For a list of the other versions, see Ripcord.
- Ripcord is a G.I. Joe character from the G.I. Joe: Renegades series.
Ripcord ; Ninja Doorman Me like
Ripcord in Hybrid Bio-Viper Mode : I can't change what you did to me but I can make sure you never do it to anyone else.
This extreme-sports daredevil isn't afraid to do anything, and he's always got a joke to tell. Usually a bad one. Private Wallace "Ripcord" Weems is a rookie looking to prove himself, and he's always ready for combat with his Plasma Pulse Sub-Machine Gun. Maybe if his jokes were as good as his battle skills, he wouldn't bug Tunnel Rat so much.
Fiction[]
Animated continuity[]
Wallace Weems was one of four soldiers chosen by Lady Jaye to accompany Agent O'Hara on a mission to investigate a terrorist threat against a Cobra facility. When she found him, he was joyfully running through jump training, annoying his instructor all the while.
Meeting up with the other recruits, Weems started cracking wise, giving them all nicknames - "Roadblock," "Tunnel Rat," etc. When the team introduced themselves at the facility, Cobra security guards rushed the room and a firefight broke out. Making their way down a disguised elevator shaft, Weems and the other Joes discovered Cobra's new top secret weapon, the Bio-Viper project, being overseen by wanted criminal Dr. Brian Binder. Weems helped fight against the Bio-Viper, but was eventually captured with the rest.
After being freed by Snake-Eyes, Weems rigged the plant's generator to blow up, to destroy the nigh-invulnerable Bio-Vipers. Scarlett told him to hurry up, nicknaming him "Ripcord," a name he said he liked.
As the team made their escape, one of the Bio-Vipers dislodged the power cord that would have destroyed the generator. Ripcord saw this and darted past them, reconnecting the line and starting the power overload. He then made a run for the elevator to rejoin the rest of his team, but was grabbed by the Bio-Vipers. There was no time for the Joes to reach him before the power plant exploded.[1]
After escaping the Cobra lab, the other Joes were angry that they'd lost a man, but since they'd just been brought together for this mission, no one knew enough about Weems to properly eulogize him. Scarlett offered that he'd liked the nickname she gave him, which was the most anyone could say.[2]
It was later revealed he had survived the explosion, but, as Mindbender discovered, he was covered in Bio-Viper material. From that point on, he was used as a lab rat, codenamed "Patient X". During his time as Patient X, a computer chip was planted into his head that could trigger a transformation into a Bio-Viper, thus making him a human-Bio-Viper hybrid, which Cobra Commander saw as "the first step toward immortality".
The Joes never learned that Weems survived until they found him at a Cobra medical facility and learned that he was the "Patient X" they were looking for. However, Weems had from suffered temporary memory loss. As he slowly regained his identity, Weems was initially reluctant to rejoin the Joes (who were forced to admit that they had only known him for a few hours) as a fugitive. Things became more complicated when he transformed into a Bio-Viper and attacked them, which was apparently triggered by the chip in his head being activated by one of Cobra's drones hovering through in the area. The Joes concluded that the best thing they could do for him was to turn him in to the authorities, both for his own good and as hard evidence of Cobra's experiments, though they were not sure if their pursuers would be able to contain him.
Unfortunately, shortly after he surrendered to Flint, Cobra Commander's drones caught up and triggered another tranformation, causing him to escape from Flint's helicopter and go on another rampage as a Bio-Viper. While Cobra Commander planned for him to return to Cobra, Duke intercepted him, managed to reach Weems himself, and calling on his deeply-ingrained military training, helped him fight off Cobra's control and return to his own mind. When the dust settled, Ripcord decided that he belonged with the Joes.
Trivia[]
- Ripcord was an extreme-sports daredevil.[3]
- Ripcord was presented as a key Joe in the publicity material and previews released before the show's premiere, so his apparent death in the first episode came as quite a shock to the fans. Renegades' sister show, Transformers: Prime pulled the same thing with Cliffjumper, so obviously somebody at Hasbro liked the idea of offing a character to show that these new continuities had consequences.
See Also[]
- Appearances of Ripcord (Renegades)
- Image Gallery: Ripcord (Renegades)
Footnotes[]
- ↑ The Descent (Part I)
- ↑ The Descent (Part II)
- ↑ According to his HubWorld profile.