Cross Country and Southern Characters

[Falstaff13]

I was/am not a major GI Joe collector, but I watched the cartoon in the 1980s, and I remember there being a character, Cross Country, and I've recalled him in our modern climate. My only major memory of him in the cartoon was his using his tank (I checked Wikipedia and saw it was HAVOC) to blow something up and declaring "Jeb Stuart, you are avenged!" This was mid 1980s, and I'm wondering was there any push back or comment then at all (in any way)? I was trying to think of related characters who were appearing this late. Even a few years before, there was already the trope of the old Southerner clinging to the Confederacy in some way--I remember an episode of the Mister T cartoon of all things with an old man hunting for the family treasure (only to find out it was worthless, as the money was all Confederate dollars). I'm not sure Cross Country quite rises to the level of Jonah Hex or even the Haunted Tank, but I realize how far we have moved in a short time that a member of the RAH team was avenging the Confederate dead while fighting Cobra just as a throwaway line on a cartoon just over 30 years ago.

Was CC seen as just a stereotype and minor character (he's the Southerner, while Wild Bill was the Westerner who had a vehicle)? Has any more been done with him in subsequent iterations of the toy, cartoon/movies, comics?

Outside of what I mentioned above, are there other such secondary characters slipped in? Would Bluegrass in Silverhawks kind of fit (although I thought of him more as western)?

I know in the 1960s Remco had its Johnny Reb cannon, and there are historical sets with soldiers, but in terms of more modern pop culture...thanks in advance.

[sprytel]

I was going to suggest this in jest, but did you know they actually did a reboot of the Haunted Tank in 2008?

The Haunted Tank returned in 2008 as a five-issue mini-series from Vertigo, written by Frank Marraffino, with art by Henry Flint.[22][23] The new series is set during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and features the General becoming the guardian of an M1 Abrams, commanded by Jeb Stuart's grandson, the African-American Sergeant Jamal Stuart, who (at least initially) does not take kindly to the ghost's outmoded attitudes and language concerning his race.

And it wasn't some wacky parody with Craig Robinson as Jamal... they apparently played it totally straight.

[Falstaff13]

^^^Wow, I definitely didn't know this one. I suppose on paper this is how one would address it today, but I'm surprised at it getting produced. There was a Captain Confederacy comic, and at one point the Captain was a black woman.

I've joked that two much-maligned films--Wild Wild West & Jonah Hex--are basically the same film about a Confederate super-villain. In both films, a former Confederate officer/official is threatening the US at a key patriotic time with a super weapon, only to be stopped by a Civil War veteran who is charged to save the country by President Grant. The former film made its statement by having the African-American hero (and Union veteran) save the day; the latter had the former Confederate come back to save the reunified states.