Sedition by Numbers Part 1

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G.I. Joe: Origins #20
Origins20 cvrRI.jpg
Ra, Ra, Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen!
"Sedition by Numbers Part 1"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published October 13, 2010
Cover date October 2010
Written by David Lapham
Art by Werther Dell'edera
Colors by J. Brown
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Editor Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor Carlos Guzman

Cobra recruiter Lester Horvath discovers a potential new asset in the form of the man known as "Mad Monk".

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

Within seven hours of a terrible flood in Bangladesh, a team from Dr. Lester Horvath's International Humanitarian Aid Foundation has arrived to provide food, supplies, blankets... and aptitude testing, carried out — unbeknownst to all but a small few — on behalf of the international terrorist organization Cobra. Those determined to have potential are given the Lome Test, a psychological test of Horvath's creation that measures, with a number between one and eight, one's imagination and force of will; in other words, one's very potential as a human being. If a higher number is placed in charge of lower numbers, harmony and efficiency will follow, while if a lower number like a three is placed in charge of fours and fives, chaos and sedition will result. The extremes, one and eight, are unique — Horvath has never encountered a true "one", a hypothetical baseline denoting a complete lack of imagination or capacity for self-delusion, and the extremely rare "eight" was only before seen in Albert Lome, the notorious serial killer for whom the Lome Test was named... and who, in fact, created the test. Horvath, in complete submission to Lome's "superior presence", merely took credit for his ideas. Since Lome's death, however, Horvath has encountered a single other eight: his "one and only friend", who has ordered Horvath to execute the fives taken from Bangladesh and edit the records of the fours to make them appear as fives. Though Horvath is disgusted by the perversion of Lome's system by this man, he feels powerless to do anything about it.

Half a world away, in Texas, discharged soldier Michael Monk cynically rebuffs his psychologist's attempt to get him to open up. In response to Monk's jabs, the psychologist recaps the story of his life, including his risk-taking military service that earned him the nickname "Mad Monk", and his execution of surrendering insurgents, whom he knew had killed a number of his men after being freed from detention before. Dishonorably discharged for his actions, Monk's meager income from selling cell phones on his return home proved insufficient after the birth of his daughter Hannah, born with severe lupus that forced Michael to fake a disability to qualify for Medicaid to care for her. Though Monk, pushing for himself to be diagnosed as "crazy", wants to get the conversation over with, the doctor offers to indulge him if he completes a test for her... and one hour later, after Monk has left, she calls Dr. Horvath to alert him to a patient she thinks he will be very interested in...

Returning home to see the sleeping Hannah, Monk ignores the bitterness that his wife directs at him, leaving once more into the night. As he walks, Monk overhears a young woman being harrassed by her drunk ex-boyfriend and his friends, who break into her car, dragging her out; before they can "teach her some manners", however, Monk lays into the men, single-handedly and brutally taking them down before advising the woman to buy herself a gun. Passing by a church, he drops off his wedding ring in the collection dish, before retiring to a hotel room, where — life insurance policy in hand — he prepares to shoot himself in the head... but he doesn't get the chance. Lester Horvath and two soldiers break into the room and subdue him with tazers, with Horvath pointing out that the insurance money would surely not sustain his wife and daughter for long. Instead, he is offering Monk's well-paying private sector work with first class medical benefits for his family, something that Monk doesn't need to think twice about signing up for.

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

Characters in italics are shown only in flashback. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Cobra and allies Others

Quotes[edit | edit source]

"Hitler, Napoleon, Ceasar... all clearly eights. But other than Albert, I had never personally met another eight. Until a year ago. My one and only friend. I am the only person who knows he is an eight. An eight is not only capable of remaking the world... he is also very aware of it. My system. Albert Lome's beautiful elegant system is being perverted. And I am only a four."

Lester Horvath

Notes[edit | edit source]

Real world references[edit | edit source]

Errors[edit | edit source]

  • On page 6, "Caesar" is misspelled "Ceasar".

Other notes[edit | edit source]

  • Thanks to Mad Monk and Dr. Horvath being completely new characters created for this issue, this G.I. Joe comic contains — outside of a single mention of Cobra — exactly no recognisable G.I. Joe elements. Branding!

Covers (3)[edit | edit source]