Alternate Covers

Cover A

Cover B (Subscription)

Cover C (Retail Incentive)

Notes of Interest

Introduction of the Brainwave Scanner

Major Players

Joes: Cover Girl, Doc (Carla Greer), Duke, General Colton, General Hawk, Hashtag, Quick Kick, Roadblock, Shipwreck, Tunnel Rat,

Cobra: Baroness, Dr. Mindbender, Major Bludd

Others (from Duke's past): Connie, Ms. Aisha Ismat,

Creative Team

"Homefront Part 3 of 5"

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Penciler: Steve Kurth
Inker: Allen Martinez
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Consulting Editor: Carlos Guzman
Editor: John Barber


Cover Credits
Cover A: Artist: Juan Doe
Cover Company: IDW

Cover B (Subscription): Artist: Steve Kurth
Cover Company: IDW

Cover C (Retail Incentive): Artist: Ryan Dunlavey
Cover Company: IDW

Full Details

The Joe team rushes in firing at Cobra’s as the Baroness rushes away from her interrogation of Duke. They free him and they all repeatedly ask him to give the all clear code. He is confused and refuses.

Duke, who is actually strapped to table dreaming, is in a Dr. Mindbender designed system that interrogates the prisoner and monitors all kinds of bodily functions as he thinks he is in a real life situation. Dr. Mindbender’s assessment of Duke is that he is unbreakable. The Baroness laughs at him, saying she can get the information within the hour or put a bullet in his brain. Dr. Mindbender asks if she can put the bullet in his heart, so his brain can be studied. She laughs again.

A pre-teen Duke in the Ozark Mobile Home Park in Arnold, Arkansas is playing with the 12 inch GI Joe of the Adventure Team named Joe Colton. Who in the middle of his play time asks him for the counter-sign. Duke is just confused why his toy is talking.

A teenaged Duke is mad that he didn’t get the recommendation to go to West Point, his girlfriend Connie, who has never seen him so upset, gives him a hug happy that he will be staying around her now. The West Point recommendation was given to guy name “Monk” who is a town orphan.

In the Phase I: Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in North Carolina, Duke is rushing through woods concerned about being an officer. In Phase II: Language Training in Arabic, Duke is studying hard as his female teacher asks the class to read a poem she put on the board. Duke is able to say the poem and she is impressed. Phase III: Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, Duke is being waterboarded and they are asking for the counter sign or the all clear, his response is to start singing. Phase IV: Q Course MOS Specific Training and Phase V: Robin Sage Culmination Course, Duke is dating and having sex with his Arabic language teacher, Aisha Ismat. Phase VI: Q Course Graduation, General Colton is giving a speech to Duke who has just graduated about defending America and passing the skills of highly trained soldiers onto the next generation.

Now living with Ms. Ismat, Duke is being sent off to fight against her people and she wants Duke to decline the assignment to Trucial. He refuses to engage her in an argument, she even hits him in the head with a lamp, but he just walks out the door not saying another word.

At the US Army Special Forces / Trucial National Army joint training camp “Saladin”, Duke is the Drill Sergeant speaking Arabic as he yells at the training recruits. Another soldier walks up to him telling him his translator has arrived, it’s his girlfriend Ms. Ismat. Her own request for a transfer was accepted by General Flagg. Later in a Humvee, Duke and Ismat are talking about how Duke has so little emotions, it’s a concern of hers and he just dismisses it but hates how she distracts him. A missile comes flying in exploding right next to the Humvee, it flips it over. Duke is slightly injured and insurgents come rushing at the Humvee, Duke is a one man army and kills them all. Major Bludd is watching from above through his binoculars. Inside a room Duke with his arm in sling is being quizzed by Hawk about the events that happened after the explosions. This interview is the moment where Hawk asks Conrad Hauser to give up his identity, declare himself deceased and join GI Joe and become Duke. He agrees.

North Shore Hospital, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, Duke is talking to a doctor about Aisha and her treatment, during the explosion she a received brain injury that has severely impaired her cognitive abilities. The doctor, who is actually Dr. Mindbender, proposes a radical treatment, but first Duke has to give him the counter-sign.

Still strapped in the brainwave scanner, Duke says “To Topaz”, all the previous events where memories played out through the Brainwave Scanner. The Baroness and Dr. Mindbender believe it to be the counter-sign that Duke would send to the Joe team regarding the all clear, which will be an actual trap for the incoming Joes.

At Fort Jay, the public GI Joe headquarters on Governor’s Island in New York, General Colton receives the Topaz all clear message from Duke. A DOD specialist is all excited that the Joes have completed their first public mission successfully and wants to send in the press for publicity.

The Baroness is about to shoot Duke in the chest, but Dr. Mindbender talks her out of shooting him, she walks away saying “I’ll go get my combat knife and bleed him out.”

As the DOD specialist leaves, General Colton admits to an assistant that Topaz was a recording hemade for the toys of him. And Topaz was the codeword for ambush.

Summary by Josh Eggebeen