G.I. Joe issue 14
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| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | January 20, 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | January 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Chuck Dixon | ||||||||||||
| Line-art by | Robert Atkins | ||||||||||||
| Inks by | Clayton Brown | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Andrew Crossley | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Robbie Robbins | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
| Assistant editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
While Snake Eyes trains with the Hard Master to find his center once more, the revitalised G.I. Joe team works to preempt the abduction of Dr. Orizama by Cobra.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
On a New York rooftop, the Hard Master lets fly an arrow at Snake Eyes, his position hidden from his student by hanging sheets. As Snake Eyes catches the arrow, and then does the same with his mentor's next salvo, the Hard Master lectures him on the follies of pride, and how it should not be confused with honor. Their day's training done, the Hard Master bids Snake Eyes return with him to his deli, pleased that he has come to visit his mentor once more.
In the Pit, Brainstorm fills the G.I. Joe team in on Cobra's likely next target: Dr. Gerald Orizama, professor of theoretical physics at Robillard College. Believing that Cobra will be aiming for him in order to complete their teleportation machine, Hawk is having Duke, Scarlett and Bazooka go undercover in order to bring him in first — either by convincing him to come with them, or, failing that, by abducting him first. The Joes load up into Ace's helicopter, but tensions flare as they take off, Scarlett not appreciating Duke's barbs about her devotion to the unreliable Snake Eyes.
Back in the deli, the Hard Master continues to discuss the nature of pride, explaining that it is tied to shame — and that both are pathways to fear. Later, the ninja — ignoring complaints about his poor skill in carving meat — overhears an argument between a young man and his girlfriend, and seeing the boy pursuing the girl out of the store, moves to follow him. Believing the girl to be in danger, he runs to intervene, only to see the boy on the ground, knocked down for grabbing the girl; as Snake Eyes watches, she helps the boy up, agreeing that the two will talk it out. As the embarrassed ninja returns to the deli, the Hard Master lambasts him for letting his pride cloud his vision to what was really going on.
While Duke and Scarlett — disguised as late admission students — enter the college to look for Orizama, Bazooka keeps watch in a rented sports car. After only a few moments, though, he spots something suspicious — four marks wearing animal disguises, including a sinister-looking man with a wolf mask. As Scarlett and Duke speak to Orizama — who's confused by their claims of being sent by Ward Michaelmas, thought dead years ago — Bazooka confronts the masked group... only for the "wolf" to pull a gun and open fire! The other three mask-wearers enter the building, which Bazooka reports over the radio, while he uses his own handgun to take on the wolf — but his bullets are deflected by the attacker's body armor, and Bazooka takes multiple slugs to the chest himself.
With hostiles inbound, Duke and Scarlett move to evacuate Orizama despite his objections, and pull guns on the arriving "zoo crew" — but they are armed only with spray cans, and the Joes realise they are only a diversion just as the man in the wolf mask blows in the door and uses a canister of fentanyl gas to knock them unconscious; and despite a wounded Bazooka's intervention, the wolf — in fact Cobra agent Blacklight — shoots him dead, before using a surface-to-air recovery device to carry Orizama away. Back at Section Zero, the Baroness isn't happy about having showed Cobra's hand so prominently — but Destro assures her that the world in Cobra's fist is worth the risk.
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| G.I. Joe | Cobra | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"You're going undercover? Seriously? You going back in time too, Bazooka?"
"You don't like my jacket, Ace?"
"Just tell me how the Duran Duran concert was, okay?"
- —Ace and Bazooka
"Pride and shame are shades of the same color. To embrace one is to risk the other. Move beyond these petty things. They are the pathway to fear. And fear is the deadliest weapon of all."
- —The Hard Master
Notes[edit | edit source]
G.I. Joe references[edit | edit source]
- During the scene in the Pit, Bazooka is wearing his classic football jersey — something that makes him stand out against the more "realistic military" outfits of the other IDW Joes.
Real world references[edit | edit source]
- Duke refers to the masked group as the "Zoo Crew".
Covers (3)[edit | edit source]
- Cover A: Snake Eyes in front of New York and the Hard Master, by David Williams and Kelsey Shannon.
- Cover B: Snake Eyes' head and a robed Hard Master, by Robert Atkins and Andrew Crossley.
- Cover RI: Virgin version of Cover A.
