing the Offspring: Cobra Commander kills his son Billy with a poison dart in the 33rd issue of America's Elite.
- Origins Episode: The Declassified miniseries and one-shots serve mainly to retell or explain the origins of key G.I. Joe and Cobra members.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: The very first storyline in the series centers around a nanomachine attack. It infects people and begins to slowly destroy their bodies from the inside, using them as raw materials for building more nanomachines. The "cure" developed for this is to reprogram the nanomachines to disassemble each other instead, and build back up the organic matter of the patients molecule by molecule, up to and including complete, fully functional cells. This should logically have tremendous medical applications, which is never brought up.
- Remember the New Guy?: Big Boa and Copperhead appear as veteran Cobra members, even though they didn't appear before in the American comic book. If that isn't this tropes, then it's Broad Strokes with the Marvel UK comics where they actually appeared.
- Sequel Series: The series was originally an official continuation of the Marvel Comics continuity, but, as stated above, has been rendered non-canon by IDW doing their own continuation.
- Supreme Chef: Roadblock is still this, and he even develops the "Marvin Hinton Grill" while hosting his own cooking show, Kiss Your Mama Home Cooking. When overeager Dreadnoks try to destroy the studio, Roadblock fights them on stage, which increases his popularity (and grill sales).
- Thicker Than Water: When Zartan finds that the Coil agent he just hurt is his brother Zandar, he takes him and withdraws all Dreadnoks from the battlefield.
- Toothbrush Floor Scrubbing: Drill Sergeant Nasty Beachhead tells a recruit that a cruel man would make him clean the barracks with a toothbrush, before making him clean the barracks with a POTATO.
- Unexplained Recovery: Robert Skelton, the S.A.W. Viper who killed several Joes in Trucial Abysmia, returns as the Devil's Due incarnation of Overkill despite his implied death at the hands of Snake-Eyes back in the original series. It's never explained how he survived.
- Weather-Control Machine: The Tempest is a more subdued variant of this trope which can start rainstorms anymore, but not cause natural disasters like the cartoon‘s Weather Dominator could. That’s fine for Cobra though, who use it to create deadly acid rainstorms.
