Deep Terror, Part 1
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An arc about Scarlett and Mainframe, with covers of Duke and Roadblock. Thanks, IDW! | |||||||||||||
"Deep Terror, Part 1" | |||||||||||||
Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
First published | May 09, 2012 | ||||||||||||
Cover date | May 2012 | ||||||||||||
Written by | Chuck Dixon | ||||||||||||
Art by | Will Rosado | ||||||||||||
Colors by | Romulo Fajardo, Jr. | ||||||||||||
Letters by | Neil Uyetake | ||||||||||||
Editor | John Barber and Carlos Guzman |
Scarlett and Mainframe investigate Cobra activity in Patagonia, but their talents are needed more back at Fort Baxter.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Two exhausted prisoners crawl out of a tunnel in Patagonia, having spent months digging in an underground mine. The two men believe themselves to be free from their Cobra captors, but no sooner have they reached the surface than they are found by a Viper in a Flight Pod, who shoots them dead when they refuse to return to the mine.
At Fort Baxter, Scarlett enters the men's barracks, wanting to recruit Team Bravo for an anti-Cobra mission on Dawson Island. The men are a little embarrassed at having a woman walk in on them in a state of partial undress, but none moreso than Mainframe, still nursing a crush on Scarlett, who hides from her. The other Joes are concerned by the prospect of a mission on their newly-reduced budget, but Scarlett tells them not to worry, despite not having cleared the mission with Duke yet; Mainframe catches up with her outside, worried about her leading an operation so soon after Snake Eyes' death, but Scarlett shrugs off his concerns, as well as his insistence that he come with her on the mission.
In the mining facility Section Five in Patagonia, the guards show the prisoners the bodies of the two dead men to cow them into submission, but one of the prisoners — seeing death as preferable to a live of slavery in the mines — rallies his fellows against them; but when they attack, the guards' leader Urso, retaliates with his electric baton and kills the leader, forcing the other prisoners to flee back to their labors. The man in charge of the mine, Dr. Armand "Mindbender" Singh, observes from his laboratory, finding the whole situation distasteful; but he and Copperback are hopeful for the results of the mining operation, with Mindbender hoping to find a deposit of the theoretical element abellium on the site.
Master Sergeant Billdocker arrives at Fort Baxter in a Jeep fit for a general, something he obtained through the scrounging talents that saw him recruited to G.I. Joe by Hawk. After a failed attempt at flirting with Agent Helix, he makes his way to Duke's office, but walks in on the furious colonel in the midst of trying to respond to Cobra's press conference that has revealed the Joes' existence to the world and set off a wave of responses by international news, punditry and comedy media — something only made harder by both Scarlett and Mainframe having gone AWOL!
At that moment, Scarlett and Team Bravo are dropping their A.W.E. Strikers and making their jump over Patagonia, with Mainframe — stowing away on their troop transport — jumping after them with a motorcycle, intending to follow a GPS tracker that Scarlett is wearing, despite the drop overseer's skepticism that she was in on the plan. It turns out his presence was a good idea, though, as the computer specialist soon finds that Scarlett's team was ambushed and captured, with Scarlett currently being held and interrogated by Copperback. Despite Scarlett's attempts to deflect, Copperback quickly deduces that she and her team are members of G.I. Joe; though Mindbender is concerned that Cobra will have his facility shut down, Copperback reminds him that the new Cobra Commander is more than willing to openly confront American forces, and the Joes — excluding Scarlett — are put to work in the mines.
On arrival in the mines, Stalker leads his fellow soldiers in an escape attempt, but on taking out the guards Stalker runs afoul of Urso, who threatens to drop him down a mineshaft if the others don't cooperate. Bravo team reluctantly decides to comply for the time being, but Urso believes they may come to regret that decision...
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
Characters in italics are shown only in flashbacks. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
G.I. Joe | Cobra | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
Mainframe: "I know what he meant to you and jumping right into work is therapeutic. But to lead a combat op this soon..."
Scarlett: "Thanks for the concern, Mains. It's not a combat op. It's intelligence gathering."
Mainframe: "Then I'm coming along."
Scarlett: "No you're not.
Mainframe: "Yes I am!"
Scarlett: "Not."
Mainframe: "Am!"
Dial-Tone: "Very grade school, bro."
"G.I. Joe. That's a codename? What about G.I. Steve or G.I. Tony? Seriously, how hard did they work on keeping it a secret? They could have called it operation "Don't-Look-Over-Here". I wonder if there's any G.I. Jennifers in case Joe gets lonely."
- —The comedian evidently never bought any Adventure Team toys
Notes[edit | edit source]
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- It bears repeating that Snake Eyes isn't really dead, but the Joes believe him to be, as seen in the last issue.
- Copperback, former associate of Destro, was last seen in G.I. Joe vol. 1 #27, where she hooked back up with Cobra after running afoul of Snake Eyes and Helix.
- The new Cobra Commander's willingness to engage in armed conflict rather than sticking to the shadows was well-established during "Cobra Command".
Real-world references[edit | edit source]
- The responses to G.I. Joe's reveal to the world include commentary from BBC News and a pundit show called "the Oh' Really Factor" on "Box News" - a parody of the Fox News channel's O'Reilly Factor. Also seen is a small, blurry picture of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, aka the guy from the "Aliens" meme.
Other notes[edit | edit source]
- The comedian who mocks the G.I. Joe team's name retroactively seems pretty silly in light of G.I. Joe vol. 3, which established that "G.I. Joe" Colton was a public figure and the man for whom the Joes were named.
Covers (3)[edit | edit source]
- Cover A: Duke takes aim, by Will Rosado and Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
- Cover B: Roadblock stands ready, by Will Rosado and Romulo Fajardo, Jr..
- Cover RIA: An extra-grungey Scarlett, by Tommy Lee Edwards.
- Cover RIB: Uncolored and cropped version of cover RIA, by Tommy Lee Edwards.