Garrison Kreiger
- Garrison Kreiger is a human from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Humans rarely pose much of a threat to the Transformers, but Garrison Kreiger has made overcoming that hurdle his life's work. Driven by his goal of personal power and glory, Kreiger has used his connections from his days as the CEO of I.R.O.N. to slowly amass a thorough knowledge of the Cybertronian race, gathering samples of their technology and biology to determine their strengths, weaknesses... and weapons capable of taking them down. Kreiger's self-made cybernetic implants speak to the efficiency of his reverse-engineering skills, having already prolonged his life by several decades.
Though Kreiger's plans tend towards the grandiose, bombastic, and far-reaching, he is an intelligent, persuasive villain who's usually thinking several steps ahead of the competition. He is just charismatic enough to convince even the most disparate individuals to stand with him... just as long as they're useful. The moment they're not, however, they'll be left out to dry while Kreiger consolidates his gains and escapes.
In some universes, Kreiger is known as General Blitz.
Fiction
Story of Binaltech
According to Agent Faireborne's investigations, General Kreiger and Count von Rani together led the Concurrence, a cabal of humans who planned to drive all Transformers away from Earth, turning the Solar System into a robot-free "resort". To accomplish this, the Concurrence began creating Decepticon Binaltechs to challenge the Autobot Binaltechs. Expose All of Evil's Designs!
TransTech
During World War II, Kreiger—under his nom de guerre General Blitz—led the I.R.O.N. Army, Kalistan's elite force. Somehow he'd made contact with the Decepticons and was using their super-science to help the Axis-aligned Kalistan in the war, much to the interest of the Allies. 'Blitz' would experiment on that real American hero, Sgt. Savage.
It was he who named Kalistan's team the Invasion, Reconnaissance, Occupation, and Neutralization Army. Hawk has to admit that guy has a flair for the dramatic! Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter, 2016/05/01
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Allegedly the son of German immigrants, Garrison Kreiger joined the United States military before 1939, driven by a desire to "prove himself" in the face of anti-German sentiment in the years leading up to World War II. By 1943, he had become a Second Lieutenant in the army and was assigned to the Screaming Eagles, a special tactics unit led by daring do-gooder Sergeant Robert Savage. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2
While on a mission in Kalistan, the Screaming Eagles encountered mysterious robotic soldiers fighting for the Axis. One of these robots managed to land a hit on Kreiger, scarring his left eye. But the encounter inspired Kreiger... The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Late into the war, the Screaming Eagles wound up in Paris, working with the European resistance. While on a routine patrol, they encountered more of the strange mechanical soldiers, who had been drawn a pair of metal goliaths battling it out. After defeating his opponent, the victor asked the Screaming Eagles for help finding the ship that had brought him to Earth so that he could die in peace.
Centurion, Savage, and Kreiger tracked the ship to Brasnya, where more robotic troops swarmed them. Savage held the machines off as Kreiger and their metallic associate investigated the ship's ruins. Kreiger found evidence that the ship had once carried a mysterious "Talisman" that he figured had been conjuring the soldiers; Centurion confirmed, explaining that it had once belonged to his master. Before Centurion could explain who that master was, there was a loud sound from outside: the remains of Centurion's commanding officer, reanimated by the drones. As Kreiger watched the Eukarian brawl with the creatures, he determined the drones were being controlled by the Talisman. As he did, the drones did something that made the ship and the Sergeant himself vanish without a trace. As he saw a furious Centurion fell his former commander's remains, Kreiger was inspired. He knew the Talisman was on Earth, and he vowed to find it. Of course, with the sergeant gone, he needed a new ally. So he reached out to the devastated Eukarian, offering to help him... Strange Visitors
Over the next several decades, Krieger and Centurion spent years hunting down what Kreiger called "Binaltech", using whatever scraps of alien technology he could find to replicate the original Talisman. His efforts eventually produced a collection of duplicate Talismans. The Iron Klaw His search for Cybertronian relics allowed him to recover the bodies of "Optimus Prime" and "Shockwave," which were relocated to a top secret government facility codenamed "Project: Ice Man," constructed in the Brasnyan crater where the Axalon had once rested. When Eagles Scream Power and Glory
In 1984, Kreiger enlisted the help of Dr. Elliot March in his search for the genuine Talisman. The two discovered the artifact in the Tomb of Altomec in Dashur. Kreiger promptly killed his guide and began experimenting with the Talisman, using it to animate and control a horde of Iron Troopers. The unusual energy this produced attracted not only the attention of Joe Colton and his Adventure Team, but also Soundwave. A battle ensued between the team and Soundwave, until the Cybertronian decided to leave, having realized the Talisman wasn't his goal. In the aftermath, Kreiger took the device for himself without giving his "rescuers" so much as a "thank you". The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Kreiger was sanctioned by the government to study the Talisman, which was relocated to the Ice Man facility with the rest of his growing collection of artifacts. When Eagles Scream In the early 1990s, a depressed Mike "Atomic Man" Power came to him, seeking further upgrades to his cyborg prostheses after a chance encounter with the Talisman during their earlier clash in Egypt. Power and Glory The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
"Aren't you a little old to be building a fort?"
"No. No, I'm not. Shut up."
Though professing good intentions, Kreiger instead subjected Power to a battery of cruel experiments involving the Talisman and Power's augmented physiology. In 1994, Kreiger and Centurion watched on as Mike Power interfaced with the Talisman once more, which ahd the unexpected side effect of returning the lost Axalon and its passenger to normal space-time. Seconds later, Colton's "Adventure Force" confronted Kreiger to stop his experiments, though they arrived just in time to see an Atomic Man with no heartbeat, mistakenly concluding that Kreiger had murdered Atomic Man. Power and Glory Kreiger was dishonorably discharged for his crimes, though it didn't bother him much — he had far greater ambitions by this point. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 Kreiger continued his work in the Ice Man bunker, experimenting on the Atomic Man's mangled but still-living body and eventually turning him into the main nerve center of his base. Strange Visitors Power and Glory
To cover up and secure funding for his less-than-ethical experiments, Kreiger founded I.R.O.N. the "International Robotics Operation Network", where, as CEO, he developed a working relationship with Count van Rani, dictator of Kalistan and part-time supervillain. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Bolstered by his discoveries, Kreiger established the "International Robotics Operations Network". As the decades passed, he began replacing his body parts with cybernetics derived from his study of the Talisman. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2
In the early 21st century, the Talisman was relocated to Skywatch's "Project: Hot House" facility in Oregon. There, Kreiger—now working under Colton himself—began a new battery of experiments with the Talisman using supplies of Ore-13 in the hopes that its energies could be weaponized to counter the surge of increasing Transformer activity on Earth. To reactivate the Talisman, Kreiger and Colton lured Sgt. Savage to the base and forced him into contact with it. His body saturated with its power thanks to his trip through time, Savage's touch brought the Talisman back to life; its energies hurled Savage further into the future once more, and killed Kreiger and Colton's Decepticon guinea pig Bugly outright, proving that it was the weapon they needed to fight the Cybertronian threat. When Eagles Scream
By this point, more than a century old, Kreiger disappeared from the public eye a few years prior to 2017. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Before he vanished, he ceded control of I.R.O.N. to van Rani, his main shareholder, who, in turn, appointed Tomax Paoli, as the interim CEO of the company. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
In the chaotic months that followed Optimus Prime's annexation of Earth into the Council of Worlds, Joe Colton was targeted by the Dire Wraiths for assimilation. Forced to amputate his own hand to survive and infected with Wraith bio-matter, Colton came to Kreiger's Brasnyan facility for assistance. Kreiger treated Colton's wounds as they chatted about recent events and the apparent magic of the Talisman; knowing that he would have to go outside the law to deal with the alien threats, Colton decided that he would have to assemble a team of supervillains to recover the Talisman and launch a retaliatory first strike on Cybertron itself. Kreiger fitted Colton with a new mechanical hand derived from the Talisman, and in turn Colton adopted a new persona: that of the masked villain "Baron Ironblood." First Strike #0 Colton and Kreiger continued to gather allies from across the world; working with Doctor X, Kreiger had the Talisman transferred to an I.R.O.N. facility operated by the SIS in Schleteva. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2
Some time after his "disappearance", Kreiger found the Predacons. Using his knowledge of Cybertronian biology, he found a way to mind-control them, using one of his Talisman copies to improve on a previous failed combiner experiment and create Predaking. The brainwashed Predacons became private shock troops for van Rani. The Iron Klaw
Shortly after Garrison Blackrock accidentally stumbled upon the Talisman, Kreiger was in von Rani's castle, when he received a visit from Tomax Paoli, Kreiger's choice to replace him as CEO of I.R.O.N., and his allies's choice of replacement Cobra Commander. The former Cobra leader had caught Blackrock, and brought him to Kreiger so the man could have a look at him, an opportunity Kreiger took, determined to find out why the Talisman reacted to Blackrock. Before he could get started, however, Baron Ironblood noticed an intruder lurking in the shadows. On Ironblood's warning that the former Joe wasn't working alone, Kreiger unleashed the Predacons. With Snake Eyes apparently subdued, Kreiger questioned Paoli about his success working on "Project: Iceman" in San Francisco, at which point Paoli turned out to be the real Snake Eyes, the other being a robot duplicate. Thanks to Snake Eyes, and the actions of his allies, Kreiger lost both Blackrock and the Predacons.
In the aftermath, Baron Ironblood declared they had no choice but to scrub Centurion and Paoli. The Iron Klaw Visiting Paoli in person, Kreiger warned him of the incoming band of "Revolutionaries", telling him he was merely bait, and didn't care what Paoli told them when caught. After Paoli and Centurion were taken in by the team, Kreiger took part in a conference call with his allies as he prepared to travel the Ice Man facility, stating his presence was "needed" to finish what they were planning. Strange Visitors The "Revolutionaries," joined by the forces of M.A.S.K., caught up with Kreiger in Brasnya. Kreiger turned the full fury of his inventions against the intruders: deploying a suite of anti-Cybertronian technology to take out Blackrock and Kup and unleashing the reanimated bodies of Domitius and "Shockwave" against Action Man. Action Man, Mayday, and M.A.S.K. fought their way into the nexus of the facility, whereupon Kreiger infused Atomic Man with a sample of Ore-13 as his ultimate weapon: the Talisman "made flesh." Kreiger's ultimate gambit failed when the grief-stricken cyborg realized his mistakes and chose to commit suicide, and in the aftermath he was arrested and taken into G.I. Joe custody. Power and Glory
Awaiting a pickup in Buenos Aires, Kreiger tried to appeal to a time-displaced Sergeant Savage, but the soldier had little patience for his treacherous comrade. Salvation came for the villain when Centurion–still loyal to his old friend–remotely hacked Blackrock's Onyx tower so that its defences would fire on the incoming GI Joe air division. When Eagles Scream
Kreiger would accompany Ironblood and his cabal of villains to Cybertron as part of Colton's plan to wipe out the species. Carrying the Talisman aboard Miles Mayhem's "Outlaw" the team deployed Shazraella to Enerchange with a Cybertronian and unleash the Talisman in Cybertron's core. First Strike #2
Notes
- General Garrison Kreiger AKA General Blitz, hails from Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles, an early '90s attempt to rebrand the G.I. Joe toyline to stave off faltering sales. It presented Kreiger as an American soldier in World War II who defected to the I.R.O.N. Army (the main Axis power in that universe) and had become its leader by the modern day.[1] This franchise had a short life, ending when Kenner took over Hasbro's "boys' toys" brands and replaced it with G.I. Joe Extreme. That series continued to feature the Sgt. Savage character, but against a new villain: Count von Rani, aka Iron Klaw, and his paramilitary organization S.K.A.R. The I.R.O.N. Army was referred to in one episode, but not Blitz. It was the TransTech Facebook pages that finally brought more of his backstory into Transformers fiction, as well as inventing a tie between Sgt. Savage's two enemies (previously the I.R.O.N. Army and S.K.A.R. were unrelated).
- In the lone direct-to-video Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles episode, General Blitz is voiced by Transformers alumnus Garry Chalk.
- Due to some funny continuity magic, the IDW continuity contains both the Iron Army (led by General Blitz) and the I.R.O.N. company (led by Garrison Kreiger).
References
External links
- Garrison Kreiger at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
- General Blitz at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
