My roommate claims to have seen an episode during his childhood; in which Storm Shaodw -hits- a child or possibly prehistoric monkey child creature. He is trapped or stranded (on some mountain?) with another Joe. Any confirmations on this or is he just channeling twisted childhood memories into socially acceptable ways to express it?

You're referring to the episode, "Satellite Down." Some Joes and Cobras are working together to escape from a tribe of apemen. At one point, dozens of the tribe's apelike children rush out of a cave to overwhelm the soldiers. One of them leaps onto Storm Shadow's back, and Stormie throws the kid off his back and against a wall, prompting the following dialogue:

Lady Jaye: Storm Shadow, no! What have you done? They're just children?

Storm Shadow: They are enemies! Such ridiculous compassion for your foes is the Joe Team's fatal weakness! Our alliance ends now!

Our forces have run into this problem in real life in places like Afghanistan, where enemy forces were sometimes as young as 13. If lives are threatened by a kid who's defending the enemy forces in war, do we spare him because he's a child, or is he fair game? He's certainly not a non-combatant, but this is a situation the classical rules of war don't line up with our modern sensibilities.

Clearly the Joes are presented as taking the moral high ground here, but if you watch the tape, I think Storm Shadow is justly defending himself in this case. I don't think it's child abuse. (As another example, what should police do if they're being shot at by a gang of eleven-year-olds?)

Anyway, it's a good episode, and we get a lot of good Storm Shadow action. Spirit's eagle Freedom gets a chance to shine here, too.