Action Force (comic)
From Transformers Wiki
| This article is about the comic series. For its title characters, see Action Force (team). |
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Action Force was a 1987-1988 comic series produced by Marvel Comics UK, based on the Action Force toyline (at this point the brand name for G.I. Joe in Europe and Israel). Like Marvel UK's Transformers, it reprinted American G.I. Joe issues and also its own new stories. The two UK titles would crossover, and Action Force became Transformers' back-up strip from #153.
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 make them more international (usually European). While the original Transformers strips tied into and reflected the US reprints, the unique Action Force plots were fairly independent and focused on the West Europe branch of Action Force (i.e. the ones in the shops). 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 |
Contents |
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 earlier issue 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. Furman didn't actually want that to happen as he didn't think much of Action Force as a concept or thought it made a good stablemate for the comic, and admitted in The Transformers Classics UK Volume 5 that he tried to "suppress" it as soon as he could; the Combat Colin backup strip, on the other hand, was something the Transformers team were very happy to inherit.[2] 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, Hasbro decided to gradually rebrand everything as G.I. Joe. A promotional comic, reprinted in #245 of the UK Generation 1 comic, had representatives from the American G.I. Joe team and the specifically British (sorry rest o' Europe) Action Force joined together to form "G.I. Joe the Action Force" to better fight the global Cobras.[3] This came complete with a treaty on the merger that required you as a signatory. Unfortunately this strip 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 and the comic ended as "G.I. Joe" with #332 of Transformers.
Marvel UK reprints
The Marvel UK Transformers comic ran a number of Action Force stories as back-up strips.
Items of note
- Some specific character-related discrepancies between Action Force and G.I. Joe include:
- Flint's real name is David R. Faireborn, and he was born in Lincoln, England.[4] 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.[4] Perhaps most extreme is Outback, who became a revenge-obsessed, borderline-psychotic[5] Scotsman raised in Australia.[4]
- Destro appears to be disfigured under his mask.[6]
- The issues of the UK Generation 1 comic containing Action Force as a backup strip are #99–102, #153–181, #191–212, and #220–248. Then the name changed to "G.I. Joe: The Action Force" from #249–305.
- A mini-strip in #245 (also given away in comic shops) detailed that Europe's Action Force and its American counterpart G.I. Joe were unifying to better beat up Cobra. Which doesn't fit the previous Action Force strips and reprints, where they already have a US branch!
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.
- ↑ The Transformers Classics UK Volume 5, "The Legacy of Furman" feature
- ↑ "Divided We Fall!"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Character profiles from several Action Force issues
- ↑ "Wild, Wild-Life" from Action Force Monthly #11
- ↑ "The Prisoner" from Action Force Monthly #13
