When it comes to the most iconic G.I. Joe characters of all-time, names like Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Destro, Duke, and Hawk come to mind. However, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa was briefly a hero in the comic that influenced the popular toy line - until a deal fell through and Marvel had to issue a retraction for including him in a guidebook.
G.I. Joe is a popular franchise that is most famous for their action figures of fictional heroes and villains from U.S. armed forces. In the early 80s, G.I. Joe saw an explosion in popularity largely thanks to the toys, an animated television series, and a popular comic book from Marvel Comics. The comic book, from legendary creator Larry Hama, would see the introduction of numerous characters that are still mainstays today in the G.I. Joe universe, including Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. However, he also introduced Rocky Balboa, before a deal between Hasbro and Stallone fell through.
In G.I. Joe: Order of Battle #2 by Hama and Herb Trimpe, the characters of the series were given their own bios in the handbook. Included was Rocky Balboa, a personal combat instructor who was born in Philadelphia. His profile said he was a well-known boxing champion who takes a secret posting to train with the team. However, Marvel had to almost immediately issue a statement saying Rocky wasn't part of the G.I. Joe Universe.
The retraction read, "The character of Rocky Balboa (code name: ROCKY) was incorrectly included as a member of G.I. Joe, in The G.I Joe Order of Battle, Issue #2 on page 10. ROCKY is not and has never been a member of G.I. Joe." Marvel smartly designed the character to be close enough to Stallone but didn't share his exact likeness. So, what happened? Former Hasbro product manager Kirk Bozigian told Mental Floss that Marvel was supposed to have a deal with Rocky Balboa to include him in the series, but after figures debuted from a competing company, they dropped him.
While we were designing and sculpting Rocky Balboa, a competing toy company, Coleco, was introducing Rambo action figures and vehicles to compete with us. The decision to drop Rocky was an easy one.
G.I. Joe was seemingly all-in on Rocky Balboa joining the squad, going so far as to design action figures, before Coleco swooped in and started making their own line of figures based around the characters. In the same guidebook, a character named Big Boa was introduced who was supposed to be Balboa's foe. However, while the Rocky character was scrapped, Big Boa wasn't, and has since lived on in the pages of G.I Joe and the action figures ever since. It's fun to imagine how including Rocky Balboa would have changed both G.I. Joe and Stallone's own Rocky franchise. Thankfully, it seems to have worked out for all parties as both properties are still wildly popular to this day.
Source: Mental Floss