The Hunt for True Love / The Past Comes Back... Part Two
	Short Summary The Hunt for True Love How far will GI Joe's greatest warrior go for love? Scarlett is Destro's captive - to save her, the team will suffer like never before! The Past Comes Back... Part Two PLUS - in a 22 page bonus feature, Blaylock concludes his Zartan saga! The Dreadnoks' leader needs to secure the object that holds the key to his past - but Storm Shadow and Stalker stand in his way!
	Notes of Interest 48 page issue, $4.50 Cover Price, Wraparound Cover
Major Players The Hunt for True Love The Joe Team: General Joe Coltonm Duke, Flint, Roadblock, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Storm Shadow Cobra: Baroness, Destro, Alexander Destro, Wraith The Past Comes Back... Part Two The Joe Team: Stalker, Storm Shadow, Gung-Ho Dreadnoks: Zartan, Zandar, Zarana, Zanya, Ripper, Torch, Buzzer Special Appearance: Hard Master
Creative Team The Hunt for True Love Story: Joe Casey, Pencils and Inks: Stefano Caselli, Colors: Kendrik Lim of ILS, Lettering: Steve Seeley & Brian J Crowley, Editor: Mike O'Sullivan, Cover: Stefano Caselli and Djoko Sanyiko The Past Comes Back... Part Two Story: Josh Blaylock, Art: Stanley Lau & Ray Toh of Imaginary Friends Studio, Letters: Brian J. Crowley, Edits: Mike O'Sullivan
Long Summary The Hunt for True Love Stalker and General Joe Colton argue about rescuing Scarlett. Snake-Eyes has discovered that she is being held in a submarine in the middle of the Pacific. This is actually Destro's submarine, but the Joes do not know this, yet. Destro captured Scarlett and he has been holding her hostage. His son Alexander is afraid that her presence will bring the Joes to them and there by destroy what he is trying to rebuild. Destro is also on his way to China, to conclude a deal for his Iron Grenadier robot soldiers. Storm Shadow pledges his support to Snake-Eyes on any mission to rescue Scarlett. The rest of the Joe team prepares to leave. General Colton receives a direct order from the President himself that GI Joe is not under any circumstances allowed to launch a rescue operation. Colton does not give the team permission to launch an official operation, but does say that any independent action to rescue her is their own business. Back in Destro's submarine, Alexander has taken Scarlett from her capture room and is about shoot her out one of the torpedo tubes, when Destro stops him. Above the submarine, the Joe team has just launched in a mini-submarine to go rescue Scarlett. All members including Flint and Storm Shadow are aboard. Meanwhile, in South America, Duke and his little band of mercenaries have reached his destination. The Past Comes Back... Part Two Storm Shadow and Stalker have escaped from Zandar's trap with the help of Gung-Ho. Gung-Ho has tied up Storm Shadow, making reference to when Storm Shadow cut him up pretty bad (Marvel issue #24). He also shows some resentment about being kicked off the Joe team and that they included Storm Shadow instead. He turns around to see that Storm Shadow has escaped and disappeared. Gung-Ho then heads out into the Florida Everglades to find the antidote for the poison that Zandar had shot into Stalker; Storm Shadow has done the same thing. Gung-Ho runs into the Dreadnoks; Buzzer, Ripper and Torch. In individual battles Gung-Ho is able to defeat each of them, as well as Zandar and Zarana. Near a secret bunker hideout, Zartan and Zanya are about to enter when Storm Shadow stops them. Zartan sends Zanya into the hideout to retrieve the parcel he has come to get. Zartan attacks Storm Shadow. As Zanya enters the hideout, she sees Zartan's traditional outfit, the bow and arrow used to kill the Hard Master, as well as the disguise, several guns, several metals and photos, one being the photo of Arashikage Clan with himself included and a portrait of a soldier. Zanya retrieves the parcel that Zartan is asking for from a safe in the floor. In a flashback, a soldier speaking in Russian accuses a man of being a traitor and how that same man who is about to kill him has replaced his true comrade (named Pytor Bout of the KGB). Later, in a committee meeting the members ask Mr. Sanderson, who has exceeded all undercover expectations, and been chosen over two thousand candidates for some experiments which he is prepared to take. The committee is aware that he really isn't Mr. Sanderson; the real Sanderson had been murdered in a prison camp. The committee doesn't care that he isn't who he is supposed to be. He is about to undergo DNA experiments that will give him special abilities to disguise himself above what his skills already provide him. These experiments will leave him with many mental stresses. He then takes out some lithium carbonate pills, a prescription written to a John Lowe, and says "mental stresses God knows I'm already familiar with them". This man is Zartan many years ago. Outside the hideout Zartan and Storm Shadow fight, Storm Shadow disarms Zartan, so in a move to distract him, Zartan quickly transforms into a version of the Hard Master, which just pisses Storm Shadow off even more. But Storm Shadow can not kill Zartan because he needs the antidote for Stalker. Stalker's life is more important to Storm Shadow then getting revenge on Zartan for his uncle's death and the destruction of his family. Zanya comes out of the hideout just in time to allow Zartan to escape, but just as he is leaving Storm Shadow throws a knife causing Zartan to drop the parcel that Zanya had retrieved. Storm Shadow takes a look inside the parcel and realizes that it is extremely personal to Zartan. So a stalemate over the parcel and the antidote takes place. Zartan gives up the antidote first without question, and the honorable Storm Shadow gives the parcel to him and each go their own way. Stalker will live. Inside the parcel, is Zartan's key to who he really is, his real past. He takes on so many personalities that he loses himself sometimes and this is the key to understanding who he truly is. As his family and most trusted Dreadnoks stand guard, Zartan has a mental breakdown, partially because of the DNA testing he went through. Zartan runs through a series of identities that he has been, Michael, Thomas Arashikage, Pytor Bout, Rodney Blevins, Arnold Quintin, James Brower, eventually to return to his true identity as Zartan. The item in the parcel is a photo of Zartan with his brother Zandar, sister Zarana, mother and father when they were a family, the picture that he took with him when he was young boy as he was running from the orphanage. Summaries by Josh Eggebeen
Number 6, December 2005