Action Man

Action Man is the codename of several humans from the Generation 1 continuity family.

I'm happy, hope you're happy too.

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

2005 IDW continuity

Do you remember a guy that's been in such an early song?

The mantle of "Action Man" stretches back to the 16th century; a top-secret lineage of highly trained agents beginning with Christopher Marlowe, the first holder of the title. Operating under the jurisdiction of the Action Man Programme, each holder of the "Action Man" title is expected to train to physical and mental perfection while mastering a wide variety of military and civilian skills. Action Man profile Revolutionaries #1 timeline

In the 1960s, the Action Man of that era tracked a ring of Brasnyan spies to the United States, discovering that they had set up an international smuggling ring designed to export salvaged alien technology out of their home country. After arresting the criminals, he offered some words of encouragement to a young Mike Power, who had independently tracked the spies to their base of operations. Power and Glory

We know Major Tom's a junkie.

Some twenty years later, Adventure Team members Joe Colton and Miles Manheim encountered the same Action Man on one of their many globetrotting adventures; Secret Raiders in 1984, Joe Colton mistook Soundwave for a piloted mecha and wondered if Action Man was at the helm. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb

This Action Man would retire sometime around the early 1990s, and his successor 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 His tenure was evidently brief, as he himself would be succeeded by Mike Brogan at some point after 1994. Action Man profile

The unlikely hero who would become the next 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. Discovering the Action Man Programme, Brogan opted to induct the young rogue into the program as part of the AMP's tech division, where he undertook many authorized and unauthorized missions in the pursuit of the mysterious "Doctor X". Circa 2016, Noble accompanied Brogan on what would become Mike Brogan's last outing as Action Man; during a struggle to recapture an experimental antimatter-fuelled spacecraft that had been targeted by Doctor X, Brogan was forced to sacrifice himself to save the Earth. Unable to leave their flagship post unoccupied for long, Ian was quickly pushed into becoming the next Action Man on the recommendation of Britain's Prime Minister, a decision that proved controversial amongst members of the AMP and the wider UK government.

On his earliest adventures as Action Man, Noble continued to pursue Doctor X before discovering that his nemesis was a mole within the Action Man Programme itself, his teammate and friend Mercy Gale, who evaded capture. Action Man profile

While discussing recent extraterrestrial activity on Earth, Joe Colton and Miles Manheim recalled their adventure with Action Man during their heyday. Manheim noted that the current Action Man could be helpful in dealing with a situation in California. Secret Raiders

I'm hoping to kick, but the planet is glowing.

Not long afterwards, Ian Noble and fellow AMP agent Terrence Salmons responded to a distress beacon coming from Mount Olympus in 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; in their weird world, things weren't always what they seemed. 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

I'm stuck with a valuable friend.

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 AMP, 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 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

Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair.

In the aftermath of the conflict, Kup opted to take a sabbatical from his Autobot duties in order to serve the AMP as an independent contractor. Upgrade As such, he became a regular fixture on the Action Man Programme alongside his new human friend; on one such operation, the duo investigated an anomalous wave of energy in Schleteva, which had transformed 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

I've loved all I've needed, love, sordid details following.

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". The Iron Klaw

Oh no, not again.

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, however, 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

I never done good things, I never done bad things.

Returning to Buenos Aires with their prisoner in tow, the team took a moment to unwind while awaiting a G.I. Joe-authorized prisoner transfer for Kreiger. Ian Noble and AMP quartermaster Bryce Chan used the opportunity to examine the mutated Schletevans; unbeknownst to all, however, Centurion had feigned his change of heart, and used his vital position to hack the security systems and allow the rest of the Iron Ring to storm the building as Doctor X pulled a gun on her former ally. When Eagles Scream Ian stalled for time and let her monologue; taking advantage of her distraction, the secret agent shot the containment tanks keeping the Wraith mutates in stasis, allowing them to break free and rampage through the building. Battling against Storm Shadow alongside Mayday, the two were rescued by Kup just in time for Blackrock to access the powers of the recently arrived Metrotitan, having used his Titan Master powers to reverse-engineer a cure for the victims of the Talisman. Despite their best efforts, the villains were able to teleport out with the Talisman, and a final surge of its mutative energy threatened to transform the Revolutionaries... until Centurion threw himself into the path of the beam, seemingly dying. The heroes soon learned that a copy of Mike Power's consciousness had entered Centurion's body to produce a new being. With the Iron Ring still on the loose, the "Revolutionaries" pledged that they would have to do even better next time. Ghost in the Machine

You'd better not mess with Major Tom.

Some time later, Earth had finally been inducted into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds and the Revolutionaries headed to Cybertron via space bridge to watch the grandiose ceremony commemorating the occasion. Ian and Kup found a vantage point amongst the skyscrapers of Iacon to watch the upcoming spectacle alongside Arcee, whom Action Man developed a sudden infatuation with. Their evening was quickly interrupted by the return of the Iron Ring, wielding the Talisman in a bid to wipe out all Cybertronian life. Action Man fought his way through the forces of the Iron Ring to reconnect with Kup, learning from the elderly Autobot that Centurion and Blackrock had been taken by the human bounty hunter Colditz. Unification Day: Dawn The trail led Arcee and the Revolutionaries out of Iacon and into the primordial wilderness beyond; fighting their way through more Red Shadows, the team caught up with the two Cybertronians, prompting Colditz to detonate a stash of explosives... and Kreiger, working his way down to the core of the planet, to remotely transmit a surge of destructive Talisman energy through Centurion, a bid to deliberately goad the Revolutionaries into eliminating Centurion and tying up another loose end in Kreiger's larger scheme. The team were able to convince Centurion to stand down, at the cost of temporarily knocking him into stasis lock. Deprived of their best shot to end the invasion, the team returned Centurion to Iacon too late to prevent Colton and his crew from advancing to the core. Unification Day: Dusk

Following the end of the invasion and Colton's unconditional surrender, First Strike #6 Action Man returned to Earth alone, leaving Kup to keep the peace on his homeworld. The Dead Come Home, Part 1

One flash of light but no smoking pistol.

Months later, when Unicron attacked Earth, Ian and Terrence—the latter installed as a deputy Action Man—helped defend London from a swarm of Maximals, keeping the invaders at bay outside King's Cross station. Ceremony Not long afterwards, Ian was one of the many heroes who attended Optimus Prime's funeral in Little Cybertron. Post

Toys

Revolution

Once again, Allspark March Mayhem accurately predicts the upcoming year's toys.

• Revolution Set (SDCC Gift Set, 2017)
  • Accessories: Rifle, two submachine guns, G.I. Joe display stand

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.
• Mark Hildreth was the voice of Action Man in the 2000 Action Man animated series.

External links

• Ian Noble at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
• Action Man at Wikipedia