Joe Colton
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Colton" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Colton (disambiguation). |
- Joe Colton is a member of Adventure Team and G.I. Joe from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Joseph Colton is a soldier's soldier, America's model fighting man. The distinction he gained from his battlefield exploits saw him acquire the codename G.I. Joe, and led to him being appointed head of the Adventure Team, a group of rugged military specialists who faced the threats too great—or too bizarre—for ordinary soldiers to handle. But the inevitable march of time has seen Colton's eagle eyes grow blearier and his kung-fu grip grow weaker, leading to the retirement of his Adventure Team and its replacement by a new highly trained special mission force that uses Colton's old codename as its own. Though he's mostly found behind a desk these days, overseeing the activities of this new team from on high, Colton is not averse to going back into the field if the situation demands it. Like they say... wherever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is there!
In situations where he has been required to act outside the law, Colton has sometimes been known to adopt the alias of the masked supervillain Baron Ironblood.
Contents |
Fiction
GI Joe vs. the Transformers
In the late 1970s, Joseph Colton led the three-man Adventure Team through the Himalayan Mountains. They came under attack from the airborne forces of General Mihai, who were in turn attacked by members of Cobra-La. Working for Cobra-La was Bludgeon, who killed Atomic Man. Colton and his guide, Chok-Pa, were saved by Pythona's wish to keep the two captive. And so the original G.I. Joe went missing in action.
Colton was imprisoned for decades, during which he was tormented by Pythona about the coming of Unicron. Joe retained a silent rage. When Pythona informed him that members of G.I. Joe, Flint and Hawk, had been sent to Tibet, along with Optimus Prime, Colton freed himself and soon allied with the men and Autobot. Black Horizon, Part 1 of 2
Colton explained how Bludgeon arrived to team up with the Cobra-La civilization and helped fight their forces. He led the team to where a metal-eating spore was being cultivated as part of a back-up plan in case Unicron betrayed Cobra-La. A horde of yeti attacked, but Joe fought them all off with his kung-fu grip and interrogated a yeti, which only Joe could do.
Joe, Flint, and Prime loaded up Cosmos with the spores, intending to use Cobra-La's back-up plan to defeat Unicron. However, Joe was soon attacked and badly beaten by Nemesis Enforcer. Close to defeat, his grizzled manliness finally reached Pythona's heart. She stabbed Nemesis Enforcer in the back and saved the hero.
Cosmos and Flint deployed the spores and destroyed Unicron, and Joe later explained to Duke that he'd succeeded in his life's mission and needed to be re-purposed. Flint later briefed a group of men for a mission to explore the insides of the now-dead Unicron, a group to be led by Joseph Colton. Black Horizon, Part 2 of 2
Kre-O cartoon
Colton was among a group of Joes who went to a carnival. They tried their luck unsuccessfully at a "ring the bell" strongman contest, only to watch open-mouthed as the Terrorcons combined into Abominus and smashed it so hard it broke. Carnival Face Off
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
As the founder of G.I. Joe, Joseph Colton was one of the very few individuals who knew the secret that his forebears had passed down through the ages—that Earth itself was a gigantic Transformer named Atlas. The War Never Ends Having seen the horrors of war up close, he dedicated himself to ensuring that future generations would not endure the same nightmare he did. To this end, he spent the rest of his life developing a means of fighting wars remotely—a network of laser satellites that was known as the Coltonbolt. I Saw Three Ships Following his example, many more ways of waging remote-warfare would be developed by G.I. Joe, including the G.I.Rocket. Form Follows Function Colton himself eventually retired to a cold sleep in a bunker located underneath South America. The War Never Ends
When all looked lost for Earth, the surviving Joes enacted the "Atlas Protocol"—a last-ditch strategy that involved reviving Colton. Colton led Flint and a group of Joes underneath T.H.E. P.I.T. to a second, top-secret chamber, which housed the necessary machinery required to awaken Atlas. At the critical moment, General Flagg sent the go-ahead to Colton, who put the final stage of the Atlas protocol into play. The War Never Ends
2005 IDW continuity
"Yo, bro!"
Born in Rhode Island, Joseph B. "Joe" Colton Joe Colton profile spent his childhood enthralled with the exploits of legendary World War II hero Sgt. Savage, whom his mother regarded as the "right man in the right time." Ghost in the Machine Eventually, Colton would enroll in and graduate from the United States Military Academy with the highest honors. Inspired by his hero, Colton joined the Green Berets immediately after graduating. Joe Colton profile His expertise in covert operations caught the attention of his superiors and, in 1982 Crisis Intervention he was selected to lead the Adventure Team under the codename "G.I. Joe." Joe Colton profile Under Colton's tenure as leader, the Adventure Team would recruit both from the traditional military establishment — including Lorenzo "Stalker" Wilson and Miles "Mayhem" Manheim — and from esoteric civilians, including the jetpack-wielding Bulletman Bulletman profile and the cybernetically enhanced Atomic Man. Power and Glory Over the course of their careers, the Adventure Team travelled the world, and on one escapade they teamed up with the British hero Action Man. Secret Raiders
In 1984, the Adventure Team was deployed to Egypt to rescue Garrison Kreiger, following the trail of an unusual emergency beacon emanating from within the lost Tomb of Amtoltec. When Colton investigated, an army of robotic mummies attacked; Colton realized that they resembled a robotic group of soldiers Savage had fought in the war. Further investigations of the tomb revealed a mysterious cassette player that soon revealed itself to be the Decepticon Soundwave, on a mission of his own. Believing that the giant robot was a human-piloted mech, Colton's questions provoked Soundwave into attacking the human, though Miles Mayhem managed to save his friend at the last moment. The two trailed the Decepticon into the center of the tomb, where they discovered a strange Talisman before driving off the Decepticon. Though their mission was a success, it also marked the beginning of the end for the team: the world was growing stranger and ordinary humans like Joe couldn't keep up. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Shortly afterwards, a mission to rescue Emil Burkhart ended in failure, which sent Atomic Man into a depression that ended with his disappearance. Power and Glory
In 1994, the newly renamed "Adventure Force" successfully tracked the missing Atomic Man to Kreiger's Brasnyan research base, leading to a brief standoff, the apparent death of Atomic Man, and the surprising return of Sgt. Savage, who had been sent fifty years into the future thanks to the Talisman. When Eagles Scream At some point, Miles Mayhem would go on to try to kill Colton in what both men would remember as the "Dolphin's Bay incident," which left them on poor terms with one another. A Little Bit of Mayhem
Between the increasing number of supernatural threats and internal strife within the team, the Adventure Force was eventually decommissioned. The success of the group in its heyday inspired the creation of a new taskforce: the top-secret special missions group G.I. Joe, named in honor of their founder and commander. Colton was less than happy about the fact that he'd been put out to pasture and stuck in a desk job (forcing him to shave). He would occasionally return to the field when the need arose, though never enough to satisfy his craving for action. Secret Raiders Joe Colton profile in Revolution #2 In his new role as leader of G.I. Joe, he became a recruiter for G.I. Joe, picking up misfits from different divisions of the armed forces and providing them with a place where they could excel. Scarlett was one of his earliest recruits, and she quickly grew to admire the man. First Strike #4
In the mid-2000s, Joe Colton was attached to Joshua Red's Skywatch unit as part of Project: Hot House: an initiative aimed at refitting an abandoned Decepticon bunker into a new laboratory to investigate the Talisman. Colton recruited Kreiger into the initiative, testing the strange artifact to see how it would react with samples of Ore-13. Kreiger's Cybertronian asset Centurion proved vital when the time came to test out the Talisman's effects against mechanical life-forms; capturing the Decepticon straggler Bugly and luring Sgt. Savage to Oregon with a false distress beacon, Colton, Kreiger, and Red invited Savage into the base's laboratory. Chaining the Decepticon to the Talisman, the three tricked Savage into using his body—saturated with Talisman energy—to reactivate the device, instantly killing Bugly and sending Savage further into the future. When Eagles Scream
In the wake of the Decepticon invasion, Colton and G.I. Joe were left shaken by the near-destruction of the planet. By the time of Megatron's defeat, he and his team helped participate in cleanup efforts in the remains of New York City. Ghost in the Machine Having overlooked his earlier close encounters with the aliens as one-off anomalies, Colton lamented his failure to adequately warn the government of the devastation that a full-scale Transformer incursion would wreak on his planet, believing that they saw humanity as nothing more than insects. First Strike #1
In the era following the departure of the Transformers from Earth, Colton personally commanded G.I. Joe until the "Cobra debacle" led to the destruction of Nanzhao and the mothballing of the team. Secret Raiders
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 In response, the President of the United States appointed Colton as the new commander of the anti-alien Earth Defense Command, instructing him to pick up where his predecessor Marissa Faireborn had failed. White Light Among Colton's first actions recalling operative Spike Witwicky from Monument Valley to oversee the cleanup of an Autobot/Decepticon battle in the Indian Ocean, resulting in the capture of the Decepticon Blitzwing, 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
In the months that followed, believing that the upswing of Transformer activity on Earth would inevitably lead to planetary extinction, Colton decided that it was finally time to employ the Talisman to exterminate 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 While aboard a helicopter, Colton was cornered by the Wraiths, who attempted to assimilate and replace Colton as they had done to their previous victims. Colton managed to escape lethal absorption by amputating his own hand and jumped out of the helicopter into the woods below. Ghost in the Machine First Strike #0 The Wraiths, however, had already absorbed enough of his genetics to create a Dire Wraith copy of Colton, who went on to sow confusion and chaos until he was revealed as an imposter and slain by the Space Knight, Rom. Concorde Hymn
Though injured, destitute, and contaminated with lethal Wraith bio-matter, the real Colton eventually fought his way back to civilization; after stealing a phone from a gang of hoodlums, he contacted Kreiger to put his ultimate contingency plan into play. Ghost in the Machine In Kreiger's secret Paris lair, Colton underwent treatment to remove all traces of Dire Wraith biomatter that lingered in his system. Colton realized that he would now have to act outside the law to implement his plans for the Talisman, and, knowing that G.I. Joe would not be willing to go along with his plans, put together a list of supervillains—the "Iron Ring"—to aid him in his objectives instead. First Strike #0 Doubting that they would trust the founder of G.I. Joe, Colton crafted a new identity for himself, "Baron Ironblood," concealing his face behind an ominous new helmet and costume, and replaced his lost hand with a prosthesis derived from the Talisman's technology. Redcliffe Club
As "Ironblood," Colton's first port of call was the Redcliffe Club in London, where he recruited European super-criminal Doctor X for her ability to counter Cybertronian threats. He also won the loyalty of Storm Shadow and her legion of Red Shadows, promising to use the Talisman to upgrade the cybernetically enhanced ninjas far in advance of human technology. Redcliffe Club X procured use of the M.A.S.S. Device teleporter from G.I. Joe's old enemy Destro, but Colton wanted to bring Destro deeper into the fold; he visited the arms dealer in his ancestral home and, after fighting off some B.A.T.s, he succeeded in convincing Destro to join in by promising him access to cutting edge Cybertronian technology. A Game of Chess His next recruit was his old associate Miles Mayhem for his ability to sow mayhem and chaos onto the battlefield, despite being put off by the man's needlessly cruel treatment of Blitzwing. A Little Bit of Mayhem
Ironblood also recruited Kalistanian leader and I.R.O.N. shareholder Count "Iron Klaw" von Rani, Enter the Shadow The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb who had recently turned the Predacons over to their side. The Iron Klaw At Colton's command, Kreiger turned the Talisman over to Mercy Gale and Iron Klaw who placed it within an SIS/I.R.O.N. bunker beneath Verenya. Garrison Kreiger profile It only remained there a short time before Blackrock, searching for more information about his Cybertronian heritage, broke into the base and began tampering with it. Ghost in the Machine
Annoyed by this latest setback, Ironblood recruited the Oktober Guard to retrieve the artifact and teleport it to an old Cobra base on the moon, though to Ironblood's irritation the newest Action Man ended up there as well. Ironblood sensibly wanted to kill the hero but clashed with Doctor X, who wanted a more elaborate solution; this led to Action Man bringing his allies up to the moon, forcing the villains into a retreat. Enter the Shadow
Following Baron Karza's attempted invasion of Earth, Colton and Mayhem recruited Lady Shazraella of Microspace, promising her that she could have Cybertron itself once he was done with it. Hitting the Big Time
The cabal of villains, accompanied by Centurion, alerted the reluctant Tomax Paoli, the newest Cobra Commander, that the heroes would be after him next. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb The Baron went to Kalistan to speak with the Iron Klaw and admire his new allies, the Predacons. They were unprepared for a sneak attack by Snake-Eyes, who disguised himself as Tomax. They used a replica of the Talisman to experiment on Blackrock but found themselves punked when it turned out "Tomax" was Snake Eyes in disguise; the ninja beat up the Baron before he and his friends ran off with data taken and the Predacons disabled. In the aftermath, Ironblood advocated cutting ties with the real Tomax and Centurion. The Iron Klaw After his defeat, Tomax revealed he knew nothing about Ironblood's agenda despite his hatred of the man. Strange Visitors
After Kreiger had been captured and detained at the Onyx tower in Buenos Aires, Centurion, X and Storm Shadow sowed chaos, allowing for Ironblood's cabal to teleport in via the M.A.S.S. Device where he unexpectedly found Robert Savage. Savage saw right through Ironblood and leapt at him, ripping off his helmet and revealing Colton, much to Mayday's shock. When Eagles Scream
Savage and Colton fought, the former trying to make the latter see the error of his ways, to no avail as Colton was convinced the Cybertronians would spell the end of humanity. Colton's day then took a turn for the worse as Optimus Prime and Metrotitan arrived. Skywarp directed the Prime to attack Colton, only for Dire Wraith mutates to attack the Autobot leader. In the chaos, Savage tried to show Colton he was only creating more fighting before Kreiger shot Savage in the back. When Blackrock and Metrotitan managed to heal the Wraith mutates with an energy wave, Colton was dumbfounded at the power of Cybertronians, forcing Kreiger to take command and order a teleport recall. Materializing within the Iron Castle, Colton spoke to his troops, declaring himself the right man for this time and that it was time to take the fight to Cybertron. Ghost in the Machine With his strikeforce assembled, Colton questioned Kreiger about his obsession with the Talisman, who revealed he viewed it as a calling to galactic conquest. One Unholy Machine
With his identity now exposed, Colton was aware his old team would try to stop him and left a note for Scarlett, explaining his motivations along with his fears that one day Earth would be crushed under Cybertron's boot and asking Scarlett to consider that before she pursued him. First Strike #1 Unable to actually reach Cybertron to complete his plan, Colton piggybacked the signal of the M.A.S.S. Device on Metrotitan's Space Bridge when Marissa Faireborn's group went through. First Strike #2 Primeless, Part 1
Knowing full well that Scarlett would find a way to Cybertron and target Ironblood, Colton swapped his imposing costume for simple commando gear, having Doctor Mindbender don the Ironblood costume to act as a decoy. First Strike #3
The villains made themselves known on Cybertron during the official ceremony to commemorate Earth joining the Council of Worlds. Backed by a legion of Red Shadows, Iron Grenadiers, the Dreadnoks, and Destro, "Ironblood" coordinated the initial attack on Iacon. Seeing Ironblood's image, the Joes on Earth scrambled to action to thwart the schemes of their fallen founder. First Strike #1 Riding shotgun in Mayhem's new Outlaw vehicle, the real Colton told his compatriot to focus before they reunited with Shazraella, who strapped the Talisman to her back before the group began their trek into Cybertron's underground with Colton taking point. First Strike #2
As the group descended, they placed sound dampeners to prevent Soundwave from locating them, before Kreiger and Mayhem insulted Shazraella. After she'd nearly killed them with Cybertron's internal defences, Colton removed his mask and told everyone to get in line. While repelling down a canyon, Mayhem received an alert that Mindbender had been outed and Scarlett was on their tail. After Mayhem's slightly misogynist comments prompted a... response from Storm Shadow, Colton told Mayhem to pick himself up and stop annoying everyone. First Strike #3
Convinced that nothing could stop Scarlett from catching up with him, Colton rigged two bobby traps to delay her. The traps cost the group an hour and allowed Metroplex to locate them, buying enough time for Ironhide and Sunstreaker's squads to catch up, only for them to trigger the traps. However, Sunstreaker managed to catch up to Colton's group anyway and ordered them to surrender. Colton refused and offered Sunstreaker a chance to stand down, prompting the Autobot to scoff at the human's compromise in the face of genocide. Colton agreed and shot Sunstreaker into stasis.
When talking to Optimus in a cell, Scarlett confessed that she'd come to Cybertron primarily to rescue Colton from himself. Optimus sympathized with her. First Strike #4
As the villains descended, Colton laid down even more traps. On the final approach to Cybertron's core, the planet began bombarding them with lightning as a defense tactic. After saving Kreiger from falling to his death, Colton chewed out his immature team, telling them all to shut up lest he start killing them himself. After the group broke through the Insecticon swarm, Colton explained how they would return to Earth before they found their path to the core barred by Optimus Prime and Scarlett. Though Scarlett offered Colton a final chance to stand down, he refused and Scarlett swore to put him down. First Strike #5
The two sides clashed, with Scarlett and Colton debating philosophy over a knife fight where Scarlett tried to point out the futility of Colton's plan, given that other aliens would doubtlessly come to Earth. Colton was unmoved, preparing to give his life for his cause when Elita One, Obsidian and Starscream arrived to break up the fighting. As the chaos continued to mount, Colton chased after Kreiger, only for Scarlett to come up from behind him, causing Colton to reflexively stab her with his knife. A shocked Colton begged his apprentice to stand down, only for Scarlett to remove the knife and beat him to the floor. Kreiger then recited an incantation that activated the Talisman and summoned a window to an alien world. whereupon he revealed himself to be an alien being known as Merklynn. Dumbfounded, Colton leapt at his former ally, only to be suspended by Merklynn's telekinetic abilities. After thoroughly insulting Colton's intelligence, Merklynn teleported everyone back to Iacon where Colton, feeling like a right plonker, surrendered himself and was placed in a cell.
While preparing to leave Cybertron, Scarlett and Matt Trakker discussed Colton's morals and the fact that he hadn't been able to go through with killing Scarlett, suggesting that he may not have gone past the point of redemption. First Strike #6
As Colton had predicted, he had gained some support from the people of Earth. A human protest group arrived at an Ore-13 mine to display their support for the man and demand that the Cybertronians release him. Surfeit of Primes
Colton was eventually relocated to a cell within G.I. Joe field headquarters. After a group of Maximals had attacked the Lemuria, Scarlett viewed it as proof that Unicron would soon turn his attentions to Earth. After claiming he'd been right all along, Colton suggested once again deploying the Talisman against the Cybertronians. Road's End He was later let out, under Sgt. Savage's eye, to attend the briefing within Trypticon regarding the threat Unicron posed. Assembly
Notes
- Colton's spacesuit at the end of "Black Horizon" is derived from the outfit worn by the "Super Joe Commander" in Hasbro's late 1970s "Super Joe" offshoot of the G.I. Joe toyline. Obscure!
- Colton was the commander of the Joes during IDW's third and fourth volumes, all of which comes under 2005 IDW continuity but isn't that relevant to this wiki's purposes.
Maybe it's Maybelline.
- His secret identity of Baron Ironblood was the evil leader of the Red Shadows, the baddies from Action Force, G.I. Joe's British antecedent-slash-counterpart. His true identity and face was obscured by his bucket helmet (though the cover of Battle #422 shows him in all his smirky glory). Famously for old-school fans, when Hasbro acquired the Force and folded it into G.I. Joe, IPC's Battle Action Force had Baron Ironblood become Cobra Commander. Hence in IDW continuity, First Strike sees him take command of Cobra.
- Action Force spun out of Action Man like G.I. Joe spun out of G.I. Joe, hence "Ironblood" being tied to Action Man by IDW.
- Colton's IDW history is... slightly muddled, to say the least. It's unclear just when he was replaced by the Wraith imposter; while Revolutionaries depicts Colton's Wraith encounter as having taken place during the events of The Transformers #50, First Strike shows that he ran the EDC for a while — including an attempt to put his Talisman contingency into play through "official channels" — before he was replaced by the Wraith. In addition to all that, IDW's 2016 Action Man comic, which takes place well before the events of Revolution or First Strike, mentions a Baron Ironblood as one of the many villains faced by members of the Action Man program. In this instance, it's possible that Colton simply co-opted the identity of a preexisting Ironblood, or that Colton was already running some shady side bets even before the Cybertronian crisis.