Target: Snake Eyes Part 5

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Target: Snake Eyes Part 5
G.I. Joe vol. 2 #20
GIJoev2-20 regcvr.jpg
"Target: Snake Eyes Part 5"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 12, 2012
Cover date December 2012
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Will Rosado
Colors by Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Editor John Barber and Carlos Guzman

The war between the Coil and the Arashikage comes to a head as Snake Eyes, Tomo, Storm Shadow, Agent Helix, and the Soft Master come together at the nameless temple.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

The forces of the Coil spread out through the Cambodian jungle, wary of traps and enemies among the trees. Without warning, the ninja of the Arashikage drop from the trees above to slaughter the soldiers, but the calm of the Soft Master is unbroken; the ninja are too slow and their form is weak, letting him easily avoid their blades and redirect them into each other. The old man is disappointed that his teachings were wasted on the warriors, who now lie dead on the ground because they did not learn well enough.

Two G.I. Joe Globemasters head towards their drop point near the Arashikage temple, but they won't get there untouched — a trio of Mamba helicopters are flying in to engage. One of the helicopters' detachable assault pods launches and crashes into the second plane's wing, forcing the Joes onboard to bail out before it crashes; but with another pod in the air and ready to attack, Scarlett has her team bail out of the first plane before it can do so — she even jumps out without a parachute on, diving onto the descending RIB and using its machine gun to shoot the pod out of the air. On landing, Scarlett dismisses Roadblock's awe-struck praise, ordering everyone to get into the boat and get moving towards Helix's position. On their way there, the river is mostly quiet — the majority of the Cobra forces and ninja having killed each other — but they find themselves pursued by a pair of Coil patrol craft. The boat's driver, Torpedo, has a trick up his sleeve, however — and deploys a set of mines from the back that blow the enemy boats to smithereens!

Agent Helix, struggling to remain awake after being drugged by Storm Shadow, guns down the ninja with their backs turned to her with her trademark precision. She is shocked to see Snake Eyes emerging from the tunnel ahead of her, and collapses into his arms; but their reunion is interrupted by Tomo, still wanting to kill Snake Eyes himself; but he is stopped from acting when Storm Shadow intervenes, intent on killing his "brother" himself. An angry Tomo claims the right to kill the murderer of his parents, but the clan's leader catches him in the arm with an arrow, and reveals the truth: Snake Eyes killed his father in honorable combat and tried to prevent his mother's death at the hands of Cobra. The boy accuses him of prioritising his own honor over the clan's survival, but Storm Shadow insists that Snake Eyes will die by his hands in time, before firing a smoke arrow at the ground, giving Snake Eyes cover to carry Helix out of the temple.

The Soft Master enters the temple, allowing his escort of soldiers to die in the ancient building's traps behind him. Reaching the temple's depths, he finds Tomo, and asks if he has killed their foe Snake Eyes... but the boy, furious at being lied to about his mother's death and used as a weapon by his master, strikes the old man across the face with his sword, blinding him in his one good eye. The master assumes that Tomo intends to kill him, but instead the boy leaves him as he is, as blind as he believed Tomo to be. Outside, Snake Eyes emerges with Helix into the hands of the waiting G.I. Joe team, who welcome him as a Joe once again.

In the Coil's Carpathian Sanctuary, Serpentor furiously cuts off a man bringing him the details of their losses in their campaign against the Arashikage, in which they sustained over two thousand casualties, while in the USS Flagg's medical bay, Doc finishes working on Snake Eyes' many, many injuries. With the ninja heavily sedated, Scarlett enters to sit with him until he recovers, while Mainframe waits outside; despite the potential of Snake Eyes' return to complicate his romantic relationship with Scarlett, he insists that he's happy for her and glad that Snake is out of danger. But unbeknownst to him, Snake Eyes isn't yet out of the woods... for on a crane above the Flagg, Storm Shadow lurks, ready to strike...

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

Characters in italics appear only as video or images. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

G.I. Joe Cobra Arashikage

Quotes[edit | edit source]

"Disappointing. Quite disappointing. So promising a future — ended in ignominy. I gifted you with my knowledge. And you spill it to the ground like so much water."

—The Soft Master

"He's got evidence of broken bones, contusions, burns, fractures, bullet wounds, blood loss, exhaustion, and some bug I can name when his blood work comes back. In other words, a perfectly normal medical report for Snake Eyes.

Doc

Notes[edit | edit source]

Continuity notes[edit | edit source]

  • Tomo's mother, Rika, died in Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #16; he's been on a mistaken quest to avenge her ever since, though this is our first indication that the Soft Master knew the truth.
  • Scarlett's former romance with Snake Eyes has been an ongoing subplot since G.I. Joe vol. 1; Doc suggests that it might interfere with her romance with Mainframe, which began in G.I. Joe vol. 2 #16, though Mainframe had been nursing a crush since G.I. Joe vol. 2 #1.

Other notes[edit | edit source]

  • The opening caption refers to the elite Cobra forces as the "Fang Corps"; last issue, they were the "Fang Brigade".

Covers (2)[edit | edit source]