Joe Colton (Dire Wraith)

"Joe Colton" is a Dire Wraith from the Generation 1 continuity family.

A Dire Wraith would operate under the guise of "Joe Colton" to sow discord on Earth.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

In the months that followed Joe Colton's appointment as head of Earth's anti-alien defense force, the Earth Defense Command, he came to believe that the upswing in Transformer activity on Earth would inevitably lead to planetary extinction. Consequently, Colton decided that it was finally time to employ the weapon of last resort he had been holding back for over a decade, the mysterious alien obelisk known as the Talisman, to exterminate them all. Attempting to go through official channels, however, Colton discovered the Earth's governments had been insurmountably infiltrated by a different alien threat: the shape-changing Dire Wraiths. First Strike #2 The Wraith infiltrators attempted to assimilate and replace Colton, as they had done to their previous victims, O Ship of State though they were only partially successful: while the Wraiths succeeded in creating a Dire Wraith copy of Colton, the genuine article escaped lethal absorption by amputating his own hand and going underground. First Strike #0

BRRAP BRRAP PEW PEW

Using his new position of authority, "Colton" began to recruit G.I. Joe veterans into the ranks of the EDC–in reality, a method to plant more Dire Wraiths in the ranks of the United States armed forces. Concorde Hymn O Ship of State The Wraiths desired Earth's Ore-13 to fuel their magicks, O Ship of State but worldwide deposits of it had recently being to destabilize, threatening destructive nuclear fission. "Colton" called a meeting with Scarlett and the true Colton's old Adventure Team cohort Miles Mayhem to pursue a solution. Blaming Optimus Prime for the ore's destabilization, "Colton" turned over the captive Decepticon Blitzwing to Mayhem, and tasked him with finding a way to use him to disrupt Prime’s plans. Secret Raiders Mayhem would later be revealed to be actively working with the Dire Wraiths to secure dominion over Earth for himself; it is unclear at what point he became aware of their existence. Mayhem was also working with Microspace tyrant Baron Karza, who was the true force responsible for the Ore-13 destabilization, but "Colton" and the Wraiths were evidently unaware of this little detail, thanks to Mayhem's compartmentalization of their joint alliance. O Ship of State

After the Ore-13 beneath Mount Olympus blew up, "Colton" met with the President where he explained what Ore-13 was and that they had no real proof the Cybertronians had detonated the Ore-13, at least intentionally. In spite of his unwillingness to openly engage the Cybertronians, the President ordered G.I. Joe into action to launch an attack on a Cybertronian-human relief effort in Portland. His forces opened fire on Jazz which brought Arcee running. "Colton" found his squad completely outmatched by the pink Autobot before her reinforcements arrived. "Colton" was amazed at the power of the EMP that Soundwave used to knock out G.I. Joe's equipment before Scarlett noted he'd targeted Slip-Stream's gunship to land right atop the two only for Victorion to save them as a sign of good faith. After a few more pointless attempts to take down the Cybertronians, Rom arrived on the scene to Colton's great distress. He ordered his troops to forget the Cybertronians and focus fire on Rom, only for the Space Knight, able to easily sense that he was Dire Wraith infiltrator, to kill him with a blast of his Neutralizer. Concorde Hymn

Though Rom's actions initially only furthered hostilities between G.I. Joe and the Transformers, when the Joes analyzed "Colton"'s corpse, they discovered his non-human DNA and were alerted to the Wraith infiltration. O Ship of State