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
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 Believing that the upswing of Transformer activity on Earth would inevitably lead to planetary extinction, Colton decided that it was finally time to weaponize the Talisman to kill 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, 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
Unaware of the alien threat, the President of the United States put the Dire Wraith copy of Colton in charge of the Earth Defense Command, instructing him to pick up where his predecessor Marissa Faireborn had failed. White Light Among the faux-Colton's first actions were recalling operative Spike Witwicky to the E.D.C. fleet, 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
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
"Colton" later met up with Scarlett and Miles Manheim to discuss the history of Cybertronians on Earth and plans for the future. During the meeting, "Colton" was very vocal about his dislike of the Transformers, and revealed to Manheim that the worldwide deposits of Cybertronian super-fuel Ore-13 were destabilizing and on the verge of destructive nuclear fission. Claiming that this must be Optimus Prime’s doing, Colton tasked Manheim with using the technology of a captive and tortured Blitzwing to disrupt Prime’s plans. Secret Raiders (Secretly, the Wraiths wanted all that sweet sweet ore for themselves) 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 silver alien to kill him. Concorde Hymn Rom could sense "Colton" was a Dire Wraith infiltrator, but everyone else saw a killer robot killing a guy.
"Colton"'s corpse was analyzed where Doc found non-human DNA, alerting the Joes to the Wraith infiltration. O Ship of State
The exposure of the false Colton's fate would hang over the Joes for some time. While beating the Wild Bill Wraith to death,Rock 'n Roll angrily demanded to know what the Wraiths had done to Colton. D.T.A. Even after fighting alongside Rom in Monument Valley, Beach Head remained in denial that Rom had not killed the true Colton, Reinforcements, Part 1 and upon meeting Rom again in Schleteva, Mayday by reflex referred to Rom as the murderer of Colton. Crisis Intervention
