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Greetings folks, Gary here again with a little review of a super cool fan driven project that you all should take note of.
A few months ago, Jamar Miller and the gang at Blood for the Baron sent us a copy of their in-house publication of Action Force. These โ€œcontinuing voyages ofโ€ AF pick up where some of the Action Force universe left off and incorporates elements of the RAH universe. Call it the best of both worlds โ€“ or a Intโ€™l/RAH Joe fanโ€™s ultimate cross over dream.
Click the “Read the Rest of this Entry” link below to check out the full review!

In this issue, titled Red Dawn, we pick right up with Action Man in his own personal drama. Natalie is helping Action Man deal with the situation with his real father (queue soap opera dramatic keyboard music here). Action Man is about to embark on a mission with Natalie sending olโ€™ Action Man off with a foreboding warning about going for revenge. Action Man promises heโ€™ll return with his mission accomplished. Flash forward in time and we get a cameo from our favorite General, General Flagg. There is a reference to a failed Night Force Op that I have no idea about, but after some shifty interrogations by the AF team, they have determined that Dr. Exler killed Action Manโ€™s father and his real name was Axel Mann. The writers were awesome enough to leave us a small blurb about who Mann was. Mann was a British Special Forces Officer who was on an undercover op to investigate the death of a solider. The suspect is still at-large and was the target of the failed Night Force op. Flagg gives Action Man the last known transmission from his father and this last bit of news; his mother was found dead in the USA shot over 100 times. Flagg reassigns Natalie, Knuck, Red Wolf, Flynt and Reb to a new team.
Meanwhile, we flash forward again to Iran, the AF team, including Action Man, Jammer, Scout and Doc are looking for signs of The Red Shadows. It is basic recon duty until they are ambushed by followers of the Red Vulture and the son of the Red Sultan. The battle is heated and the AF team is pinned down in a mud hut with no reinforcements in sight. The team manages to get a hold of Goucho and had him racing toward their rescue, but the attackers had their own plans โ€“ mainly leveling the hut with RPG. The issue ends in true cliff hanger form. Is Action Man and the AF team dead, or did they survive. I am willing to wager my Red Shadows con set that olโ€™ Action Man survivesโ€ฆโ€ฆbut it is an effective ending nevertheless.
Other appearances and references in the comic include Vaughn, Red Wolf, Black Major, Red Laser and your standard Red Shadows trooper.
Man, my jumping on point here was issue 3 and as a connoisseur of the original Marvel 155, I felt a little lost at times. Jamar and gang did make it a little easier to catch up with key character dossiers in the back of the book, but as someone who is a vaguely knowledgeable fan on the international side, I just kind of rolled with the pages. I guess I will drop the money to get the back issues. Weโ€™ve put up some scans of the first couple of pages. The artwork is not bad at all. The writing is ok and for you PG-13 fans, they drop in a four letter bomb so it reminds you that this is fanfic, not something that is coming from one of the larger publishing houses.
Now, I admit, Iโ€™ve been sitting on this review for a while. The perfect time to put this out was when the GIJCC announced the Red Shadows con set. Alas, the real-world did not allow this to happen. Regardless, EVERY Joe fan, no matter what vintage or collector type you consider yourself, you should contact the guys at BftB and pick of some copies of this series. It is fan driven campaigns like this that Hasbro and the club take notice of โ€“ which is a good thing if we ever want to see more of the Red Shadows or other fan favorite factions come out in figure form again. Bravo to the only site and group in the fandom who fight to keep this sliver of Joe history alive!!ย  Let’s get behind this effort!!
OK, Jamar, where can I order issue #4, Death Shows No Prejudice? ย Actually, I know. ย Issue #4, as well as any other issue of Action Force: Red Dawn is available right here at the Blood for the Baron store!
Feel free to leave your questions and comments in the comments section!ย  I am sure the gang at BftB would appreciate your feedback.

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