A small group of Joes were sent to the North polar ice cap to discover who had attacked a top secret American research station. When Stalker, Snake-Eyes, Scarlett and Breaker arrived, they ran afoul of the Eskimo mercenary known only as Kwinn. They soon learned Kwinn was a freelance operative who had worked for the CIA, Mossad, KGB, MI-6 and other security agencies. Kwinn had been hired by the Russians to retrieve the American station's records and a Russian station's plans for transmitting low frequency "paranoia waves." Kwinn fought and defeated the Joes, but showed a sense of honor and hated the idea of giving the ability to create "fear waves" to the Russians. Unfortunately, he was bound by his contract, which he always fulfilled. He eventually delivered the plans to the Russians, but allowed the Joes to find them, thus stopping the Russians and fulfilling his contract. It was unknown at the time, but Kwinn kept a copy of the plans and later sold them to Cobra. The plans became the basis for Cobra's "Terror-Drome" project that would come to fruition years later.

     Months later, Kwinn was working for Cobra during a G.I. Joe mission to Sierra Gordo. During that mission, the Baroness tried to kill Kwinn, Dr. Venom and Snake-Eyes. The three men survived, but Kwinn and Snake-Eyes were betrayed by Venom so the Cobra scientist could save himself. When Kwinn set out to get his revenge on Venom, Snake-Eyes travelled with the Eskimo, not knowing just what he would do to the scientist. After a long search throughout America, they tracked down Venom, but were captured by Cobra.

    During their assault on G.I. Joe headquarters, Cobra placed Kwinn and Snake-Eyes in the mind-controlling SNAKE armor and sent them to fight against the Joes. Snake-Eyes was able to override the armor and free himself and Kwinn. Kwinn ran across the battlefield and pulled Dr. Venom from his HISS tank. The Eskimo was about to kill the scientist when he realized that he had been fooling himself as he sought his revenge. His life as a mercenary had been just as dishonorable as Venom's. He let the scientist live, but the cowardly Venom shot Kwinn in the back, taunting him as he died. But Kwinn had made peace with himself. As his lifeless body fell to the ground, the grenade he had intended to kill Venom with fell from his hand. It exploded and killed Venom. A short time later, Kwinn was given an Eskimo's funeral by Wild Bill and Snake-Eyes, who placed his body into a small boat, carried away by the ocean currents. The G.I. Joe team has great respect for Kwinn, despite his mercenary past. Recent unconfirmed intelligence reports suggest Kwinn's full name was Jesse Kwinn and he was born in Kotzebue, Alaska.

    Kwinn's name was most likely taken from the 1960s song "The Mighty Quinn", which includes the phrase "Quinn the Eskimo". His first name and birthplace was first revealed in the filecard from his 2004 action figure. According to the filecard for the action figure Ghost Bear, he is Kwinn's son.