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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 |
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 CESSPOOL. The name used by Vincent A. D'Alleva, the one-time "Chief Environmental Operative" of Cobra. D'Alleva was once the CEO of a huge corporation. Looking to cut costs anyway they could, D'Alleva and his executives devised a plan to trick workers into converting their life insurance into health coverage, then assigning them to highly dangerous and toxic work areas. In addition, his company had been ignoring safety and environmental regulations. When a large group of government agents arrived at D'Alleva's company with lawsuits and warrants at the ready, he quickly ran to his factories, trying to dispose of all the toxic waste inside. While trying to shut off a faulty valve, D'Alleva accidentally released a spray of toxic chemicals that left his face horribly scarred. Doctors told him the toxins seeped into his brain and and altered his mind. D'Alleva disagreed, seeing his new, warped mind as a revelation. He began calling himself Cesspool and set out to find a use for toxic waste. He eventually finds a way of turning toxic sludge into a weapon dubbed "plasmatox". When launched from "sludge guns", the concentrated toxic chemicals could dissolve and destroy everything from a person's skin to a tank's armor. He hired himself out to corporations, hauling away their sludge and then re-selling it to other buyers as a weapon.
In 1992, Cobra Commander hired Cesspool on a temporary basis, allowing him to set up weapons-grade sludge plants on Cobra Island. In the Commander's absense, he built more plants all over the island. He gained the support of Cobra' Toxo-Vipers, many who became Cesspool's own personal Sludge Vipers. Zarana -- in charge of operations on the island at the time -- tried to stop Cesspool's expansion, but failed. He set up a plasmatox refinery in the Gulf of Mexico, where he and his men were attacked by the Joe team's Eco-Warriors, led by Flint. After a brief battle, two of the Joes were captured, but the last Eco-Warrior appeared with a polluter's greatest enemy: a government lawyer. Cesspool managed to escape the government's wrath personally, though all of his assets around the world were seized. He worked with Cobra for a short time before being captured by Firefly and his Red Ninjas when they took over the island. Firefly hoped to hold Cesspool, Zarana and Cobra Island for "ransom", but his plan backfired when Cobra Commander told him he could keep the island, Zarana and Cesspool for all he cared. Firefly kept them locked up in a cell until he was defeated by the very Red Ninjas who had been on his side. Though Zarana escaped and returned to Cobra, Cesspool's fate was unknown. Years later, the G.I. Joe team tracked down Cesspool at a suburban home in Massachusetts. The Joes were investigating former Cobra agents as suspects in the deliberate crash of a satellite into downtown Chicago. Scarlett snuck into his home late at night to discover D'Alleva in bed, dying from cancer thanks to the toxins he had been exposed to years earlier. His wife then appeared and a fight ensued between her and Scarlett. The Joe won the fight, and was met by whom she thought were the D'Alleva's children, but were in fact disguised robots who captured Scarlett. She was soon brought to Destro, though the details of his connection to Cesspool have yet to be revealed. Cesspool's current status is unknown.
(GI 123, 124, 125, 128, 129, 130, 131; AE 1; Figure: 1)
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Classic G.I. Joe Guide 
