Adventure Team
From Transformers Wiki
| This article is about the human military task force. For the Mini-Con team, see Adventure Mini-Con Team. |
- The Adventure Team is a human organization from the Generation 1 continuity family.
We'll go to very distant lands
The Adventure Team was a special mission force for the United States military. Led by Joe Colton, the Adventure Team assembled mission specialists to tackle threats anywhere from the four corners of the Earth... and beyond.
It would also serve as the model for the later Counter-terrorist Group Delta, which was named G.I. Joe in honor of Joe Colton.
Members of the original Adventure Team include:
- Joe "G.I. Joe" Colton (team leader)
- Mike "Atomic Man" Power
- Miles "Mayhem" Manheim
- Richard "Bulletman" Ruby
- Lorenzo "Stalker" Wilkinson
They are sometimes referred to as the Super Adventure Team or Adventure Force.
Contents |
Fiction
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
The Adventure Team was commissioned by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. During a mission in 1978, mission managed to piss off General Mihai and they fled across the Himalayas to escape. Unfortunately, en route they (and their pursuers) ran afoul of Cobra-La and their Decepticon allies. Mike Power was killed by Bludgeon and Colton taken prisoner. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Black Horizon
2005 IDW continuity
The Adventure Team was inspired by the wartime exploits of Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles, Threat Matrix 1 of 4 assembled in 1982 Crisis Intervention as a covert unit that would combat threats beyond the capabilities of the United States military. Handpicked by the top brass of the time, Joe Colton was among the earliest recruits to the team and received his famed moniker "G.I. Joe." Joe Colton profile Miles "Mayhem" Manheim, so named for his abilities to cause chaos on the battlefield, joined at around the same time. Miles Mayhem profile
Though originally a purely military outfit, the team suffered several casualties over the course of their early missions. To rebuild his forces, Colton would recruit the Army Ranger Lorenzo "Stalker" Wilkinson, renowned for his tracking skills. Stalker profile Colton would go on to draw new recruits from outside the traditional military establishment: after being approached by the cybernetically enhanced Mike Power, Colton recruited him as the "Atomic Man". Power and Glory
Watching the ex-test pilot and movie star Richard Ruby rescue the town of Poverty Flat, Colton would also induct Ruby and his high-tech flight suit into the team as "Bulletman." With metahuman technology and firepower on their side, this new iteration of the team would become known as the "Super Adventure Team" Bulletman profile — but some individuals, such as Stalker, felt that flashy costumes and high-tech gear ran counter to traditional military doctrine. Stalker profile Nonetheless, Bulletman and Atomic Man became the team's hardest-hitting members. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Over the course of their many adventures, the Adventure Team would travel the world. On one occasion, they worked alongside Action Man, Britain's own elite military operative. Secret Raiders
In 1984, the Adventure Team were deployed to the Tomb of Amtoltec in Dahshur to rescue Garrison Kreiger, who had gone missing inside three days before. When they arrived, however, they encountered a horde of robotic mummies, which Joe and Stalker recognized as the same model of robotic soldiers that Sgt. Savage had encountered in the war. As his teammates held off the mechanoids, Joe headed deeper into the tomb, encountering a tape player that revealed itself as the Decepticon Soundwave. Mayhem arrived to rescue his teammate from the Decepticon's wrath, and the two tracked the alien deeper into the tomb to discover Kreiger and a mysterious Talisman, which was responsible for creating the robots.
Joined by the rest of the Adventure Team, Colton and Mayhem led an all-out assault on Soundwave as a wounded Atomic Man made contact with the Talisman, which spontaneously repaired and upgraded his damaged prostheses. Tired of fighting the humans, Soundwave flew off to continue his own mission on Earth, leaving Joe and Stalker to die in a cave-in that was only halted after Atomic Man used his new limbs to generate a forcefield capable of holding the rubble. In the aftermath, the US government placed the artifact into the care of the British SIS.
This mission would mark the beginning of the end for the Adventure Team: as extraterrestrial and paranormal threats continued to mount, ordinary humans like Joe Colton and Stalker weren't capable of keeping up with the changing times. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Shortly afterwards the Adventure Team attempted to rescue Dr. Emil Burkhart from more IRON Troopers. Pinned down by fire, the team was unable to rescue him in time, even after Atomic Man made a last-minute break to rescue him. As Burkhart died in front of his daughter, Atomic Man was left depressed over his inability to measure up to his own standards — a depression that ended with him seeking the services of Kreiger to help upgrade his cybernetic body even further. Power and Krieger subsequently disappeared, depriving the Adventure Team of their most powerful asset. Power and Glory
In 1994, the group was still active but was hip to the time, now operating as the bandolier-wielding Adventure Force. Having spent the last several years tracking Kreiger, they raided his Brasnyan bunker in the middle of one of his experiments on the Talisman, having used Atomic Man as a guinea pig to activate the alien device. Pulling Atomic Man's broken body from the rubble, Stalker detected no heartbeat and thus concluded that Power had died. They were surprised to find the Maximal vessel Axalon and its passenger Sgt. Savage inside the base, having been transported fifty years into the future from 1944. When Eagles Scream This would prove the team's final mission; the apparent death of the Atomic Man led to the end of Adventure Force and the team's mothballing. Stalker profile
By the early 21st century, the Adventure Team/Force had been replaced by its successor G.I. Joe, so named for Joe Colton. Joe Colton profile Now a senior officer, Stalker would serve as a key member of G.I. Joe in its earliest days while the other surviving veterans went their separate ways. Stalker profile The next time Colton and Mayhem met, it would be as enemies in an incident that both men remembered as the "Dolphin's Bay incident." A Little Bit of Mayhem
Years later, during a strategic meeting, a Dire Wraith masquerading as "Colton" would reminisce to Manheim about their time together on the Adventure Team grouse at having had to give it up for a desk job. Secret Raiders
Notes
- While Colton had appeared in the Marvel Comics Joe run (as a representation of the original G.I. Joe), the Adventure Team got their first fictional appearance in 2005 in G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Black Horizon.
- The shape of Hawk's tomahawk in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe is based on the Adventure Team logo.
- Miles "Mayhem" Manheim was never an Adventure Team member in the toyline (nor in the Joe line). He was added to the crew by IDW in order to tie the M.A.S.K. comic to G.I. Joe and made into the IDW incarnation of the Sea Adventurer figure. Similarly, the G.I. Joe Stalker was only established to be the identity of the "Adventurer" figure (released as "Tom Stone" in the Action Man line) in Revolutionaries.
External links
- G.I. Joe Adventure Team at Wikipedia
