The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb

Seeking information on the Talisman, Action Man takes Mayday, Blackrock, and Kup to meet actor Richard Ruby, aka "Bulletman", a former member of G.I. Joe's predecessors, the Adventure Team, who were the ones that located the mysterious relic in the first place decades earlier. Posing as talent scouts seeking material for a new movie, the group meets with Ruby on the set of his latest film, and asks him to tell them the story...

During World War II, Sgt. Savage and his unit, the Screaming Eagles, encounter an army of strange, robotic soldiers in Kalistan. Fascinated by the metal beings, Savage's subordinate Garrison Kreiger spends the subsequent decades searching for their origin. Eventually, with the help of Egyptologist Doctor Elliot Marsh, he identifies and locates the Tomb of Amtoltec in Dahshur, Egypt, as the potential resting place of the force that created the robots. When the two men enter the tomb, however, the treacherous Kreiger shoots Marsh, intending to take the technological treasure within for himself...

Three days later, the Adventure Team arrive in response to an emergency beacon emanating from within the pyramid. Joe Colton is the first to arrive and heads inside the tomb solo, where he finds himself beset by an army of robotic mummies—robots, he realizes, of similar design to those faced by Savage during the war. While Colton fights his way through them, the robot spill outside the pyramid, where they attack other Adventure Team members Stalker and Mayhem. Unable to stand up to the automatons, Stalker calls in Bulletman and Atomic Man, the super-powered members of the Adventure Team, who stand more of a chance against these unnatural foes.

Venturing deeper into the tomb, Colton finds Marsh's tape player, which is still replaying his old audio notes. Colton picks the device up, but when more mummies appear and attack him, he drops it over a ledge... whereupon it transforms into a giant robot! Unbeknownst to Colton, he is looking at the Decepticon Soundwave, who promptly disposes of the mummies and then moves to head further underground, his "beacon" having actually been a sensor scan that has allowed him to locate the origin point of the robot army. When Colton attempts to question him, Soundwave turns his weapons on the human, blowing a hole in the pyramid as he shoots the tomb floor out from under him. Joe almost plummets to his doom, but is snatched to safety by Mayhem, who had followed him into the pyramid during the battle.

Colton and Mayhem pursue Soundwave into the depths of the tomb, catching up to him just as he smashes his way into the core chamber. There, Kreiger is found with the Talisman and a control console for the robot mummies. The rest of the Adventure Team soon arrive through the hole blown open by Soundwave, and together, they annoy the Decepticon just enough to provoke a response. Soundwave scatters the humans and the mummies with sonic attacks, then opens fire on Atomic Man, searing his cybernetic limbs with energy blasts. Driven by some subconscious urge, the wounded Atomic Man reaches out to the Talisman with his ravaged limbs, and the artifact's energy renews them into alien new forms. An intrigued Soundwave pauses to scan Atomic Man and the Talisman, which gives Stalker the opening to drive the Adventure Team's truck right into his face. Frustrated by the humans' continued interference and content with what he has learned, Soundwave departs to resume his true mission on Earth, but his exit brings the pyramid crashing down around the Adventure Team. They are saved by Atomic Man, whose newly-empowered limbs somehow project an energy field that catches all the debris.

Ruby wraps up his story, lamenting that it marked the beginning of the end for the Adventure Team, as the world only began to get stranger, full of threats that ordinary guys like Colton, Mayhem, and Stalker were not equipped to deal with like he and Atomic Man were. As Ruby is called back in front of the camera, Blackrock maps out the group's next move, detailing how Kreiger went on to establish the International Robotic Operations Network corporation, only to subsequently vanish. His company was then taken over by Count van Rani, the ruler of Kalistan, who recently appointed former head of Cobra, Tomax Paoli, as its current interim CEO.

As such, it's no surprise that Baron Ironblood and Doctor X are paying a visit to Tomax to warn him that the heroes will soon be closing in on him, and to urge him to take up the mantle of Cobra Commander. Tomax is not interested in their help... until their newest, most unexpected ally speaks up: a steampunk Transformer wearing an Autobot insignia!

Featured characters

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

Autobots	Decepticons	Adventure Team	Screaming Eagles	The Iron Ring	Others
Kup (18) Garrison Blackrock (19)	Soundwave (3)	Stalker (5) Miles Mayhem (6) Bulletman (7) Atomic Man (8) Joe Colton (9)	Garrison Kreiger (2) Dynamite (11) Sgt. Savage (12) Grill (13) Various other Eagles (14)	Tomax Paoli (20) Baron Ironblood (21) Doctor X (22) Centurion (23)	Elliot Marsh (1) IRON Troopers (4) "Ironhide" (10) "Hound" (15) Action Man (16) Mayday (17)

Quotes

"Primitive machines."
"Yeah... the laser-eyed robot mummies were mighty primitive."
"I was speaking of your kind, organic."

—Soundwave and Colton trade sass

"This is gonna sound nuts, but I think that thing changed out of a tape player."
"Like some manner of..."
"Alternator or—or Convertor."
"Madness indeed... but this has been an odd sort of day."

—Colton and Mayhem

"Ugh. Millennials. Never say no, but don't have the authority to say yes."

—Richard Ruby

"Please, take off the ridiculous hat."

—Tomax doesn't think much of Baron Ironblood's fashion sense

Notes

Continuity notes

The "meet the cast" feature at the start of this issue establishes that Bulletman made his name as a hero by saving the town of Poverty Flat. This little town previously appeared in Robots in Disguise #29-30.
The hieroglyphics seen in the first panel of the story include renderings of Shockwave, a Decepticon insignia, and Micronauts Acroyear and Biotron. Shockwave has been entombed on Earth since prehistoric times, as seen in Spotlight: Shockwave, while there is an as-yet unexplained link between the Micronauts and ancient Egypt that is being explored over in their own title.
- Given later revelations about the Talisman's original master, Shockwave's being entombed on Earth probably isn't the only reason his face is on the temple...
Soundwave being on Earth in the 1980s, disguised in his period-appropriate cassette player mode, is an established piece of IDW history that originates from 2007's Spotlight: Soundwave. He makes only a vague allusion to his true purpose on Earth at the end of the story; as detailed in his Spotlight, he has trailed Bludgeon to the planet, and when he faces him at some point after the events of this issue, he will be knocked offline and trapped in his alternate mode for over twenty years.
Two deceased Transformers appear in pieces inside the tomb, one of which resembles Ironhide as he appeared in Infestation 2. Huh. Weird...
While mistaking Soundwave for a piloted mecha, Colton wonders if Action Man is in the pilot's seat. This would presumably be the unnamed 1980s holder of the codename glimpsed in Revolution #0.
Bulletman was previously established to be working in television when he appeared in 2013's G.I. Joe vol. 3 #6 as a participant in a reality TV series (in a story set some years in the past, before Cover Girl joined G.I. Joe). That story established his background as a pilot and member of Seal Team Six mentioned in this issue, but didn't indicate a previous history as an actor; this issue massages things together by establishing that his pilot days were as a Hollywood stunt flier, post-military. His Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook profile would elaborate further on the details.
Kup mentions a "metal fella, has a dog, really understands how to write", referring to Thundercracker.
Tomax took control of Cobra at some point during the five-year timeskip between volumes 3 and 4 of IDW's Joe series. Ironblood and Blackrock call him "Cobra Commander", but though he took the job, he never took the title; he expresses dislike of it here. If you're new to IDW Joe continuity, we'll tell you here not to expect Tomax's infamous twin brother Xamot to appear; he was killed by Chuckles back in 2010.
Doctor X says Cobra has a "thousand-year reign", but Tomax calls "half of it" fiction. The timeline in issue #1 included the story point of Dante Alighieri as a Cobra agent 700 years ago, indicating that that part, at least, is accurate, but Tomax's remark indicates that some of the other stories we have been told about the history of Cobra (mostly in G.I. Joe vol. 3 #12-13) may not be entirely true.
What in the flippin' WHAT?! The Autobot who appears on the final page of this issue is the "steampunk" incarnation of Bumblebee seen in the 2006 Hearts of Steel mini-series, with an added cowcatcher mouthplate. Even his unique speech bubble design is lifted directly from that series! Hearts of Steel, however, is an alternate continuity in which the Autobots and Decepticons came to Earth during the Ice Age, and awoke from hibernation in the 1800s. Just how this works here and now will come to be revealed in issue #5.

Transformers references

Kreiger refers to the robotic technology created by the Talisman as "Binaltech", after the Japanese name for the Transformers: Alternators toyline. Later in the story, when trying to come up with a name for Soundwave, Colton calls him an "Alternator". Additionally, this isn't the first time Kreiger and Binaltech have been connected; he was one of the Concurrence of villains featured in the fiction associated with the Binaltech toy line, as was Count von Rani/Iron Klaw.
In cassette player mode, Soundwave has been drawn based on a version of his toy with incorrectly applied stickers. The trapezoids on either side of his alt mode are based on stickers that are supposed to wrap around his weapons, but which are, for whatever reason, quite commonly misapplied to the figure in the position seen here.
Thinking Soundwave is a piloted mech, Colton wonders if an acquaintance of his named "Hideaki" is in the driver's seat. This is probably a reference to Hideaki Yoke, Takara's lead Transformers designer, who has worked on the franchise as far back as Diaclone and Micro Change days.

Hasbro franchise references

The title of this story, along with the name "Amtoltec" and the whole conceit of the Adventure Team fighting mummies, is taken from the 1970 G.I. Joe playset, "The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb", and the comic book with which it came packed. The mummy in that particular story was just a guy in disguise Scooby-Dooing it up!
This issue retroactively establishes that the unnamed African-American "Adventurer" figure from the Adventure Team toyline is a younger incarnation of G.I. Joe member Stalker.
In addition to what's described above, the hieroglyphics also contain something that doesn't exist in IDW continuity yet: the irregular hexagon chestplate design of the Visionaries!
Doctor Marsh is a character lifted from the 1980s G.I. Joe episode "The Gods Below". The episode is alluded to further by this story when "the gods below" are mentioned in Marsh's translation one of the Amtoltec inscriptions.
Garrison Kreiger, Grill, and of course Sergeant Savage himself are all characters from the 1994 G.I. Joe spin-off series, Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles. Kreiger's codename in that series was "General Blitz"; he is just "Blitz" and a Second Lieutenant here. The IRON Troopers seen in this issue are inspired by Blitz's "I.R.O.N. Stormtroopers" from the Sgt. Savage series, though it looks like it might be the other way around in this continuity...
- While Savage, Grill, and Blitz are the only Eagles identified by name, one can be seen with spiked black hair and a white bandana. This would indicate him to be Dynamite, another member of the original Screaming Eagles line-up.
- The history given for Garrison Kreiger, with him as one of the Screaming Eagles who founded I.R.O.N. after the events of this issue, doesn't line up with G.I. Joe vol. 3, which mentioned General Blitz as the leader of the Iron Army during World War II. Of course, G.I. Joe vol. 3 played somewhat fast and loose with continuity anyway. It would seem that in this continuity, both "General Blitz" and Lieutenant "Blitz" exist.
The backpacks Stalker and Mayhem are wearing are real toys from the Adventure Team series. Stalker is wearing the "Signal Flasher", while Mayhem has the "Life-Line Catapult."
Joe makes a crack about his "eagle eyes", one of the famous action features of the Adventure Team toyline.
Count van Rani, aka "Iron Klaw", was the villain of the 1990s G.I. Joe Extreme series (wherein his name was spelled von Rani). He and Kreiger have been linked before: not only were the two both members of the Concurrence in the Binaltech storyline, but in a Fun Publications addition to the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity, Iron Klaw's organization also absorbed the remnants of General Blitz's legacy!

Other real-life references

In addition to an "Alternator", Colton calls Soundwave a "Convertor", after the 1980s transforming-robot toyline from Select.

Errors

The inside front cover retains the title of the last issue, "Enter the Shadow".
The "Ironhide" head is miscolored: its center crest is erroneously white, whilst a section of the stone arch behind it is colored red, as if it's part of the helmet.

Other trivia

Originally solicited for release in February, this issue arrives a month late halfway through March... which, coincidentally, means it was released 10 years to the month after Spotlight: Soundwave, the first story about Soundwave's arrival on Earth.

Covers (4)

Regular cover: Blackrock, Soundwave, and the Adventure Team by Tradd Moore and Felipe Sobreiro
Subscription cover A: The Adventure Team versus robot mummies, by Tone Rodriguez and Thomas Deer
Subscription cover B: The Adventure Team unearths Soundwave, by Marcelo Ferreira and Thomas Deer
Retailer incentive cover: Soundwave and the Adventure team face the mummies, by Ron Joseph and John-Paul Bove