Wild Bill
| The name or term "Bill" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Bill (disambiguation). |
- Wild Bill is a member of G.I. Joe from the Generation 1 continuity family.
A genial modern-day Texas cowboy with a love of country music and tall tales, Wild Bill may seem like an oddly quaint, albeit friendly, throwback to an earlier time. Don't let that fool you, however; he served a tour in Vietnam as part of a LRRP (long-range recon patrol) team before going to flight school, wherein he learned how to fly helicopters, such as his beloved Dragonfly, before ultimately figuring out how to pilot everything that can fly and a few things which can't (or, at least, aren't supposed to). He has earned the respect of his fellow Joes several times over for his willingness to mix it up in battle and skill in the air.
Howdy, pardner.
Fiction
Marvel US continuity
After Power Station Alpha was hijacked remotely, Wild Bill and his Dragonfly were among the Joes who Hawk dispatched to intercept it. He managed to shoot down a Rattler in battle. Power Struggle
Marvel UK continuity
A longtime veteran from Hull, England, Wild Bill once flew the chopper in a rescue mission in Southeast Asia. They pulled six of their men out, and he wanted to go for the seventh. The commanding officer gave the order to withdraw instead, stating that if they tried, they'd only sacrifice the lives of everyone else they'd saved. Wild Bill stayed awake at night for years after that, wondering what happened to that seventh man.
Years later, he was a Dragonfly pilot in the European branch of Action Force. At Flint's command, Wild Bill led the Dragonflies against a monstrous robot in the London docklands. Unfortunately, their fire only served to annoy the robot, and Wild Bill's Dragonfly was shot out of the sky in retaliation. Luckily, he was saved by another robot, Blades, who informed him about this "Megatron" fella and how indestructible he was...too late for Wild Bill to warn Flint against sending in the Maulers!
After the resulting carnage, Wild Bill helped pull Dusty clear and then withdrew inside Blades along with Flint. He had flashbacks to his Asian rescue operation when Flint ordered a Skystriker air strike on a gas refinery in order to kill Megatron, at the cost of an Autobot life. Wild Bill viewed this as murder and refused to sit back this time, trying to rally the robot Centurion to assist and growing angry with him when the robot just stood there. Eventually, Centurion did decide to go in, giving Wild Bill and Blades time to pull Grimlock to safety...but at the cost of Centurion's life. The pilot was left distraught. Ancient Relics!
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
During G.I. Joe's attack on Cobra Island, Wild Bill piloted one of the cargo planes transporting troops and vehicles to enemy territory. When Duke explained to him that they were doing the right thing even though the higher-ups at the Pentagon were against the attack, Wild Bill cheerfully said that he and the other Joes were well aware of that. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers issue 4
Transformers/G.I. Joe
Wild Bill flew a team of Joes from Utah to Oregon, where an alien spaceship had crash-landed. Targets of Opportunity
Notes
- Which Southeast Asian war was Action Force Wild Bill in? His profile in Action Force 12 and toy establish him as British, born in Hull. However the profile explained that he had served in an exchange programme with a US Army Aviation squadron and during this exchange that he flew helicopters in the Vietnam War.
