First Strike issue 0

Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 14, 2017
Cover date	June 2017
Written by	Mairghread Scott and David A. Rodriguez
Art by	Max Dunbar
Colors by	Ander Zarate
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Hedgecock
Assistant editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

Joe Colton approaches Garrison Kreiger in order to prepare for war against Cybertron.

Synopsis

Joe Colton has arrived on the doorstep of his old enemy Garrison Kreiger, missing a hand and infected with Dire Wraith bio-matter. Kreiger ushers him into his lab and sets about extracting the Wraith matter, but while he works, he asks Colton if he believes in magic. Colton gives a non-committal answer, eager for the procedure to be over, but Kreiger persists, certain that Colton, despite his apparent eagerness to leave, won't be going anywhere any time soon. After all, if he was forced to come to Kreiger, it must mean that Colton has nobody else he can turn to, and that he has finally accepted the truth: that the governments of Earth have been infiltrated by aliens, and are now working in collusion with the Transformers, following Optimus Prime's annexation of Earth into the Cybertronian empire.

Once he has completed treating Colton's wounds, Kreiger unveils the Talisman, the mysterious ancient obelisk he has spent decades pursuing, over which he and Colton once clashed. Kreiger calls it "magic"; a greater, "truer" source of power than even the Cybertronians' advanced technology, and goes on to explain how he has been working with Miles Mayhem to assess the extent of its capabilities. By experimenting on Mayhem's captive Decepticon, Blitzwing, they have determined that the Talisman's energy is anathema to Cybertronians—which makes it the perfect weapon to end their threat once and for all. Colton is intrigued by the possibility, but Kreiger points out that they will need a team for such a mission, and that Colton's G.I. Joes are unlikely to want to participate. How fortunate, then, that Colton is one step ahead, and produces from his bag a dossier of villainous names just right for the job...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only as foreshadowing silhouettes.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Humans	Others
Blitzwing (3)	Garrison Kreiger (1) Joe Colton (2) Miles Mayhem (4) Storm Shadow (5) Destro (6)	Shazraella (7)

Quotes

"I am indeed a scientist, and, because of that, I do not dismiss a cosmic truth because it conflicts with my personal worldview. Magic is real, Joseph. As real as any true work of art. It is technology that is the impostor."

—Kreiger elevator-pitches Visionaries

"Bringing a war to Cybertron isn't a job for my Joes."

—Joe Colton prepares to assemble his Suicide Squad

Notes

IDW continuity notes

It's not immediately clear when this story takes place, but context clues seem to suggest it falls in the period of time between the Titans Return storyline and Revolution. We know from Revolution that a Wraith took Colton's place in G.I. Joe (and was subsequently killed by Rom in Revolution #1), and since IDW Wraiths normally take over the bodies of those they impersonate (rather than simply shapeshift into their likeness, as in the original Marvel Rom series), we were left to assume that the real Colton was no more. This issue reveals that is not the case, with Kreiger's words indicating that Colton escaped being taken over by cutting his own hand off. We also didn't know when Colton had been replaced (and if we had ever seen the real Colton in an IDW comic book); the fact that he recognizes the captive Blitzwing but does not know what happened to the Decepticon after he was captured indicates that the real Colton oversaw Blitzwing's capture in The Transformers #57, but was replaced before his Dire Wraith doppelganger handed Blitzwing over to Miles Mayhem in Revolution #0.
Kreiger shows Colton the Talisman, the mysterious obelisk connected to Onyx Prime that has been the central plot device of Revolutionaries. If this story is indeed set before Revolution, then this scene might logically be presumed to be set in the Schletevan bunker Kreiger's company, I.R.O.N., was keeping it in at that point in time, as seen in Revolutionaries #1, before it was acquired by the titular heroes. That said, Revolutionaries #4 also revealed Kreiger has constructed his own facsimile of the Talisman, so it's not 100% obvious what we're looking at here.
Colton refers to acts of evil perpetrated by Kreiger that make him his enemy; Kreiger is no saint so it could technically be any number of things, but it's likely referring to the torture and experimentation he has performed on Colton's old team-mate, Mike Power, the Atomic Man, as revealed in Revolutionaries #3 and #5.
Colton recalls the Talisman super-charging Mike Power's cybernetic limbs, as seen in Revolutionaries #3.
The silhouetted figures representing the individuals Colton wants for his mission are Storm Shadow (the new inheritor of the name, who has been working Kreiger's villainous organization since the events of the Action Man mini-series), Destro (implied to be working with the villains via the presence of his Iron Grenadiers in Revolutionaries #4), Shazraella (bride of the Microspace tyrant Baron Karza, unaffiliated with the villains as of the time of this issue's publication), and the shadow of Miles Mayhem.

Other trivia

This special preview issue for August's First Strike crossover event kinda came out of nowhere, as it wasn't included in the original solicitations for IDW's June releases. On its day of release, it was not available on any of the standard platforms like Comixology or iTunes, but rather, could only be downloaded from IDW's own website store. It includes a unique four-page prologue story (the subject of this article) a four-page preview of August's First Strike #1, and a five-page preview of Revolution #1 to promote the trade paperback collection of the series.
- The sudden appearance would be later explained at the release of Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3, which was solicited as having "a fantastic story leading in to the next huge Hasbro event" for its original release date a month prior to First Strike #1, but was delayed until the end of August (after First Strike #2) and instead had a generic preview for First Strike #1. Logically, this issue was the intended 'fantastic story' that was broken out into its own thing when the HHS delays became apparent.

Covers (2)

Regular cover: Joe Colton arms himself, Kreiger glares, and Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Windblade come under fire, by Max Dunbar and Ander Zarate
Convention cover: regular cover with Revolution trade dress