Scarlett's Strike Force issue 1

Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 27, 2017
Cover date	December 2017
Written by	Aubrey Sitterson
Art by	Nelson Dániel
Colors by	Ryan Hill
Letters by	Taylor Esposito
Editors	Tom Waltz and David Mariotte
Assistant editor	Chase Marotz
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

G.I. Joe prepare to strike at Cobra's new headquarters, but dark magics are at work and strange creatures await the heroes!

Synopsis

G.I. Joe are on a mission to stop Cobra's "Chief Pollution Officer" Cesspool from blowing up Mexico City with a nuclear bomb! Only one problem—the bomb is so tiny, the Joes have to be shrunk with a shrink ray invented by their newest member Spectrum—aka Matt Trakker, formerly of M.A.S.K.—in order to find it! Blocking the team's way is an army of mutated ants created by Cesspool, who aren't particularly tough, but whose sheer numbers and aerial superiority pose a problem. The Joes have their own air support in the form of Skywarp, but he's preoccupied grousing about the fact Spectrum's shrink ray has shrunk him down to the same size as the miniaturized Joes, rather than let him remain proportionately taller. When Rock 'n Roll is snatched by the flying ants, though, Doc shuts Skywarp up and forces him to go to his teammate's rescue. Once the Joes are finally able to make it through the ants, they face down a shrunken Cesspool himself, who threatens to detonate the bomb—but Lady Jaye calls his bluff and disarms him with one of her javelins. The cowardly Cesspool immediately offers to give up information—like the location of Cobra's new base—in return for protection against reprisals from Cobra Commander.

Meanwhile, at that very Cobra base, Crystal Ball conducts a ritual, using the antediluvian artifacts recently stolen by Cobra in concert with the magic of their Dire Wraith allies to open a portal to a realm he calls Cobra-La. At Cobra Commander's instruction, some of the young "Cobranarchists" are thrown through the portal by the Wraiths and immediately re-emerge as snake-people Cobra Commander dubs her "Vipers". With the portal stable, the Wraiths are immediately deemed unnecessary and are fed to the Vipers—an act that horrifies Destro, who tries to protest until Cobra Commander warns him a similar fate may await him if he does not hold his tongue. As Cobra Commander orders the rest of the Cobranarchists sent through the portal, Destro wonders—are they being transformed, or replaced by what lurks on the other side? Cobra Commander, on the other hand, cares not.

Aboard the Joes' underwater headquarters Lemuria, the team keeps occupied during their downtime. Quick Kick trains, still smoldering over the defeat recently served to him by Storm Shadow. Grand Slam gets in Spectrum's face about taking his job as the team's tech support; Spectrum is confused, and tries to make peace with Slam by offering to help refit his wheelchair with M.A.S.K. tech to make him battle-capable again. Roadblock receives a call from Duke, who is seeking information on new team member Spitfire; furious at the barely veiled profiling of the Pakistani-English Joe, not to mention the mess Duke made out of the last intel he provided, Roadblock severs ties with him. Neither man is aware that their call is being listened in on by Skywarp, who is busy doing that instead of listening to Rock 'n Roll as he tells him about the nightmares he has been suffering from recently.

Scarlett attempts to verify Cesspool's information regarding the location of Cobra's headquarters, which he claims is at the North Pole, and the fact that something in the region is shielded from satellite detection indicates he is telling the truth. Scarlett has Roadblock select his field team to head up and investigate: Cover Girl, for her newly modified vehicle, courtesy of Spectrum; Quick Kick, to release his tensions; Spirit for his tracking skills; Salvo for ordnance; and Spitfire. He tries to float the idea of adding Snake Eyes and Helix, but Scarlett refuses; the pair are still incarcerated for challenging her orders, and Roadblock quickly backs down as it becomes apparent the same punishment could befall him if he pushes the matter.

Lift Ticket airlifts Roadblock's team to the North Pole in his Tomahawk helicopter, but when they arrive at the co-ordinates, the landscape is not what they expect: rather than frozen tundra, the Joes are greeted with a verdant rainforest, purportedly created thanks to polar ice cap melting perpetrated by Cesspool on Cobra's behalf. Most of the team parachutes down, with Roadblock riding down with Cover Girl in her new ATV, made flight-capable by Spectrum's M.A.S.K. tech. Taking in their bizarre surroundings, the Joes prepare to secure the area, only for Spirit to spot the first threat they will have to face in his tropical land out of time: flesh-eating dinosaurs!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

G.I. Joe

Cobra

Others

Grand Slam (17)
Scarlett (19)
Cover Girl (20)
Spirit (21)
Salvo (22)
Spitfire (23)
Polly (24)
Lift Ticket (25)

Cesspool (8)
Crystal Ball (9)
Dire Wraiths (10)
Cobra Commander (11)
Cobranarchists/Vipers (12)
Destro (13)
Storm Shadow (15)

Army Ants (1)
Duke (18)

Quotes

"How... how did you know... I wouldn't?"
"Because like everyone who tries to take power instead of earning it... you're a coward."

—Cesspool has his bluff called by Lady Jaye

"A Holograms fan. You're not metal."
"They have some really serious riffs, alright?!"

—Skywarp busts Rock 'n Roll's chops.

"Spitfire? Really? Big mission for such a new recruit."
"He's a Joe, isn't he? Then I'm lucky to fight alongside him."
"Well put."

—Scarlett and Roadblock

Notes

Continuity notes

M.A.S.K. broke up in issue #10 of their own series; Matt Trakker has been hanging out with the Joes since the events of First Strike, and has formally joined the team in the interim between the crossover and this series.
Cobra stole the antediluvian artifacts used in the ritual that opens to the portal to Cobra-La in the Joes' First Strike tie-in adventure, as chronicled in the G.I. Joe: and M.A.S.K.: First Strike one-shots. It was in the latter of these that Cobra's plan to melt the polar ice caps was previously mentioned, since the area uncovered was the key location required for the ritual to take place.
The two-part crossover tie-in also featured Quick Kick being defeated by Storm Shadow, and Rock 'n Roll's first dreams of Golobulus, whose name he tries to pronounce while talking to Skywarp in this story.
Roadblock was first revealed to be Duke's mole inside the Joes in G.I. Joe vol. 5 #2. He chastises Duke for his poor handling of the last piece of information he gave him, which resulted in Duke forcibly taking the captive Baroness out of Joe custody, only for her to be rescued by Cobra and become its new Commander, as covered in issue #5-9.
Skywarp teases Rock 'n Roll about liking the Holograms (of Jem and the Holograms fame). Rock's bio in Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3 established he worked as a roadie for the band in his younger years.
Snake Eye and Helix were thrown in the brig following the events of G.I. Joe vol. 5 #8, after going AWOL in issue #6.

G.I. Joe references

The Vipers, of course, share the name of the traditional Cobra "grunt" soldiers, as introduced in 1986. Though big ol' snake-men, they're still wearing portions of the Vipers' traditional outfit, consisting of a red-accented black flack-jacket and boots over blue pants.
Cover Girl's new vehicle is a tweaked version of 1993's "Dino-Hunter", with four wheels instead of six. If you knew that, you might've seen the dinosaurs on the last page coming!

Hasbro franchise references

Cesspool's "Army Ants" are the titular creatures from the Hasbro toyline of the same name, all colored in blue or orange with multi-colored bulbous abdomens, just like the toys.

Errors

His appearance in M.A.S.K.: First Strike wasn't a one-time thing; Destro continues to be part of the Cobra cast in this new series, which should be impossible, as he was captured and incarcerated on Cybertron at the end of the core First Strike mini-series. Since it looks like Scarlett's Strike Force isn't going to address this, maybe we should just assume that he somehow escaped from space jail...?

Covers (4)

Cover A: The Joes triumphant in battle, by Harvey Tolibao and Chris Allo
Cover B: Joes versus Army Ants, by Nelson Dániel
Retailer incentive cover A: Scarlett under the heel of Cobra Commander, by Matt Horak and Ryan Hill
Retailer incentive cover B: Merged face of our heroes, by Luca Pizzari