Wild Bill
From Transformers Wiki
- Wild Bill is a member of G.I. Joe from the G.I. Joe portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
A genial modern-day Texas cowboy with a love of country music and tall tales, Wild Bill may seem like an oddly quaint, albeit friendly, throwback to an earlier time. Don't let that fool you, however; he served a tour in Vietnam as part of a LRRP (long-range recon patrol) team before going to flight school, wherein he learned how to fly helicopters, such as his beloved Dragonfly, before ultimately figuring out how to pilot everything that can fly and a few things which can't (or, at least, aren't supposed to). He has earned the respect of his fellow Joes several times over for his willingness to mix it up in battle and skill in the air.
Howdy, pardner.
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Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
G.I. Joe and the Transformers
After Power Station Alpha was hijacked remotely, Wild Bill and his Dragonfly were among the Joes who Hawk dispatched to intercept it. He managed to shoot down a Rattler in battle. Power Struggle G.I. Joe and the Autobots joined forces to better combat the Decepticons after they had taken control of Power Station Alpha. Wild Bill was inside the Ark when tremors began rocking the planet due to the station's growing influence. Despite the escalating urgency of the situation, he still couldn't get over working alongside Cobra to achieve a common goal; the preservation of their homeworld! ...All Fall Down!
Marvel Generation 2 comic
Wild Bill flew Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow in the C-130 to Trans-Carpathia so that they could retrieve the defecting Destro and the Baroness. He came back to pick them up when they made their escape. Unfoldings! He then flew the crew to the abandoned Cobra Island. As the flight was going to be a lengthy one, he informed his passengers to help themselves to some of their food supplies during the trip. Spirits were low, however, and everyone simply brooded instead. Realignments
Wild Bill later drove Hawk to Milleville so that they could deal with the Cybertronian technology Cobra acquired. All or Nothing!
Marvel UK The Transformers comic
A longtime veteran from Hull, England, Wild Bill once flew the chopper in a rescue mission in Southeast Asia. They pulled six of their men out, and he wanted to go for the seventh. The commanding officer gave the order to withdraw instead, stating that if they tried, they'd only sacrifice the lives of everyone else they'd saved. Wild Bill stayed awake at night for years after that, wondering what happened to that seventh man.
Years later, he was a Dragonfly pilot in the European branch of Action Force. At Flint's command, Wild Bill led the Dragonflies against a monstrous robot in the London docklands. Unfortunately, their fire only served to annoy the robot, and Wild Bill's Dragonfly was shot out of the sky in retaliation. Luckily, he was saved by another robot, Blades, who informed him about this "Megatron" fella and how indestructible he was...too late for Wild Bill to warn Flint against sending in the Maulers!
After the resulting carnage, Wild Bill helped pull Dusty clear and then withdrew inside Blades along with Flint. He had flashbacks to his Asian rescue operation when Flint ordered a Skystriker air strike on a gas refinery in order to kill Megatron, at the cost of an Autobot life. Wild Bill viewed this as murder and refused to sit back this time, trying to rally the robot Centurion to assist and growing angry with him when the robot just stood there. Eventually, Centurion did decide to go in, giving Wild Bill and Blades time to pull Grimlock to safety...but at the cost of Centurion's life. The pilot was left distraught. Ancient Relics!
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
During G.I. Joe's attack on Cobra Island, Wild Bill piloted one of the cargo planes transporting troops and vehicles to enemy territory. When Duke explained to him that they were doing the right thing even though the higher-ups at the Pentagon were against the attack, Wild Bill cheerfully said that he and the other Joes were well aware of that. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #4
Transformers/G.I. Joe
Wild Bill flew a team of Joes from Utah to Oregon, where an alien spaceship had crash-landed. Targets of Opportunity
Unit:E comic
Upon approaching the planet Earth, the artificial intelligence Synergy presented footage of the Joes in action so that her crew-mate, the young Acroyear, could learn about his potential allies and enemies on the alien world. Wild Bill could be seen standing side-by-side with Flint on one of Synergy's view-screens. Unit:E
Kre-O cartoon
Wild Bill was among a group of Joes who went to a carnival. After having an unsuccessful attempt at winning a "ring the bell" strongman contest, Wild Bill handed the hammer to Quick Kick, who had similarly poor luck. Moments later they all watched open-mouthed as the Terrorcons combined into Abominus and smashed the game so hard it broke. Carnival Face Off
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Wild Bill piloted a helicopter that dropped off a G.I. Joe strike force, allowing them to storm a Cobra hideout housing deadly Creeper bombs. He joined the fight proper when Cobra Commander attempted to flee in a Rattler, and chased down the head of Cobra alongside Ace, Hawk, Scarlett, Duke, and Snake-Eyes. Though the arrival of Bumblebee and Starscream complicated things, Wild Bill and Ace were able to deliver a couple of payloads that destroyed the Cobra plane, seemingly bringing an end to Cobra Commander's reign of terror. The Golden Boys
Wild Bill was part of a strike team that stormed Springfield, a Cobra base disguised as a quaint little town. There, he helped rescue Gung Ho, who had been overpowered by the twins Tomax and Xamot. Later, he helped patrol the skies when G.I. Joe acted as Earth's representatives as envoys from the planet Cybertron landed planet-side. He scrambled away when the Decepticons proved themselves to be hostiles, and it became necessary to fire a Coltonbolt from an orbital defense satellite, destroying both Soundwave and one of G.I. Joe's bases. Earth then went on the offensive, sending a team to Cybertron to invade it. Wild Bill served as one of this team's pilots. I Saw Three Ships Their ship, the Defiant, was used to bombard Cybertron with "green bombs," carpeting the planet with foliage.
When the Joes ran afoul of both Devastator and Trypticon during one of their air raids, Wild Bill separated his portion of the ship from the one piloted by Payload, and rammed it into Devastator to bring down the gestalt. Wild Bill perished in his kamikaze attack, but Zartan took on his appearance to infiltrate the Joes. Everybody Hates Metroplex Targetmasters The real Wild Bill had been spirited away by Perceptor to Trypticon for study. Expelled from the Garden Perceptor attempted to revive Wild Bill through several means, down to implanting a technoactive cube in his body, but ultimately gave up and returned it to the Joes. Earth: R.I.P. During his autopsy at the hands of Doc, the cube activated and resurrected Wild Bill in the form of a half-man half-machine hybrid. He went on to ride Steeljaw into the final battle with the Decepticons and Cobra, Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #12 displaying superhuman abilities like flight and the ability to project lassos or fire bullets from his fingers. Following their victory, Wild Bill joined the crew of the Ark 2 on its mission to find the shared creators of humanity and the Transformers. The War Never Ends
2005 IDW continuity
Wild Bill was happy to be back in the pilot's seat again flying missions, even if the "seat" was inside a transforming humanoid battle mech / jet fighter based on alien technology. Yeeee-haw! White Heat
When Dire Wraiths invaded the EDC site at Bikini Atoll, Wild Bill was part of the Joe team sent to secure it. However, Bill was revealed to be a Dire Wraith in disguise, attacking his teammates Quick Kick and Rock 'n Roll. In a rage, Rock beat "Bill" to death. D.T.A.
Notes
- Action Force Wild Bill's profile in Action Force 12 and toy establish him as British, born in Hull. The profile also says he had served in an exchange programme with a US Army Aviation squadron and flew helicopters in the Vietnam War, so his South-East Asia background in "Ancient Relics!" actually does work!
- William Lennox is given the nickname "Wild Bill" in the novelization. Whether or not this was a deliberate reference to the G.I. Joe character remains unknown.
- It is ambiguous as to whether the IDW incarnation of Wild Bill was a human who was assimilated and replaced by a Dire Wraith, or whether he was always a Dire Wraith who constructed a false identity.
- Wild Bill himself has been voiced a few Transformers voice actors, which consisted of Frank Welker, Charlie Schlatter, Steve Blum and Ian James Corlett.