Cover Girl

Biography

Cover Girl is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and animated series. She is a tank jockey for the G.I. Joe Team, specializing in the Wolverine missile tank, and debuted in 1983 on the same team. She is portrayed by Karolína Kurková in the 2009 live-action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

== 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.

== Toys == Cover Girl was first released as an action figure in 1983, packaged with the "Wolverine" tank. She was not updated until 2005, when she was released in the Devil's Due Fans' Choice three-pack of figures (along with Spirit Iron-Knife 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 in Brazil as "Agente Secreta: Sparta". In Argentina, Cover Girl was repainted with blue highlights, and released an Argentinian version of "Sparta".

== Comics ==

=== 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 Clutch to chase Cobra operatives in Europe. Cover Girl joins a Joe raid of 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's brainwashing weapons and then saved from certain death by Battleforce 2000, the very men they had entered the country to protect. She is one of the many Joes on the run from the law due to the Jugglers' wishing to blame the team for a badly-executed raid on Cobra Island. In the ensuing rescue of General Hawk and General Hollingsworth from their clinic/prison, Cover Girl is shot in the shoulder. In Special Missions #24, Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, Scarlett and Jinx work to protect the President during an exhibition baseball game by grudgingly going undercover as cheerleaders, but he is nonetheless captured by a Cobra blimp. Working with Hardball, she assists with the rescue by batting a gas canister into the blimp. In the same issue it was revealed that she was able to bring people out of hypnosis, undoing the effects caused by the Cobra hypnotist Crystal Ball. Cover Girl's final Marvel series appearance was a cameo in #149, monitoring Destro's castle.

=== IDW Publishing ===

==== G.I. Joe ==== In IDW's original series, Cover Girl primarily works on a team consisting of Duke, Roadblock, Shipwreck, Tunnel Rat, Quick Kick, and Doc. A later origin issue reveals that she was recruited after showing an aptitude for cold-blooded killing when she slaughters a group of pirates single-handed, later admitting that she finally found something she was good at—killing people.