The Silent Warrior

« G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra #5 »
"Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra Part Five: The Silent Warrior"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 13, 2015
Cover date	May 2015
Written by	Mike Costa
Art by	Paolo Villanelli
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Neil Uyetake
Editor	Carlos Guzman

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow battle to the death for the fate of Cobra Commander's son.

Synopsis

As Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow face off in the pouring rain, the ninja in white feels good about his chances. He is well-rested and prepared, while Snake Eyes has come a long way on little notice; and though, when he runs at his erstwhile brother-in-arms, first blood goes to Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow still has reason to believe he will make many more mistakes — Billy Kessler-Latta and Erika Le Tene are also there, and their fates will distract him. Erika, however, speaks up, pointing out that though Storm Shadow could kill them, the distraction would give his foe the opportunity to get behind his guard; and really, does he want to bring outsiders in rather than defeating his old enemy one-on-one? Le Tene's words get through to Storm Shadow, and he turns his attentions back to Snake Eyes as the woman helps Billy to limp away.

Throwing off his cloak, Storm Shadow meets Snake Eyes in combat once more, the two clashing blades and evading each others' strikes until Snake Eyes' sword becomes stuck in a broken tree after a mistimed attack. Unable to free his weapon, and with his submachine gun sliced in half by his opponent, the silent ninja draws a knife to hold off Storm Shadow's attacks — but it isn't enough, and Snake Eyes is caught across the shoulder, second blood going to the man in white. Storm Shadow presses his advantage, throwing a hail of shuriken, but is caught off guard when Snake Eyes uses one of the throwing stars, impaled in his palm, to slash Storm Shadow across the eye. As his opponent recoils, Snake Eyes grabs his broken gun from the floor and fires it, causing a wild blast that blows Storm Shadow's armored mask from his head; and when his foe retaliates, his attacks are sloppy, and a kick from Snake Eyes drives him into the point of the sword still embedded in the tree trunk. Storm Shadow laughs to himself, realising that he has lost... but, as he tells his old friend turned enemy, the other ninja will not be the one to kill him. And thus, he holds up a pin pulled from a grenade on Snake Eyes' belt...

Out in the jungle, Erika and Billy hear the grenade's detonation... and moments later, a wounded, exhausted Snake Eyes comes stumbling out of the trees, alone.

In Castle Destro, Destro holds a video call with Cobra leader Tomax Paoli. Though Destro still believes that Tomax had him imprisoned (an idea which Tomax refuses to entertain), he is more interested in talking about the means of his rescue; though he is a dealer in weapons systems, Snake Eyes — an irregular commando with Arashikage training — is more effective than any he has seen. He requests that a few Arashikage warriors be sent to him to act as extractors and bring profit to Cobra, but Tomax feels Destro is mistaken; Snake Eyes is an exception to the rule, and the effectiveness of the Arashikage stems only from subterfuge and their dreaded reputation. "Happy" to know that Snake Eyes has served Destro well, he requests that the ninja be returned to him... but after Destro hangs up the call, he laughs, knowing that Tomax — though he won't admit it — knows that Snake Eyes was responsible for decimating the Arashikage and obtaining the prize he sought. Though he is disappointed that Erika, the "Chameleon", had to die, he is happy that — whether Storm Shadow died or not — Snake Eyes has brought his prize to him... a small metal pin. Though he orders Snake Eyes to return to Tomax, he wants the ninja to be ready for Destro to reach out again.

In the Russian city of Bolshoy Kamen, Erika — who still lives, despite Destro's belief — explains to Billy what Cobra and the Arashikage were after: a pin implanted in Billy's femur after a skiing accident, on the covert orders of his father, Cobra Commander. That pin was encoded with huge amounts of priceless information that only a brilliant administrator like his father would have access to, implanted in Billy's leg to keep it hidden; and though evidently somebody in Cobra knew about it, they waited for Cobra to become "legitimate" before they went looking for it. Billy doesn't understand why he's still alive if the pin has been given to Cobra, but it hasn't — the pin that Snake Eyes gave to Destro was a fake, encoded with Erika's files on the organization and a lot of fake information she came up with.

Billy isn't happy to be brought back into the war between Cobra and G.I. Joe — the same war that killed Ronin — but as Erika sees it, nobody chooses the war, and the ones that survive are those who realize it. If they accept that fact, and learn to "love" the war, they can make the choices that will keep them alive.

And just so, Snake Eyes — as silent and mysterious as ever — returns to Cobra's embrace once more.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Cobra	Arashikage	Others
Snake Eyes (2) Destro (5) Tomax Paoli (6) Crystal Ball (ominous specter, 7)	Storm Shadow (1)	Billy Kessler-Latta (3) Erika Le Tene (4)

Quotes

"Death catches you in inches. In split seconds of hesitation. I've been in country an entire day. I'm fresh and prepared. I've been waiting half my life for this. I am ready."

—Storm Shadow is overconfident.

"I'm an arms manufacturer, and though I've ignored eastern mysticism as mostly superstition and bluster... I can't ignore results. I deal in weapons systems, and I admit that I've seen none finer than one irregular commando with Arashikage training. I could make great use of that clan. Send a few of their warriors to me. Let me take advantage of their expertise, and Cobra will profit. You've shown me their value as extractors in particular."
"You were right the first time, Destro. The Arashikage are effective mostly through subterfuge and their outsized reputation. I've sidelined them to their own pointless intra-clan warfare. They're backward and silly and you have nothing to learn from them."

—Destro has high hopes for the Arashikage that Tomax Paoli is happy to dispel.

"So I'm back with the Joes again."
"Hah. This is a closed city. You watched me buy this building from a low-level Russian mafia goon with a change purse full of uncut alexandrite. We've been living off Russian seafood. You think that's how G.I. Joe does things?

—Billy Kessler-Latta and Erika Le Tene

Notes

Continuity notes

• Storm Shadow appears to die in the grenade detonation here — and indeed, a successor to the name would appear a few years later — but Destro raises the possibility that he still lives. Keep that in mind.
• The pin's significance was first hinted at when it was brought up in issue 3 of this series.
• Erika suggests that Crystal Ball, Cobra's creepy behind-the-scenes manipulator, was aware of the pin's existence; she's had her own run-in with him before.
• Erika mentions that Cobra has gone "semi-legitimate", referring to their position as "legitimate" private peacekeepers, established in G.I. Joe vol. 4 #1.
• Snake Eyes is revealed to not really hold allegiance to Cobra or Destro, but his actual reasons for doing what he does remain unexplained. Revolutionaries #4 would eventually explain him as being a mole for G.I. Joe.

Other notes

• With G.I. Joe vol. 4 having ended the previous month, this issue would end up being the last IDW-universe G.I. Joe title published for over a year until the release of the first part of the Revolution prelude in Till All Are One #2 in July 2016 (though Action Man #1, released the previous month, made reference to "General Colton's team").

Covers (2)

• Regular cover: Snake Eyes cradles a cloaked body, by Paolo Villainelli and Joana Lafuente.
• Subscription cover: Storm Shadow has Snake Eyes at his mercy, by Drew Johnson and Romulo Fajardo Jr..

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