Marvel Comics In the
Marvel Comics G.I. Joe series, Duke first appears in issue #22. He and
Roadblock act as security for the funeral of
General Flagg, shooting down an attacking Rattler plane. Duke is added to the G.I. Joe team line-up, to help straighten the team out and become the new field commander. His first mission is surveillance of the
Baroness and
Major Bludd at the Bern Institute of Reconstructive Surgery in Switzerland. A major battle results in the capture of
Cobra Commander. Duke leads an effort to keep Cobra Commander prisoner in a mountain base. However, the
Cobra ninja
Storm Shadow rescues the Commander. Duke then traveled down to Florida, where he and Roadblock met up with
Cutter and
Deep Six, taking the W.H.A.L.E. hovercraft and attacking
Zartan's swamp shack hideout in the
Florida Everglades. After
Destro and
Firefly steal the W.H.A.L.E., Duke and
Wild Bill take the Dragonfly copter to go after Destro and recover the vehicle. In the opening ceremony of the new Pit headquarters, Hawk chooses Duke as the new field commander and the top sergeant of the G.I. Joe team. His next field mission is to investigate a suspected Cobra undercover agent on Staten Island. The agent escapes, but leaves behind clues to a secret Cobra operation in the Gulf of Mexico. Duke leads an assault team on the newly formed
Cobra Island, but is forced to withdraw when the island is officially recognized as a sovereign state. Duke takes part in the invasion of the Cobra-controlled town of Springfield, as the leader of the Security Team. He also plays second-in-command to Hawk during the Cobra Civil War. After that mission, Duke spends some time training new members of the Joe team. His next mission involves leading a team to push Cobra out of Trucial Abysmia, but intelligence vastly underestimates Cobra's presence there. Duke's squad is captured, and a misinterpreted order leads to several men being shot dead by a
S.A.W. Viper.
Doc,
Heavy Metal,
Thunder, and
Crankcase are slain immediately. The Viper is wounded, and the survivors escape in a Cobra Rage tank. It is destroyed, killing
Crazylegs,
Breaker, and
Quick Kick. Duke and the other two survivors,
Cross-Country and
Lt. Falcon, make it back to friendly lines safely. Duke would recover from that experience and lead the defense of the Joe headquarters,
The Pit, against Cobra. He also led a covert mission to Cobra Island, to oust control of it by Firefly and the Red Ninjas. As leader of
Star Brigade, Duke teamed up with the
Oktober Guard to destroy an asteroid threatening Earth. He would continue working with G.I. Joe until its disbandment. In an interview in
ToyFare magazine,
G.I. Joe comic book writer
Larry Hama admitted he could never get a handle on Duke. According to Hama, military comic book conventions maintain that the commanding officer is the "good cop" and the first sergeant is the "bad cop," and Duke, as first sergeant, never really fit the "bad cop" mold.
Devil's Due After the disbandment, Duke went to take on
black ops assignments for a secret government agency for a few years. It was during one of his missions that he discovers Cobra's attempt to make a comeback. He uses this information to help rally the effort to have G.I. Joe reinstated. By this time, Duke had a different edge to him, taking more risks and sometimes putting teammates in danger. Duke returns as the team's field commander, leading a team to defend Washington D.C. when Cobra threatens the world with nanomites. Later,
Flint and the
Baroness are both kidnapped by the same organization in Czechoslovakia. Destro and Duke arrange for G.I. Joe, Cobra and the
Oktober Guard to team up, in order to rescue them. When Hawk is incapacitated in a Cobra assassination attempt, Duke takes up his injured mentor's causes, fighting the corrupt Jugglers while holding the team together in the wake of the loss of their leader.
America's Elite The team is reorganized in the ''
G.I. Joe: America's Elite'' series. Duke disappears, going off on his own mission to locate Cobra Commander. During his search, he is captured by a group of
B.A.T.s under the control of a
Crimson Guardsman, who also had a grudge against Cobra Commander and wished to locate him. Duke frees himself, and after much torture, kills the Guardsman and saves Washington D.C. from being nuked. Civilians then treat his wounds and help him return home. Duke also assists his colleagues in defending their Yellowstone base from enemy infiltration. Following the invasion of The Rock, General Rey goes on a sabbatical to fill in some of the holes in his memory, and Duke accompanies him because he does not trust his intentions. They discover that
Zandar was involved, and travel to the Florida Everglades, where they learn that one of Zandar's aliases was hired to broker a deal between
The Coil and the Jugglers. This leads them to General Rey's psychiatrist Dr. Scott Stevens, who reveals that General Rey is a clone of
Serpentor. Dr. Stevens is then revealed to be Cobra hypnotist
Crystal Ball, who has brainwashed General Rey, and commands him to kill Duke. General Rey breaks free from Crystal Ball's control with Duke's help. Later, Duke deals with his father, a protester who dislikes the military. During a talk in his father's home, Cobra agent
Interrogator captures Duke and tries to obtain information on G.I. Joe's Middle East operations. After being rescued by Roadblock, Duke leads battles against
The Plague in both the Middle East and in New York during "
World War III". Hasbro later announced that all stories published by
Devil's Due Publishing are no longer considered
canonical, and are now considered an alternate continuity.
IDW Publications In this continuity, Duke has been promoted to colonel after General Hawk is dismissed and is now the leader of the G.I. Joe team.
Alternate universe series G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II A scientific accident eventually sends a small group of Joe and Cobra soldiers twenty years into the future. Older Duke is there, having lost all but his right arm. He leads the last remnants of human resistance against
Shockwave's army. This Duke has no consideration for what the time travelers has to say and this narrow thinking threatens the entire timestream.
G.I. Joe Reloaded In this series, Duke is a double agent working for Cobra, due to his distress over the U.S. government's willingness to create destructive weaponry. In the final issue, he confronts Scarlett in a sewer system. She gains the upper hand and kills him with a knife to the back. In the mirror universe created by
Fun Publications, Duke's counterpart is
Secretary of Defense Conrad Hauser, serving in the administration of U.S. President
Joe Colton. In the story "Eye in the Sky", Hauser had to report to the president on the loss of an orbital defense satellite to the evil alien robots called the
Autobots, and its eventual destruction thanks to the efforts of the heroic
Decepticons. ==Animated series==