Joe Colton
| The name or term "Joe Colton" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Joe Colton (disambiguation). |
- Joe Colton is a member of Adventure Team and G.I. Joe from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Joseph "Joe" Colton uses his uncanny resemblance to Chuck Norris to benefit mankind as the guy for whom the G.I. Joe team is named.
He sometimes works with Mike Power, who had a robotic arm and leg, which is more robotics than your average human has, but still much less than a Transformer.
Colton eventually teamed up with Optimus Prime, which was pretty cool. Chuck Norris has yet to team up with Optimus Prime.
When there's morally gray work to be done, Colton sometimes adopts a villainous alter-ego to become the nefarious Baron Ironblood. Chuck Norris has never become a supervillain.
Joe should never be confused with Jake Colton. Joe eats men like Jake for breakfast.
Fiction
GI Joe vs. the Transformers
In the late 1970s, Joseph Colton led the three-man Adventure Team through the Himalayan Mountains. They came under attack from the airborne forces of General Mihai, who were in turn attacked by members of Cobra-La. Working for Cobra-La was Bludgeon, who killed Atomic Man. Colton and his guide, Chok-Pa, were saved by Pythona's wish to keep the two captive. And so the original G.I. Joe went missing in action.
Colton was imprisoned for decades, during which he was tormented by Pythona about the coming of Unicron. Joe retained a silent rage. When Pythona informed him that members of G.I. Joe, Flint and Hawk, had been sent to Tibet, along with Optimus Prime, Colton freed himself and soon allied with the men and Autobot. Black Horizon, Part 1 of 2
Colton explained how Bludgeon arrived to team up with the Cobra-La civilization and helped fight their forces. He led the team to where a metal-eating spore was being cultivated as part of a back-up plan in case Unicron betrayed Cobra-La. A horde of yeti attacked, but Joe fought them all off with his kung-fu grip and interrogated a yeti, which only Joe could do.
Joe, Flint, and Prime loaded up Cosmos with the spores, intending to use Cobra-La's back-up plan to defeat Unicron. However, Joe was soon attacked and badly beaten by Nemesis Enforcer. Close to defeat, his grizzled manliness finally reached Pythona's heart. She stabbed Nemesis Enforcer in the back and saved the hero.
Cosmos and Flint deployed the spores and destroyed Unicron, and Joe later explained to Duke that he'd succeeded in his life's mission and needed to be re-purposed. Flint later briefed a group of men for a mission to explore the insides of the now-dead Unicron, a group to be led by Joseph Colton. Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2
Kre-O cartoon
Colton was among a group of Joes who went to a carnival. They tried their luck unsuccessfully at a "ring the bell" strongman contest, only to watch open-mouthed as the Terrorcons combined into Abominus and smashed it so hard it broke. Carnival Face Off
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
As the founder of G.I. Joe, Joseph Colton was one of the very few individuals who knew the secret that his forebears had passed down through the ages—that Earth itself was a gigantic Transformer named Atlas. The War Never Ends Having seen the horrors of war up close, he dedicated himself to ensuring that future generations would not endure the same nightmare he did. To this end, he spent the rest of his life developing a means of fighting wars remotely—a network of laser satellites that was known as the Coltonbolt. I Saw Three Ships Following his example, many more ways of waging remote-warfare would be developed by G.I. Joe, including the G.I.Rocket. Form Follows Function Colton himself eventually retired to a cold sleep in a bunker located underneath South America. The War Never Ends
When all looked lost for Earth, the surviving Joes enacted the "Atlas Protocol"—a last-ditch strategy that involved reviving Colton. Colton led Flint and a group of Joes underneath T.H.E. P.I.T. to a second, top-secret chamber, which housed the necessary machinery required to awaken Atlas. At the critical moment, General Flagg sent the go-ahead to Colton, who put the final stage of the Atlas protocol into play. The War Never Ends
IDW Generation 1 continuity
"Yo, bro!"
Born in Rhode Island, Joseph B. "Joe" Colton graduated from the United States Military Academy with the highest honors. Inspired by the legendary World War II hero Sergeant Savage, Colton joined the Green Berets immediately after graduating. His expertise in covert operations caught the attention of his superiors, and in 1982 he was selected to join the Adventure Team. Serving alongside other elite military assets – including Miles "Mayhem" Manheim, Bulletman, and the Atomic Man – Colton received the codename "G.I. Joe" Joe Colton profile in Revolution #2 Over the course of their careers, the Adventure Team travelled the world, and on one escapade they teamed up with the British hero Action Man. Secret Raiders
One of the final missions of the Adventure Team began with a trip to Egypt to rescue Garrison Kreiger, following the trail of an unusual emergency beacon emanating from within the lost Tomb of Amtoltec. When Colton investigated, an army of robotic mummies attacked; Colton realized that they resembled to a robotic group of soldiers Savage had fought in the war. Further investigations of the tomb revealed a mysterious cassette player that soon revealed itself to be the Decepticon Soundwave, on a mission of his own. Believing that the giant robot was a human-piloted mech, Colton's questions provoked Soundwave into attacking the human, though Miles Mayhem managed to save his friend at the last moment. The two trailed the Decepticon into the center of the tomb, where they discovered a strange Talisman before driving off the Decepticon. Though their mission was a success, it also marked the beginning of the end for the team: the world was growing stranger and ordinary humans like Joe couldn't keep up. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Shortly afterwards, a mission to rescue Emil Burkhart ended in failure, which sent Atomica Man into a depression that ended with his disappearance. Power and Glory
In the 1990s, Colton took command of the team and reforged it into the "Adventure Force." On one mission, they successfully tracked the missing Atomic Man to Kreiger's Brasnyan research base, leading to a brief standoff, the apparent death of Atomic Man, and the surprising return of Sgt. Savage, who had been sent fifty years into the future thanks to the Talisman. When Eagles Scream
Although the Adventure Team was eventually decommissioned, the success of the group in its heyday inspired the creation of a new taskforce: the top-secret special missions group G.I. Joe, named in honor of their founder and commander. Colton was less than happy about the fact that he'd been put out to pasture and stuck in a desk job (forcing him to shave). He would occasionally return to the field when the need arose, though never enough to satisfy his craving for action. Secret Raiders Joe Colton profile in Revolution #2
In the early 2000s, Joe Colton was attached to Joshua Red's Skywatch unit as part of Project: Hot House: an initiative aimed at refitting an abandoned Decepticon bunker into a new laboratory to investigate the Talisman. Colton recruited Kreiger into the initiative, testing the strange artifact to see how it would react with samples of Ore-13. Kreiger's Cybertronian asset Centurion proved vital when the time came to test out the Talisman's effects against mechanical life-forms; capturing the Decepticon straggler Bugly and luring Sgt. Savage to Oregon with a false distress beacon, Colton, Kreiger and Red invited Savage into the base's laboratory. Chaining the Decepticon to the Talisman, the three tricked Savage into using his body - saturated with Talisman energy - to reactivate the device, instantly killing Bugly and sending Savage further into the future. When Eagles Scream
In the wake of the Decepticon invasion, Colton personally commanded G.I. Joe until the "Cobra debacle" led to the destruction of Nanzhao and the mothballing of the team. Secret Raiders
When the Transformers returned to Earth, Optimus Prime wound up annexing the planet into Cybertron's pan-stellar Council of Worlds and raising a city-sized Transformer from Monument Valley. White Light In response, the President of the United States appointed Colton as the new commander of the anti-alien Earth Defense Command, instructing him to pick up where his predecessor Marissa Faireborn had failed. White Light Among Colton's first actions recalling operative Spike Witwicky from Monument Valley to oversee the cleanup of an Autobot/Decepticon battle in the Indian Ocean, resulting in the capture of the Decepticon Blitzwing, and dispatching former Joes Scarlett and Roadblock to transfer captured Cybertronian sleeper agent Garrison Blackrock to a safe house, though the transfer was interrupted by Sentinel Prime's rampage across America. White Light
In the months that followed, believing that the upswing of Transformer activity on Earth would inevitably lead to planetary extinction, Colton decided that it was finally time to employ the Talisman to exterminate them all. Attempting to go through official channels, however, he 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, 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
The Wraith-Colton went on to sow confusion and chaos until he was still by the Space Knight, Rom. Concorde Hymn The real Colton, meanwhile, reunited with Kreiger in the latter's secret lair, requiring treatment to remove all traces of Dire Wraith biomatter that lingered in his system. Colton realized that he would now have to act outside the law to implement his plans for the Talisman, and, knowing that G.I. Joe would not be willing to go along with his plans, put together a list of supervillains to aid him in his objectives instead. First Strike #0 Doubting that they would trust the founder of G.I. Joe, Colton crafted a new identity for himself, "Baron Ironblood," concealing his face behind an ominous new helmet and costume, and replaced his lost hand with a prosthesis derived from the Talisman's technology. Redcliffe Club
As "Ironblood," Colton's first port of call was the Redcliffe Club in London, where he recruited European super-criminal Doctor X for her ability to counter Cybertronian threats. He also won the loyalty of Storm Shadow and her legion of Red Shadows, promising to use the Talisman to upgrade the cybernetically-enhanced ninjas far in advance of human technology. Redcliffe Club X procured use of the M.A.S.S. Device teleporter from G.I. Joe's old enemy Destro, but Colton wanted to bring Destro deeper into the fold; he visited the arms dealer in his ancestral home and, after fighting off some B.A.T.s, he succeeded in convinced Destro to join in with the promise of gaining access to cutting edge Cybertronian technology. A Game of Chess
Joined by Kalistanian leader Count "Iron Klaw" von Rani, the team began searching for the Talisman. Enter The Shadow The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Part of their plan involved taking over an old Cobra base on the moon, though to his irritation Action Man ended up there. Ironblood sensibly wanted to kill the hero but clashed with Doctor X, who wanted a more elaborate solution; this led to Action Man bringing his allies up to the moon, forcing the villains into a retreat. Enter The Shadow
The cabal of villains, accompanied by Centurion, alerted the reluctant Tomax Paoli, the newest Cobra Commander, that the heroes would be after him next. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb The Baron went to Kalistan to speak with the Iron Klaw and admire his new allies, the Predacons. They were unprepared for a sneak attack by Snake-Eyes, who disguised himself as Tomax. They used a replica of the Talisman to experiment on Blackrock but found themselves punked when it turned out "Tomax" was Snake Eyes in disguise; the ninja beat up the Baron before he and his friends ran off with data taken and the Predacons disabled. In the aftermath, Ironblood advocated cutting ties with the real Tomax and Centurion. The Iron Klaw After his defeat, Tomax revealed he knew nothing about Ironblood's agenda despite his hatred of the man. Strange Visitors
After Kreiger had been captured and detained at the Onyx tower in Buenos Aires, Centurion, X and Storm Shadow sowed chaos allowing for Ironblood's cabal to teleport in via the M.A.S.S. Device where he unexpectedly found Robert Savage. Savage saw right through Ironblood and leapt at him, ripping off his helmet revealing Colton much to Mayday's shock. When Eagles Scream
With his identity now exposed, Colton was aware his old team would try to stop him and left a note for Scarlett, explaining his motivations along with his fears that one day Earth would be crushed under Cybertron's boot and asking Scarlett to consider that before she pursued him. First Strike #1
Unable to actually reach Cybertron to complete his plan, Ironblood piggybacked the signal of the M.A.S.S. Device on Metrotitan's Space Bridge as Optimus Prime's group when through. First Strike #2
The villains made themselves known on Cybertron during the official ceremony to commemorate Earth joining the Council of Worlds. Backed by a legion of Red Shadows, Iron Grenadiers, the Dreadnoks, and Destro Ironblood coordinated the initial attack on Iacon. First Strike #1 After he heroically murdered a scared, fleeing Cybertronian, he gave Miles Mayhem the all clear to proceed to the rendezvous point and the group proceeded underground to Cybertron's core. First Strike #2
Notes
- Colton's spacesuit at the end of "Black Horizon" is derived from the outfit worn by the "Super Joe Commander" in Hasbro's late 1970s "Super Joe" offshoot of the G.I. Joe toyline. Obscure!
- Colton was the commander of the Joes during IDW's third and fourth volumes, all of which comes under IDW Generation 1 continuity but isn't that relevant to this wiki's purposes.
Maybe it's Maybelline.
- His secret identity of Baron Ironblood was the evil leader of the Red Shadows, the baddies from Action Force, G.I. Joe's British antecedent-slash-counterpart. His true identity and face was obscured by his bucket helmet (though the cover of Battle #422 shows him in all his smirky glory). Famously for old-school fans, when Hasbro acquired the Force and folded it into G.I. Joe, IPC's Battle Action Force had Baron Ironblood become Cobra Commander. Hence in IDW continuity, First Strike sees him take command of Cobra.
- Action Force spun out of Action Man like G.I. Joe spun out of G.I. Joe, hence "Ironblood" being tied to Action Man by IDW.
External links
- Joe Colton on YoJoe.com
- Joe Colton at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
