Constrictor

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G.I. Joe: Cobra #11
CobraIIissue11-CvrA.jpg
"Constrictor"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 15, 2010
Cover date December 2010
Written by Mike Costa & Christos Gage
Art by Antonio Fuso & Chee
Colors by Peter Dawes
Letters by Robbie Robbins
Editor Andy Schmidt

Now a member of Cobra High Command, Chuckles learns the ropes while the rift between Tomax and Xamot grows.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

After a session with Cobra's resident chiropractor Saki in the base's spa, Chuckles arrives late to his meeting with his fellow members of High Command. Tomax calls him out on it, but before he and Chuckles can fight too much, Cobra Commander asks Chuckles to follow him to the fourth floor. Once they're alone, the Commander tells Chuckles that he can't kill the Paolis just yet. This bothers Chuckles, who points out that the two of them are clearly falling apart at the seams, especially Xamot, who isn't even showing up for the meetings anymore. Cobra Commander assures Chuckles though that, as part of his job, he's responsible for keeping track of where everyone in his organization is going and that the Paolis still have a job to do for Cobra. However, it won't take much longer for that job to come to an end, and when it does, Chuckles will be the first to know. Because, as Cobra Commander tells him, Chuckles is his new star.

Heading towards their quarters, Tomax finds his brother exiting the bedroom with a woman he recognizes as one of the base's chefs. After the woman takes off running at the sight of Tomax, he demands to know what the hell his brother thinks he's doing to the two of them. At this point, Xamot's behavior is actively dangerous instead of simply embarrassing and he's ruining their relationship. Xamot insists that what he's actually doing is trying to save them, but Tomax finds this ridiculous. Since Xamot isn't showing up to meetings anymore, Tomax informs him that Cobra Commander has begun dangling Chuckles over them to taunt them and is almost assuredly planning on replacing them with him. When Tomax demands Xamot stop treating this like a game, his brother merely tells him that this is a game, and he's been trying to show him as much.

Cobra Commander brings Chuckles to a lab where several Extensive Enterprises prototypes are being held, highlighting a new device that he refers to as a "meeting-bot". This device can be programmed with a syllabus or an agenda for corporate meetings and will listen in on the proceedings. Staying on the lookout for key phrases on the agenda, it will note who responds to what and keep the speaker on topic as well as note when the audience seems to be losing interest. Chuckles jokes about this dastardly plan to keep people from zoning out of their boring meetings, but the Commander doesn't think he's getting the point of the device. In addition to Cobra's patent on the technology bringing in money, the purpose of this device is to provide a benign form of social engineering that will help further Cobra's goal of stabilizing the world in their favor, a goal the Commander notes is the same goal as every country and military in the world. Plus, this device can help with international and multilingual communication as well, helping to prevent cultural or lingual faux pas that could ruin potential partnerships. Chuckles questions the wisdom of putting him in charge of more robots, causing the Commander to sigh at his continued lack of understanding. The Commander and his organization at large aren't cartoon villains. While people like the Paolis are happy to pursue all sorts of openly malicious murder and mayhem, he is less so, as in his experience the road to success rarely ever needs to be a violent one. As Chuckles comments on the sounds of breaking bones and grunts of pain coming from around the corner though, the Commander notes that there are times where it does...

Watching from the doorway as he spars with some Vipers, Cobra Commander introduces Chuckles to Big Boa, the head trainer for Section Twenty's security officers. Though Boa easily dispatches with the Vipers, Chuckles is confident he could take him, but the Commander forbids him from trying to fight him as he doesn't want to risk valuable people getting injured. As his Commander bids him goodnight, Chuckles approaches Big Boa and starts chatting him up. Eventually they end up eating together in the cafeteria, where Chuckles asks him about why he fell in with Cobra. While he clarifies he's only hear to train the Vipers and doesn't particularly care about what he's actually training them for, Big Boa explains that he was once a member of the Marines stationed in the Middle East. However, that came to an end after he was court-martialed for running over a civilian woman when the convoy he was driving in came under attack. Though he served a brief stint with Colossus World Security, he eventually went AWOL, realizing he didn't particularly care for military work. From there, he began fighting in underground MMA leagues around Southeast Asia, but his paranoia over his past catching up with him forced him back to Colossus. That eventually led him to Cobra, which he joined only because of the Commander. Seeing a bit of his past self in Chuckles, Big Boa assures him the Cobra Commander cares about and makes spaces for men without a country like the two of them. Chuckles, however, is hung up on how Big Boa could've coldly run that woman down. Boa feels that in that moment, his mission was to survive and that woman got in the way. Cobra Commander was the first person he ever met who saw that the same way he did. Just then, Baroness arrives and tells Chuckles the Commander wishes to see him.

Following the Baroness to the Commander, Chuckles is asked by him if he's aware that they're currently on an island sitting in the Sea of Japan. There are many islands like this one, some of which are deserted and some of which are not. An hour ago, a Cobra pilot accidentally flew over one of these inhabited islands with his running lights on, meaning he was seen by the locals. While Cobra has been jamming mobile phone and internet signals on the island, they won't be able to keep it up forever. Eventually, someone on that island will leak word of Cobra's existence. To prevent this, Cobra Commander wants Chuckles to detonate the charges Cobra had secretly placed on the village's dam just in case such an event happened. Though Cobra Commander offers up some superficial data about the demographics of the village, like how it's inhabitants largely skew older, Chuckles doesn't hesitate to hit the button, rolling his eyes at how the Commander still feels the need to test his loyalty like this. He then leaves just as quickly as he arrived, prompting the Commander to remark that he believes Chuckles is going to go far...

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

Characters in italic text appear only in flashback or in photos.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Cobra

Quotes[edit | edit source]

"You're late."
"Uh huh. Well, Saki was working a particularly tough knot, and I had a feeling I wasn't going to miss much. Everybody still want to take over the world? Yes? Good. See? Didn't miss a thing."

-Tomax and Chuckles


"The key to success is to consider every possible road toward it, and let nothing—not morality, law, or personal preference—influence your choice of the best one. You'll be surprised how often that road is not a violent one."

-Cobra Commander


"I'm gonna tell you this right now, because I get the impression it's the same for you: The Commander is why I'm here. I was a lost person. I'm not kidding, and I'm not one for poetry. I was literally a man without a country. The Commander makes a place for people like us."
"You looked into that girl's eyes."
"Yes."
"And what—"
"You know what? It doesn't matter. We're soldiers. Soldiers complete their mission, no matter what's in our way. My mission was to survive, and she got in my way. And that's all there is to it. I always knew that, inside. The Commander was the only other one who knew it right away."

-Big Boa and Chuckles

Notes[edit | edit source]

Continuity notes[edit | edit source]

  • Big Boa spent some time with Colossus World Security, a PMC that's secretly a Cobra front that you can read more about in issues #20 to #23 of G.I. Joe: Origins!

G.I. Joe references[edit | edit source]

  • It's Big Boa's Big (IDW) Break! Originally created as a Cobra counterpart to Rocky Balboa when there were plans to make the fictional boxer and Cold War hero a member of G.I. Joe, Big Boa's figure still saw release in 1987 even though his archenemy never did, as another toy company had the exclusive rights to actor Sylvester Stallone's likeness for their line of Rambo toys. While the original Big Boa wore a weird helmet with spiked leather straps across his shirtless chest, IDW Boa looks like a comparatively normal guy aside from his metal lower jaw.

Covers (2)[edit | edit source]