General Colton
General Joseph B. Colton graduated with the highest honors from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1960, where he was then selected by former president John F. Kennedy to create and command America's elite fighting force, codename G.I. Joe making him the very first real American hero.
Name:
General Colton
Publisher:
Real name:
Joseph Brady Colton
Aliases:
- Joseph Brady Colton
- G.I. Joe
- Baron Ironblood
Birth date:
None
Gender:
Male
Powers:
- Escape Artist
- Intellect
- Leadership
- Marksmanship
- Unarmed Combat
- Weapon Master
Creation
The G.I. in G.I. Joe stands for "Government Issue". During World War II the term G.I. Joe was coined to describe American soldiers. The character was created by Stanley Weston and debuted in 1964 as the G.I. Joe action figure released by Hasbro. Joe appeared in advertisements in comic books during the 1960s and 1970s, in the 1970s he starred in comics in these advertisements as a member of the Adventure Team alongside Atomic Man and Bulletman.
In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #86 (May 1989), the writer Larry Hama reintroduced the character as General Joseph Colton, a highly decorated American serviceman who was appointed by John F. Kennedy to create an elite unit, which he also named G.I. Joe.
IDW created a universe with Hasbro franchises also the Adventure Team from 1970s.
Other countries
Joe has been given different names in other countries:
Action Man: Name used by Palitoy in 1966 in the UK and Australia. In 1982, with the release of G. I. Joe A Real American Hero, the G. I. Joe team was called Action Force in the UK. In the 1990s, he was acquired by Hasbro (which had acquired Tonka, the company that bought Palitoy) and recreated as a different character.
Falcon, the name used in Brazil by Brinquedos Estrela in 1977, generated comics published by Editora Três, written by Ivan Saidenberg (who used the name of his wife, the writer Thereza Saidenberg, Ivan couldn't sign because he was working with Disney and Hanna-Barbera stories were produced for Editora Abril), Maria Duque Estrada and Walter Negrão and illustrated by Antonio Homobono Balieiro and Michio Yamashita. In 2017, Estrela released a new version of Falcon, as a separate character from G.I. Joe, the company owned Falcon's trademark.
Other Media
Joe Colton was played by Bruce Willis in the movie G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013).
