Flint (G.I. Joe)
- Flint is a member of G.I. Joe in the Generation 1 continuity.
Flint is a warrant officer and occasional field leader for the counter-terrorist team G.I. Joe. His real name is Dashiell R. Faireborn. He was born in Wichita, Kansas.
He is (sometimes) the son of Nathaniel Faireborn and the father of Marissa Faireborn.
Fiction
Animated continuity
Voice Actor: Bill Ratner (US), Hōchū Ōtsuka → Takurō Kitagawa (Japan)
In the year 2006, Dashiell Faireborn is still quite active. Although usually busy with his duties (whatever those may be), he does occasionally take enough time off to visit with his daughter, Marissa. At least, he does it often enough that young Marissa was not immediately suspicious when a Quintesson used an elaborate hologram of her father to trick her on board its ship for examination and eventual dissection.
Judging from Marissa's reaction when told that her father was visiting, it can be assumed that she and Flint have a very loving, if not particularly close, relationship.
Because of the romantic relationship shown between Flint and fellow G.I. Joe operative Lady Jaye, it is possible that Jaye might be Marissa's mother, although she is never mentioned or seen.
(Note: Marissa's father is not named in "The Killing Jar", the episode in which his holographic double appears. However, his voice actor, Bill Ratner, is the same actor who played Flint on the G.I. Joe animated series.)
(Furthermore, Chris McFeely notes that although the script for "The Killing Jar" merely identifies Marissa's father as "Civilian," the Sunbow master Cast List notes that he is, indeed, a "60 year old Flint".)
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel US
G.I. Joe Starring Snake-Eyes And The Transformers
Flint was present at a temporary G.I. Joe base-camp that was set up outside of Millville, New York. The Joes had been staking out the town after being tipped off about a Cobra air armada being on the move - an armada, they would soon learn, that included Megatron and the Ark.
Transformers Generation 2
The Decepticon army, under Megatron's full command once more, relentlessly attacked the Earth in an attempt to draw out Optimus Prime. London, Moscow, Tokyo, Washington, DC... the Decepticons' carnage was global, the entire planet becoming a smoldering ruin before them.
The U.S. Army was in shambles. The G.I. Joe team, under the command of General Hawk, was given the task of salvaging the dwindling counter-offensive.
Flint was present as Hawk voiced his fears about humanity's chance of survival; unless Skydive could get them significant reinforcements, they were done for. Interrupting Hawk in mid-sentence came both Skydive and Optimus Prime... which caused Flint to wonder if Skydive knew that "significant" meant "more than one".
Skydive tried to explain that Optimus was no ordinary Autobot, but Prime cut him off. The Autobot leader went on to explain his reasoning to Hawk and Flint, saying that a full-scale conflict would only make things worse. Optimus hoped to speak to Megatron, to make him aware of an even greater evil that threatened them all... which Flint promptly spat at, figuring the giant killer robot wasn't in a listening mood.
(Note: the catastrophic events depicted on Earth in the Transformers: Generation 2 series did not seem to have any effect on the regular G.I. Joe comic book.)
Marvel UK
Flint is David R. Faireborn, born in Lincoln, England. As the chief commanding officer of Action Force, the British counterpart of America's G.I. Joe, Flint had several encounters with both the Autobots and Decepticons.
When exploring a mysterious report of giant creatures in the sewers under London with archaeologist Susan Hoffman, Flint and the Action Force encountered first the Protectobot Blades, and then, more ominously, Megatron.
Believed dead when a space bridge overloaded, the Decepticon leader had instead been transported into the sewers, where he had been wandering ever since (or so it seemed at the time: this was later revealed to be a different Decepticon, named Straxus, who was controlling a cloned body of Megatron's).
Flint bore witness to the final battle of the noble Centurion, who fought the Decepticon leader to a stanstill, and was proud to honour the noble sacrifice of yet another old soldier.
Some time later, Flint was present when multi-millionaire Richard Branson dredged both Megatron and Centurion out of the Thames as part of his plan to clean up London. Flint and the rest of Action Force tried to warn against this, and were quickly proven right when the Decepticons swooped in to retrieve and revive their fallen leader (or at least, the Transformer that they believed to be their leader).
Dreamwave comics continuity
Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front
Flint's father, Nathaniel Faireborn, served alongside Duke.
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 by Duke. 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 managed to repel a Cobra strike team and recover an unconscious Blaster. Hours later, Flint's team was briefed by Duke, Stalker, and Scarlett on the threat posed by the Transformers.
[Note: While it was never explicitly stated, it appears that Nathaniel Faireborn was the Flint from the 1930s .]
Devil's Due comics continuity
G.I. Joe/Transformers
Binaltech
In the year 2004, a Binaltech replacement body designed for the wounded Sunstreaker had somehow been used to revive the Decepticon, Dead End.
Fearful that unjust suspicions amongst the Binaltech Project collaborators would completely derail the joint venture, the information about the Decepticon Binaltech was supressed. "Operation: Carwash" was then launched, whereby a special team of experts led by D. R. Faireborn conducted secret inquiries while Jazz investigated on his own.
D. R. Faireborn's inquiry led him to the Concurrence, a group of villainous humans who seek to eventually rid the solar system of all Transformers. He also learned that the Concurrence had teamed up with the Decepticons to achieve their goal, and that they had used an advanced combination of Dr. Arkeville's hypno-chips and Bombshell's cerebro-shells to brainwash innocent Binaltech Project scientists into reviving injured Decepticons for them. This information, he noted, should go straight to commander Ultra Magnus at Autobot City as soon as possible, so that the mind control devices could be found and nullified.
Faireborn ended his transmitted report on an anxious note, worried that Concurrence agents would soon be on him. However, he made sure to remind the recipients to keep his cover story up - to tell his family that he'd be enjoying himself at the Lunar Colony for a little while longer.
