The Origins of Evil, Part One: Redcliffe Club

The Origins of Evil Part One »
"The Origins of Evil Part One: Redcliffe Club"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	First Strike #1
First published	August 9, 2017
Cover date	August 2017
Written by	John Barber
Pencils by	Netho Diaz
Inks by	Walden Wong
Colors by	David García Cruz
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Hedgecock
Assistant editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Joe Colton approaches Doctor X and Storm Shadow to join forces with him.

Synopsis

Baron Ironblood observes that London's Redcliffe Club is looking redder than ever as he steps inside to find the establishment soaked in blood—courtesy of Doctor X and Storm Shadow, who have just gotten through slaughtering criminal siblings the Geddis brothers and their many enforcers. Doctor X herself is enjoying some of the Geddises' wine as Ironblood enters, and Storm Shadow immediately whirls to hold her swords on the Baron. Ironblood removes his helmet to reveal that beneath it, he is G.I. Joe founder Joe Colton—and he has come with an offer for Doctor X. She proved her ability to counter Cybertronian threats while working as a double-agent within the British Secret Intelligence Service, and Colton now invites her to join the team he is putting together to use the Talisman, and the technologies Garrison Kreiger has derived from it, to launch an attack on Cybertron itself and destroy the Transformers. Doctor X is unconvinced, but as more of her Red Shadows ninja emerge from the shadows to surround Colton, the ex-Joe puts on a little show of force himself, using his new prosthetic hand to smoothly snatch Storm Shadow's sword away, and deliver an electric shock to the surprised ninja leader. Colton offers to use Talisman-tech to empower Storm Shadow and the Red Shadows far in excess of the cybernetic enhancements Doctor X has provided them, and Storm Shadow is intrigued. Doctor X ponders the offer a moment, and quickly reaches a decision: her concerns are limited to Europe, and she positively will not be going to Cybertron... but Colton can count her and her ninja in.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Humans
Baron Ironblood/Joe Colton (1) Jim Geddis (2) Doctor X (3) Phil Geddis (4) Storm Shadow (5) Red Shadows (6)

Quotes

"What are you doing here... and do you really go out dressed like that?"

—Doctor X questions Baron Ironblood's fashion sense

Notes

This four-page story is the first in a series of back-up strips published in the First Strike mini-series.

IDW continuity notes

• The continuity of this story is... tricky to figure out. Doctor X and Storm Shadow were already working with Baron Ironblood in Action Man #4 (itself set before all of Revolution), which would indicate it comes after this story... except Mercy's remark in this story that she is the "former" intelligence director of the Action Man Programme, and referring to Ironblood as "the late Joe Colton", place it pretty firmly after Action Man #4, in which Mercy was outed as Doctor X, and Revolution #1, in which Colton's Dire Wraith duplicate was killed. That's not impossible, as Ironblood's dialogue about "finally having a word in person" implies they may have been conspiring remotely, but another line in Action Man #4 in that issue makes things a little more confusing, as Mercy refers to Baron Ironblood offhand as an enemy of the Action Man Programme that she seems to expect Action Man to know about.
• Colton notes Mercy's role in protecting the UK against the Decepticons during their invasion in All Hail Megatron, which was also something previously alluded to in Action Man #4.
• Mercy notes the Secret Intelligence Service's acquisition of the Talisman, which we saw take place after Colton's team discovered it in Revolutionaries #3.
• Mercy's obviously familiar with Garrison Kreiger, but again, the timeline is fuzzy. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 established that Mercy was the one who arranged for the relocation of the Talisman to the bunker in Schleteva where it was found in Revolutionaries #1, where Kreiger worked on it. However, the Sourcebook indicated that only happened after Kreiger became part of Ironblood's villainous consortium... and if Mercy had already parted from the Action Man Programme thanks to her evil alter-ego being exposed when Ironblood invited her to join, as we see here, how then could she have made those arrangements? Furthermore, Kreiger was already shown working with the Talisman in First Strike #0! So did Kreiger and Mercy have previous dealings that resulted in the Talisman being moved (she's certainly familiar with him in this story, at least), and the Sourcebook is the one that's got the timeline wrong? Or was that Talisman just one of the many multiple knock-offs Kreiger was revealed to have created in Revolutionaries #6? We're so confused.
• Colton observes that Storm Shadow and the Red Shadows are enhanced with cybernetics, something previously established by G.I. Joe vol. 5 #1. When the ninja next appeared after that, in Revolutionaries #2, they appeared to instead have biomechanical Dire Wraith-like powers, which is here explained to be the result of further modifications Ironblood's alliance provides them with.
• First Strike #0 established that Colton lost his right hand to a Dire Wraith; evidently, the electrical powers he displays in this story are conveyed by a Talisman-tech prosthesis he's replaced it with.

Transformers references

• The Geddis brothers are a pair of hoods from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Make Tracks."