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Action Man awoke on the [[Moon (moon)|Moon]] in a spacesuit, just outside the abandoned [[Section Sabine]] moonbase. Making it inside just before running out of oxygen, he discovered that [[Doctor X]], [[Storm Shadow]], and [[Baron Ironblood]], who had taken the Talisman and amassed an army of [[Red Shadow]]s. Ian managed to escape, pursued by Doctor X's ninjas, and came aacross a [[M.A.S.S. Device]] powered by [[Ore-13]], but before he could escape [[Storm Shadow]] managed to pin him down. He was rescued by Kup, Mayday, Blackrock, and the Micronauts, who had tracked him to the moon. The Talisman's effects detonated the local supplies of Ore-13; though the villains escaped via teleporter, Kup was able to extract Action Man in his chest before the base exploded. On their way home from the Moon, Action Man told the team that, as a member of British Intelligence, he had files on the team who had discovered the alien artifact in the first place... {{storylink|Enter The Shadow}} | Action Man awoke on the [[Moon (moon)|Moon]] in a spacesuit, just outside the abandoned [[Section Sabine]] moonbase. Making it inside just before running out of oxygen, he discovered that [[Doctor X]], [[Storm Shadow]], and [[Baron Ironblood]], who had taken the Talisman and amassed an army of [[Red Shadow]]s. Ian managed to escape, pursued by Doctor X's ninjas, and came aacross a [[M.A.S.S. Device]] powered by [[Ore-13]], but before he could escape [[Storm Shadow]] managed to pin him down. He was rescued by Kup, Mayday, Blackrock, and the Micronauts, who had tracked him to the moon. The Talisman's effects detonated the local supplies of Ore-13; though the villains escaped via teleporter, Kup was able to extract Action Man in his chest before the base exploded. On their way home from the Moon, Action Man told the team that, as a member of British Intelligence, he had files on the team who had discovered the alien artifact in the first place... {{storylink|Enter The Shadow}} | ||
... which turned out to be Richard Ruby, alias [[Bulletman]], who had served in the Adventure Team in his heyday. Posing as filmmakers, Ian and the others interviewed the retired superhero about his time in [[Egypt]], where they discovered that the Talisman had connections to [[Merklynn|Garrison Kreiger]] and Count | ... which turned out to be Richard Ruby, alias [[Bulletman]], who had served in the Adventure Team in his heyday. Posing as filmmakers, Ian and the others interviewed the retired superhero about his time in [[Egypt]], where they discovered that the Talisman had connections to [[Merklynn|Garrison Kreiger]] and [[Kalistan]]ian dictator Count "[[Iron Klaw]]" van Rani. {{storylink|The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb}} While en route to Kalistan to learn more about Ironblood's cabal, the team formed an alliance with the wayward [[Snake-Eyes]]; by disguising him as [[Tomax and Xamot|Tomax Paoli]], they used him as a Trojan horse to infiltrate his [[Iron Castle]] and learned that van Rani had enslaved and experimented on the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacon]]s. In the ensuing battle, Action Man and Kup went up against their new combined form of [[Predaking (G1)|Predaking]]. With Snake-Eyes' help, they were able to deactivate the technology responsible for keeping them together. Though Ian was briefly taken captive by a furious [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]], Kup rescued his human buddy by blowing the Decepticon's head off. Regrouping on the outskirts of the castle, the team — now armed with the knowledge of where the real Tomax had gone — headed to the United States to learn more about Tomax's involvement in the mysterious "[[Project Ice Man|Project: Ice Man]]". {[storylink|The Iron Klaw}} | ||
Catching up with Tomax just outside the [[I.R.O.N.]] building in downtown [[San Francisco]], Ian and Mayday stormed the building to catch the ex-Cobra leader by surprise; neither, hwoever, were prepared for the fact that Tomax had been forewarned of their approach and had donned a suit of [[Cobra Commander]] armor. Down but not out of the fight, Action Man and Kup scaled the building but were themselves ambushed by Tomax's limousine, which revealed itself as a Transformer named [[Centurion (IDW)|Centurion]]: an amnesiac warrior who had fallen into the employ of Kreiger. While Kup dealt with the confused Cybertronian, he improvised a fastball special with his human companion; using his in-built forcefield to knock Tomax off-balance, he and Mayday chased Tomax through the building and were eventually able to bring him down. With Centurion voluntarily standing down, the humans pressed Tomax for information, but realized that he knew nothing about the larger conspiracy, {{storylink|Strange Visitors}} other than the codes required to break into Kreiger's [[Brasnya]]n base. {{storylink|Power and Glory}} | |||
After picking up [[Matt Trakker]] and [[Gloria Baker]] as reinforcements, the team headed to the icy country to investigate Kreiger's activities; easily breaching the initial security measures, both Kup and Blackrock were promptly taken offline by a more advanced suite of anti-Cybertronian technology. Left on his lonesome, Ian faced off against Kreiger's reanimated "[[I.R.O.N. Cybertronian]]s" and, despite taking a hit in the leg, was able to trigger the base's internal systems into washing them away. Regrouping with the other humans on the team, the quartet were able to corner Kreiger and his mangled prisoner, the former [[Atomic Man]]. Realizing that Mike Power had been forcibly brainwashed into accepting his current condition, Action Man tried to remind him of his former self, even pointing out that ''he'd'' never felt able to live up to his reputation... at which point Mike Power reawoke and quietly disconnected himself from his life support machines. The tragedy was soon interrupted by the unexpected arrival of [[Sgt. Savage]], thought dead since the end of [[World War II]]. {{storylink|Power and Glory}} | |||
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Revision as of 22:37, 29 January 2018
- Action Man is the codename of several humans from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Action Man is Britain's one-bloke answer to G.I. Joe, a master of all forms of fighting, communication, and disguise. Having served the crown since the days of Elizabeth I, the Action Man honour is bestowed upon an agent trained to perfect physical and mental calibre. One such chap crossed paths with the Adventure Team.
The current Action Man is Ian Noble, a young lad seeking revenge for the death of the previous Action Man.
Fiction
Unit:E comic
Upon approaching the planet Earth, the artificial intelligence Synergy presented footage of the Action Man to her crew-mate, the young Acroyear, so that he could learn about his potential allies and enemies on the alien world. She informed him that the elusive Action Man was one of many, each of which would somehow pass down all their knowledge and skills to their successor. The current Action Man had been "activated" prematurely, as his immediate predecessor had "gone bad" and rebranded himself as "Dr. X". As such, the current Action Man was a 25-year-old with 2500 years of knowledge at his disposal. Unit:E
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The mantle of "Action Man" stretches back to the 16th century, with the title having been passed down from one Action Man to the next over the years. Action Man profile Revolutionaries #1 timeline
In the 1960s, that era's Action Man tracked a ring of Brasnyan spies to the United States, where he helped bust their smuggling ring involving alien technology. As he arrested the criminals, he offered some words of encouragement to a young Mike Power, who had tracked the spies to their base of operations. Power and Glory In the 1980s, Adventure Team veterans Joe Colton and Miles Manheim encountered this Action Man one of their many globetrotting adventures. Secret Raiders
At one point, Joe Colton mistook Soundwave for a piloted mecha and wondered if Action Man was at the helm. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
In the 1990s, that era's Action Man was notable for his involvement with Team Extreme, a totally radical group of bandolier-wearing do-gooders that included a temporally displaced Sgt. Savage. When Eagles Scream He was later succeeded by Mike Brogan. Action Man profile
The man who would become the latest Action man was Ian Noble, a sixth-form student in northern London with criminal tendencies. Circa 2012 on a midnight stroll near the Thames, Ian accidentally stumbled across the Action Man Programme's headquarters after stealing a suspicious entry card. There, he encountered Mike Brogan, the serving Action Man who decided to induct the young rogue into the program; as a member of Action Man's tech program, Noble undertook many authorized and unauthorized missions in the pursuit of the mysterious "Doctor X". During a struggle to recapture an experimental spacecraft and its volatile antimatter drive, Brogan sacrificed himself to save the Earth. Although Britain's Prime Minister commended Noble for his work, and pushed for Ian to become the next Action Man. On his earliest adventures as Action Man, Noble continued to pursue Doctor X, until the discovery that Doctor X was actually a mole within the Action Man Programme—his teammate Mercy Gale, who evaded capture. Action Man profile
While meeting to discuss the Transformers, Joe Colton and his mate Miles Manheim recalled their encounter with the Action Man of their heyday. Manheim noted that the current Action Man could be helpful in dealing with a situation in California. Secret Raiders
Ian Noble and fellow Action Man Programme agent Terrence Salmons responded to a distress beacon coming from Mount Olympus, Greece. Ian flew down to the mountain where he discovered a crevice filled with Ore-13... and former member of G.I. Joe Big Ben. Big Ben told Ian that his team was tracking a group of covert agents to the mountain, where they were mining the Ore-13, and that his men were all killed by the agents. He then handed Ian a dog tag he took off one of the agents; a G.I. Joe dog tag! The energy of the Ore-13 began to destabilize and Ian was forced to abandon Big Ben as the mountain exploded.
Ian then contacted his old acquaintance Mainframe to inform him of the Mount Olympus incident, reporting that the dog tags belonged to David Dubosky. Mainframe said that was impossible, having just spoken to Countdown two minute prior. Ian warned Mainframe to keep an eye on his fellow Joes, since in their weird world, things aren't always what they seem. Concorde Hymn
Ian Noble was visible on a computer screen as Baron Karza monitored the Ore-13 which had been retrieved from Olympus. The Divine Source of Liberty
The upswing of extraterrestrial activity on Earth—including M.A.S.K.'s capture of Kup in Athens and a Dire Wraith attack on the White House had attracted the attention of the A.M.P., who correctly deduced that G.I. Joe had been compromised by the Dire Wraiths. On Pauline Bestley's orders, Ian Noble was deployed to Governor's Island to investigate. Ian contacted his friend Mainframe and crashed his exploding jetski into the fortified walls of the island to directly breach their security. After melting his way into the facility with acid, he dealt with M.A.S.K. agents Sly Rax and Vanessa Warfield and freed the elderly Autobot. While Mainframe and his team—who had no idea that Miles Mayhem was keeping an Autobot prisoner—argued with their supposed M.A.S.K. colleagues, Action Man and Kup outran Mayhem's Switchblade vehicle before Mainframe called down a low-power orbital strike from Beijing. The super-spy and Autobot were able to elude capture by driving along the seabed, aiming to return to the mainland and rejoin the growing battle. The Modern World
Mainframe and Kup arrived at Monument Valley just as the extradimensional Baron Karza began laying siege to Autobot City; the duo managed to save Mainframe and Mayday from a crashing helicopter... even though Mainframe still claimed not to know who he was. When Windblade activated Metrotitan's flight protocols, the two evacuated to the flying city. To Ian's relief, almost everyone survived... except for the Micronauts and half of M.A.S.K.'s strike team, who were unaccounted for. Valley Forge
In the aftermath of the conflict, Kup joined Action Man regularly on adventures across the world. On one early operation, the duo investigated an anomalous wave of energy in Schleteva, which was transforming innocent civilians into Dire Wraiths. Ian discovered that this was due to Garrison Blackrock, who was searching for answers about his origins by tampering with a mysterious Talisman and accidentally activating its powers. The two fought one another for control of the artifact, but were disrupted by Rom, who had teamed up with Mayday's Joe unit in the process. All four factions were forced to put their differences aside when the Oktober Guard arrived, hoping to steal the Talisman for themselves. Mayday and Action Man pursued the Guard after their common enemies mutated the other Joes into Wraiths. Though Kup managed to run them off the road, Bludd activated a teleportation device and dragged Ian, who had been standing too close, along with them. Crisis Intervention
Action Man awoke on the Moon in a spacesuit, just outside the abandoned Section Sabine moonbase. Making it inside just before running out of oxygen, he discovered that Doctor X, Storm Shadow, and Baron Ironblood, who had taken the Talisman and amassed an army of Red Shadows. Ian managed to escape, pursued by Doctor X's ninjas, and came aacross a M.A.S.S. Device powered by Ore-13, but before he could escape Storm Shadow managed to pin him down. He was rescued by Kup, Mayday, Blackrock, and the Micronauts, who had tracked him to the moon. The Talisman's effects detonated the local supplies of Ore-13; though the villains escaped via teleporter, Kup was able to extract Action Man in his chest before the base exploded. On their way home from the Moon, Action Man told the team that, as a member of British Intelligence, he had files on the team who had discovered the alien artifact in the first place... Enter The Shadow
... which turned out to be Richard Ruby, alias Bulletman, who had served in the Adventure Team in his heyday. Posing as filmmakers, Ian and the others interviewed the retired superhero about his time in Egypt, where they discovered that the Talisman had connections to Garrison Kreiger and Kalistanian dictator Count "Iron Klaw" van Rani. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb While en route to Kalistan to learn more about Ironblood's cabal, the team formed an alliance with the wayward Snake-Eyes; by disguising him as Tomax Paoli, they used him as a Trojan horse to infiltrate his Iron Castle and learned that van Rani had enslaved and experimented on the Predacons. In the ensuing battle, Action Man and Kup went up against their new combined form of Predaking. With Snake-Eyes' help, they were able to deactivate the technology responsible for keeping them together. Though Ian was briefly taken captive by a furious Razorclaw, Kup rescued his human buddy by blowing the Decepticon's head off. Regrouping on the outskirts of the castle, the team — now armed with the knowledge of where the real Tomax had gone — headed to the United States to learn more about Tomax's involvement in the mysterious "Project: Ice Man". {[storylink|The Iron Klaw}}
Catching up with Tomax just outside the I.R.O.N. building in downtown San Francisco, Ian and Mayday stormed the building to catch the ex-Cobra leader by surprise; neither, hwoever, were prepared for the fact that Tomax had been forewarned of their approach and had donned a suit of Cobra Commander armor. Down but not out of the fight, Action Man and Kup scaled the building but were themselves ambushed by Tomax's limousine, which revealed itself as a Transformer named Centurion: an amnesiac warrior who had fallen into the employ of Kreiger. While Kup dealt with the confused Cybertronian, he improvised a fastball special with his human companion; using his in-built forcefield to knock Tomax off-balance, he and Mayday chased Tomax through the building and were eventually able to bring him down. With Centurion voluntarily standing down, the humans pressed Tomax for information, but realized that he knew nothing about the larger conspiracy, Strange Visitors other than the codes required to break into Kreiger's Brasnyan base. Power and Glory
After picking up Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker as reinforcements, the team headed to the icy country to investigate Kreiger's activities; easily breaching the initial security measures, both Kup and Blackrock were promptly taken offline by a more advanced suite of anti-Cybertronian technology. Left on his lonesome, Ian faced off against Kreiger's reanimated "I.R.O.N. Cybertronians" and, despite taking a hit in the leg, was able to trigger the base's internal systems into washing them away. Regrouping with the other humans on the team, the quartet were able to corner Kreiger and his mangled prisoner, the former Atomic Man. Realizing that Mike Power had been forcibly brainwashed into accepting his current condition, Action Man tried to remind him of his former self, even pointing out that he'd never felt able to live up to his reputation... at which point Mike Power reawoke and quietly disconnected himself from his life support machines. The tragedy was soon interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Sgt. Savage, thought dead since the end of World War II. Power and Glory
Toys
Revolution
- Revolution Set (SDCC Gift Set, 2017)
- Accessories: Rifle, two submachine guns
- Released as part of a San Diego Comic-Con 2017 exclusive set, Action Man is a human action figure made up of redecoed parts from various G.I. Joe action figures, with a new head based on IDW's Ian Noble iteration of the character. He was packed with several other Hasbro Universe action figures: Jetfire, Matt Trakker of M.A.S.K., Visionaries' Leoric, Roadblock of G.I. Joe, Rom, and a Dire Wraith, and 9 Micronauts mini-figurines.
- He is sadly not compatible with Titans Return Kup.
Notes
- Action Man is based on the U.K. version of G.I. Joe from the 1960s, released around the same time as the G.I. Joe Adventure Team. Colton and Manheim meeting an Action Man is likely a reference to that.
- This isn't the first time Action Man and G.I. Joe have crossed over: the 90's extreme sports adventurer version of Action Man got a toy as part of a Toys"R"Us-exclusive G.I. Joe set back in 2004.
External links
- Ian Noble at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
