Cover Girl (G.I. Joe)

Cover Girl is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and cartoon series. She is a tank jockey for the G.I. Joe Team, specializing in the Wolverine missile tank, and debuted in 1983.

Profile
Her real name is Courtney A. Krieger, and she was born in Peoria, Illinois. Her primary military specialty is armor and her secondary military specialty is AFV (Armored Fighting Vehicle) mechanic.

Prior to joining G.I. Joe, Cover Girl was a highly successful fashion model in Chicago and New York, and graced the covers of countless magazines. She eventually found the world of modeling unfulfilling, and joined the army to seek out new challenges in life. In order to prove that she was not just a pretty face she attended Armor School at Fort Knox as well as related tech schools. Cover Girl is proficient in diesel mechanics & gas turbine technology. She is also a qualified expert with the LAW (Light Anti-Armor Weapon) rocket, Dragon AT (Anti-Tank) missile, M-16 and the M1911A1 Auto Pistol.

Though her specialty was primarily armor-based, Cover Girl was eventually called upon to use her expertise in makeup and stagecraft for undercover and intelligence-gathering operations. She resented assignments that took advantage of her natural beauty, but eventually expanded her knowledge of undercover work at Fort Huachuca Military Intelligence School. This increased the scope of her skill set, as a capable field agent for the G.I. Joe Team.

Hasbro Toys
To date, only three action figures of the character have been released.

Vintage/Modern
The first figure released was named "Cover Girl" in 1983 and was packaged with the Wolverine tank. Cover Girl waited 22 years for a second toy, when she was released in the Devil's Due Fans' Choice three-pack of figures (along with Spirit Ironknife and Hannibal: Reborn), but her codename was dropped, with the packaging referring to her as "Agent Courtney Kreiger."

International Variants
The 1983 figure has been released overseas on a single card, but the figure's name is stated on the packaging to be "Sparta," an invented character for the overseas toy market.

Marvel Comics
Cover Girl first appears in the Marvel Comics series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #16 (October 1983). She works with other Joes to protect the U.S. Treasury building from Cobra agents. Later, she works with the womanizer Clutch to chase Cobra operatives in Europe.

Later, Cover Girl is part of a raid into the fictional country of 'Frusenland' in an attempt to stop Cobra from brainwashing the citizens into violence. She works with tank driver Back-Stop to destroy many Cobra vehicles. She and the other Joes are affected by Cobra brainwashing weapons and then saved from certain death by Battleforce 2000, the very men they entered the country to protect. Later, she is one of the many Joes on the run from the law due to murderous generals wishing to blame the team for a badly executed raid on Cobra Island. In the ensuing and successful rescue of General Hawk and General Hollingsworth from their clinic/prison, Cover Girl is shot in the shoulder. Cover Girl is one of a team of Joes selected to help protect the President of the United States during a publicity baseball game. The President is captured by a Cobra blimp. Cover Girl (working with Hardball) assists with his rescue by batting a gas canister into the blimp. In the same issue it is revealed Cover Girl is able to bring people out of hypnosis, undoing the effects caused by the Cobra mentalist, Crystal Ball.

She makes a cameo in #149, monitoring Destro's castle.

Devil's Due
Starting from 'Devil's Due' "G.I. Joe: America's Elite" #27 she teams with Joe members Spirit and Snake-Eyes to figure out why identical looking children are being kidnapped. This soon blends in to an incident where she and Spirit are one of many Joes held prisoner on the newly revamped Cobra Island. The group escapes with the intervention of Cobra Commander, also a prisoner.

It was revealed in Issue #20 of G.I. Joe: America's Elite that she was dating Shipwreck, much to the jealousy of Clutch. Cover Girl has appeared with Shipwreck in G.I. Joe Special Missions: Brazil and in G.I. Joe: America's Elite #27.

In the alternate reality of the G.I. Joe Vs. Transformers continuity, Cover Girl assists Snake-Eyes who had been wounded in his face by an explosion. This was caused by attacking alien robots.

Sunbow
In Sunbow's G.I. Joe cartoon, Cover Girl was voiced by Liz Aubrey. She first appears in the "Real American Hero" mini-series. The mini-series changes her appearance, giving her a green uniform and long blonde hair. In her next appearance in "Revenge of Cobra" she sports her regular look as a tomboy-ish redhead. It was shown that she kissed Duke on the cheek in Cobra Claws Are Coming to Town. Cover Girl's background as a model is hinted at in the second season episode, "Glamor Girls". She and Lady Jaye infiltrate a modeling shoot arranged by a disguised Zartan and Baroness. Cover Girl tricks the two Cobra agents into showing they're fakes by telling them she and Lady Jaye came from an agency that has been out of business for years. Cover Girl and Lady Jaye later rescue several models and actresses that had been captured by Cobra because of the scheme.

G.I. Joe: The Movie
Cover Girl appears as a background character in several scenes of the 1987 animated G.I. Joe: The Movie.

Resolute
Cover Girl also appears in the animated series, G.I. Joe: Resolute as a redhead.

Renegades
In the G.I. Joe: Renegades episode "Shipwrecked", Cover Girl (Courtney Kreiger) was first mentioned by Shipwreck when he showed Courtney's model poster to the Joes after Duke asked Shipwreck why he called his ship Courtney. Her picture is shown on a wall in which she is shown with Blonde Hair.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
In the film of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, she has a brief role played by Czech supermodel and real life cover girl Karolína Kurková. She serves as aide-de-camp to General Hawk. She is slain by Zartan when Cobra invades the Pit.

Toys
To coincide with the launch of the new movie, Hasbro released one Cover Girl figure. She is listed as Courtney "Cover Girl" Kreiger with the specialty of Special Weapons Officer.

Other works

 * The character of Cover Girl is discussed at length in the non-fiction novel 'The Paradise Of Bombs'.
 * She is mentioned as a strong female character in the non-fiction novel 'Action chicks: new images of tough women in popular culture'.