IDW - Revolutionaries #1

Title: Crisis Intervention

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Fico Ossio

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B Long

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

A strange pulse of energy spreads through the newly peaceful city of Verenya, which turns all the citizens into Dire Wraiths!

Half an hour later, a GI Joe team, led by Mayday, arrives to investigate what the energy pulse was, and why there has been no communications from the city for a while, but are immediately attacked by the new Dire Wraiths. The Joes fight back, and prepare to escape, but their helicopter is destroyed by the Wraiths. All seems lost, until Rom appears and uses his Neutralizer to disable them all, revealing to the Joes that they are not TRUE Dire Wraiths, but only partially converted humans and animals.

The Joes and Rom team up to investigate the pulse's origins together. They locate the dead body of a Russian soldier, who was executed, and the team identifies him as a member of the Oktober Guard. The group investigate the facility further when they come across a chamber where Action Man is fighting with Blackrock/Sovereign, whilst a strange obelisk sits in the middle of a cache of Ore-13.

Soon, it's realized that none of the groups converged had anything to do with the creation of the Wraiths in the city, leading Rom to wonder who did...

The wall crashes in, and the rest of the Oktober Guard, now led by Major Bludd, arrive and start attacking the group. The Joes and others fight off the Guard, but Blackrock is sent flying into the Obelisk, setting it off again. Rom uses his Neutralizer to shield most of the humans from it's effects, but Roadblock, Flash and Quarrel are all hit head-on, mutating them. Bludd is also hit, but only in the arm, which Daina of the Guard quickly slices off.

Whilst Mayday and the others are attacked by the mutated Joes, the Guard steal the obelisk and drive away with it, however outside the facility, the Guard crash into Kup, Action Man's new partner.

Now defeated, Rom uses his Analyzer to try and identify the obelisk, but Bludd activates a hidden device, causing himself, the Guard, and Action Man to disappear in a flash of light.

Blackrock makes it out of the facility, and he explains that the obelisk was an artefact found by the old Adventure Team (GI Joe's precursor), that was in the hands of the British Secret Intelligence Service, explaining Action Man's interest in it. Blackrock explains that he was looking into the obelisk to see if it could help him understand more about his Cybertronian past, and identifies the obelisk as something called "The Talisman"

Hours later, the Action Man programme have arrived at the city, where they take in the mutated Joes and civilians for treatment, and begin work with the "Revolutionaries" to locate Action Man, and the Talisman, hoping it can cure the mutated victims. Blackrock has a plan to save Action Man, but he needs a LITTLE help (Micronauts), and Rom leaves to deal with the real Dire Wraiths back in America.

Action Man wakes up, and finds himself in a space suit, and finds himself surrounded by several dead astronauts in Cobra-issue space suits, next to a large sign in the Moon's surface asking for help....

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head

GI Joe

Mayday

Heavy Duty Turned into Partial Dire Wraith

Flash Turned into Partial Dire Wraith

Quarrel Turned into Partial Dire Wraith

Joe Colton (Mentioned) Dead

Duke (Mentioned)

Scarlett (Mentioned)

Action Man Programme

Action Man/Ian Noble

Agent Bryce Chan

Agent Terrence Salmons

Medical Doctor

Oktober Guard

Major Bludd

Daina

Dragonsky

Horrorshow

Gorky

Shturmovik Dead

Other Human

Verenyan Civilians Turned into Partial Dire Wraiths

Section Sabine Staff Dead on the Moon

British Secret Intelligence Service (Mentioned)

Adventure Team (Mentioned) Defunct

Cobra (Mentioned) Defunct

Earth Defense Command (Mentioned) Defunct

Other

Rom, the Space Knight

Real Dire Wraiths (Mentioned)

Notes

• This series acts as a follow up of Revolution, which actually shows most of the Hasbro properties interacting regularly
• This series also acts as the new Action Man series, since his main series ended just before Revolution began
• Ayana Jones/Mayday is revealed to have been a member of GI Joe before joining the EDC, since the Joes were disbanded for a period of time.
• Flash mentions that he has a new outfit...this is true! Last time we saw him in IDW he looked very different!
• Quarrel is mentioned as having trained with the Oktober Guard...BEFORE it rebelled against Russia that is!
• Blackrock's robot mode, Sovereign, has been redesigned to give him a more streamlined look, allowing him to look more human-shaped than his toy counterpart. He also now features an Autobot insignia and a disguise feature that allows him to turn back into a realistic human.
• Kup's new design is based on his upcoming Titans Return toy. Making him look nothing like an Earth pick-up truck now...good disguise!
• The dead astronauts and giant "Help Us" sign on the Moon are leftovers from the long abandoned Section Sabine storyline from the GI Joe comics. It was a Cobra outpost, but was abandoned, along with the staff a few years ago.