Valley Forge

	Revolution Chapter 5:; "Valley Forge"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 30, 2016
Cover date	November 2016
Written by	John Barber and Cullen Bunn
Art by	Fico Ossio
Colors by	Sebastian Cheng
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Hedgecock
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Heroes unite for the final battle with Baron Karza!

Synopsis

Battle rages beneath Autobot City as the fearsome fusion of Baron Karza and the Dire Wraiths unleashes hell upon the Transformers, Rom, Snake-Eyes, the Micronauts, and M.A.S.K.. Just as Windblade realizes that Karza is speaking Ancient Cybertronian, the forces of M.A.S.K. regroup and collectively attack everyone else, still being mislead by Miles Mayhem into thinking all the aliens are working together. The infuriated Acroyear fights back, smashing through the windscreen of Matt Trakker's Thunderhawk to strike at the pilot directly; Rom, trying to maintain peace, turns to help Trakker, but Snake-Eyes misinterprets his action as an attack, and leaps to engage the space knight. Optimus Prime tries to encourage co-operation with one of his characteristic speeches, but it falls on deaf ears, forcing the miffed Autobot leader to take more direct action. He scoops up the grappling Acroyear, Rom, and Snake-Eyes, transforming and holding them all inside his truck mode cab, then speeds across the battlefield with Trakker in hot pursuit. Prime bears straight toward the towering figure of Karza, who now crackles with the power of Ore-13, making all involved realize that he is their enemy, not each other. Even Trakker finally comes to his senses and agrees to have M.A.S.K. co-operate with Optimus.

Just then, G.I. Joe arrives on the scene, piloting a small army of their classic vehicles. Agent Helix's "total battlefield awareness" allows her to perceive that all combatants are operating on the same attack vector, against Karza, and so the Joes join the heroes' united front. The battlefield is a frenzy of activity: Victorion leaps in from outside to tackle Karza, but is forced to de-combine into the Torchbearers to equalize numbers when Karza releases several of the Wraiths he is merged with to battle them; a blast from Karza cripples Trakker's Thunderhawk, but he is helped from the wreck by Jazz and Aileron; and even more reinforcements arrive in the form of Kup and Action Man!

Karza brings down the Dragonfly helicopter containing Mayday and Mainframe, but it is snatched to safety by Soundwave, who apologizes to Mainframe for the wrongs he has done him. Mainframe is not satisfied, but greater concerns demand the group's attention: the Ore-13 is beginning to destabilize as Karza funnels its energy through the spacebridge into Microspace. Realizing that they can use Ancient Cybertronian as a shared language to communicate with one another, Soundwave, Rom, the Micronauts, Mainframe, and Trakker assemble a complex plan to thwart Karza's ambition... though it is one that will potentially doom Microspace. Using his mysterious ability to resonate with the space bridge, Rom acts as a link between the bridge and the Micronauts, allowing them to "enerchange" with it just as Karza did with the Wraiths and take full control of it. Simultaneously, Soundwave formulates a counter-frequency that will cancel out the Ore-13 crystals' destabilization and prevent their detonation, which is patched into Trakker's "Spectrum" mask by Mainframe and from there, beamed into the bridge.

As the plan goes into motion, Windblade calls upon Metrotitan, the Titan who makes up Autobot City, to help them. In response, the entire city levitates into the air, carrying all the combatants up to safety. Karza grabs onto Optimus Prime to prevent him from escaping, but the Autobot leader is saved by a surprise sacrifice play by Miles Mayhem, determined to be considered a patriot and hero to the end. Mayhem crashes his Switchblade into Karza, and the vehicle goes up in a fireball, loosening Karza's grip on Optimus. Karza tumbles back to the ground, whereupon Soundwave and his tech-team use the spacebridge to suck the villain back into Microspace. The bridge explodes dramatically, and though Rom is able to fly Trakker to the safety of the city above, it seems that the Micronauts, half of M.A.S.K., Soundwave, and Mainframe have perished in the blast. A guilty Rom apologizes to Scarlett for everything he has done, and leaves in somber silence... just before a battered, battle-blasted Soundwave comes staggering out of the flames, with Mainframe safely protected inside his chest compartment. This united victory provides Optimus Prime with a change in perspective; he annexed the Earth in order to protect it, but now he sees that the planet has protectors of its own, and invites them all to work to defend it together.

Elsewhere, some time later, the Micronauts are revealed to have survived the explosion, but have been captured by human scientists who are preparing to vivisect them.

The G.I. Joe base on Governor's Island is decommissioned as the Joes prepare to go it alone, having severed ties with the U.S. government. Matt Trakker is unsure what to do next, until Scarlett shows him the salvaged wreck of the Thunderhawk, and he finds a note on its windscreen. The note is from Mayhem, who still lives, having staged his own death as proof that "illusion is the ultimate weapon," and who promises he will see Matt soon—meaning that life is going to remain exciting for the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Others

Stormclash (32)
Jazz (33)
Aileron (34)
Kup (35)
Metrotitan (37)

Soundwave (6)

G.I. Joe

Action Man Programme

Action Man (36)

M.A.S.K.

Others

Head scientist (43)
Dr. Dell (44)

Baron Karza
/Dire Wraith hybrid (1)
Rom (17)

Quotes

"Optimus, that thing's speaking Ancient Cybertronian!"
"Then by all means, reason with it."

—Windblade makes an observation about Karza, Optimus Prime makes a snark

"If I am to be swallowed, leviathan, indigestion shall be your fate!"

—Acroyear reacts to being scooped into Optimus's cab

"My kind have painted a target on this planet. I returned here to save your world. But now I understand... Earth does not need protection—it is a planet of equals. We must not remain at odds with one another. Doubtless, we still face many threats... but let us defend our world... together."

—Optimus Prime

"The world just keeps getting stranger."
"That's not a bad thing, Matt. It just means we'll always have something to do."

—Matt Trakker and Scarlett

Notes

IDW continuity notes

For the first time in IDW G.I. Joe continuity, Mainframe wears his classic grey Joe uniform. Prior to this, he's just worn army fatigues, and has never particularly looked like the classic incarnation of the character.
Action Man and Kup arrive to join the action following the Action Man: Revolution one-shot, in which the titular hero broke Kup out of G.I. Joe headquarters, and which ended with them driving across the ocean floor back toward Autobot City.
Rom discovered that his armor resonated with the space bridge back in issue #3. Later, in issue #4, he discovered that Acroyear's armor also resonated with his, which combines with his ability to speak Ancient Cybertronian revealed in this issue to suggest a common ancestor or link. The 2017 ROM Annual went on to show that the Space Knights' armor was created from a mysterious material of unknown extraterrestrial origin...
When Karza tears Optimus Prime's chest open, the Matrix of Leadership is visible inside. Prime currently possesses only half the talisman, after the destruction of the other half in More than Meets the Eye #21, but see "Errors."
Mayhem made his remark about the Transformers being "the ultimate weapon" back in issue #3; as we surmised, it was indeed an allusion (and a lead-in) to the M.A.S.K. slogan, "Illusion is the ultimate weapon," used in full this issue.
The fate of the Micronauts is continued in issue #7 of their own series, which, due to scheduling problems, actually came out two weeks before this issue.
G.I. Joe get the "fresh start" Scarlett remarks she's looking forward to in their new series, launching next month from IDW, starring the small group of Joes seen in Revolution as a core cast, with the addition of Skywarp to their ranks.
The adventures of M.A.S.K. continue into the first issue of their new series, in which Miles Mayhem goes underground and forms V.E.N.O.M. with Warfield, Rax, and Sheppard, as Trakker and M.A.S.K. try to hunt them down.

Transformers references

The cyberglyphics used to represent Baron Karza's speech last issue were not just an in-joke; in this issue, we learn he really is speaking Ancient Cybertronian, which is logical enough for an occupant of a universe created by an ancient Cybertronian. Cyberglyphics were presented as an ancient Cybertronian language in the media that introduced them, the Revenge of the Fallen movie. Karza's line on page 1 translates to "I WANT MY DOLLARS."

Other franchise references

Classic G.I. Joe vehicles brought back into service this issue include multiple MOBATs, Wolverines, Dragonflies, and Skystrikers, and at least one VAMP, RAM, and Conquest X-30.

Real-life references

Like all chapters of Revolution, this issue takes its title from a poem: in this case, "Valley Forge" by Thomas Buchanan Read.
Matt Trakker says, "You know what they say... we have not yet begun to fight!", paraphrasing the famous quote supposedly spoken by John Paul Jones.

Errors

Windblade's introduction caption spells "City Speaker" as two words instead of one.
Rock 'n Roll's introduction caption misrenders the middle word as 'n', with an erroneous extra apostrophe at the end.
Optimus should have the complete Matrix casing in his chest, holding half of its broken crystal core, but here, he's only got half the casing.
Rom buggers off right after apologizing to Scarlett, not waiting to talk things over with anyone, before Soundwave and Mainframe are revealed to still be alive. This is at odds with the following issue of Rom's own comic (which, again, due to delays came out a week before this issue), which showed him sticking around until everything had settled down, and parting ways peacefully with everyone.

Other trivia

Backmatter for this issue consists of more full-page character profiles, this time for Optimus Prime (a two-page spread, written by John Barber, art by Guido Guidi), Windblade (written by Mairghread Scott and Sara Pitre-Durocher), Agent Helix (written by Aubrey Sitterson, art by Robert Atkins and Simon Gough), and Phenolo-Phi (written by Cullen Bunn, art by Jack Lawrence and Ander Zarate).

Covers (8)

Regular cover: The stars of the show, by Tradd Moore and Felipe Sobreiro
Subscription cover A: Baron Karza surging with power, by Brandon Peterson
Subscription cover B: Wraparound cover of Windblade, Megatron in his stealth-bomber body from IDW's 2009-2011 ongoing... which is confusing because he's right next to Megatron in his classic look ...Grimlock, Spirit, Action Man, Cover Girl, Bruno Sheppard, Zartan, an Acroyear II, Vanessa Warfield, non-IDW classic-brand honky Matt Trakker, Oziron Rael, and... what is that, is that supposed to be Swerve?... uh, all charging into battle; part of a series of interlinking covers that homage Byrne's original covers to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition from the late 1980s.
Subscription cover C: Propaganda poster of Miles Mayhem by James Biggie

Subscription cover D: Baron Karza and Miles Mayhem action figures by Adam Riches; part of a series of "action figure" variant covers by Riches.
Retailer incentive cover A: Miles Mayhem, Optimus Prime, Action Man, Soundwave, Rom, Scarlett, Roadblock, and Mainframe, by Ken Christiansen; the second half of a combined image formed with Christiansen's cover to issue #1.
Retailer incentive cover B: Generation 2 Sideswipe and Snake-Eyes, cross-hatched to 90s extreme, by Guido Guidi; part of a series of "retro" covers by Guidi.
Retailer incentive cover C: Baron Karza, Matt Trakker, Bruce Sato, Brad Turner on his Condor, and Julio Lopez in the Firefly, by Art Baltazar; part of a series of interlinking covers. Sato and the Firefly have not yet appeared in IDW continuity.