When Eagles Scream

	; Don't tell him the scream is actually a red-tailed hawk.
	"When Eagles Scream"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	August 16, 2017
Cover date	June 2017
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Ron Joseph (pg. 1-3, 11-18), Fico Ossio (pg. 4-9, 19-20), Guido Guidi (pg. 10)
Colors by	Sebastian Cheng (Joseph and Ossio pages), Guido Guidi (own page)
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Hedgecock
Assistant editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	1994, circa 2006, Current era (2017)

The time-tossed Sgt. Savage aids G.I. Joe and the Revolutionaries when Baron Ironblood's alliance arrives to reclaim the Talisman.

Synopsis

This story is told in nonlinear form. This synopsis presents it in chronological order for ease of reading.

In 1994, in Brasnya's Project: Ice Man facility, after years of experimentation and augmentation at the hands of Garrison Kreiger, Mike Power, the Atomic Man is at last ready to make contact with the Talisman once more. As Kreiger and Centurion watch, Power reaches out to touch the obelisk, triggering a surge of energy and the sudden unexpected appearance of Centurion's starship Axalon, which vanished fifty years prior right before Kreiger's eyes! From the Axalon, a confused Sgt. Savage steps, unaware that he has been catapulted half a century into his future, but before explanations can be provided, Joe Colton and his Adventure Team—now the "Adventure Force"—storm the facility to shut down Kreiger's experiments. Spotting Mike Power's body, Stalker can detect no signs of life and the group is left to believe Power has died.

Savage adapts quickly to life in the 1990s, teaming up with the contemporary Action Man and his "Team Extreme" to fight the villains of the era. His adventures continue into the early 21st century until, one day, he detects a distress signal emanating from the vicinity of Mount St. Helens, near Oregon. Speeding to the scene, he discovers G.I. Joe—the newly-founded special mission force that has replaced Colton's Adventure Team—in battle with the Decepticon Bugly. Savage pitches in, but the fight is won when Centurion appears and incapacitates the rogue Cybertronian. Savage and the Joes follow Centurion back to his base of operations, a Cybertronian facility within Mount St. Helens originally assembled by the Decepticons under Bludgeon's command when they briefly visited early in the 1980s, which has since been discovered and refurbished by Joshua Red and his Skywatch organization, and is now being run by Kreiger and Colton. Savage is quickly ushered through into the next room; the other Joes apparently lack the clearance for what he is about to be told, which neither Stalker nor Hawk are best pleased about.

Kreiger and Colton reveal to Savage that they have moved the Talisman into the facility to further experiment on it using Ore-13, and that Bugly is one of a handful of incapacitated Transformers Skywatch found within the mountain. While the other two remain offline, the organization was able to bring Bugly back to life, and now begin chaining him to the Talisman. Savage can see Bugly is terrified, and is alarmed to see Colton acting in this way, but before he can take any steps to stop their plan, he is picked up by Centurion, and flung at the Talisman. The "distress call", it turns out, was just a means of luring Savage in; Kreiger and Colton have realized that his trip through time has saturated his body with Talisman energy, which they can use to reactivate the device. As Savage's body makes contact with the Talisman, its energy surges and utterly destroys Bugly, proving to Kreiger and Colton that they can use it as a weapon... but things do not stop there, as once more, the Talisman sends Savage spiraling through time...

...to arrive a further decade in the future, back in the Project: Iceman facility, in front of the very confused Revolutionaries, who have just managed to successfully capture Kreiger for his crimes. Taking things in stride, Savage accompanies the team to Garrison Blackrock's Onyx facility in Buenos Aires, where the Talisman is being stored and studied in continued hopes of finding a cure for those it mutated into Dire Wraiths. While the group wait for G.I. Joe to arrive and take custody of both the Talisman and the captive Kreiger, Savage tells Mayday and Terrence Salmons his story, Blackrock continues his work, Action Man catches up with Bryce Chan, and Kup tells Centurion about Cybertron. Unfortunately, just as the Joes are drawing near, Centurion reveals that his change of heart is anything but, as he taps into the building's defense systems and has them open fire on the Joes' aircraft. Worse still, the building has already been infiltrated by Doctor X and Storm Shadow, the latter having holographically disguised herself as Blackrock's assistant Camila—a disguise she now drops as she stabs Blackrock through the chest. Second later, Baron Ironblood himself teleports into the building via the M.A.S.S. Device, flanked by the Red Shadows, Major Bludd, and the Oktober Guard, and utter pandemonium breaks out. The Joes abandon their aircraft and are able to get inside the building just before a forcefield seals it off, but they are not prepared for what is about to happen. Savage sees right through Ironblood—making a beeline for the villain, he pounces on him, rips his helmet off, and reveals that underneath, the Baron is really... Joe Colton?!

Featured characters

Character in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	G.I. Joe	The Iron Ring	Other humans
Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign (13) Kup (17)	Bugly (34) Laserbeak (37) Ravage (38) Soundwave (40)	Stalker (7) Mayday (10) Skywarp (12) Slip-Stream? (17) Rock 'n Roll (18) Doc (19) Roadblock (20) Lady Jaye (28, see Notes) Scarlett (35) Hawk (36)	Garrison Kreiger (2) Centurion (3) Joe Colton/Baron Ironblood (5) Storm Shadow II/"Camila" (14) Doctor X (21) Red Shadows (22) Daina (23) Horrorshow (24) Major Bludd (25) Gorky (26) Dragonsky (27)	Mike Power/Atomic Man (1) Sgt. Savage (4) Bulletman (8) Miles Mayhem (9) Terrence Salmons (11) Action Man (15) Bryce Chan (16) 1990s Action Man (29) Natalie Poole (30) "1990s Zartan" (31) Cesspool (32) Toxo-Zombie (33) Joshua Red (39)

Quotes

"What's the twenty-first century all about?"
"More robots, mostly."

—Sgt. Savage and Mayday

"An' that's Cybertron."
"A ball? Our kind...we come from a tiny ball?"
"No, no, no- you got me all wrong. I'm just sayin', it's a metal...well, ball, but real big, wayyy out in space."

—Kup and Centurion

Notes

Continuity notes

Sgt. Savage was shown disappearing with the Axalon in issue #5.
We first learned that the Adventure Team believed Garrison Kreiger had killed Atomic Man in issue #3, when Bulletman told our heroes so. After last issue alluded to the events by noting that "weird stuff" had happened in the waning days of the Adventure Team, this issue gives up the full scoop.
Mayday reminds Blackrock of the time he "broke out of G.I. Joe custody and escaped to another planet", which happened in The Transformers #56.
Bryce Chan notes that G.I. Joe has among its ranks "something of an expert on Dire Wraith DNA", referring to Doc, who discovered she was a Dire Wraith/human hybrid in G.I. Joe vol. 5 #5.
Roadblock refers to his cousin being about the mutated Wraith-Joes from issue #1; that's Heavy Duty he's talking about.
Major Bludd has replaced the arm he lost in issue #1; Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 notes it's now a Talisman-tech cybernetic prosthesis.
Bugly is the only one of the original six 1988 Decepticon Pretenders who has not previously appeared in IDW continuity. Most of the rest of the group were members of Bludgeon's team who came to Earth in the 1980s in Spotlight: Soundwave, in pursuit of Ore-13, and operated out of the base in Mount St. Helens which Skywatch are here shown to have discovered and retrofitted as Project: Hot House. Bugly is here revealed to have actually been part of that group, who was left behind on Earth when he was caught in the eruption that Bludgeon triggered to entomb Soundwave and his cassettes, as seen in the Spotlight issue.
The Joes' fight with Bugly evidently takes place prior to G.I. Joe #0. Duke was inducted into the Joe team by Hawk in that issue, while later issues of G.I. Joe: Origins would show that the only other members of the team at the time of Duke's joining were Stalker and Scarlett.
Joshua Red and his nascent Skywatch organization were shown unearthing Ravage and Laserbeak at the end of Spotlight: Soundwave. They were wearing the white-and-red hazamat suits that Red and Colton are shown wearing in this issue, which are strongly implied to have been what Colton based his Baron Ironblood costume on.
Soundwave, in his cassette player mode, is shown sitting in a box marked "For Good Will". The Decepticon was trapped in his alternate mode by an experimental weapon in Spotlight: Soundwave, and Skywatch, unaware of his true nature, will eventually give him away to a charity shop, where he will be purchased by a teenager before finally being brought back online in Maximum Dinobots. (However, see "Errors", below.)
Colton mentions watching Sgt. Savage on TV as a child; his hero worship of Savage was originally introduced in G.I. Joe vol. 3 #7.

Hasbro franchise references

The Joe pilot whose craft is blown out of the air isn't identified by name; he's flying a Conquest X-30, which is typically the purview of Slip Stream, but the pilot doesn't especially look like him.
Sgt. Savage idiomatically refers to himself as Buck Rogers, just as he did in the Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles TV movie.
The 1990s Action Man that Sgt. Savage joins forces with is the version of the character from the 1995 Action Man animated series, but it's unclear if this is Ian's direct predecessor, Mike Brogan (back when he was young), or another holder of the Action Man name who came between Brogan and the 1960s-1980s Action Man encountered by the Adventure Team in Revolution #0.
Accompanying the '90s Action Man is Natalie Poole, another character from the '95 animated series. Presumably she's the only one used here because she was the only other member who was actually British. Savage notes their team is called the "Team Extreme"; this name wasn't used for the '95 series, but instead comes from the 2000 Action Man series, featuring a different cast of characters. Also, it was spelled "Team Xtreme", because of course it friggin' was.
The '90s villains Team Extreme are shown fighting include Cesspool, an eco-terrorist from the 1991-92 range of G.I. Joe "Eco-Warriors" action figures; a Toxo-Viper zombie from the same range, which is a little odd to see given Cobra's existence in the shadows at the time this flashback is set; and the gaudy 1993 action figure version of Cobra master of disguise Zartan, complete with mohawk and sleeveless jacket. Whether we should consider him to be the same guy as the actual IDW Zartan or just a visual Easter egg seems better off left alone.

Real-life references

This issue's title is an allusion to Sgt. Savage's "Screaming Eagles" unit, and seems to be a bit of a mashup of Where Eagles Dare and "When Doves Cry".
The Obelisco de Buenos Aires is prominently visible outside the Onyx building in Buenos Aires.
The 90s version of the Adventure Team and Action Man's "Team Extreme" are decked out with big shoulder pads, huge guns, and lots of little straps and pouches in homage to the eccentricities of 1990s comics, particularly those of artist Rob Liefeld. Even their new name, "Adventure Force", evokes the book that made Liefeld a star, X-Force.
Kup thinks Centurion is downloading pirated episodes of a TV show called Mastermind. While initially it was believed to be a reference the British quiz show Mastermind, John Barber later said that it was supposed to be a fictional show based on the board game "Mastermind." Yes, seriously. Barber is just that crazy.
Savage tells Major Bludd, "Talk to the hand, Crocodile Dundee".
The various threats Sgt. Savage remembers fighting in the 1990s include eco-terrorists, mutants, skateboard gangs, and ninjas... all staples of '90s action-driven pop-culture, to the point that G.I. Joe itself even featured several of them as extended sub-lines that appeared in story-arcs of the Marvel comic book.
"Eat my shorts!" snarls Savage to Ironblood, quoting Bart Simpson's old catchphrase.
Savage enjoys "Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue, the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, and the movie The Matrix.
Savage wonders if the Talisman will teach humans how to "throw bones into space", comparing it to the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey by flippantly describing a scene from the film.
Savage's line wondering if this will be "a stand-up fight or another bug hunt" is a reference to the film Aliens.

Errors

The caption box introducing Rock 'n Roll misrenders the middle word as 'n' , with an extraneous apostrophe. This is actually in line with his profile in Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3, but not with the entirety of G.I. Joe vol. 5.
A caption box identifies Lady Jaye as one of the Joes jumping out of the aircraft, and the figure is colored like Jaye, with brown hair and green clothing—but Ossio has drawn Cover Girl, identifiable by her medium-length hair, fur-lined bomber jacket, and characteristic dual pistols.
On page 17, panel 3, "paid" is misspelt as "payed".
It stretches credibility that Soundwave would get donated to Goodwill when Joe Colton is active on-site. Joe repeatedly references his encounter with Soundwave in Egypt during this flashback, where he also saw Soundwave convert from tape deck mode. Joe Colton is perhaps the one person on Earth who would recognize the mode-locked Soundwave, yet he passes by the Goodwill box without a second glance.

Other trivia

Originally solicited for release in June, this issue arrives significantly late, two months after the fact, in mid-August. It is catching up a bit, though, coming out only three weeks after issue #6. Not fast enough, sadly, to avoid the spoiler for Baron Ironblood's true identity being blown in First Strike #1 the week before release.
While the other Pretenders had redesigned robot modes that partially resembled their Pretender shells, Bugly's appearance seemed to be directly based on his Pretender shell with no vehicle kibble apparent. Whether he was an earlier test of polydermal grafting or if it was simply an oversight of the artist is unclear.

Covers (4)

Regular cover: Sgt. Savage versus Scarlett, by John Royle, Jagdish Kuma, and Thomas Deer
Subscription cover A: Sgt. Savage. G.I. Joe, and the Adventure Team, by Tone Rodriguez and Thomas Deer
Subscription cover B: Our heroes and villains, by Igor Lima and Thomas Deer
Retailer incentive cover: Action Man, Sgt. Savage, and Mayday by Pierre Droal