Destro Must Die, Part 2
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| "Destro Must Die, Part 2" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | January 15, 2014 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | January 2014 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Chuck Dixon | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Paul Gulacy | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Aburtov & Grafikslava | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Neil Uyetake | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Before "Threat Matrix" | ||||||||||||
G.I. Joe tracks Copperback as she hunts down Destro, who has begun developing the "human element" of his B.A.T.s.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
In Bergen, Norway, Copperback has blindfolded and gagged three former associates of herself and Destro and is torturing them to get information on Destro’s whereabouts. Ripping the duct tape off his mouth, she asks Varg to give up the information but he refuses, fearing retribution from Cobra. Frustrated, she shoots Dennis to see if that loosens the lips of the other two. Feeling his blood splatter against her face, the last member of the trio gives up that Destro is operating in a facility east of Archangel in Russia and then curses Copperback for killing her friend. Copperback then reveals she merely shot Dennis in the shoulder and takes off towards Russia.
Having listened in on Copperback’s interrogation, Beachhead doesn’t understand why Scarlett wants to make sure they give her another GPS transmitter. Telling him that they can’t trust information given under duress and that they’re better off letting Copperback do the hard work for them, Scarlett then checks in with Tripwire and Hard Drive, who are tailing Copperback on the ground. Scarlett then checks in with Mainframe and shares the intel on Destro’s location with him. Though it doesn’t necessarily narrow things down too much, he agrees to start looking into any new construction in that area done by businesses with Cobra ties and promises to keep a lookout for any castles.
Meanwhile, having gotten approval from Cobra Commander to begin developing the "human element" of his B.A.T.s, Destro has retrieved the body of one-time Cobra Section 5 warden Urso... and brought him back from the dead! However, the newly cybernetic Urso isn't dealing with new lease on life very well. No matter how many sedatives Destro's scientists pump into him, he won't stop breaking out of his restraints and rampaging around the operating room. After the scientists finally tame Urso by shutting down his new prosthetics, Destro is pleased with Urso's violent behavior, seeing it as a sign that he chose his candidate well.
At the Bergen airport, Hard Drive and Tripwire are continuing to tail Copperback and report in to Scarlett that there's only one flight heading to Archangel. Needing to get a new GPS transmitter in Copperback before she... "passes" her current one, Scarlett sends in Spreadsheet to play the part of an obnoxious American tourist and slip a new transmitter into her food. Approaching her trying to poach the hot sauce off her table at the airport's food court, Spreadsheet does his job well and Tripwire reports Copperback has finished up her meal. Four hours later and an hour after the Archangel flight departed, Scarlett's GPS is showing the transmitter as still being in the airport. Getting the sense that something's wrong, she and Beachhead track down the signal and find a homeless man who finished Copperback's meal after she threw it away with the transmitter still inside.
Aboard the Joes' own plane, Dial-Tone and Mainframe are pouring over satellite data and recent construction records looking for where in Russia Destro has moved his castle. After briefly checking in with Bildocker to see how efforts to give them a discreet way into Russia are going, Dial-Tone speaks up and reveals she may have found where Castle Destro has wound up. A year ago, an absolutely gigantic structure was put up in the Archangel oblast by a Russian contractor who was hired by Cobra's banking division. While officially it is listed as a train car construction plant, the size of it is the right size to squeeze a castle inside. Indeed, this "plant" is in fact a gigantic glass terrarium that not only contains Castle Destro, but the surrounding grounds as well, a gigantic patch of the Scottish Highlands sitting in the middle of the Russian tundra! Inside the castle, Destro is stirred from his sleep by a pair of security guards who are concerned that Urso will not stop trying to break out of his cell. Pleading with Urso to consider him a friend for saving his life, Destro is cursed by his experiment instead, Urso feeling that he'd rather have died than be made into a monster. Ordering his men to gas him, Destro decides that Urso has been modified enough for the time being. All he needs to do now is give him proper training...
Rowing their along the Archangelian coast, Scarlett spots the truck of the men Bildocker arranged for the Joes to rendezvous with. However, when her team actually meets with the men, they order the Joes to lay down their weapons so they can sell the Americans out to the Russian government. Though she's disappointed that they'd sell them out like that, Scarlett doesn't panic, having brought an insurance policy in case of a situation like this. Soon, the three Russians are all gunned down and Scarlett tells her team that in an unpredictable mission like this, she needed someone who specializes in seeing what comes next... someone like Agent Helix!
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
Characters in italic text only appear in flashback. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| G.I. Joe | Cobra | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"He will live a second life as a near-indestructible force. The start of a legion of man/machine self-directed ordinance. The next generation of B.A.T."
"If he is not entirely insane when he is revived."
"Then we simply excise the mad portions of his brain. We need a mind, not a personality."
- -Destro rhapsodizes about Urso but a certain Cobra surgeon isn't so sure.
"Yes?"
"You got Tabasco there, little lady? The bottles at the other tables are empty. Got to have my hotsauce."
*Spreadsheet picks up the hotsauce bottle and knocks over Copperback's drink*
"YE CLATTY BAWHEID!"
"Sorry! I thought you spoke English. Mission accomplished. Transponder's in her lo mein. Oop — 'scuse me."
"Howlin' puggled nyuck!"
- -Spreadsheet makes Copperback get extremely Scottish.
"Urso! Listen to me, lad!"
"YOU! You made me into this!"
"It was this or death for you, Urso. I saved your life. I made you into something better."
"BETTER? There is nothing left of me!"
"Ye still have your mind. Your will. I did nae harm ye. That was the Joes. They left ye for dead. I found ye. Restored ye."
- -Destro tries to calm Urso down.
"What kind of codename is Bildocker?"
"It's his real name."
"How'd he manage that?
"How's he manage anything? He's Bildocker."
- -Tripwire and Beachhead.
Notes[edit | edit source]
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- Remember Urso? He's back! In B.A.T. form! Debuting as the warden of Cobra's Section 5 mining facility in Patagonia in G.I. Joe vol. 2 #13, Urso was seemingly killed by Recondo in issue 16, a scene we flashback to and see from Urso's perspective here.
- Hey, Agent Helix is back too! She returns after being conspicuously absent in this third wave of IDW's G.I. Joe comics, having been seen last in the grand finale of the "Target: Snake Eyes" story arc that closed the second series.
Covers (3)[edit | edit source]
- Cover A: Close up on Destro, by Paul Gulacy and Joana Lafuente
- Cover B: Destro flanked by Vipers, by Will Rosado and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
- Retailer incentive cover: Baroness wins the Miss P.I.T. beauty pageant, by S.L. Gallant, Brian Shearer, and J. Brown
