IDW - Revolutionaries #7

Title: When Eagles Scream

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Ron Joseph, Fico Ossio and Guido Guidi

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng and Guido Guidi

Letters by: Tom B Long

Assistant Edits by: David Mariotte

Edited by: David Hedgecock

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

In 1994, at the Project Iceman facility, Garrison Kreiger convinces Mike Power to touch the Talisman again, to see if it can increase his powers even more, but the energy starts to make him feel funny. Suddenly the Axalon shuttle, that went missing in 1944 suddenly crashes into the facility, accompanied by Sgt Savage, who has been lost in time since then. The Adventure Force (formerly the Adventure Team) arrive, intending to take down Kreiger, and see Mike Power, their former team member, seemingly dead on the floor. Everyone is rendered dumbfounded by Sgt Savage being there.

Savage manages to fit in well with his new era, and even teams up with the era's Action Man to take down the villains of the day. He continues to fight the good fight when he flies right into a battle with the newly formed GI Joe team in the early 2000's against a displaced Decepticon named Bugly at Mt St Helens, the Decepticon ends up being knocked out by the newly arrived Centurion who drags him away. The Joe team are concerned over Savage possibly compromising their secret mission, but Stalker vouches for him, having remembered him from his return in 1994. Savage reveals that he is there because of a priority distress message he picked up, but the team don't know anything about it. They decide to follow Centurion to see what's going on.

Inside the mountain, they find a facility that Centurion reveals was used by one of his kind in the past, where some others were trapped inside (Bludgeon used it, and Soundwave and his team are trapped inside, though they assume Soundwave is just an old cassette player). Inside they meet Kreiger and the head of Skywatch, Joshua Red, as well as Joe Colton himself, who was the one to call in Savage. The trio lead Savage further into the mountain, but refuse to allow the Joes to join them, which makes the team a little suspicious.

Inside the hidden lair, Savage is shown the Talisman again, and is told that about the Transformers slowly invading Earth as they restraining Bugly to the Talisman. Savage is concerned since this seems wrong, as the robot is clearly sentient and feels fear for his life. The team put on their radiation suits as Centurion grabs Savage and throws him towards Bugly and the Talisman, upon contact the time-energy still trapped inside Savage from his time travelling adventure reacts with the Talisman and tears Bugly apart. The team are glad that they now have a potential weapon against the Transformers...but they just need to learn to harness it....Savage hears this, as he is thrown into the year 2017....

Today, Savage has begun acclimatizing to the new era he is in again, and recounts his time travelling ales to Mayday, whilst Terrence Salmons of the Action Man Programme stands guard over their prisoner, Garrison Kreiger, until the GI Joe team arrive to pick him up.

Inside the facility, Blackrock is analysing the Talisman, helped by his assistant, Camila, whilst Ian, the current Action Man, is showing his teammate Bryce Chan the holding facility for the Dire Wraith infected Humans. Elsewhere, Kup is giving Centurion more information on Cybertron, whilst he is hooked up to the facility's computer systems.

Suddenly the outer guns on the Onyx Facility seemingly activate on their own and fire on the incoming GI Joe team. Skywarp takes initiative and takes down the guns. Inside the facility, Blackrock is attacked by "Camila" with a katana, revealing herself to actually be Storm Shadow in disguise. Centurion opens fire on Kup when he starts to realize that Centurion is hacking the security systems, and Doctor X manages to sneak into the holding room, where she holds Ian and Bryce at gun point.

Baron Ironblood and the bulk of his alliance arrive at the Onyx facility via the MASS device and an all-out battle begins. The Onyx facility's force-field activates, seemingly by Centurion, and it slices the GI Joe jet in half, forcing the team to dive out, and join the fight too.

Savage grabs at Ironblood himself as the rest of his allies are surrounded by the Red Shadow Ninjas, and Savage, who recognizes who Ironblood really is under his mask, rips the helmet off revealing the previously believed to be dead founder of GI Joe, Joe Colton underneath, much to the shock of GI Joe member Mayday....

Characters

Autobot

Kup - Pick Up Truck Shot by Centurion

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign - Head Stabbed through chest by Storm Shadow

Decepticon

Bugly - Bug Monster (Flashback Only) Killed by Talisman Radiation

Soundwave - Cassette Player (Flashback Only) Mode Locked

Ravage - Cassette (Flashback Only) Dismantled

Laserbeak - Cassette (Flashback Only) Dismantled 

GI Joe

Mayday

Skywarp - Fighter Jet

Lady Jaye

Slip-Stream

Rock 'n Roll

Doc

Roadblock

Mutated Joes In Stasis 

Stalker (Flashback Only)

Scarlett (Flashback Only)

Hawk (Flashback Only)

Heavy Duty (Mentioned) Mutated

Action Man Programme/Team Extreme

Action Man/Ian Noble

Agent Bryce Chan

Agent Terrence Salmons

1994 Action Man (Flashback Only)

Natalie Poole (Flashback Only)

Adventure Force/Team

Atomic Man/Mike Power (Flashback Only) Knocked out by Talisman

Bulletman/Richard Ruby (Flashback Only)

Mayhem/Miles Manheim (Flashback Only)

Ironblood's Alliance

Joe Colton/Baron Ironblood/GI Joe

Garrison Kreiger

Centurion - Luxury Car, formerly Locomotive

Doctor X/Mercy Gale

Storm Shadow/"Camila"

Major Bludd

Daina

Horrorshow

Gorky

Dragonsky 

Red Shadow Ninjas

Other Human

Sgt Robert Savage

Mutated Civilians In Stasis

Joshua Red (Flashback Only)

1994 Zartan (Flashback Only)

Cesspool (Flashback Only)

Toxo-Zombie (Flashback Only)

The Real Camila (Mentioned)

Notes

• Just a quick note, I'm a little behind on my reviews due to my current comic supplier being about a week behind schedule, so I only got last week's comics (First Strike 2 etc) today, so including reading and analysing time it may be a little later than most other sources. Thanks for putting up with it :D
• It's shown that the Axalon and Sgt Savage were drawn into the year 1994 from 1944 when Mike Power touched the Talisman on Kreiger's suggestion.
• We heard that the Adventure Team/Force believed that Kreiger killed Mike Power in previous issues, here we see that they saw him just after being overcharged by the Talisman and looking quite dead.
• So...just a bit of a peeve here....in the 1994 and early 2000's scenes we see the Adventure Force and GI Joe witnessing Transformers, including Centurion, whom they even see is sentient...this was before the Transformers were made public knowledge...shouldn't they be all freaking out?!
• We see that the Dire Wraith-Human hybrids are being kept in the Buenos Aires Onyx facility...didn't the Action Man Programme take them into custody in issue #1? I know Chan and Salmons are both present from the Programme, but they seem surprised by them here...
• The GI Joe team featured in the present day in this issue is most of the team from Scarlett's crew from the GI Joe comic series.
• The Action Man Team in 1994 are based on the Extreme version I remember from my childhood....I feel so old.....(at least I don't remember the original GI Joe toy though!)
• Bugly is revealed to have been a part of Bludgeon's team that came to Earth in the 80's. He appears to have a insectoid alternate mode, unlike the rest of his team. (Before you think he's just in his Pretender Shell, remember that those shells weren't created until about 20 years later, and were unstable even then)
• Due to his appearance with Kreiger and Colton, it's likely that the original Skywatch and Joshua Red was affiliated with Kreiger's villainous methods or even funded by them, explaining a comment from the All Hail Megatron Coda stories that implied that the previous leader of Skywatch wasn't American
• The radiation suits used by Colton and the others in the 2000's era flashback are designed to evoke the Baron Ironblood armour, leading to the reveal of who he really is...
• OH MY PRIMUS! BARON IRONBLOOD IS JOE COLTON!!! Well that would have been my reaction had this not been spoiled by the fact that First Strike began like a month ago now....This is the problem with comic release dates getting messed up....