The Modern World

	Action Man in:; "The Modern World"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 26, 2016
Cover date	October 2016
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Paolo Villanelli
Colors by	John-Paul Bove
Letters by	Neil Uyetake
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Action Man breaks into G.I. Joe headquarters to rescue Kup.

Synopsis

Tensions run high at G.I. Joe headquarters on Governor's Island. Most of the team is off-site, engaging the forces of the Dire Wraiths at the captured Bikini Atoll facility; of those that remain, Spike and Talon are relegated to guard duty (which Spike endlessly grumbles his way through), while Miles Mayhem and Matt Trakker continue to argue over whether or not Transformers are living beings. Little are any of them aware that the recent flurry of alien activity has caught the attention of the Action Man programme in the United Kingdom, whose operatives are now doing a little investigation of their own. Agent Terrence Salmons recovers security footage of M.A.S.K.'s capture of Kup from Athens, while Bryce Chan monitors the Joes' movements. With all evidence painting the clear picture that Joes have been recently compromised by the Wraiths and are currently holding Kup prisoner illegally, Director Pauline Bestley orders Ian Noble, the Action Man himself, into the field.

Action Man contacts his friend in the Joe ranks, Mainframe, via text, alerting him to what is about to happen, then takes action in the most direct way possible, crashing his Orca Sea Jet jet ski loaded with explosives into the walls of Governor's Island. The few remaining Joes and the forces of M.A.S.K. scramble to defend the facility, but Miles Mayhem holds Sly Rax and Vanessa Warfield back, instructing them to guard the vault where, unbeknownst to the Joes, Kup is being held. Action Man soon runs into the two black-hearted M.A.S.K. agents as he fends off Joe fire and melts his way inside the facility with acid; he manages to fight his way past Rax and Warfield and into the chamber containing Kup, melting the door shut behind him. Fed up with everything he's been put through, Kup has little to say to the young human, until Ian starts deactivating his restraints. As Mainframe and Agent Helix come running, Rax and Warfield continue to try to keep Kup's captivity a secret... which soon becomes impossible when he and Action Man smash their way out of the room. Mainframe immediately realizes the secret that M.A.S.K. has been keeping from the Joes and turns on Rax, but Mayhem is uninterested in helping his subordinates, and instead engages Kup in his Switchblade heli-jet. Recognizing Kup, Mayday tries to talk to him and figure out what is going on; there's no time for a full conversation, but the few words they share makes it clear to Jones that Kup is escaping capture, not launching an attack. This information, along with Matt Trakker's doubts, compounds Mainframe's own concerns, and when Action Man sends him another text pleading for assistance, Mainframe relents and calls in an airstrike from Beijing's orbital laser satellite. The lower-power beams the satellite rains down on the island send the Joes scattering, but provide Kup and Action Man with the distraction needed to leap into the bay and escape.

Mayhem accuses Mainframe of allowing them to get away, but Mainframe and Agent Helix lie right to Mayhem's face and claim they were firing on low power because they were trying to bring Kup in alive. The Joes are left shaken, aware now of the lies and secrets that fester among their ranks, while Mayhem begins to realize that he can keep his plots and plans secret no longer, and he orders Rax and Warfield to prepare to depart. Bestley, Chan, and Salmons, meanwhile, cannot make contact with Action Man... because he's safe inside Kup, driving along the bottom of the ocean, heading straight for America to join the bigger fight against the Wraiths.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

G.I. Joe

Others

Kup (12)

Mayday (3)
Mainframe (4)
Agent Helix (11)
Heavy Duty (13)
Flash (14)

Quotes

"You're okay with this?"
"I'm used to it. There's a significant but ultimately irrelevant difference."

—Chan and Bestley on Action Man's method of operation

"Ow! That guy shot me in the head!"
"He probably thought you used it."

—Sly Rax and Vanessa Warfield react to Action Man opening fire

"Awright, kid. Y'got my attention. You got a name?"
"I'm Action Man. I'm here to help. The organization holding you has been compromised by an outside agency, and I need to get you to... safety, I guess."
...
"...your name is Action Man?"

—Kup and Action Man

"Oh, hey—don't kill anybody."
"What do I look like?!"
"Honestly? A giant robot killing machine."
"Aw shucks, kid. That's the nicest thing I've heard in about six billion years."

—Action Man and Kup

"What should I call you, old-timer?"
"Kup. With a K."
"Your name is K-U-P?"
"Sure. I ever tell you about the time I taught those yahoos how to spell Kommand?"

—Action Man and Kup

Notes

Continuity notes

This issues occurs roughly concurrently with Revolution #4 and The Transformers: Revolution one-shot, with reference made to the Joes' attack on the Bikini Atoll facility from the former, and "everything at the White House" from the latter. Unfortunately, due to delays, Revolution #4 hadn't actually been released at the time this issue was published.
Director Bestley notes that the U.S. is "one of two" nations with alien technology; the other is China, with their People's Liberation Army Mecha Force, as established in The Transformers #50. The Chinese laser satellite array was introduced in the same issue.
M.A.S.K. captured Kup in Revolution #2. It is security footage of this battle that Salmons recovers, including the beginnings of Trakker and Mayhem's argument, which we did not see in that issue.
Action Man and Mainframe's friendship was established in the prose backmatter of Revolution #1.
Miles Mayhem refers to his past relationship with Matt Trakker's father, which was mentioned in Matt's profile in Revolution #3. He points out that Matt's father "trusted him," which is another colossal flashing neon warning sign that Mayhem totally killed him.
Mayhem notes that he has two Cybertronians in custody; the second, who does not appear in this issue, is Blitzwing, as seen in several Revolution issues.
Action Man notes that it's been a month since the end of his own four-issue series, making reference to when he discovered that his former partner Mercy Gale was really the supervillain Doctor X. In response, Kup starts to tell a similar story about a "young fella named Orion"; obviously he's talking about Orion Pax, aka Optimus Prime, and is presumably referring to the time Orion was betrayed by Megatron, as seen in Autocracy #8.
Kup recalls his previous capture by the Earth Defense Command, which Jones points out she helped him escape, as seen in The Transformers #48.

Other franchise references

Action Man's "Orca Sea Jet" was an actual jetski toy from the 90s Action Man toyline.
Sly Rax gives his mask the command "Stiletto: fire." Such voice commands were how the masks worked in the original M.A.S.K. animated series, and this is the first time they've been shown to work this way in IDW continuity.
It's fitting that Flash is the Joe who is able to recognize that the satellite laser beams are low-power simply by looking at them; he is the Joe's "laser rifle trooper," and knows what's what when it comes to a laser.

Real-life references

Action Man hopes he and Kup can be "best friends, like in that movie." In-keeping with his established fondness for referring to the films of his youth in the 90s, he's making reference to The Iron Giant.

Errors

On page 2, Directly Bestley's first name is given as "Paulina," instead of "Pauline."
Heavy Duty's real name is given as "Hershel Dalton," which is the character's real name in the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra live-action movie and G.I. Joe: Renegades animated series. However, IDW's G.I. Joe vol. 3 #11 has already established that for IDW continuity, Heavy Duty's real name is "Lamont Morris," which was the character's original real name for most of his history until it was changed for the film and cartoon.
On pages 14, 17, and 20, "Cybertronian" is misspelled "Cybertronain."

Notes

Hey, so... what's with the covers for this issue? Aside from the blank one (duh), they all feature "ancient temple" aesthetic elements, and two of 'em have Aileron, but neither she nor a temple are part of the issue. Abandoned plot?

Covers (4)

Regular cover: Aileron, Sly Rax, Vanessa Warfield, and Action Man, by Drew Johnson and David Garcia-Cruz
Subscription cover: Kup and Action Man by Paolo Villanelli and John-Paul Bove
Sketch cover: Blank cover for sketches
Retailer incentive cover: Action Man, Aileron, and Kup by Ken Christiansen