IDW - Revolutionaries #2

Title: Enter the Shadow

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

Action Man struggles to free himself from the metal flag pole he is chained to, but through brute force, he manages to free himself. Action Man follows the tracks left from the tractor that wrote the "Help Us" sign to Earth, and locates the long-abandoned Cobra base "Section Sabine" and manages to get inside, soon discovering that the base still has oxygen and power, so he starts to explore it, and finds piles of dead Cobra Troopers, and someone else...

On Earth, the Revolutionaries have located the Micronauts in the Pacific Science Center, where they are looking for one of the portals home. The Micronauts assume the Revolutionaries are trying to capture them, so they fight back, until they realize that they aren't actually trying to hurt them, and they soon make peace. Blackrock shows them a holographic image of the Talisman, assuming they might know something about it, due to both them and the device seeming to have Cybertronian origins.

The team soon reconvene at a locale Onyx building, where they discover that the Talisman seems to be designed for Micronauts to interact with, but they aren't sure where the actual device is at the present. Oz however, reasons that since the Revolutionaries were able to track down the Micronauts due to their technology, couldn't they track down the Talisman the same way...

Back on the Moon, Action Man is taken to see Doctor X, who is leading the operations in the abandoned base, and it told that whilst Doctor X doesn't want to kill him, she isn't going to let him go either, in case he ruins their plans.

Knowing that something is happened, Action Man runs to escape, reasoning that the MASS Device that Cobra used to use must be working again, since there's no way an Earth-built spacecraft could take him to the Moon this fast. He soon locates the transporter room, and finds it filled with Ore-13, but before he can use it, he is skewered by Storm Shadow, angry that he killed one of her troops.

Kup, now fitted with thrusters and wings, along with the Micronaut's ship, the Heliopolis, head to the Moon, where they smash through the walls, and raid the facility. The Revolutionaries go after the Talisman, whilst the Micronauts go to find and rescue Action Man.

During the battle, Larissa makes it to the Talisman, and manages to Enerchange with it, revealing that it basically acts like a small space shuttle, however upon activating it, the Ore-13 that was surrounding it starts to react to the energy, and prepares to detonate. Baron Ironbood orders an evacuation, much to the annoyance of Doctor X, who doesn't want to abandon Action Man to die.

Soon, Kup and Mayday locate Action Man, and remove the sword in his hand.

Outside the facility, Blackrock, Acroyear and Larissa, inside the Talisman watch as the base explodes from the Ore-13 reaction, and fear the worst for the rest of the team, however Kup emerges from the flames, along with the Heliopolis, and the humans in his chest cavity.

The two groups head back towards Earth, but are still confused as to the actual nature of the Talisman, and have no idea how to use it to cure their friends and the innocents that were turned into Dire Wraiths from it. Action Man however reveals that British Intelligence has files on the device when it was found...Mayday welcomes him to the team....

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Sovereign/Garrison Blackrock - Head

Impactor (Mentioned)

Wreckers (Mentioned)

GI Joe

Mayday/Ayana Jones

Roadblock (Mentioned)

Snake Eyes (Mentioned)

Cobra/Doctor X

Doctor X/Mercy Gale

Storm Shadow

Baron Ironblood

Red Shadows

Section Sabine Cobra Troopers Dead

Section Sabine Astronauts Dead

Oktober Guard (Mentioned)

Micronaut

Oziron Rael

Phenolo-Phi

Larissa

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron

Time Casket (Mentioned) Dead

Other Human

Action Man/Ian Noble

Pacific Science Center Patrons

Adventure Team (Mentioned)

Matt Damon (Mentioned)

British Intelligence (Mentioned)

Arashikage Ninja Clan (Mentioned) Mostly Dead

Notes

• As mentioned last time, Action Man is stranded at the Cobra base "Section Sabine" at the start of the issue, one of the dangling threads of the GI Joe comics from before Revolution.
• Action Man's reference to Matt Damon is likely a reference to the film "The Martian" where Damon's character needs to survive on Mars.
• It's revealed that the Cobra base does still have life support systems in place on there, so it's most likely that the Cobra troops killed themselves due to them running out of food, rather than other more obvious Moon-related deaths.
• This issue spoils that the Micronauts are going to learn English in the upcoming issues of their own series. Also, the Time Mask is not present amongst them...I guess they ditched it somewhere.
• Kup recites the Universal Greeting from the animated Transformers Movie. The Micronauts are not impressed, seeing it as cringey, but do understand it. This is likely due to the relationship between the Micronauts and Cybertronians.
• As I theorized in my review of Micronauts #9, the obelisk/Talisman was one of the portals that the Time Casket showed the team.
• If neither Doctor X or Baron Ironblood actually wanted Action Man to die...then WHY DID THEY STRAND HIM OUTSIDE THE STATION!??!
• Oz mentions that the Talisman has ports on it that'll allow them to Enerchange with it....I did not realize they needed ports to do that...they haven't seemed to so far....remember when Karza used himself with all those Dire Wraiths?
• It's revealed that the Oktober Guard and Doctor X's team are working together, and have a working MASS Device at their base on Earth
• Why did Blackrock just happen to have a space-shuttle attachment fitted to Kup's specifics?
• Also, Blackrock appears to still have control of the Onyx company. Surely as an alien sleeper agent, he'd be disallowed from having that!
• Mayday mentions how neither GI Joe or Cobra could justify a rescue mission for the staff on the Moon due to budgetary concerns, Blackrock then mentions that he could have funded it. Two things: the Joes clearly didn't care enough to save them, and was Blackrock even on Earth at the time, or is this just another of his planted memories?
• How did the Ore-13 get to the Moon? Every time we've seen it in transporters it tended to explode, and X's troops don't appear to have a shuttle. Maybe some of the Ore ended up on the Moon when Shockwave sent it to Earth?
• So, the Talisman has a cockpit for Micronauts inside it? Cool! That would imply that it originated from Microspace, or another universe with tiny denizens.
• The Red Shadows were seen in the new GI Joe series (which alas, I am not reviewing here) and had their strange enhancements shown off there too, though they look a bit Dire Wraith-like here...