G.I. Joe: Special - Helix
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 Look, Scratchy! It's our new friend, Poochie! | |||||||||||||
| "Helix" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 12, 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | August 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Brian Reed | ||||||||||||
| Line-art by | Joe Suitor | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Robbie Robbins | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
When one of Hawk's "special projects" goes off the grid, Duke is deployed to Tokyo to bring her back.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
In G.I. Joe Training Facility Beta, a young woman stands ready for a test. As men with guns take position around her and others in martial arts gear prepare to rush her, the woman quietly takes note of their weapons and the number of rounds they're carrying. At the overseer's word, the martial artists charge forwards while the armed men fire into the air, but the woman takes them down with throws and kicks in a matter of seconds. Ordering the gunmen to cease fire, the overseer asks the woman — Agent Helix — for her report... and she accurately lists the rounds remaining in each of their magazines, despite the obvious distraction her attackers posed.
Duke, watching the footage of this test, is incredulous about the woman's abilities, but Duke's commanding officer Hawk is in no joking mood. Helix, he explains, is an Alpha Level G.I. Joe Operative blessed with Total Organic Battlefield Awareness — not even military, she is a civilian martial artist who could master a martial art the first time she ever encountered it. Her unique brain chemistry lets her see the whole world in terms of data sets and grants near-perfect understanding of the physical world around her... and now she has gone missing. Undercover in Tokyo as a Telekura girl, Helix managed to make contact with suspected Cobra higher-up Koji Sato, but now that she has missed multiple scheduled check-ins, Hawk wants Duke to go to Tokyo and find out what happened to her.
In Tokyo, Duke has little luck until he encounters a local patron of the telephone club, who — after being bought a drink — tells Duke how the club was open until a week ago, when "they" showed up... and a stakeout mission confirms Duke's suspicions: "they" are goons with ties to Cobra. Beating down the guards, Duke fights his way into Sato's building, informed by a higher-ranking underling that Sato isn't present, only "his woman" from the Telekura. Duke manages to make his way to the inner rooms without issue, only to find himself held at gunpoint... by Helix! The other G.I. Joe operative is confused to find that Duke knows her name, and when he explains that Hawk sent him to bring her back, she angrily knocks him out with the butt of her pistol.
When Duke comes to, tied to a chair, Helix fills him in: with Sato not letting her out of his sight, she hadn't had the chance to contact Hawk, and when Duke showed up he risked ruining things for her. She's only had the chance to get away now that Sato has embarked on his final mission for Cobra: following a bungled drug shipment, and with the threat of his wife being murdered, Sato will detonate a suicide bomb implanted into his body on the Tokyo Stock Exchange trading floor when it opens in half an hour. Duke rushes to the stock exchange across the street to stop him, reasoning that Sato's wife will already be dead anyway, but is given pause when Helix stops and studies the crowd, losing herself in her analytical worldview.
Finding Sato in the crowd, Helix informs him that she has to stop him. The panicked Sato, still concerned for his wife, threatens to detonate where he is, but before he can touch the detonator hidden in his watch, Helix dislocates both of his arms and leaves him writhing in pain on the floor. Duke congratulates her, but she leaves without saying a word.
Later, Hawk debriefs Duke, informing him that he was right about Sato's wife — she was found in a ditch, dead for at least a week. Sato himself was taken into G.I. Joe custody and gave up everything he knew on Cobra, though this need-to-know information isn't revealed to Duke; and when Duke asks after Agent Helix, Hawk only replies that he doesn't know any G.I. Joe operative by that name. Brushing off any further questions, the general tells Duke that he's earned two days off duty... and that he shouldn't think about work for a while.
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
Characters in italics are shown only in video footage. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| G.I. Joe | Cobra | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"Sato wasn't at the hotel last night because a doctor was pumping his lower intestine full of C4. The detonator's built into his watch, which is kind of freaky cool."
- —Agent Helix talks like a normal human being
"...I was just remembering the look in her eyes. [...] ...The way she sees the world, she lost herself to it then, as if there were too many things to do at once. Like a computer, slowing down... it was odd, very odd to see in a person."
- —Duke reflects on Helix's abilities
Notes[edit | edit source]
G.I. Joe references[edit | edit source]
- This issue features the much-publicised debut of the controversial Helix to IDW's G.I. Joe continuity. A character developed by Double Helix Games for their Rise of Cobra video game, released the same month as this issue, Helix was beloved enough by Hasbro that they released a toy of her as well.
- The title page of this issue uses both the phrase "wherever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is there", from the A Real American Hero cartoon theme song, and "now you know, and knowing is half the battle", from the cartoon's (in)famous public service announcements.
Other notes[edit | edit source]
- Helix apparently isn't autistic; they "don't know what she is". Alright then.
Covers (3)[edit | edit source]
- Cover A: An extremely rare triple Helix, by David Williams and Kelsey Shannon.
- Cover B: Helix does a cool flip and stuff, by Joe Suitor.
- Cover RI: Virgin version of Cover A.
