G.I. Joe issue 4

Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 1, 2009
Cover date	April 2009
Written by	Chuck Dixon
Pencils by	Robert Atkins
Inks by	Clayton Brown with John Wycough
Colors by	Andrew Crossley
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt

Scarlett and Tunnel Rat go all Die Hard.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

In his castle, Destro duels Baroness, the pair having grabbed antique swords from the laird's collection. The Cobra agent fully intends to kill the arms manufacturer for his empty promises, but Destro is eventually able to clobber her unconscious with a knight's helmet. After putting their visitor under lock and key, he meets up with Glynis and Rory. With the smallest robot unit having successfully stolen the plans for the Broadcast Energy Transmitter from the Pit's servers, it now falls to Rory to guide it through the air ducts to the surface and then out of the facility's GPS blindspot, so that they can identify its location.

Glynis, meanwhile, is distracting G.I. Joe with the two remaining full-size machines, but a coordinated rocket attack by Hawk and Bazooka soon sees one of them destroyed. Scarlett and Duke's team, elsewhere in the Pit, has gotten their hands on a pair of A.W.E. Strikers, and are planning their strategy to prevent the small robot escaping the facility. Tunnel Rat heads into the air ducts, accompanied by Scarlett, the only other Joe small enough to fit. The rest of them take the A.W.E.s to the surface, planning to intercept the machine in the case it does reach the surface. Guided remotely by Dusty, Scarlett and Tunnel Rat's mission nearly takes a turn for the worse when the high-ranking Joe almost plunges herself into a whirling fan blade.

Barbeque finishes off the last of the larger robots with a fire axe to its neck, even as Tunnel Rat and Scarlett run into its small brethren in one of the Pit's main vertical air shafts. The drone gets the drop on them, shooting Tunnel Rat in the arm before skittering up towards the surface. Scarlett relays which shaft they're in to the surface team, before withdrawing to get her partner medical attention. Slicing its way out of the shaft, the robot is quickly fired upon by the Pit's hidden surface defenses, but it retaliates with miniature missiles. The surface team spot the commotion and close in, but suddenly a bouncing mine activates, flipping Crankcase and Rock 'n Roll's A.W.E.. The Joes realize that the Pit's perimeter defenses have activated, but knowing that catching the robot is of absolute importance, Duke and Beachhead foolhardily barrel into the minefield aboard the remaining A.W.E.!

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

G.I. Joe	Cobra	MARS Industries
Flint (5) Bazooka (6) Hawk (7) Crankcase (8) Duke (9) Brainstorm (10) Scarlett (11) Tunnel Rat (12) Beachhead (13) Rock 'n Roll (14) Dusty (15) Dial Tone (16) Joes (17) Boomer (18) BBQ (19)	Baroness (2)	Destro (1) Rory MacDougall (3) Glynis MacDougall (4)