I Saw Three Ships

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"I Saw Three Ships"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 23, 2014
Cover date July 2014
Written by Tom Scioli and John Barber
Art by Tom Scioli
Colors by Tom Scioli
Letters by Tom Scioli
Editor Carlos Guzman
Production by Chris Mowry
Continuity Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

The G.I. Joe team make first contact with the Transformers, but the alien robots they welcome to Earth turn out to be enemies.

Synopsis

While General Flagg attempts to coax the recalcitrant Snake Eyes out of his self-imposed seclusion from civilization, the G.I. Joe team launches an attack on Springfield, an unassuming all-American little town that is, in fact, an undercover Cobra operations base. The mission is the first taste of action for several new Joes, including Gung-Ho, who grapples with Cobra head officers Tomax and Xamot and is nearly overcome by their symbiotic, acrobatic skills until a copter-load of Joes come to the rescue. Watching from a hiding place nearby, Cobra munitions master Destro trains his wrist-rockets on the helicopter, but is stopped from firing by a shadow-shrouded figure—Cobra's true leader. This mysterious individual prefers to see Tomax and Xamot take the fall, leaving G.I. Joe to labor under the continued misconception that Cobra is still splintered and directionless following Cobra Commander's death, unaware that the terrorist organization has greater goals in motion...

Some time later, in the classified city beneath which G.I. Joe's headquarters T.H.E. P.I.T. is located, Duke runs into Scarlett on the way to a briefing—though before they can attend, they have to shake off a street prophet handing out pamphlets about the "Face of Darkness", a large asteroid presently entering Earth's Solar System that the prophet insists is actually a planet. This "asteroid" is actually the subject of the briefing: G.I. Joe has picked up transmissions emanating from the mysterious celestial body, which include the word "Cybertron" and glyphs that the Joes recognize from their prior encounter with robotic lifeforms during the battle for Koh-Buru-Lah. Those robots had previously been misidentified as Cobra automatons, but now the Joes realize they were alien lifeforms! Mention of that mission and the disfiguring repercussions it had upon Snake Eyes appears to unnerve Scarlett, and she excuses herself, but not without some whispered words to General Flagg.

In response to the transmissions, the Joes lay out the welcome mat at the top secret Area Zero facility, where top brass and grunts alike watch as three alien craft descend from the sky. Three small robots disembark the lead craft, and General Hawk steps forward to address the most humanoid of their number, only to have the feline-form Ravage respond; Hawk offers peace, and Ravage gladly accepts, but it soon becomes apparent that he has mistranslated the word peace as "surrender". Tensions are also growing in the skies above: unbeknownst to any present, Snake Eyes has arrived on a hang-glinder, while Duke has recognized one of the other ships as Starscream, the same robot from their previous encounter, just as it changes shape to emulate a Joe Skystriker. Everything explodes when the unseen Snake Eyes shoots Hawk in the arm, triggering an outbreak of hostilities. The lead ship transforms, revealing itself to be Soundwave, who seizes Hawk, Lady Jaye and Flash and imprisons them within his chest compartment, while all the other Joes fight their way past the aliens in order to clear the area for the activation of countermeasure protocol Coltonbolt—a blast from an orbital laser satellite array developed by G.I. Joe's founder, Joe Colton. Flash is able to slice a hole in Soundwave's chest with his laser rifle, allowing the three Joes to escape; confronted by Ravage on the ground, Hawk is surprised to find that his dull-edged tomahawk somehow manages to slice right through the cat-bot's skull. Duke swoops in aboard a Sky Hawk to airlift his companions to safety, but Soundwave gives chase, prompting Hawk to consider bailing and leading him back into Coltonbolt's kill zone. Before he can do so, however, Snake Eyes appears; though shocked to realize it was their old ally who shot at Hawk, the Joes don't complain when the ninja flies past them and, in an act of misguided revenge, hurls a bandoleer of grenades directly into Starscream's face, ravaging it as his was during his last encounter with the aliens. The Coltonbolt fires, and Soundwave, Ravage, Starscream and Shockwave are caught in its blast radius as the Joes watch. Only Laserbeak and Rumble escape the ray, the latter airlifted to safety by the former, but the two small 'bots are soon swallowed up by a Cobra airship, and the organization's mysterious leader the Serpentress, reveals herself and offers the aliens sanctuary.

Regrouping aboard the USS Flagg, the Joes are acutely aware of the fact that the Cybertronians are likely to soon retaliate in greater numbers, and that the Coltonbolt trick will not work again. General Flagg sends a mesage to Scarlett, who has, in fact, departed with a team on a secret away mission aboard the Joe space shuttle Defiant to the mysterious approaching planetoid. They are no longer on a mission of exploration... now, their mission is the invasion of Cybertron!

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons G.I. Joe Cobra Others
  • Street prophet (26)

Quotes

"My mastery of your language is not quite perfect. There is 'peace' but there is another word--a better word--'surrender'. You offer us 'surrender'."
"'Surrender'? No. I said 'peace' and I meant 'peace'. G.I. Joe doesn't know the meaning of the word 'surrender'."

—Ravage and Hawk


"Lady Jaye, every one of us, whether a general or a grunt, is a Joe... and G.I. Joe has always been a suicide mission. We die, so freedom can live."

—Hawk


"I offered you peace, and you ran me over with your car."

—Ravage


"Lin Chi said it best... 'If you meet Space Buddha, kill Space Buddha'."

—General Flagg

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Though unnamed, it seems logical to conclude that Cobra's mysterious new bandaged leader, identified as the "Serpentress" in the post-story commentary, is the Baroness, who appeared to perish when the plane carrying her and Cobra Commander went down in issue #0.

Transformers references

G.I. Joe references

  • Cobra's manufactured town of Springfield was a fixture of the Marvel G.I. Joe series. The sign seen here includes the town's motto from the Marvel series ("A nice little town"), and the image of one of the Cobra's identical "Fred" Crimson Guardsmen, red pinstripe suit and all.
  • Buildings seen in the classified city include the Arbco Tower ("Arbco" was one of Cobra's legitimate business façades in the Marvel series, its name being an anagram, of course), and one labelled "M.A.R.S.", Destro's Military Armaments Research Syndicate.
  • Joe Colton also masterminded an orbital defense system in the original Marvel G.I. Joe series.
  • The injuries Snake Eyes inflicts to Starscream's face, leaving him with a bulging "eye" and damage across mostly one half of his face seem to deliberately mirror Snake Eyes's own scars as they appeared in issue #93 of the original Marvel series.
  • Colton is referred to as "a guy named Joe", a term used to describe him in issue #86 of the Marvel series, which was in turn a reference to the 1943 film A Guy Named Joe.
  • Whoever the Serpentress is under the bandages (wink), her alter ego is clearly inspired by Serpentor.

Jack Kirby references

  • Spirit here sports an uncharacteristic mohawk, in an apparent reference to the distinctive hairdo of Jack Kirby's OMAC.
  • The image of a long-haired, heavily bearded Joe Colton in the flashback explaining the Colton Bolt is designed to look like Izaya the Highfather, a major character in Kirby's Fourth World mythos.

Real-life references

  • The title of this issue comes from the English Christmas carol, I Saw Three Ships. In-story, Dial-Tone likens the titular three ships (Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave) to the three ships of Christopher Columbus.
  • General Flagg paraphrases Lin Chi's principle of iconoclasm, "If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha".

Other trivia

  • The regular cover of this issue is a composite homage to the cover of the first issue of the Marvel Transformers series (with Soundwave taking the place of Optimus Prime), and the first page of the first issue of the Marvel G.I. Joe series.
  • As with issue #0, this issue's story is followed by a complete page-by-page commentary from Barber and Scioli.

Covers (12)

  • Cover A: General Flagg tries to get a disinterested Snake Eyes into the fray as the Joes are assaulted by the Decepticons, by Tom Scioli
  • Subscription cover: The Joes versus Megatron, by James Stokoe
  • Cover RI: Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlett, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, by Rob Liefeld and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
  • Convention exclusive cover: Black-and-white lineart version of Cover RI, available from IDW's booth at various conventions
  • Special Order blank cover variant: A blank cover for sketches
  • Yesteryear Comics exclusive cover 1: A rather stylized Optimus Prime by Jamie Tyndall and Ula Mos, available exclusively from Yesteryear Comics
  • Yesteryear Comics exclusive cover 2: A black-and-white lineart version of the regular Yesteryear exclusive
  • Yesteryear Comics blanks variant cover: A blank cover for sketches
  • Mile High Comics exclusive cover: Optimus Prime and Duke versus Megatron and Destro, by Tom Scioli, available exclusively from Mile High Comics
  • Cover SDCC A: The Decepticons and the forces of Cobra outside the San Diego Comic-Con by Tom Scioli; available exclusively from Diamond's booth at SDDCC, connects to the second Diamond Previews exclusive cover
  • Cover SDCC B: The Autobots and G.I. Joe outside the San Diego Comic Con by Tom Scioli; available exclusively from Diamond's booth at SDDCC, connects to the first Diamond Previews exclusive cover
  • Cover SDCC RI: Wraparound cover combining Diamond's A and B covers, recolored with a blue backdrop; available exclusively from Diamond's booth at SDDCC

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