G.I. Joe (team)
| This article is about the fictional counter-terrorist team. For the real-world Hasbro franchise, see G.I. Joe (franchise). |
- G.I. Joe is a human military organization from the G.I. Joe portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
G.I. Joe is the code-name for America's daring, highly trained special mission force! Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world!
It has been known to ally itself with the Autobots, just as Cobra tends to ally with the Decepticons.
The team is named after their founder and executive officer; Joe Colton.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
The G.I. Joe team was assigned to protect Power Station Alpha from harm and was involved in the events following its theft and ultimate destruction. Blood on the Tracks Power Struggle Ashes, Ashes... ...All Fall Down!
Members involved in this mission included Ace, Beachhead, Crankcase, Dial-Tone, General Hawk, Lady Jaye, Lift-Ticket, Mainframe, Mutt & Junkyard, Roadblock, Scarlett, Sgt. Slaughter, Slip-Stream, Snake-Eyes, and Wild Bill.
Marvel Generation 2 comic
After incidents in previous issues of G. I. Joe led Megatron to believe that there was another Cybertronian on the planet, he flew to investigate and wound up confronting Cobra; in the aftermath, he bargained with Cobra for a new body in exchange for a quantity of Cybertronian technology. Megatron joined with Cobra when they retreated to their new headquarters, a small town under Cobra's control, but his refusal to remain in tank mode blew their cover as the G.I. Joe team spotted his movements and reported them back to Optimus Prime, who dispatched a rather mismatched team of Autobots to assist the Joes in their efforts against Cobra. In a rather costly series of skirmishes, the Joe team and the Autobots liberated the town, rescued a scientist who Megatron took hostage, recovered a Joe who had gone undercover, and prevented Cobra from obtaining the promised technology. Unfortunately, Megatron escaped, leaving the Joe team and a lone Autobot left to guard the planet against Megatron's next moves. Unfoldings! Realignments Goin' South Sucker Punch Final Transformations All or Nothing!
Members involved in this mission included Flint, General Hawk, Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, and Wild Bill.
Later, the Decepticons launched an all-out assault on the Earth. With Washington, D.C. turned into a smouldering ruin, the task of salvaging the United States military's counter-offensive fell to Hawk and G.I. Joe. They were not optimistic about how it was going. The Gathering Darkness
Known members involved were Hawk and Flint, but we can assume others were as well.
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Japanese cartoon continuity
G.I. Joe was formed in the early 1990s to combat the rising threat of Cobra. When a 1996 mission went sour, Joe member D.R. Faireborn and his daughter Marissa were saved by Optimus Prime, beginning an odd "relationship" between Prime and Marissa that persisted for years. 2007 TakaraTomy Transformers timeline
Transformers/G.I. Joe
In 1938, Europe was overrun by the combined forces of the Decepticons and Cobra. G.I. Joe was formed to combat them and were led to their Terrordrome in the Fera Islands by a map carved out of the USS Hama's hull by treacherous Cobra operatives. While engaging Cobra troops commanded by Storm Shadow, the Joes encountered the Autobots, who soon repaired and revived themselves. The Joes soon found themselves under fire from a squadron of Rattlers and Seekers led by Wild Weasel, but these were driven back by Lady Jaye and the Aerialbots.
While the Cobra aircraft were driven off, they left behind paratroopers and Rumble. The Joes managed to defeat the troops, and Bumblebee and Scarlett destroyed Rumble, but Zartan managed to murder and replace Breaker in the confusion. He was quickly discovered, but not before he allowed Soundwave to capture Flint.
Storm Shadow left the main Cobra force to engage in a deadly duel with his sword-brother Snake-Eyes, now a member of G.I. Joe. Despite the intervention of Ravage, Snake-Eyes defeated Storm Shadow, who was then eaten by a shark.
Soon, Cobra prepared to defend the town of Torhavn against the approaching Autobots and Joes, using slaves as human shields. Another Cobra air attack was foiled by Lady Jaye and Superion; soon afterwards, Lady Jaye defeated Major Bludd and the Dreadnoks. Meanwhile, a small Joe strike force infiltrated the Terrordrome, destroying Frenzy in the process.
As the Joes, Autobots, and an Allied fleet neared, Shockwave destroyed Superion and a number of ships, damaging himself severely in the process. But despite heavy losses, the Autobots soldiered on.
Destro and the Baroness took advantage of the chaos to unleash their monstrous creation Bruticus upon both sides—but not before slaying their co-conspirator, Starscream. Bruticus' attack crippled Cobra Commander, allowing the Baroness to execute him with Megatron's pistol form. Her victory was short-lived—before the Commander's body could cool, she and Destro were arrested by Scarlett and Snake-Eyes. As the metal monster tore through the Autobots, Snake-Eyes took the Matrix from the Commander's corpse and destroyed it, killing the Autobots, Decepticons, and Bruticus and ending the threat of Cobra.
Members involved in this mission included Beachhead, Breaker, Duke, Flint, Grunt, Lady Jaye, Leatherneck, Lifeline, Roadblock, Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, and Stalker.
Some 45 years after the conquest of Europe, Cobra rose again, and G.I. Joe returned to combat it. Headquartered in the Pit, G.I. Joe was led by Duke, a veteran of the last Cobra war. In 1985, a G.I. Joe team led by Flint attacked a Cobra shipping facility. While the facility was largely destroyed, Destro and Scrap-Iron managed to escape via Trouble Bubble, an act that led to Flint being reprimanded. Soon afterwards, the Joes detected the crash of an Autobot shuttlecraft near Portland. Flint was sent to retrieve it with a team of rookies, and he managed to repel a Cobra strike team and recover an unconscious Blaster. Hours later, the team was briefed by Duke, Stalker, and Scarlett on the threat posed by the Transformers.
Members involved in this mission included Airtight, Alpine, Barbecue, Bazooka, Blowtorch, Clutch, Cover Girl, Doc, Duke, Flint, Grand Slam, Gung-Ho, Mutt & Junkyard, Quick Kick, Rock 'n Roll, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Snake-Eyes, Spirit, Stalker, and Wild Bill.
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
After Cobra discovered the Ark and turned the Transformers within it into remote-controlled war machines, the G.I. Joe team was formed to oppose them. (The team was modelled on a 1970s group, the Adventure Team)
Members involved in this mission included Ace, Barbecue, Bazooka, Breaker, Clutch, Dial-Tone, Doc, Duke, Flash, Flint, Gung-Ho, Grunt, Hawk, Lady Jaye, Leatherneck, Lifeline, Mainframe, Mercer, Mutt & Junkyard, Quick Kick, Roadblock, Rock 'n Roll, Scarlett, Sci-Fi, Shipwreck, Snake-Eyes, Spike, Spirit, Stalker, and Wild Bill.
Two years later, an attempt by Cobra to seize control of Teletran 3 resulted in several Transformers being sent to various eras in Earth's history, threatening to alter the timestream catastrophically. Cobra and G.I.Joe were forced to work together to neutralize the threat. During this period, an America-Cybertron technology exchange meant the Joes briefly had awesome battle mechas.
Members involved in this mission included Barbecue, Bazooka, Beachhead, Chuckles, Cover Girl, Dial-Tone, Dusty, Duke, Gung-Ho, Jinx, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, Stalker, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Snake-Eyes, and Spirit.
After the U.S. government's Serpent O.R. project awakened, several Joes were captured by his Decepticon forces, forcing the rest of the team to mount a rescue operation to Cybertron.
Members involved in this mission included Barbecue, Beachhead, Duke, Dusty, Firewall, Flint, Hawk, Lady Jaye, Mainframe, Roadblock, Rock 'n Roll, Scarlett, Sci-Fi, Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Storm Shadow, and Tripwire.
Unicron was summoned to Earth by Cobra-La, and a small team of Joes stopped him from devouring the planet.
Operatives involved in this mission included Bushido, Joe Colton, Countdown, Duke, Firewall, Flash, Flint, Hawk, Lady Jaye, Mainframe, Payload, Red Spot, Roadblock, Scarlett, Sci-Fi, Snake-Eyes, Snow Job, & Windmill.
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Beast Wars: Uprising
G.I. Joe's Star Brigade was reorganized into the Earth Defense Command in 2003. Micro-Aggressions
IDW Generation 1 continuity
G.I. Joe was the successor group to the Adventure Team, formed in 2006, and began fighting the secret society Cobra soon after the 2008 invasion of Earth. The war between the two groups escalated until Cobra nuked Nanzhao, a destructive act second only to the Decepticon invasion in all of Earth history. G.I. Joe was both public and distrusted by the public after that. They tried to carry on Revolutionaries #1 timeline Secret Raiders and had a big public expansion, with local groups set up and the Admin Force being sent out to schools to say HEY KIDS SAY NO TO COBRA! Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again! Despite all that they were shut down in 2014 around the time Cobra finally collapsed. Revolutionaries #1 timeline Secret Raiders The war between Galibi and Shleteva was their final outing Crisis Intervention before the shutdown and the return of the Transformers. Secret Raiders
By that point, most of Admin Force had quit anyway. MP3 made a lonely patrol of Texas, waiting to be called back to action. Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!
When Optimus Prime annexed the Earth as a protectorate, former Joe Scarlett met with Joe Colton and Miles Manheim to discuss the issue. Secret Raiders
After the Earth Defense Command failed to meet expectations under Marissa Faireborn's leadership, Colton was placed in command. He brought in old members of G.I. Joe into the EDC (which would have been great were he not secretly a Dire Wraith), White Light before he resurrected G.I. Joe specifically to fight off the Cybertronians. Concorde Hymn Spike Witwicky and China's Zilong Qian were moved to the Joes as Spike (yeah) and Talon respectively, with Zilong looking extremely favourably on aggressively beating up aliens. White Heat G.I. Joe made use of EDC technology and designs in their weapons which they used in fighting Optimus Prime's troops in Portland. Optimus was unimpressed with their weapons and lack of rationality viewing them as inferior to the EDC personnel he'd encountered in the past. Out of nowhere, a silver alien showed up, killed four Joes, including Colton, and flew off. Concorde Hymn After cleaning in Portland, Scarlett went to check on, and solidify, G.I. Joe's alliance with M.A.S.K.. The Divine Source of Liberty Doc brought the news that the four Joes killed by the silver alien had non-human DNA prompting Scarlett to wonder if the whole chain of command was compromised. O Ship of State
"....Readers??"
When she was called into the Oval Office, Marissa Faireborn defended her actions to the President by pointing out the recent strings of failures suffered by G.I. Joe when it came to dealing with aliens. While this happened Scarlett waged an all out attack on the EDC's Bikini Atoll base: she'd become suspicious that the base had gone too quiet and had been overrun by Dire Wraiths. Thundercracker & Buster Save the World D.T.A. Valuable technology, meaning the captive Skywarp, had to be retrieved. To the horror of the Joes, it turned out Wild Bill was also a Wraith! Killing something with their friend's face left them shaken. This did at least confirm all people on the island were aliens and should be gunned down... leading to Rock 'n Roll, who'd already killed "Bill", shooting the Joe Grand Slam who was not a Wraith. Rock was left disgusted to find he'd gunned down a comrade rescuing a Decepticon. D.T.A. While they were out, the G.I. Goose got what was good for the gander as Action Man broke into the Joe base at Governor's Island, freeing Kup and leaving the base in chaos. This inadvertently prompted Miles Mayhem to step up his timetable. The Modern World
When Scarlett's team returned from the mission, they found the base in shambles and all the M.A.S.K. gear taken while Snake-Eyes was broadcasting a distress signal from Autobot City. Unable to assist due to the Cybertronians easily being able to override their technology, Scarlett was ready to throw in the towel before Mainframe revealed all the classic gear that was too low tech for Soundwave to hack. The New Colossus They arrived during an all-out brawl to help turn the tide against the alien warlord Baron Karza, revealed to be the architect behind the crisis, and Mainframe was part of a team of cross-factional smarties who helped broadcast a counterfrequency to stop Ore-13 detonating. Victory was assured and Mainframe survived after being sheltered by the Decepticon Soundwave.Valley Forge
(In the middle of all this, MP3 and his Action Van finally got their shot at a real mission when a robotic dinosaur stomped across Texas. In the end, talking with the Scavengers, he finally handed in his resignation... which he very soon regretted when the Scavengers went home.) Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!
After this, G.I. Joe severed their ties with the American goverment Valley Forge and became an international team operating with a UN charter to handle alien incidents. Zilong Qian remained suspicious that at heart, the agency was just an American group with some token foreigners. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain Various old members like Ayana Jones returned to the Joes, alongside new members like Quarrel and Sanjay Bharwaney, the new Hi-Tech. Crisis Intervention A Lonely Pillar on the Plain An abandoned Decepticon spaceship on the sea bed was turned into their swanky new HQ, Lemuria, and Skywarp ended up drafted into the new Joes. Poor Grand Slam remained with the team but crippled after Rock 'n Roll's 'friendly fire'. They did not get on. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #1
Early missioms would see the Joes with Skywarp in Tokyo, taking out the Red Shadows, and investigating anarchist uprisings in Greece. Multiple issues happened at once as China called them up to stop Crystal Ball ramping up insurgents in Inner Mongolia G.I. Joe vol. 5 #1 and the Junkions landed at the Alps, where Zilong Qian had to struggle to get them and the Autobots to acknowledge Joe sovereignty over these matters and the spy on them as they chatted. Zilong had difficulties managing his team, being both an outsider and not American, and ex-Cobra Chameleon tried to talk him into opening up more. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain
The inhabitants of Verenya, Shleteva were transformed into Dire Wraiths by an energy wave. Ayana "Mayday" Jones led her first command to Verenya, running into both Rom, Action Man and Kup, Garrison Blackrock, and the Oktober Guard all with clashing attempts to get the obelisk that caused the wave. It turned out that the civilians could potentially be cured but Jones was left as the only Joe after her team were transformed. Crisis Intervention
Notes
- The original Marvel G.I. Joe and the Transformers crossover storyline was not printed in the UK at the time that the Generation 1 comic was referencing it. So in the UK Generation 1 reprints, lines of dialogue were changed, and different circumstances were concocted for Bumblebee to be destroyed and rebuilt as Goldbug. Years later, G.I. Joe and the Transformers WAS finally reprinted, but no effort was made to work it back into continuity.
- Before Revolution, IDW's Joe comics were not meant to be in continuity with Transformers. To get around this, "Revolution Prelude" claimed that the bulk of G.I. Joe's exploits had happened after the events of "Chaos".
Foreign names
- Japanese: G.I. Joe (G.I.ジョー G.I.Jō)
- Portuguese: Comandos em Ação (Brazil)
- Spanish: Comandos Heroicos (America)
