First Strike issue 2

« First Strike #2 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	August 23, 2017
Cover date	August 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

M.A.S.K. accompanies G.I. Joe to Autobot City to get help, while more members of Baron Ironblood's villainous cadre step out of the shadows to proceed with the next step of their plan.

Synopsis

Scarlett's reading of Joe Colton's letter is interrupted as a phalanx of Red Shadows crash through the walls of the bunker. The Joes pull out, fighting their way through the ninja back to the surface, realizing as they go that Colton has wired the entire base to blow. The team intends to hijack one of the heli-transports on the launchpad outside to get away, but even it is set to explode, and does so before they can get to it. His patience expired, Roadblock puts all of his might to work shoulder-charging his way through the Red Shadows, clearing a path that lets the team make it outside before the whole base goes up. Once they have regained their bearings, Scarlett resumes reading Colton's letter, and learns that Colton has joined forces with Garrison Kreiger to avail of the "weapon of last resort" he possesses. Having found official channels to be insurmountably corrupted by Dire Wraith infiltration, Colton went outside the law to enact this plan, creating a new identity for himself: Baron Ironblood.

On Cybertron, Destro and Storm Shadow blast their way past Optimus Prime and Windblade in the Razorback, making for their pre-determined rendezvous point. Also on course for the same location is the team of Miles Mayhem, Garrison Kreiger, and a third villain whose face remains hidden in shadow, who are transporting Kreiger's weapon—the mysterious alien obelisk known as the "Talisman"—in Mayhem's "Outlaw" truck. The plan is to connect the Talisman to Cybertron's core and poison the planet from within—a task which requires the "enerchange" interface abilities of the final member of the villainous team, Microspace minister of war Shazraella. The inches tall Shazraella requires a larger body in order to do her part, the procurement of which falls to Storm Shadow; from the fleeing crowd of panicked Cybertronians, the ninja selects and cuts down Antagony so that Shazraella can enerchange and fuse with her, gaining control of her body. Linking up with the rest of the villains, the now-giant Shazraella hefts the Talisman onto her back, and she and the rest of the team—squabbling and backbiting all the way, of course—enter a duct that will lead them down into the depths of the planet.

While the villains' main objective goes into motion, Baron Ironblood and the rest of his footsoldiers keep the Transformers and Flint's G.I. Joe team busy. Head of planetary security Ironhide saves Flint, Spike, and Talon from a band of Red Shadows led by Major Bludd, then calls for a retreat back to the Spire, hoping that the Council of Worlds can work together and form a plan. Unfortunately, Starscream and Elita One are too busy arguing to do any planning; Elita blames Starscream for allowing the humans onto Cybertron in the first place, and opines that they should all be wiped out, starting with new council member Marissa Faireborn. Optimus Prime tries to intercede, but Marissa can take care of herself; she impugns Elita's ability to resolve the situation without resorting to mass-murder, which proves just insulting enough for Elita to take up the challenge. When Elita calls her orbiting ship Carcer to order reinforcements sent down the planet's surface, however, the council are met with only more bad news: the Knights of the Solstar Order have also arrived in Cybertronian orbit, their attention caught by the mutated, Dire-Wraith-like biology of the Talisman-altered Red Shadows, and they have placed the planet under quarantine!

Back on Earth, Scarlett calls in Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker of M.A.S.K., who provide the heroes a weapon of last resort of their own: a stabilized version of the alien techno-virus recovered from the remains of Astrotrain during the two teams' last adventure together. Knowing that they will require use of a Spacebridge to get to Cybertron and join the fight there, the group sets course in a submarine for Autobot City, hovering above the Greenland Sea. Upon surfacing, they are met by Skyburst and Stormclash, who usher them aboard the city to meet with Soundwave. The Decepticon explains that the Spacebridge has been shut down from Cybertron's side, cutting them off, but the humans and Transformers put their heads together and figure out how to proceed. Deducing that the villains must have piggybacked their M.A.S.S. Device teleporter on the Spacebridge's signal to reach Cybertron in the first place, the heroes conclude it should be possible for them to recreate the effect for a one-shot teleportation—if they can get their hands on the M.A.S.S. Device itself. With alamaring alacrity, the Torchbearer twins refit the bridge for the plan, then the combined forces of G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., and Autobot City prepare to storm Castle Destro and take the M.A.S.S. Device by force!

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"People sure have a crap way of complimenting you, Scarlett."
"I blame myself."
"I blame you too. Underachieve some time, will ya?"

—Lady Jaye and Scarlett

"You are extremely bossy for someone so easily crushed."
"That should tell you something."

—Storm Shadow and Shazraella

"Soundwave? That's the talking boom box, right?"
"Right."
"There's a reason I missed this work."

—Gloria Baker and Roadblock

Starscream: "I will not be spoken to in this manner, Elita."
Elita One: "Perhaps you should have thought about that before allowing these flesh-covered parasites to run rampant across Iacon!"
Marissa: "Hey! I am right here."

Notes

In addition to this 20-page main story, First Strike #2 also includes the four-page second chapter of an ongoing back-up strip, "The Origins of Evil", detailing how Ironblood assembled his evil allies.

IDW continuity notes

• Colton refers to "getting a new hand"; issue #0 showed how he had lost a hand to attempted Dire Wraith possession, while last issue's back-up strip explained how he had replaced it with a Talisman-tech prosthesis.
• Colton references his very first encounter with a Cybertronian life-form, as documented in issue 3 of Revolutionaries.
• Trakker notes that the facsimile Transformers Ironblood uses to smuggle his forces onto Cybertron are "definitely M.A.S.K. tech." There's nothing overtly "M.A.S.K."-y about the robots themselves, and the advanced tech Kreiger has access to means Mayhem's involvement is hardly a certainty based on that alone; therefore, though it's not specifically stated, Matt must logically be deducing this based on regular Cybertronians' inability to detect the villains' robots as phonies. M.A.S.K. vehicles are blind to Cybertronian scanners as a result of enhancements made following Mayhem's study of Blitzwing, as seen in Revolution #2.
• As referenced in a footnote, the Joe and M.A.S.K. teams previously worked together to recover the remains of Astrotrain in the 2017 M.A.S.K. Annual. The Decepticon died in space in The Transformers #55, and the annual showed how his dismembered body parts crashed to Earth, having picked up a techno-virus along the way.
• According to Roadblock, Dial Tone has "eyes on" Doctor X and the Iron Klaw, answering the question of where the other two members of Ironblood's alliance in Revolutionaries are. Last issue's back-up strip, "Redcliffe Club", alluded to Doctor X's absence by having her mention her disinterest in travelling to Cybertron.
• Scarlett refers to Gloria Baker getting "out of the game", and a footnote references M.A.S.K. #10 for this story point... except that issue was running late and hadn't been released at the time of this issue's publication.
• Major Bludd appears among Ironblood's ground troops; he has been working for the Baron since prior to Revolutionaries #1, having severed ties with Cobra some years earlier following the events of the 2012 "Cobra Command" storyline.
• Appearing for the first time in the main First Strike series, after appearing in the First Strike #0 prelude, is the mysterious obelisk code-named "Talisman", which has been the central plot device of Revolutionaries. This enigmatic device is an apparent creation of Onyx Prime's, but also includes elements of the biotechnologies of Microspace and the Dire Wraiths. Its original purpose is unknown, but it arrived on Earth during the Ice Age, when the vessel carrying it crashed on the planet. The Talisman teleported away with the vessel from World War II-era Brasnya, somehow winding up in Egypt, where it was uncovered in the 1980s by Garrison Kreiger, who made study of it his life's work; in particular Revolutionaries #7 showed how Kreiger and Colton discovered the Talisman's energy was deadly to Transformers, setting them on the course that has led to the events of First Strike.
• Also referenced in a footnote is Starscream's familiarity with Dire Wraiths, with whom he previously worked nearly two centuries before today in Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor.
• Starscream mentions Elita One's refusal to bring down Carcer and help Cybertron, back in Till All Are One #5.
• Ironblood's alliance has been using the M.A.S.S. Device to move around Earth throughout Revolutionaries; this issue's back-up strip explains that Destro provided the Baron with use of it. The Joes head out to storm Castle Destro at issue's end, since that's where the original, imperfect M.A.S.S. Device was housed way back in the very earliest issues of IDW's G.I. Joe in 2008. The perfected M.A.S.S. was constructed at Cobra's Arctic Section Zero base, but Destro has evidently used the advancements made there to get his original working.
• The Space Knights who appear in this issue have previously made minor appearances in the ROM comic. Prim is the cat-like Knight, Guar is the purple blob, Nikomi is the bear-like Knight, and the Knight resembling an armored human like Rom is probably Butin, an Elonian who barely appeared in the 2017 ROM annual. The appearance of the unarmored Diavod comes as something of a surprise, as he is also an Elonian, a species not known to have centuries-long lifespans. It is unclear if in fact they do, or if Diavod possesses Space Knight armor that doesn't cover his head.

Transformers references

• Shazraella's enerchange victim is the same purple insectoid Transformer who stood out so conspicuously from the crowd last issue. She's not mentioned by name, but we now get a clear enough look at her to confirm that she is indeed Antagony, drawn based on her profile art in the Beast Wars Sourcebook.
• Like Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Windblade, Soundwave is now being drawn based on the "evergreen" design for the character created by Hasbro for use in licensed materials not tied to a particular toyline or film/animation project. Clear indicators are the presence of oscilloscope details on his upper arms, and an additional "satellite dish" on his left shoulder.

Hasbro franchise references

• The Outlaw was a toy from the second year of the M.A.S.K. toyline, converting from the tractor trailer seen here to a mobile battlefield headquarters. It was Miles Mayhem's second personal vehicle in the series, following the Switchblade.

Covers (7)

• Cover A: Rom, Matt Trakker, and G.I. Joe surround Baron Ironblood as he stands atop the Talisman, by Freddie E. Williams II and Jeremy Colwell
• Cover B: Shazraella lunges at Ironhide, G.I. Joe prepare to storm Castle Destro, and Ironblood looks on, by Max Dunbar and Ander Zarate
• Cover C: Doctor Mindbender, Destro, Baron Ironblood, Scarlett, Roadblock, the Red Shadows, and the Talisman, by Alex Ronald; the Red Shadows appear with their original paramilitary Action Force design, rather than their IDW ninja appearance.
• Cover D: Soundwave, Scarlett, Shazraella, Roadblock, Matt Trakker, and Gloria Baker, by Rob Duenas

• 

  King of the hill!

• 

  Yes Baron, this is bad comedy.

• 

  Biker 'Stache returns!

• 

  Dreamwave on acid

• Retailer incentive cover A: Scarlett and Soundwave, by Jay Fosgitt
• Retailer incentive cover B: Miles Mayhem, Destro, Doctor Mindbender, and the Talisman, by Davidé Fabbri and Monica Kubina
• Retailer incentive cover C: Shazraella, Storm Shadow, and our mystery villain, by Leonardo Manco

• 

  "I'm sorry, that's never happened before."

• 

  Is that Roadblock cosplaying as Mindbender?

• 

  Ant of Doom

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