And my least favorite cover....................
Here is the advertising Blurb from Dark horse
Writer: Mike W. Barr, Mike Richardson
Cover Artist: Frank Teran
Penciller: Tatsuya Ishida, Jerry Bingham
Inker: Scott Reed, Jerry Bingham, Steve Mitchell
Letterer: Tracey Hampton-Munsey
Colorist: David Nestelle
Ferti-Gel was the chemical miracle that could have fed the world's hungry millions. But in the hands of The Iron Klaw, it has instead become a weapon of unspeakable terror. The only force that stands between The Iron Klaw and total global domination is a group of determined warriors who go by the name of GI JOE! Don't miss the climax to this four-part series. Also included is the finale of "GI JOE: From the Ashes,"
[Which chronicls the events of today that have created the GI JOE of tomorrow
And you can find this on Dark Horse site here
http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=95-240
Comic Review originally posted on the Freighter website here
http://www.geocities.com/kepulver/mushe ... imate.html
GI Joe #4: In the Year 2009: The Ultimate Price
Dark Horse Comics, #4 of four
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Tatsuya Ishida
Inker: Scott Reed
Summary: The caption tells us: "Some say a person's name fashions his character, describes his being. If so, the names of these three speak for themselves.
The entire first page is taken up with one big panel, showing us the three SKAR goons from the end of the last issue:
Inferno: short, or at least shorter than the other two, and bald. Wears two arm mounted flamethrowers and a beau coup amount of explosives.
Wreckage: Big-ass hyper muscular freak #1
Rampage: Big-ass hyper muscular freak #2, though Rampage is a lot smaller than Wreckage. His claim to fame is that he turns green and his eyes go red when he's mad.
The caption continues: "If you asked what name describes these men and women, given their circumstances...
...you'd call them mud -- but its deeds, not words, that matter when you're a member of GI Joe."
Inferno spouts off with: "Welcome to the Iron Klaw's dungeon, GI Jokes! We've prepared --"
Harpoon cuts him off, "I know -- 'A very warm reception" right? You need some new lines, man!"
Wreckage tells the Joes that all they're going to need is a new tombstone.
The Joes and SKAR forces are squaring off; ten Joes vs. three SKAR costumed loonies. Let's rock!
Iron Klaw radios in, "asking if his trap has been sprung." Rampage tells him that it has been, by ten stupid little mice.
Stone moves over, releasing Quick Stryke's hands, telling him not to move so the SKAR folks will think he's still a captive. Quick Stryke either can't see Stone or something, which is odd since he's more or less in plain sight.
Iron Klaw tells Stone that his grudging respect for him has been wasted. He didn't' think the Joes would fall this easily into his trap.
Stone says that the Joes haven't.
Using a holographic projector, Metalhead either makes it appear that four Joes who weren't with the main party really were with the main party or makes the SKAR folks think they've been snuck up on. Not entirely sure which it is.
Either way, it gives the Joes an advantage. They proceed to start whupping SKAR butt.
Iron Klaw is unconcerned about the Joes, even if they destroy his hirelings, he'll still have won!
Rampage pins down Sgt. Savage and Short Fuse, until Quick Stryke takes him out. Rampage shifts into his green mode; Sarge tells Quick Stryke that his assist almost makes up for the fact he went AWOL. Short fuse wants to tie Rampage up, but Quick Stryke warns that Rampage is still dangerous.
Inferno tells the Joes that he likes them...EXTRA CRISPY! (Maniacal laugh). Stone tells the Joes to split up and make him work for it as Inferno fires a blast of flame at them.
Harpoon and Inferno face off, water gun vs. flame thrower. Black Dragon sneaks off to one side and uses shuriken to cut the fuel hoses on Inferno's backpack -- which by rights should blow him straight to smeg and gone.
Instead, Mayday knocks him cold.
Wreckage blasts Metalhead, telling the Joes to give up and he'll make it easy and quick. Freight says that you don't get into the Joes by taking it easy and clocks Wreckage. But wreckage grabs Freight and shocks him in return. (Wreckage is some weird sort of cyborgy critter, half man/half machine.)
Ballistic realizes that they have to short circuit Wreckage. Tall Sally yells for Quick Stryke, who fires a rope (or, more likely a cable) from his gun, wrapping it around Rampage's ankle before catching Rampage.
The resulting shock from grounding Wreckage results in Wreckage and Rampage (but not Freight or Quick Stryke) being knocked unconscious.
Stone orders the others to tie up the goons and notify Interalliance to pick 'em up before following him.
Quick Stryke asks if he should remain with the goons or come with the Joes. Stone tells him that they'll have time enough to work that out later. For now, Quick Stryke is going with the Joes where he belongs.
They find a set of steel doors, which Freight knocks down.
Inside, the Joes find a hidden SKAR base, where they find the Duchess's mummified body. Short Fuse finds a test tube of Iron Klaw's new poison formula and deduces that it is now reversed, any country using it will now poison their lands instead of bringing new life to them.
Stone realizes they don't' have the time to go back to their base. They have to use a SKAR Transport to go after Iron Klaw.
Unfortunately, a group of SKAR soldiers show up and say: "SKAR demands your immediate and unconditional surrender....well?"
The Joes grin, then the next panel shows the floor of the transport hangar littered with unconscious SKAR troopers.
As the Joes take off, Mayday observes: "We must be slipping, that took a whole two minutes."
Stone (I believe) responds: "Two minutes we couldn't afford to lose, Mayday."
The mission now is to stop Iron Klaw before he poisons the Ferti-Gel at the main pumping station. Metalhead is unable to radio base, no one will listen to a message from a SKAR craft.
Professor Rayland is watching as his formula is prepared to be pumped into tankers for shipment to the waiting countries. At least, he says, his dream of a world without hunger will become a reality.
Iron Klaw steps up behind Professor Rayland, deriding the idea as a dream fit only for weaklings. In Iron Klaw's dream, the strong u se food as a weapon to enslave the weak. The professor says Iron Klaw has no right to do that. "Rights?" says Iron Klaw. "Another dream of the weak!"
With that said, Iron Klaw knocks the professor out.
Iron Klaw asks a SKAR guard if the Interalliance guards have been "pacified." They have, but the guard wonders if the countries won't be warned if the plan is discovered.
Iron Klaw says: "Perhaps, but such are the suspicious natures of nations that none will relinquish their gel unless all do. Some will disregard any warning entirely and I shall rule!" As he says this, his troopers poison the gel, which will be pumped into the waiting tankers in 15 minutes (I'm guessing minutes, since seconds seems too soon).
The Joes realize that they can't land (the SKAR troops would overwhelm them), so they do the next best thing: crash straight into the building.
Tall Sally and Short Fuse end up at the junction controlling the opening and closing of the pipeline. The other Joes are fighting off Iron Klaw's goons.
Tall Sally: "Looks like we got here first, short stuff."
Short Fuse: "Yeah, lucky us!"
Tall Sally: "You know what this means, don't you? I mean, we got families..."
Short Fuse: "I know, you long drink of water -- and I know any of the others would do the same in our place...for our families and for theirs."
The two have placed a bomb on the junction. They don't have time to get away. As the pipeline opens, the bomb goes off, catching Tall Sally and Short Fuse in the blast and in a flood of poisoned Ferti-Gel.
"Sally!" cries Metalhead as he sees her swept away, most likely already dead considering how quickly the poison worked on the Duchess in the last issue.
Stone stops him, telling him that it's too late; Sally and Short Fuse are gone.
Iron Klaw fumes: "Blast, the mere deaths of two GI Joes is hardly just recompense for the termination of my plans...but one takes satisfaction where one can find it!" He orders a group of guards to defend his escape, promoting them to his elite guards as he bugs out.
"It is our honor to serve you, Iron Klaw,' the guard says.
Iron Klaw escapes, saying, "Yes and one day all the world will echo those sentiments."
The surviving Joes are in a cemetery, standing around two open graves.
Lt. Stone hands a flag, folded into the customary triangle, to a crying, pregnant woman. "He gave his life to make a better world for your baby, Trish. Try to remember that." Presumably, this is Short Fuse's wife.
Mayday hands a similar flag to Tall Sally's parents. "This is the last letter Sally wrote, Mrs. Kennedy,' she says. "She never got the chance to send it."
Stone asks Metalhead if he wants some time off. Metalhead says that he only wants to get back to work.
Stone says: "The Iron Klaw thinks he got away with this -- but did he Joes?"
"Not on my watch!" chorus the Joes.
And with that, the first GI Joe Extreme mini-series ends.
Commentary: Overall, I'm not sure why folks had a problem with this miniseries, beyond the fact that the original RAH Joes weren't featured. The writing is good, the art isn't bad -- the Extreme characters certainly aren't shown to be quite as freakish as the toys seemed to be. The letters columns in all three issues that I have seem to back this up. Most of the fans who wrote in were happy to see Joe back and didn't seem overly concerned about the fact that Snake-eyes, Duke and the rest of the RAH gang weren't around.
'Course, the case could be made that Dark Horse didn't publish any negative letters, but that seems needlessly snarky and suspicious. Could just be that the folks who liked it wrote in; the folks who didn't never bothered to pick it up in the first place.
The point could be made that the deaths of Short Fuse and Tall Sally were clichéd, particularly since Short Fuse's wife was pregnant which is more or less the kiss of death for action heroes. But, by and large, the deaths have some meaning. Sally and Short Fuse die to stop Iron Klaw. It helps give the Joes an added reason for fighting him and gets the series off on a slightly grittier note than the original Marvel series, which was 100+ issues in before a Joe died.
