Crush Depth, Part 1

From IDW Hasbro Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
« G.I. Joe: Special Missions #1 »
SpecialMissions1-CvrA.jpg
"Crush Depth, Part 1"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published March 20, 2013
Cover date March 2013
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Paul Gulacy
Colors by Aburtov
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber and Carlos Guzman
Chronology Before "Homefront"

As Baroness seeks to redeem herself in the eyes of Cobra, Scarlett takes command of a new kind of G.I. Joe team.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

At a a bar in Port Charlemagne, a mysterious woman makes an entrance and asks for Victor Bekuna. Recognizing her as the Baroness, Bekuna asks why he should give her his time but Baroness makes her case when she effortlessly beats down several of the other bar patrons when they begin to harass her. Baroness explains that she's looking for someone to help her out with a salvage job out in international waters. Bekuna is hesitant to accept her job given how nasty the waters are this time of year and asks why she can't call on her fellow Cobras for this job, but for a promised twenty percent of an amount of riches beyond his wildest imagination, Bekuna is persuaded to stop asking questions.

In southern Libya, Scarlett and her new Special Missions Team are being pinned down on a roof by enemy fire and their situation doesn't improve when their escape chopper is shot down. And just when things couldn't get any worse, Scarlett spots a H.I.S.S. Tank heading towards their location as well! While they don't have any anti-tank weaponry, Beachhead thinks fast and launches a special EMP grenade from out of cover, which detonates over the tank and both shorts it out and electrocutes the Vipers within! Going on the move, Scarlett and her team shoot and blow their way through enemy troops and buildings until they reach the ground level. Once on the ground, they happen across a truck and go to pick up Lighthorse, who survived having his helicopter shot down. With enemy troops hot on their trail, Scarlett radios Wild Bill and Ace, asking them to fly their cargo plane low enough to the ground that they can drive up the ramp and make their escape!

Meanwhile, in London, Sir Anthony presents the Baroness with a model of the Argo Vidale, a deep-water salvage vessel that is the pride of his fleet. While he names an exorbitant price for leasing the ship, Baroness names her own price by revealing that she's had Anthony's grandchildren kidnapped, and that if he wants to see them unharmed he will give her the Vidale. As she leaves her meeting with Sir Anthony, an agent for The Coil reports that she's leaving the building, causing two more agents to follow her out. Intending to kill her and set it up as a simple robbery gone wrong, the two Coil assassins get quite a surprise when they grab their target... who turns out to not be the Baroness at all! Just as they realizes this, both of them are gunned down from behind by their actual target, who convinced a pink haired punk to put on a wig and glasses to lure The Coil out. Paying her impersonator for her services, Baroness takes one of the assassins' earpieces and uses it to inform whoever is listening that they failed. Upon learning this, Serpentor orders the rest of his men in the field to stick to surveillance so he can gain a better idea of what the traitorous Baroness is working towards.

At the Naval support facility in Diego Garcia, Mainframe worries that the mission in Libya turning out to be a snipe hunt indicates that Cobra has found a way to trip up their Snakehunter program. However, what they don't need Snakehunter to predict is that Cobra is likely to attempt to salvage the wrecked Neptune Bonanza. However, given that the new public Joe team is eating up most of the team's operating budget, they're going to have to depend on an... alternative source to get the necessary equipment for this mission... their old "ally" Bildocker. He eventually comes through with a new, prototype submarine that he convinced a "friend" of his to let him borrow. After Torpedo checks it out and deems it up to snuff, Scarlett makes Bildocker nervous for the sub when she mentions there might be trouble. However, she promises him there's almost no chance of that happening. They're only taking it out on a recon mission, and there's no way that could go wrong!

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

G.I. Joe Cobra Others

Quotes[edit | edit source]

"But the ship is not actually mine! There's the board of Trans-Leviathan! And the authorities!"
"That is not my concern, Sir Anthony. Make the calls. Make it happen. Or make funeral arrangements."

-Sir Anthony learns that, whether she's on the outs with Cobra or not, Baroness is ice cold.


"Trouble? This is a loaner, Red."
"Just a contingency. This is a re-con, Bildocker-out and back with no enemy contact. We're going to locate a wreck and pinpoint its position. A few days at sea and back home without a scratch, Bildocker."

-Bildocker gets lied to by Scarlett

Notes[edit | edit source]

Continuity notes[edit | edit source]

  • The Special Missions unit was first mentioned in Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's second to last issue, where Duke proposed giving Scarlett and Mainframe their own team. While it's not specifically mentioned here, the Special Missions unit's role is to serve as a support team for Duke's public-facing Joe team after G.I. Joe is revealed to the public. For their adventures, check out G.I. Joe vol. 3!
  • The Baroness has been on the outs with Cobra since Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #19 after she allowed the Neptune Bonanza, which carried 40 billion Euros worth of Cobra loot, to be sunk by G.I. Joe and the Arashikage. She's now seeking redemption by trying to get it back!
  • Tripwire mentions that Snake Eyes was the one largely responsible for sinking the Neptune Bonanza and apologizes to Scarlett for bringing him up. Given their on-again-off-again kinda-sorta romantic relationship, Tripwire was likely worried about opening up any wounds she may have surrounding Snake Eyes' supposed "death" in Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #20.
  • Serpentor is still trying to climb the Cobra ladder by throwing as many people under the bus as possible as he has been since the Cobra Command arc. Members of his Coil cult first became Cobra's new assassins following the dissolution of their relationship with the Arashikage in Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #17.
  • Torpedo compares the sub Bildocker procured for the Joes to the Remora submarine that recurred through out the first volume of IDW's G.I. Joe comics.

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

  • The H.I.S.S. Tank the Joes face in Libya is based on the 2002 G.I. Joe vs. Cobra H.I.S.S. rather than the traditional H.I.S.S.es seen in prior comics or the Rise of Cobra style one that would later appear in the fifth issue of G.I. Joe vol. 3.

Real world references[edit | edit source]

Errors[edit | edit source]

  • The presence of Baroness in this story arc makes continuity placement a bit... iffy. Here, Baroness is still very much on the outs with Cobra, being hunted down and marked for death by Serpentor and the Coil under orders from Cobra Commander himself. However, this issue contains references to the main, public facing G.I. Joe team, who's first mission in the public eye involved a Cobra plot that was largely orchestrated by a very much not marked for death Baroness! However, it's never explicitly said that Duke's team is a going concern in this issue, so perhaps he and his team haven't quite made their public debut just yet.

Covers (5)[edit | edit source]

  • SpecialMissions1-CvrA.jpg
  • SpecialMissions1-CvrB.jpg
  • SpecialMissions1-SubCvr.jpg
  • SpecialMissions1-CvrRIA.jpg
  • SpecialMissions1-CvrRIB.jpg
Retrieved from "https://idwhasbro.shoutwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Crush_Depth,_Part_1&oldid=9457"