Entry tags:

char: storm shadow, creator: grant morrison, creator: mark farmer, title: action force

It's been noted in the past that Grant Morrison paid his dues as a writer in some odd places, particularly in UK comics.

Case in point, Action Force Monthly #3



Now which of these two do you think he might be writing?

(Oh, for those unaware of such things, "Action Force" was the name "GI Joe" was given in the UK for most of the 1980's (To the extent that the cartoons were even overdubbed with any reference to "GI Joe" or "Yo Joe!" becoming "Action Force" and "Full Force!" (Which I like better). Instead of a completely American team like GI Joe, it was a truly international team of elite anti-terrorist specialists.)


Interestingly, it's not the "cool" Snake Eye's he deals with, but the more morally questionable Cobra Agent - Storm Shadow



DUN-DUN-DUN! (incidentally, the art is by Mark Farmer, better known as an inker on the likes of Alan Davis)

We cut to Storm Shadow as he leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him...



It ends exactly the way you think a set up like that is going to end...

I like the "Room of Bells" concept here, (I think the movie Entrapment used something similar)





Incidentally, that is indeed Hexagram 63 and that is the interpretation of it... why does it not surprise me that Grant Morrison knows that

I skip a relatively long fight scene between Stormy and the guy seen above who is built like a tree and wears nothing but briefs and a set of nunchuks. Not that it's not impressive, but it's only a 10 page story.

We now see WHY Storm Shadow has such a grudge against General Loi.... as he drags defeated briefs guy along he notes that his uncle, known as the Hard Master*, taught him how to move so that he could not be seen, just out of the line of sight, in the blind spot that we all have.

* One of the two major Sensei in the shared GI Joe and Action Force mythos; The Hard Master and the Soft Master... who are named for the martial skills they teach, and NO OTHER REASON! But I digress





Sadly, that's not Hexagram 29 on the page, but it is a description of it. Loi turns to find that his bodyguard is low lying dead, sprawled on the chair in the centre of the room. He spins round as he hears a single,, gentle "ting" sound...



"...I can't live this way.... I can't"

Storm Shadow leaves without a word, and he hasn't gone far when he hears a single shot ring out behind him. He muses that it's not much of a punchline, but that perhaps, somewhere, Donald Jefferson is laughing.