World War III Part 12 of 12 -- Hell
	Short Summary The War comes to an end. After a major battle, Cobra Commander is captured, Firefly injured & captured by Snake-Eyes, Destro turns himself in, Mistress Armada kills Alexander Destro in turn the Baroness executes Armada, Recondo returns & the President is re-established. Cobra has finally been completely defeated.
	Notes of Interest The last issue published of the GI Joe continuity that was started in 1982. Last Issue published by Devil's Due Publishing. The end of the America's Elite series. Thank you page from the creators: entries from Mark Powers, Crank!, Sam Wells, Josh Blaylock & Mike O'Sullivan Double Size Issue. Deaths of Alexander Destro, Mistress Armada. Velocity Cobras captured or arrested: Cobra Commander, Destro, Blackout, Tomax, Xamot, Major Bludd, Scrap Iron, Firefly + the Plague. Flashback scenes to the creation of Cobra. Return of Recondo. First appearance of Carla Greer as Doc, the original Doc's niece.
Major Players The Joe Team: Agent Delta(Rourke), General Colton, General Rey, Barrel Roll, Cover Girl, Dogfight, Duke, Flint, Firewall, Gung-Ho, Hawk, Recondo, Roadblock, Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Sparks, Spirit, Storm Shadow, Shipwreck, Wild Bill Additional Joe appearances: Ace, Airborne, Bazooka, Barbecue, Blowtorch, Budo, Clutch, Cutter, Deep Six, Dogfight, Doc (Carla Greer), Falcon, Footloose, Frostbite, Gen. Flagg, Jr., Grunt, Iceberg, Jinx, Kamakura, Keel Haul, Law, Leatherneck, Lifeline, Mutt & Junkyard, Psyche-Out, Rip Cord, Rock 'n' Roll, Sci-Fi, Slip Stream, Snow Job, Tunnel Rat, Vorona And the October Guard: Red Star, Sgt. Misha, Big Bear Cobra: Cobra Commander, Tomax, Major Bludd, Scrap Iron The Plague: Blackout, Gallows, Grim Skull, Guillotine, Interrogator, Minutia, Vector, Velocity Dreadnoks: Zartan, Zarana, Zandar, Zanya, Ripper, Buzzer, Torch, RoadPig Additional Characters: Baroness, Destro, Alexander Destro, Mistress Armada, Scarlett's father, Stalker's family, President of United States
Creative Team Writer: Mark Powers, Pencilers: Mike Bear/Pat Quinn/Mike Shoykey, Color Art: Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Letterer: Crank!, Military Advisor: Phil Kost, Editor (Unknown Soldier): Mike O'Sullivan, Cover: Michael Golden & Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Cover B by Herb Trimpe & Wes Dzidba
Long Summary In flashback: Sitting near a car dealership a man is listening to the radio. On the radio the news is saying "troops are bogged down in Southeast Asia", "tax increase rates on small business owners", "economy continues to falter, middle class hit hardest" after the last bit of news the man pulls out his car almost hitting a pedestrian, that pedestrian is a rich man in an expensive suit on cell phone and he mouths off to the man. He gets out of his car pushes the rich man into an alley, where the man later emerges covered in blood. The man is going to be Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander arrives in the Appalachian Mountains at his original training ground for Cobra. Major Bludd asks him why here, his response "because this is where it all began and if it must end it will end here." The Joes returning from their successful missions are trying to figure out where Cobra Commander will go now that he is close to complete defeat. From Duke's prompting Agent Delta tells them where he thinks the Commander will go for his final fight. It is the place where it all began and where he lost his soul. In London, the Iron Grenadier army lead by Alexander Destro has been attacked by an unknown army. And this new army is winning. Alexander Destro leaves his command center to go down to the front battle lines. Once Alexander arrives on the battle field most of the fight is over because his troops surrendered. The Baroness had used her own army, Athena, to help save London and because Destro is fighting at her side, the Iron Grenadier army surrendered to him. Back in the Appalachian Mountains, Major Bludd has snuck up a Viper who is trying to make a cell phone call but can't get any reception. The Viper is a Joe trying to inform the team of the whereabouts of Cobra. Major Bludd offers up the use of his satellite phone. In Petra, Jordan, General Rey has arrived to take his Commander-in-Chief, The President home. At Fort Meade, all of the Joes have returned and are briefed on there new mission, Barrel Roll quickly volunteers as well as Sparks to go fight Cobra on there home turf. Around the world the Joes are defeating Cobra: --Psyche-out at the Pentagon, Bazooka in Columbia, Sci-Fi in Peru, Tunnel Rat in New York City, Deep Six in ocean off of Algeria, Lift Ticket & Footloose in Bolivia, Rip Cord in Sierra Leone, Leatherneck in Uganda Additional Joes are helping in other ways: --Blowtorch & Barbecue in Chicago, Cutter in Boston, Lifeline and Doc (Carla Greer) in Toronto. Back at the Cobra base, Velocity of the Plague squad is questioning why they are still with Cobra after the war is lost. He decides to leave and as he is flying away, Blackout shoots him out of the air. In Flashback in the same place: Agent Delta, aka Lorcan Rourke, is a GI Joe undercover agent in training for Cobra. His best friend, Tomas, was caught outside the compound making a call. The crowd of recruits, who beat Tomas, are now calling for his death, they hand Rourke a gun and give him the honors. Rourke totally conflicted, effected by the Cobra's twisted belief system and urged by the crowd kills his best friend Tomas. He realized instantaneously that Cobra had corrupted his mind, killing Tomas was an act of cowardness & selfishness. That night he escaped from the Cobra camp and disappeared even from the Joe team. Outside the current Cobra base, the Joe team, including Agent Rourke, are under assault from the Cobra sentries. Scarlett drops off Hawk near the downed Velocity and drives her Hummer into the battle. Major Bludd and the Joe Viper are just watching as the Dreadnoks arrive to add chaos to the fight. Zartan is leading. Blackout has Duke in his sniper sites, when his brother Barrel Roll starts beating him up. He knocks out his brother and says "your going away for good." Now Scrap Iron has Barrel Roll in his sniper sights and just as he is about to pull the trigger Storm Shadow knocks out Scrap Iron saying "this is for the Soft Master." Back in London, Destro and his son are fighting, but really it is just Destro beating up his son. Alexander stands up and removes his families silver mask, drops it to the ground and turns his back on his father. Armada who has been watching pulls her gun and shoots Alexander in the back. Destro kneeling at his dead son says "just count yourself lucky that I'm above killing women." The Baroness then executes Armada and says "He maybe be above killing you but I'm not." The massive battle at the Cobra compound continues: --Sparks is on the outskirts handling the communication when Major Bludd holds him at knife point. The Joe Viper knocks out Major Bludd and reveals himself to be Recondo, Sparks great friend and believed to be dead to all except Sparks. (See DDP Special Missions Tokyo) . --Vanguard (Nick Bailey) has Agent Delta at gunpoint but can't pull the trigger and surrenders realizing the injustice he has done to himself. -- Snake-Eyes is knife fighting with Firefly and losing, then Firefly pulls out his sword. Storm Shadow throws his sword into the ground near Snake-Eyes saying "your gun is not the way to beat him, brother. It is time for you to be whole again." In one super fast move Snake-Eyes picks up the sword disarms Firefly by cutting him and leaving him curled up & shaking. --Zartan appears revealing that he was the one disguised as Major Bludd who offered Recondo the phone to give the location of the Cobra base. Storm Shadow tries to confront him but he disappears saying "I have found a new path today, one which I've no doubt will bring us together again." --Inside the Base, Colton has just knocked down Tomax, who for the first time is questioning his allegiance to Cobra. Cobra Commander shots Colton and they escape out the back door. --As Cobra Commander runs Hawk, using Velocity's jet pack slams into the Commander knocking him out, then he crawls onto to him to prevent him for getting up until Stalker & Scarlett show up. In a debriefing with the President, General Colton & General Hawk tell him that word spread fast that Cobra Commander had been captured by the Joes, that the captured Cobra soldiers, including Firefly, Major Bludd, Blackout, Tomax, Xamot and several of the Plague squad are being held in the Coffin. Destro turned himself in to the authorities for his crimes and is currently on trial, the Baroness and their son has disappeared. The Dreadnoks organization is still thriving but Zartan is no longer running the gang and his whereabouts are unknown. All of the Joe families that where hidden have returned to their normal lives, all survived unscathed. And Recondo is added back to the Joe roster no longer a KIA and the current roster is given some much needed leave time. The President very happy with the outcome and even though there is lots of rebuilding to do is keeping the entire Joe team on full active duty with no red tape and no restrictions. Sometime later in a small remote undersea base, Hawk is talking to an unmasked, fully restrained Cobra Commander. The Commander is still raving about how he is still not completely defeated, that an uprising is coming. Hawk simple says "Maybe Commander, but understand this. No matter what happens you won't be taking part in any of it. On Staten Island, NY at the Fort Wadsworth Motor Pool, Hawk and General Colton are standing in front of the team and he says "We are hear in the place where it all began so long ago, to ask you this. Are you in? Can we count on you?." Scarlett answers with "Come on, Hawk, you already know the answer to that." Then the entire team says. "Yo Joe". Summary by Josh Eggebeen
Number 36, June 2008