Transformers vs. G.I. Joe issue 12

« Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #12 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 20, 2016
Cover date	April 2016
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

Cobra Commander returns to retake Cobra from the Serpentress, while the Autobots and G.I. Joe rally their forces for the epic final battle.

Synopsis

The Autobots and G.I. Joes ready themselves for the final assault on Trypticon. The Rescuebots seal their oath to protect the humans by forging a "combination lock", merging into Defensor, while Doc autopsies Wild Bill, whose body has been brought back to Metroplex by Perceptor. As he studies his old friend's body, Doc locates a "technoactive cube" that Perceptor implanted in Bill while his body was in his custody; it seems the cube has failed to perform whatever function Perceptor intended... until Bill's hand suddenly reaches up and grab's Doc's shirt!

Meanwhile, Cobra Commander and his retinue are travelling across Cybertron, going from Terrordrome to Terrordome and retaking each one in order to reunite Cobra under his command again. After regaining the service of the Crimson Guard (by killing the member of their group who had taken up his title), the Commander confronts the Serpentress; she believes he abandoned Cobra and that she has expanded his empire, while he in turn believes she has sacrificed the heart of the organization in allying with the Decepticons. Desiring that she return to his side as the Baroness once more, Cobra Commander urges the Serpentress to remove her mask, offering to remove his own cowl to convince her. They both unmask, but the blotches and scars that mark the Baroness's face pale in comparison to Cobra Commander's inhuman visage, as he stands revealed as one of Koh-Buru-Lah's reptile-man spawn. The two look one another in the eye... then passionately embrace!

On another plane of existence, the spirit of the deceased Optimus Prime is led along the path to the Matrix by the voice of Alpha Trion. On the road to eternity, he comes upon Grimlock, whose own path to the afterlife has been slowed by the heavy sword he drags behind him. The pair are stalked by the demonic Kremzeek, eater of souls, but Prime saves Grimlock from the ravenous spirit, and together, they arrive at the gateway to the realm beyond. Their way is blocked by the angel of death, who announces that only those who carry the "key to Vector Stigmata" may pass through. Prime realizes that the wounds on his body form the key, but the angel insists that this will only grant Prime passage, not Grimlock. Ever one for self-sacrifice, Prime takes Grimlock's sword and bestows the key upon him, allowing the former Autobot King to ascend into the Matrix while Prime remains behind.

Back on Cybertron, two old enemies, Fortress Maximus and Scorponok, meet once more. But these two city-bots now have different controllers: Scarlett has slain Zarak and taken control of Scorponok, while Fortress Maximus is now under the control of Snake-Eyes thanks to the Master Sword, containing the souls of the ninja commando's three teachers. The two old lovers reunite atop the cities; the meeting is tense at first, and Snake-Eyes turns to leave, but is stopped when Scarlett asks him to show her his face. He complies, and she is visibly taken aback, before softening and embracing the ninja.

Within Trypticon, Megatron finds himself assailed by visions of past Autobot leaders, transmitted through the Matrix of Leadership he now carries in his chest. He hurls abuse at the incorporeal Primes, demanding that the ghost of Optimus show itself... but receives an unexpected surprise when Grimlock, rather than Optimus, takes form before his eyes. Grimlock laughs and threatens to haunt Megatron forever, taking control of his old dinosaur head—still worn by Megatron on his arm—and forcing it to bite and snap at the Decepticon leader.

With Fortress Maximus and Scorponok now added to their ranks, the Autobots and Joes convince Metroplex to finally transform out of his city mode and join the fight. The united "Jotobot" army marches on Trypticon, where they are met by the collective forces of the Decepticons and their remaining Cobra allies (led by Destro), all protected by the saurian city's forcefield, just as Megatron (having divested himself of Grimlock's head) directs Primus to begin consuming Earth's sun. Wheeljack steps forward with Blaster in hand, holding the Autobot communicator aloft so he can unleash a sonic assault; programmed using the information gathered by Roadblock, Tunnel Rat, and Perceptor, the sonic signal shatters Trypticon's forcefield, and the Jotobots unleash a barrage of green bombs that immediately entwine the Decepticon city, and Megatron, in their creeping vines. With one mighty punch, Metroplex breaches Trypticon's walls and deploys a squad of Jotobots to fight DeceptiCobra inside their own headquarters, while down below, Blaster releases his Recordobots, who are ridden into battle with Sixshot by a team of Joes led by the resurrected Wild Bill!

Presently, Cobra Commander and his army arrive, and the Commander offers Megatron a deal: he will exterminate the creeper vines if Megatron spares the planet Mars and gives it to him to control. Megatron agrees, and Cobra Commander has Doctor Venom, creator of the creeper vines, broadcast a secret kill-switch signal that causes them to wither and die on the spot. Freed, Trypticon turns on Defensor, who has collapsed during the battle, but Steeler is eager to repay the combiner for his vow to protect humanity, and quickly drives the Bridge Layer in between the two. Using the vehicle's articulated, moveable bridge, Steeler elevates Defensor's gun into position, and the combiner pulls the trigger, delivering a blast that consumes Trypticon in a fireball.

Elsewhere, the Serpentress consults the Cobra soothsayer Crystal Ball, who shares with her a vision of the future... a vision that foretells the coming of the true Cobra Emperor, the Serpentress and Cobra Commander's reptilian child!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You never really understood how truly dangerous I was."
"Of course I did. It's why I used every dirty trick and mind game I could with you... and none of it worked."

—Serpentress and Cobra Commander

"Am I a monster?"

—Snake-Eyes speaks his first words since receiving his scars, as he reveals his face to Scarlett

"I killed you! I sent you to your grave and made a trophy of your bones!"
"Me haunt you in your dreams! You go to corners of the cosmos, but you can't escape me Grimlock!"

—Megatron and Grimlock

"YOTO JOTOBO!"

—An unidentified Joe coins their new battle cry

Notes

Continuity notes

• Wild Bill died in back in issue #2, though we didn't find out that fact until issue #5. His dead body was seen being worked upon by Perceptor in issue #6.
• Megatron killed Grimlock and took his tail and "Rex Tyrannus Crown" (his dino-head) in issue #5.
• Cobra Commander remarks that the Serpentress has "revised the Cobranomicon" as part of Cobra's alliance with the Decepticons. This would suggest that, at least, the Cybertronian figures in the portion of the book we saw in issue #6 were among her retroactive additions.
• Cobra Commander reveals himself to be a hideous snake-man underneath his hood! The seeds for his reveal have been planted throughout the series, as we have slowly learned that the modern Cobra is a descendant of the original reptiloid race that was spawned by the god the cult of Cobra worships, Koh-Buru-Lah. The druids that were an earlier iteration of the cult seen in issue #9 had blue skin, like Cobra Commander did in G.I. Joe: The Movie, a cross-media allusion to the Commander's genetic connection to his eldritch master. That said... does this mean he romanced Billy's mum while looking like that, and sired the apparently-entirely-human Billy, or is his scaly countenance a transformation only recently visited upon him?
• Woah, dude, what's Snake-Eyes been up to? Last we saw him, he was on his way to the action, but detoured into Kalis for the prose story "Black Cybertron" in issue #10. Where'd he get the Master Sword from? Wasn't the Soft Master alive as recently as issue #1? Scioli notes in the commentary that some of what we see here was originally intended for a second prose story that would have appeared in issue #11; presumably, some context has been lost in its transition to full comic page in this already-packed issue.
• Fortress Maximus was last seen in issue #5, in which he was separated from his binary-bonded partner Galen. We haven't seen him since issue #6, but since Snake Eyes has taken control of Fort Max, it doesn't look like Galen's time on the Polyhex Killway ended well.
• Scarlett took control of Scorponok from Zarak in issue #7. Reflecting her new role, her name is now given on her file card as "Zkarlett."
• It was just back in issue #10 that the Constructicons were complaining about their inability to form Devastator, but the big guy is back in action this issue. He has a grey midriff, indicating that something (or someone) has been used as a replacement for the deceased Long Haul, who got 'sploded back in issue #2.

Transformers references

• Normally formed from the Protectobots, here, Defensor is the combined form of the new, delightfully random subgroup, the Rescuebots. The team is 50% 1984-85 Autobots with "emergency services" alternate modes and functions: Prowl the police car, Red Alert and Inferno the fire department vehicles, and Ratchet the ambulance. The other members are Jetfire, Arcee, and traditional Protectobot member Blades, who is a double-reference wrapped in an homage: based on the original toy version of Rescue Bots Blades, but colored like the Generation 1 character. Finally, the team is completed by Peacemaker—normally Pointblank's Nebulan Targetmaster partner, here, he's a much larger Cybertronian who forms a huge gun for Defensor to hold. Phew!
• Kremzeek originally appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode that shared his name. He has persisted as a figure of mischief who often appears as an easter egg in modern Transformers media; this is certainly the most fearsome take on the character yet!
• Though unnamed in dialogue, any Transformers fan is likely to recognize that the angel of death is skeletal samurai Bludgeon.
• The entrance to the afterlife is shaped like the Matrix of Leadership, but with a featureless central globe that, through the "wireframe" effect the whole landscape is depicted with, is presumably intentionally supposed to resemble the mega-computer Vector Sigma, for which the "Vector Stigmata" is named. The computer was originally introduced in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Key to Vector Sigma," and has been depicted as a means of accessing the Transformer afterlife in several subsequent stories. The key, of course, is an interpretation of the computer's own activation key that gave its introductory episode its name.
  • Because the whole thing is purple, though, it also looks an awful lot like Shockwave's head, but that's probably not intentional.
• Fortress Maximus's Master Sword was a blade wielded by the character in the Japanese animated series The Headmasters. The Japanese version of the Fort Max toy came with the weapon, but it wasn't included with the American release. In this take on the story, it derives its name from the fact it contains the souls of Snake-Eyes's three "masters", the Hard Master, Soft Master, and Blind Master, who have all appeared in previous issues.
• In addition to the more well-known Autobot elder Alpha Trion, the crowd of floating ancient Autobot heads that haunt Megatron from within the Matrix include four of the Matrix guides from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4", who would later be given the names Sentinel Prime, Zeta Prime, Primon, and Prima. Megatron refers to Trion and Sentinel by name, but also mentions two brand-new Primes, Regulus Prime and Amazon Prime.
• Sentinel Prime refers to Megatron's past as a gladiator, a plot element not mentioned in this series before, but which originated with the Marvel UK story "State Games," and which achieved great prominence as part of the backstory of the Aligned continuity version of the character.
• There's a third Recordabot in addition to Steeljaw and Ramhorn, a red four-legged creature. Doesn't seem deliberately intended to be a pre-existing character, but hey, maybe it's an off-color Stripes?

G.I. Joe references

• Upon arrival at the Crimson Guard's Terrordrome, Cobra Commander kills a figure identified by his file card as the "Interim Cobra Commander." This is a reference to the character known as "Fred VII" in the Marvel G.I. Joe series, a member of the Crimson Guard who temporarily posed as the Commander when the genuine article was believed dead. In both that comic and this, he's based on the 1987 Cobra Commander figure, with its fully-body battle-armor.
• Speakin' of the Terrordrome, it's shown to serve as a launch base for a Firebat, and to be one of many. The "launch base" aspect was part of the original toy, while the Marvel comics depicted Terrordromes as a series of installations. The original Joe cartoon, meanwhile, repurposed the concept and used the Terrordrome as a new headquarters for Cobra in the 1986 season.
• Cobra Commander was previously depicted as a snake-man in G.I. Joe: The Movie, when exposure to genetically-modifying spores slowly devolved him into a snake. In the cartoon story that followed the movie, "Operation: Dragonfire," he was partially evolved back to a similar humanoid reptile-man appearance.
• The blotches that scar the Baroness's face are based on a printing error from issue #44 of the Marvel G.I. Joe comic, which spattered magenta ink over the character's face.
• For years, the original Marvel series depicted Snake-Eyes's unseen injuries as being so gruesome that the sight of them could make hardened men throw up, but when he was eventually unmasked on-panel in issue #93, he was no oil painting, but he wasn't that hideous. As such, Tom Scioli notes in this issue's commentary that for his take on the unmasking, he really tried to make the reveal live up to that old promise. Snake's injuries are truly stomach-churning, with half his face torn off to expose the muscle, eye socket, and teeth beneath. As we noted back in our annotations for issue #1, there's a visual similarity between Snake-Eyes's wounds and those he inflicted on Starscream in that issue; if Starscream's were a worse version of the original Marvel Snake-Eyes's injuries, then this Snake's are an even worse version of Starscream's.
• Doctor Venom is wearing S.N.A.K.E. armor, sans the helmet piece.
• As Crystal Ball looks into the future, a panel snipped from issue #14 of the Marvel Joe series is used as a "vision," featuring the Baroness turning on Destro, with art by Mike Vosburg, Jon D'Agnostino and Joe Rosen, and letters by Christie Scheele. In this panel, the Baroness says "I'm late..."—in the original context, she was merely stating she was late to a meeting, but here it's repurposed to refer to a late period in the near future, preceding her pregnancy.
• Though unnamed, the figure Crystal Ball sees is Serpentor, the Cobra Emperor. Usually a genetically-engineered super-warrior, Serpentor is here depicted as a Koh-Buru-Lah reptiloid, hearkening back to G.I. Joe: The Movie and its revelation that his creation was orchestrated by Cobra-La, so that he could serve as the true leader of Cobra. Baroness's "Serpentress" guise has always been inspired by Serpentor's garb, and Cobra Commander even calls her by a feminized version of Serpentor's title, "Cobra Empress," this issue.

Real-life references

• Peacemaker's file card reads "And I'll form the gun!", referring to the famous Voltron quote, "And I'll form the head!"
• In addition to conceptually merging the Master Sword with the three Arashikage Masters, Scioli remarks in the commentary that he was also inspired by the Master Sword from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series, a sword that contains a spirit within it.
• Defensor paraphrases Jaws when he prepares to deliver the final shot to Trypticon: "Smile, you son of a gun!"
• As Crystal Ball studies the image of the multi-eyed Serpentor, he quotes Rosemary's Baby: "He has his father's eyes."
• "Amazon Prime" is the name of a paid service on Amazon.com.

Errors

• On the inside front cover, subscription cover artist Giannis Milonogiannis's surname is misspelled "Milogiannis."

Other notes

• There are so many generic Seekers and Insecticons, you guys. Some of the Seekers in particular have color schemes that make them look kinda like Thundercracker and Starscream, but the wing coloration, placement, and/or shape is wrong on both (and "Starscream" is missing his face-mask), so we've bundled them all under "generics" in the list above. Similarly, for numbering purposes, we're assuming the Kickback, Bombshell, and Shrapnel standing on the ground with the main force are the "real" ones, and the ones flying are the generics, but that's just an organizational thing.

Covers (2)

• Standard cover: Cobra Commander and the Serpentress, by Tom Scioli
• Subscription cover: Shockwave and the Baroness, by Giannis Milonogiannis

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Reprints

• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Volume 3
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Quintessential Collection Hardcover
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 74: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, Part 2

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  Volume 3; cover art by Tom Scioli

• 

  Quintessential Collection; cover art by Scioli

• 

  Definitive G1 Collection: Vol. 74: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, Pt. 2; cover art by Don Figueroa and Scioli

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