This week's cover is from Action Force #27 (September 1987).
For the benefit of my non-UK readers, Action Force is probably better known to you guys as G.I. Joe.
Although that's really not the full story...
Action Force actually began its life as a spin-off toy line from Action Man, both manufactured by Palitoy. The idea was to produce a line of much smaller figures (In terms of physical size) using a similar formula to the Action Man line, and based very much on historical military styles. Ironically, this smaller line of figures fast proved much more profitable that Action Man itself, and really took off far more in its own right.
Palitoy were bought out by Hasbro in 1984, who having purchased all the Palitoy moulds then began incorporating their own G.I. Joe figures into the UK Action Force line. The logo, as seen above, began to mirror that of G.I. Joe to match this. Eventually, inevitably, Hasbro opted to re-brand the whole lot under the name "G.I. Joe" in UK as well. Thus confusing the hell out of a whole generation of British kids, for whom the term 'G.I.' meant absolutely nothing at all.
Why this cover? Well, let me get to that...
Last summer Marvel Comics in the US did a huge crossover event called 'Avengers vs X-Men'. A lot of long time comics readers were pretty cynical and dismissive over the concept, from the off. The same old complaints rattled around forums online... "What is the point of one set of heroes fighting another set of heroes?" They weren't interested. I can understand the argument, but I couldn't help but think folks were kind of missing the point...
While those comics readers of my generation were dismissive of the whole thing themselves, they were finding a very different response to A vs X coming from their children. The kids didn't care that it was Heroes fighting Heroes. They weren't thinking in terms of higher concepts, ethics or 'what it meant to be a hero'. All they cared about was that it was Avengers AND X-Men, in a book TOGETHER. Forget logic, they were just excited because it was a crossover featuring BOTH. AT THE SAME TIME.
And for them it didn't get much more awesome than that.
When I was hearing such anecdotes during the summer, it immediately reminded me of another crossover from my own childhood, and through that to this very cover.
Back the 1980s Marvel UK owned the comics rights to both Action Force and Hasbro's other big seller, Transformers. Growing up, there were even cliques in the playground formed around which you were a fan of (And not everybody would accept 'both' as an option). The idea of a comics crossover featuring Transformers AND Action Force was pretty much enough to blow our tiny minds...
But that is exactly what happened in 1987. 'Ancient Relics' was the name of that crossover story, and to my mind this was the iconic Cover of that event. Granted the Transformer in the background, Blades, was hardly what you would call a Big Player in the Transformers world. But that wasn't the point. It was Flint, Scarlett and Wild Bill standing in front of sodding giant robot. Look at the SCALE! Things are ON FIRE! And they're all in THE SAME WORLD!!!
You can debate the creative merit of such a story all you like, but here too I think that's kind of missing the point. This was a story designed to showcase the two biggest brands of the day. And for a child of the 1980s it really didn't get much better than that...
