Action Force (comic)
| This article is about the comic series. For its titular stars, see Action Force (team). |
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Action Force was a comic series produced by Marvel Comics UK, reprinting American G.I. Joe material and adding new stories as well. It crossed over with the UK Generation 1 comic and later became the backup strip to that title.
Its relation to the G.I. Joe and Transformers comics is a strange one. Unlike the Generation 1 UK comic, which also reprinted US material, very little effort was put into making the UK stories jibe with their US counterparts. Many of the characters had their histories and sometimes names changed to be more European, and the unique Action Force plots were fairly independent. Some token revisions were made to the US scripts, such as replacing all instances of "G.I. Joe" with "Action Force" and rewriting Flint's first US appearance to make him a visiting foreign agent. As for Transformers, the US G.I. Joe crossover was not reprinted in the UK until long after its original publication, and its principle effect on Transformers (the transformation of Bumblebee into Goldbug) occurred in a completely different manner in the UK continuity. So when Action Force later crossed over with the UK Generation 1 comic, it was for the first time in that market, and US readers never heard a thing about it.
The upshot of all of that is that this wiki considers the Action Force comic's unique storylines to be a separate continuity from G.I. Joe and the Marvel US Generation 1 comics. It is only in continuity with the Marvel UK Generation 1 comics, and even then probably to a limited degree.
| Action Force issues with Transformers content: |
|---|
| #24-27 |
Overview
The Action Force / Transformers crossover was set up in the Generation 1 comic, which began the storyline with a clone of Megatron being spotted by an archaeological team in ancient sewers beneath London. The second issue of the story, which was the first part under the Action Force title, featured Flint leading a team of Action Force soldiers into the sewers in search of the "monster". But what they found first was the Protectobot Blades, whom they mistook for the hostile robot they were searching for. Explosions and misunderstandings ensued, but when Megatron actually appeared, allegiances were quickly sorted out. Through three more Action Force issues, the battle escalated above ground, where Grimlock, Centurion, and more Action Force operatives joined the fray. It ended with an airstrike on a natural-gas storage facility that sent the flame-engulfed Megatron and Centurion into the River Thames. This plotline was very much in continuity with the UK Generation 1 comic, and its conclusion would have consequences later in that series. However, the other Action Force stories never made reference to it, and in fact one featured an ad for the Transformers comic... in the background of one of its panels![1]
Starting with Generation 1 UK issue #153, Action Force (actually G.I. Joe reprints) became the book's backup strip. Not long after, another comic called Action Force Monthly started up, featuring new stories, reprints of old UK-originated Action Force stories, and even reprints of the Generation 1 UK crossover (in issues #1-6). This book was published in the US as G.I. Joe: European Missions, though within the stories the term "Action Force" was always used. Some time after Action Force Monthly ended, a rare unique Action Force story appeared in the UK Generation 1 comic, wherein representatives from the American G.I. Joe team and European Action Force joined together to form "G.I. Joe the Action Force".[2] Unfortunately this made no sense with any established continuity, but the comic quickly returned to G.I. Joe reprints, and the only real change from then on was that the stories were branded "G.I. Joe the Action Force". Eventually "the Action Force" would be dropped altogether.
Items of note
- Some specific character-related discrepancies between Action Force and G.I. Joe include:
- Flint's real name is Daniel R. Faireborn, and he was born in Lincoln, England.[3] Also he spends pretty much all of his time in Europe.
- Lady Jaye, Wild Bill, Quick Kick, Airtight, and several others didn't have their names changed, but their birthplaces and personal histories were altered to be more international in scope.[3] Perhaps most extreme is Outback, who became a revenge-obsessed, borderline-psychotic[4] Scotsman raised in Australia.[3]
- Destro appears to be disfigured under his mask.[5]
- The issues of the UK Generation 1 comic containing Action Force as a backup strip are #153-181, #191-212, and #220-248. Then the name changed to "G.I. Joe: The Action Force" from #249 to 305.
Creative team
Simon Furman wrote and Geoff Senior drew the entire Action Force / Transformers crossover, both being regular contributors to the comic.
References
- ↑ Scan of an Action Force comic page showing Transformers as a fictional entity within that universe.
- ↑ "Divided We Fall!" in UK Generation 1 #245
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Character profiles from several Action Force issues
- ↑ "Wild, Wild-Life" from Action Force Monthly #11
- ↑ "The Prisoner" from Action Force Monthly #13
