Son of the Snake, Part 4
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| "Son of the Snake, Part 4" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 22, 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | August 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Mike Costa | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Antonio Fuso and Werther Dell'edera | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Arianna Florean | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Neil Uyetake | ||||||||||||
| Editor | John Barber and Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
Lady Jaye and Ronin fight for their lives, and that of Billy Kessler-Latta, against Cobra assassin Blacklight!
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Outside Firefly's room in an Alexandria hospital, Flint asks Chameleon if she's okay. Chameleon is actually panicking and having flashbacks over her recent trauma at the hands of Firefly and Black-Out, but insists that she's fine, and pushes past Flint into Firefly's room. Flint is surprised at Firefly's use of a crude truck-bomb rather than the subtlety and cleverness that is his trademark, and assumes that he was either trying to make a statement or throw the Joes off the scent... until Chameleon remembers that the saboteur had mentioned something about a trap laid for Blacklight, during their fight. Firefly is unimpressed with Flint's "bush-league psychological tactics" and attempts to gather information, and is uncooperative until Flint threatens to slash his Achilles tendons and stab him in the kidney to stop him from escaping. He isn't able to help much, however, not being in the business of asking why his Cobra masters need buildings destroyed; he was only laying a trap for Blacklight because he saw him at Heathrow, and assumed he was heading to Alexandria with a mission goal counter to what Firefly was doing. Instead, Flint asks after the building's security system, but Firefly asks what time it is... before revealing that the corrosive agents he had laced the computer mainframes with will have activated by now, destroying the information within. Left alone as the two Joes rush off to deal with the problem, Firefly calls for help, and is met by an unusually large male nurse... and asks what size shoes he wears...
In the dark of their safehouse in Zurich, Ronin tells Lady Jaye untie their prisoner Billy Kessler-Latta, as they're unable to move with him tied to a chair if they're under attack. Lady Jaye argues that if they are under attack, it's by someone who wants to free Billy, but their argument is interrupted when the attacker, Blacklight, throws a flashbang at them. Blacklight, viewing his targets using night vision gear, takes aim, but is thrown off when Ronin hits the back of his head; when he opens fire, Lady Jaye pulls Billy down to the floor, causing him to catch a bullet to the foot in the process. While Jaye provides covering fire, Ronin gets into close quarters with the attacker; as the two grapple, Ronin tears off Blacklight's night vision goggles, which land at Jaye's feet, and though Blacklight manages to stab Ronin in the shoulder with her own sword, Lady Jaye shoots him, hitting his body armor. To even the odds, Blacklight pulls the boards off the window, letting light flood into the room and stunning Jaye, and Billy — seeing Blacklight about to shoot — jumps in front of her, taking several bullets to the chest. Jaye responds by attacking Blacklight up close and personal with her baton, and after detonating one of his own flashbangs in his face, manages to push him out the window to his death. Weary and bloodied, Lady Jaye radios for medical response for the Zurich team.
Back at the Gemini, Billy is still alive after seven hours of surgery, but remains in a coma that nobody can say if he'll ever wake up from; Tomax feigns sympathy for the young man, something that earns him a glare from Flint. Later, as the intelligence unit's leader reviews their mission, he has little good to say. Firefly escaped by killing a nurse and stealing his uniform, Kessler-Latta's computer mainframes have been destroyed with no data salvageable, the boy himself is in a coma and has revealed nothing to them, and the Joes have no idea who sent either Blacklight or Firefly; the only good to have come of it is that Blacklight is dead. Chameleon observes that the person who benefits the most from the whole ordeal is Tomax Paoli, whose value to the team has been proven while the intelligence unit gets nothing out of it; but he couldn't have known that the Joes knew about the Alexandria site, or orchestrated something that complex, could he? And as he tucks into a terrible Philly Cheesesteak from the base's mess, Tomax smiles to himself...
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| G.I. Joe | Cobra | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"You mentioned something to me about "bait". For Blacklight."
"You weren't supposed to survive long enough to wonder about that."
"Wow. Now you're caught monologuing like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I'm really going to have to amend that file."
- —Chameleon, Firefly and Flint
"You think he's here now?"
"Lady, you better hope not. That guy is one mean, motivated motor scooter. Two Joes wouldn't stand a chance."
- —Chameleon and Firefly discuss Blacklight
"Please get me out of this chair. My foot is bleeding onto my face."
- —Billy Kessler-Latta
"We all know who benefits from this. Tomax's value is proven, but we don't actually get anything out of it."
"But Tomax didn't even know we were onto the Alexandria site. He couldn't have known. Even he couldn't orchestrate something this complex... right?"
- —Chameleon and Flint. Dun-dun-dunnnnnn!
Notes[edit | edit source]
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- Chameleon has flashbacks to both her confrontation with Firefly last issue and Black-Out telling her that he was going to "open her slow", from issue 7.
Errors[edit | edit source]
- Chameleon's flashback of Firefly says "I don't usually move up close. But I'll make an exception for now." Last issue he actually said "I don't usually work up close. But I'll make an exception for you." Admittedly, this could be an intentional change to show Chameleon misremembering events, but Black-Out's dialogue remains accurate.
Covers (2)[edit | edit source]
- Regular cover: It's the fight of the century: Chameleon vs Firefly!, by Antonio Fuso and Arianna Florean.
- Cover RI: Firefly blows something up, by Joe Eisma, Juan Castro and Simon Gough.
