Name: Unknown (alias: The Faceless Master)
Birthplace: Unknown (possibly Vietnam)
First Appearance:
G.I. JOE ..24 (June 1984)
During the 1940s, a plantation owner and anti-Japanese guerilla in French Indochina (Vietnam) spared the life of a young Japanese officer, who was also the son of the grand master of the Koga Ninjas. Eventually, the Viet-Minh turned on the guerilla and murdered him. His son was adopted by the ninjas. Nothing is known about his son's life after his adoption, but he became adept at the Koga style of ninjitsu. He eventually became a mercenary and named himself "Firefly". Over the years, the name Firefly became infamous as one of the world's most feared saboteurs and mercenaries.
Shortly after the Vietnam war, the man who would become Cobra Commander approached Firefly and hired him to kill a man known as Snake-Eyes. The Commander's brother had died in a car accident in the recent past. It made little difference to him that Snake-Eyes family had also been killed in the accident. He blamed the family's surviving son for his brother's death. Firefly cared little about why he was hired to kill Snake-Eyes, as long as he was well paid. Using his status as a master of the Koga clan, Firefly gained entry into the Arashikage ninja clan's dojo. Snake-Eyes had become an honorary member of the clan thanks to his friend, Tommy (later known as Storm Shadow). Firefly became known as "The Faceless Master" due to the fact that he never allowed a clear photo of himself to be taken. One day, while watching Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow practicing, Firefly realized he was no match for Snake-Eyes skills. Unfortunately, he had already been paid. Instead, he referred Cobra Commander to Zartan, another mercenary. Zartan, too, gained entry into the dojo, and with Firefly's help, acquired an arrow belonging to Storm Shadow. When time came for the assassination, a mistake was made and the Hard Master, the clan leader and Storm Shadow's uncle, was murdered instead. Zartan escaped in a helicopter piloted by Firefly himself. The death of the Hard Master left the Arashikage clan in ruins and Storm Shadow branded a murderer and a traitor.
Even if Firefly knew the damage he'd caused, he didn't care. It was just one of his more difficult jobs. Firefly's reputation grew, and he was eventually brought into Cobra. Ironically, Firefly's first job for Cobra brought him face-to-face with his old partner, Zartan. After a battle in the Florida Everglades against the G.I. Joe team, Firefly was abandoned, left in the swamps by Cobra Commander, who returned to Cobra headquarters. Firefly found Destro nearby. He, too had been left behind, and the two men plotted revenge. Before returning to Springfield, Destro and Firefly took on a mission to get in the Commander's good graces. Along with Fred Broca, they followed a G.I. Joe C-130 transport plane and discovered Snake-Eyes' mountain retreat. They attacked his cabin, but were surprised to find Spirit and Airborne nearby. A battle followed, and the Cobras lost, though they escaped into a river. Upon the return to Springfield, an assassination attempt was made on Cobra Commander by his long-estranged son, Billy. All of the Cobra high command were involved in the tribunal that decided Billy's fate, including Firefly. There was little time for deliberations, since Billy was set free by Storm Shadow. A short time later, the Soft Master showed up in Springfield. He had discovered the identity of the Hard Master's killer, but aroused the suspicions of the Springfield police, all of whom were Cobra agents. He escaped, but was pursued by Firefly, Scrap-Iron and Buzzer. They were stopped at a railroad crossing, where Billy and Ripcord's girlfriend had been in a car accident. As a freight train drove past, Firefly signed the death sentences of the Soft Master, Billy and Candy, with nothing more than a "thumbs down." That signalled Scrap-Iron to fire two missles. The first killed the Soft Master. The second killed Candy and put Billy in a coma and cost him a leg and an eye. Some time later, Firefly and Scrap-Iron captured Ripcord, who had infiltrated Cobra's secret base of Springfield. Unfortunately for Cobra, Ripcord had enough time to inform the Joes of Springfield's location, leading to the Joes' invasion of Springfield. After the invasion of Springfield, Firefly undertook several missions for Cobra. He fought the October Guard in Afghanistan and battled the Joes around the world -- everywhere from atop an arctic glacier, to the Baltic Sea. Later, he attempted to steal the G.I. Joe Vector fighter jet from an airshow, but the theft was foiled by Maverick and a airshow pilot. In a later attempt to return to get back on Cobra Commander's good side, Firefly and Dr. Mindbender led a force of Cobras on a new island that formed near Cobra Island, trying to claim it for Cobra. During the battle with the Joes, Firefly and Mindbender constantly argued and the Joes had nearly won, but the unstable island sunk beneath the waves. Firefly saved Mindbender's life, but only after the scientist promised to take the blame for losing. Firefly later teamed with Mindbender and Cobra Comander to steal computer disks from a top secret government installation. The plan was thwarted by a team from G.I. Joe and "the original Joe."
It was later discovered that the real Cobra Commander had been replaced by an imposter. When the true Commander returned, he locked his enemies -- Firefly among them -- in an old freighter and buried it beneath a volcano on Cobra Island. After Firefly was presumed dead for quite a long time, he reappeared, leading a group of Red Ninjas against the G.I. Joe Ninja Force, led by Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow. Firefly revealed that he had escaped the freighter in a rather treacherous way. In a hidden corner of the freighter, Firefly found damaged Battle Android Troopers. He programmed the robots to dig out of the freighter and to the surface. To keep his escape a secret, he put his uniform on the dead body of Serpentor, which was being stored on the freighter by Dr. Mindbender. Leaving the others to die, the mercenary eventually escaped. Months later, he came upon a group of Red Ninjas who once worked for Zartan. They had been members of the Arashikage clan, but now swore vengeance against Storm Shadow for his supposed destruction of the clan. Using his knowledge of clan teachings, Firefly convinced them he was a ninja master. After telling the truth about his involvement in the Hard Master's death, Firefly used some sort of gas to render the Ninja Force unconscious, proclaiming himself a new kind of ninja that used advanced technology, in combination with the ancient arts. For a time he used the Brain-wave Scanner to keep them under his control but they eventually escaped. He returned to Cobra Island only to discover it had been abandoned months before. When he kidnapped Zarana and Cesspool, he tried to use them as hostages against Cobra Commander. He was surprised to find that the Commander didn't want Cobra Island back, and for all he cared, Firefly could keep Zarana and Cesspool. A short time later, Duke, Roadblock, Lady Jaye and Snake-Eyes infiltrated Cobra Island and found it guarded by an army of Cobra BATs, a group of Red Ninjas and Cobra ninjas Slice and Dice. They were all under the control of Firefly. After a brief fight, the Joes defeated the BATs, and Snake-Eyes used the famed Arashikage Mind Set to break Firefly's minions free of his mind control. They all were about to exact their vengeance, when the Joes left the island. They last saw Slice, Dice and the Red Ninjas moving to make Firefly pay for what he'd done. What happened next is unknown, but Firefly wasn't heard from for years.
In 1995, Cobra was defeated by a international military force and its high command scattered, while the G.I. Joe team was disbanded. Less than a year after Cobra's break up, reports of Firefly once again working as a mercenary had begun to surface, and the U.S. government was searching the globe for former agents of Cobra. Former Joe team members Duke and Chuckles were working for a top secret government organization and eventually made contact with Firefly. While posing as an arms dealer, Chuckles was contacted by Firefly, who was in the market for weapons for his unknown employer. Chuckles asked Firefly to first destroy a competitor's main factory. Firefly didn't know that the factory had been abandoned years earlier and that it had only been set up as a trap for him. A military team known as the Hammer Team was there under Duke's orders to capture Firefly. Snake-Eyes and his young apprentice, Ophelia were also there. Firefly arrived to destroy the factory, but realized something was wrong and detonated a series of bombs that killed most of the Hammer Team. As he made his escape, Ophelia tried to stop him, but Firefly killed her and made his escape. The only remaining member of the Hammer Team was Sean Collins, son of the former Crimson Guardsman Wade Collins. Both he and Snake-Eyes were scarred by the incident, leading Snake-Eyes to call off he and Scarlett's wedding. Sean found Snake-Eyes at his mountain cabin and soon began training as his new apprentice. Nearly a year later, Jinx called Snake-Eyes and Sean to tell them that she had news on Firefly's whereabouts. Jinx had begun a bounty hunting business in Japan with Budo as her partner. She found out that Firefly was arriving in Tokyo working for a mysterious figure known as "Nowhere Man". Snake-Eyes and Sean headed to Japan and tracked down Firefly as he met with a man who the Nowhere Man hoped to recruit for his organization. When the former Joes realized the man was Storm Shadow, Snake-Eyes attacked his sword brother, who he had last seen as a brainwashed slave of Cobra Commander. As the Joes tried to capture Firefly and stop Storm Shadow, Nowhere Man and his troops arrived. They were surprised when Duke and Chuckles -- who had actually been working with Storm Shadow to trap Firefly -- arrived to rescue them. Firefly got away, but the Joes learned where he was going, and learned that the Nowhere Man was actually Mikhail Derenko, another member of Hammer Team that had been presumed dead. Beneath a dance club in Tokyo, Firefly and Derenko tried to access a Cobra vault hiding a secret weapon. Unknown to anyone, they has enlisted Wade Collins to their cause, since as a former "Fred series" Guardsman, he could access the vault. Their plan was disrupted by the Joes and though the plot was foiled, both Firefly and Derenko escaped. Collins died in his son Sean's arms, after explaining that he had joined the mercenaries to stop their plan. A few years later, it was revealed that Derenko had been recruiting former Cobras for the true leader of his organization: a revived Serpentor. The group was known as the Coil and spent years building an army to bring Serpentor back to power.
Firefly next encountered the Joes after the team was reinstated in 2001. He arrived in Chicago as both Joes and Cobra agents were attempting to stop a rogue Battle Android Trooper loose in the city. He had been hired to recover the BAT, though before he could do so he was confronted by Jinx. She tried to fight Firefly, but he wasn't interested in fighting, so he fled to complete his assignment. After that job, Firefly's next stop was Cobra Island where Serpentor was readying the troops of The Coil for an attack on various countries around the world. Firefly joined Serpentor's effort. Eventually, G.I. Joe and Cobra both arrived to stop Serpentor and rescue a number of captured Joes and Cobra Commander. The Coil was defeated and Serpentor presumed dead, but Firefly escaped during the fighting. His current status is unknown.
