Rock 'n Roll
From Transformers Wiki
- Rock 'n Roll is a human from the G.I. Joe portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Craig S. McConnel isn't codenamed Rock 'n Roll for no reason: not only is he an avowed fan of pretty much every permutation of his favourite genre of music — from classic rock to industrial thrash — but his confident, never-say-die attitude means that he'll throw himself into just about any situation and refuse to give up or back down, even when the odds are stacked against him.
As a heavy weapons specialist in G.I. Joe, Rock 'n Roll has hung up his old bass guitar in favor of a pair of machine guns, but that hasn't stopped him from indulging his love of noise; leaping into battle and blasting his favorite heavy metal tunes to back him up.
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Fiction
Marvel Generation 2 comic
Rock 'n Roll, Airtight, Roadblock, and Tunnel Rat infiltrated the Cobra-controlled city of Milleville to find out what Cobra was up to and to confirm the suspicion of Decepticon involvement. They spotted Megatron in Milleville and radioed Hawk their findings, Goin' South but were attacked by Cobra Eels immediately after. The team took out the Eels and contacted Hawk to request backup. Rock 'n Roll and the others travelled the sewers to get out of Milleville, but were attacked again, first by more Eels and then by B.A.T.S.. Fortunately, the Ninja Force showed up and helped them reach safety. Sucker Punch
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
Rock 'n Roll and a number of other Joes were sparring and watching one another spar, when newcomer Snake-Eyes challenged Quick Kick and Roadblock to a match. Snake-Eyes defeated them with ease. Rock 'n Roll invited Clutch and Shipwreck to welcome-dogpile the victor with him. Playtime was interrupted when Hawk and some other officers brought them information about the giant robots Cobra was recently revealed to possess and about where Cobra would strike next. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #2
Rock 'n Roll was sent to guard the SPS Research Facility against an upcoming attack by Cobra. When the enemy arrived, Rock 'n Roll, Roadblock and Bazooka shot Ratbat out of the air, but missed Laserbeak. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #3 He later went along on the unauthorized mission to Cobra Island to stop Cobra from ruling the world and the USA from causing a semi-worldwide nuclear winter. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #4
Rock 'n Roll travelled to Cybertron as part of the mission to stop Serpent O.R.. The Art of War #5
Transformers/G.I. Joe
Rock 'n Roll participated in an attack on a Cobra smuggling facility in New York City, manning the machine gun of a VAMP driven by Clutch. The vehicle proved unable to stand up to Cobra's new Flight Pods, and ended up being hit by a missile. Targets of Opportunity
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Rock 'n Roll was part of a G.I. Joe strike force that stormed a Cobra hideout housing deadly Creeper bombs. Though the mission ran into some complications when the Transformers Bumblebee and Starscream got embroiled in the conflict, it ultimately culminated in Cobra Commander's apparent demise, signaling a victory for the Joes. The Golden Boys
Later, Rock 'n Roll 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. On his next mission, Rock 'n Roll was deployed to the planet Cybertron, its inhabitants having proved themselves to be hostile towards the human race. I Saw Three Ships
The Joes began their attack on Cybertron by sending down "green bombs" from the air. Rock 'n Roll noted that the mobile city of Trypticon seemed like an ideal target... unfortunately, it was protected by a forcefield, and their attempt to bomb it provoked a counter-attack from the Decepticons. Though the G.I. Joes' ships were taken down by Devastator, Rock 'n Roll managed to make it back to Green Zone 0-8-6, the Joes' temporary base on the alien world. Targetmasters
After Wheeljack became ensnared in one of the camp's perimeter traps, Rock 'n Roll assisted his fellow Joes in vivisecting the Cybertronian. The operation was tabled just in time for Wheeljack's friends to burst in on the scene and launch an offensive against the Joes. Rock 'n Roll returned fire, guns akimbo, as both sides went all-out in their attempts at annihilating one another. Blasts from the crossfire wound up rendering all combatants unconscious. Funeral for a Friend
Both teams eventually awakened and readied to take up arms once more when Grimlock showed up, accompanied by Breaker, Jinx, Cover Girl, and Clutch. Grimlock declared a truce between the Joes and the Autobots had been reached, and both factions partied together to cement their alliance. Form Follows Function The Joes moved into Metroplex, the Autobots' mobile city, but had little time to settle down before the Decepticons launched an attack against them. Rock 'n Roll rode atop of Swoop alongside Snow Job to help repel both the evil robots and their Cobra allies. They eventually succeeded in forcing them into a tactical retreat. Everybody Hates Metroplex
When Optimus Prime returned to Cybertron to liberate the Autobots, Rock 'n Roll witnessed him be slain by Megatron, and subsequently plummet down into the bowels of Cybertron. Pax Megatronus With Earth seemingly destroyed, Rock 'n Roll joined some other Joes as they contended with the Oktober Guard, who attempted to colonize Cybertron in the name of Russia. Earth: R.I.P. As the "Jotobots" prepared to take the fight to the Decepticons, Rock 'n Roll watched as the Rescuebots combined into Defensor Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #12 and, as Primus prepared to devour the Sun, took part in the subsequent battle on the Dyson sphere created to engulf the star. The War Never Ends
2005 IDW continuity
Craig McConnel grew up in Los Angeles, and, after a lackadaisical adolescence of skateboarding and weightlifting, graduated high school and joined several regional thrash bands. Ultimately, his potential music career as a bassist never got anywhere and McConnel spent a brief stint as a roadie for the Holograms instead.
While working out at the beach one day, McConnel was approached by a vacationing General Joe Colton, who admonished him for wasting his potential and suggesting that he enlist with the United States armed forces. Craig did so, discovering a talent for covert ops and infantry training and eventually became a physical training instructor. After becoming a Sergeant First Class, Colton approached McConnel once more and offered him the opportunity to push his talents to the limit as part of the new G.I. Joe taskforce. Rock 'n Roll profileMcConnel became one of the earliest members to join Colton's new initiative First Strike#4 and soon received the codename "Rock 'n Roll." Rock 'n Roll profile
Over the next few years, Rock 'n Roll would go on to have numerous adventures as a member of G.I. Joe during their war against Cobra, which would include a memorable stint as a prisoner of the terrorist organization after a bungled mission in Patagonia. Deep Terror, Part 1 After this adventure, he briefly encountered Julio Lopez during a visit to attend a concert in his hometown. Roadies
Ultimately, though, the war with Cobra led to the nuclear devastation of Nanzhao, and the subsequent financial and publicity problems that G.I. Joe would face led to the shuttering of the organization, Secret Raiders though Cobra itself would collapse shortly afterwards. The Iron Klaw
Following the return of the Transformers to Earth, Optimus Prime would go on to annex the planet into the interplanetary Council of Worlds; in response to this unilateral declaration, the President of the United States shut down the Earth Defense Command and reinstated G.I. Joe in the hopes that Joe Colton's more aggressive approach could reverse a situation involving the destabilization of Ore-13 across the globe.
As part of "Colton's" opening moves against the Cybertronians, Rock 'n Roll was part of the G.I. Joe unit that opened fire on the Transformers in Portland, Oregon. The presence of Dire Wraiths amongst the Joes attracted the attention of Rom the Space Knight, who arrived to disintegrate several soldiers — including Joe Colton. Mistaking the silver alien for a Cybertronian, Rock 'n Roll launched a missile atJazz and blew his arm off. Concorde Hymn When the extraterrestrials departed, Rock 'n Roll tended to one of the fallen soldiers. The Divine Source of Liberty
Analysis of "Colton's" DNA revealed that the general was an imposter: a Dire Wraith had replaced the real one. When the former Earth Defense Command base in the Bikini Atoll went dark, Scarlett — suspecting more Dire Wraith trickery — appointed a team to infiltrate the potentially compromised base and recover Skywarp, D.T.A. a "valuable asset" that had been recovered by Marissa Faireborn during Galvatron's failed invasion of Earth. No Fair Fights
The team torpedoed themselves onto the base; Rock 'n Roll bringing up the rearguard alongside Quick Kick and Wild Bill while Scarlett and Roadblock tried to directly breach the entrance. Rock 'n Roll was initially skeptical about the prospect of Dire Wraiths but soon changed his tune when Wild Bill revealed himself as a Wraith and tried to kill him. Rock fought his way through the horde and into the EDC base, where he was confronted by a paranoid Grand Slam. Both under the impression that the other had been replaced by a Wraith, Rock 'n Roll was eventually forced to use lethal force to defend himself, seriously wounding his fellow Joe... much to the amusement of Skywarp, who Rock realized, much to his horror, was the "asset" that the team had been sent to recover. D.T.A.
Not long after the Wraiths publicly revealed themselves during an attack on the White House, Thundercracker & Buster Save the World the extradimensional Baron Karza was unmasked as the true perpetrator behind the Ore-13 treachery; as Rom, the Autobots, the Micronauts, M.A.S.K. teamed up against the Baron and his Wraiths at Metrotitan in Monument Valley, G.I. Joe arrived aboard a fleet of mothballed hardware, with Rock 'N Roll riding in a MOBAT.
With Baron Karza defeated and Earth's Ore-13 returned to normal, G.I. Joe abandoned their base on Governor's Island Valley Forge and, as the successor to the EDC, prepared to operate under an international charter directed by the United Nations. The team relocated to the Lemuria, the sunken remains of the Decepticon warship Nemesis, and used Cybertronian technology gleaned from the EDC's examinations of Skywarp's cyber-biology to develop laser weapons of their own. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #1
Over the course of their next few missions, Rock 'n Roll would take a shine to Skywarp, though the friendship was decidedly one-sided at first: after a skirmish with the Iron Ring's Red Shadows in Japan, Skywarp refused to let him hitch a ride home in his cockpit. On returning to base, he exchanged his aging machine guns for a new set of laser shotguns from a grudging Grand Slam. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #1 Rock 'n Roll was one of the Joes deployed to Inner Mongolia to deal with the Dreadnoks; a disguised Zarana and Zandar lured them into a trap instead. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #2 Rock 'n Roll managed to capture Crystal Ball, but the Cobra seer somehow managed to enter his mind to taunt him. The Joes managed to extract with their captive thanks to Cover Girl, G.I. Joe vol. 5 #3 but, in the subsequent chase, discovered that his teammate Doc was actually a Dire Wraith unaware of her heritage. The chase was cut short when a gigantic monster emerged from a fissure and eliminated the Dreadnoks. In the aftermath, Skywarp ignored Rock's request to give him a lift back home. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #4
Back aboard the Lemuria, Rock brought food to their new prisoner but was left unprepared for another series of disturbing visions from Crystal Ball. As more of the monsters emerged across the globe, Cover Girl, Skywarp, Salvo, and Rock 'n Roll travelled to Ecuador to put down another incursion and track the origin point of the creatures, but were diverted to save a nearby village from an erupting volcano. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #5
The second G.I. Joe mission force used specially constructed "Mole Pods" to tunnel underground and track the creatures to their source. They discovered that the monstrers were small creatures that had been mutated by Dire Wraith magic; when Rock reached out to one, the same magic affected him, and his bottled up guilt and anger at hurting Grand Slam transformed him into a towering monster. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #6 Lashing out at his fellow Joes, Rock 'N Roll battled Skywarp to a draw until Doc used her Dire Wraith powers to restrain him and return him to normal. As he did so, Spirit discovered an arcane altar that appeared to be the origin point of the beasts; hoping to redeem himself, Rock volunteered to stay behind and manually set off the damaged charges. Skywarp volunteered to defend him, but made it clear that he would be leaving the Joe to his fate. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #7 Ploughing through the beasts, the pair successfully rigged the cavern to blow... and Skywarp had a change of heart at the last moment, making it seem as though both had perished in the subsequent explosion. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #8 The pair had survived, however, thanks to Skywarp finally allowing him to ride in his cockpit, and in the final battle against the "Fatal Fluffies" Rock 'n Roll and Skywarp showed off the "Blast Beat," their new tag-team move. G.I. Joe vol. 5 #9
On another mission, Rock 'n Roll and Skywarp joined a small strike team in Scotland to deal with Dire Wraiths, but were left unprepared for the return of Baron Karza and were incapacitated by a flotilla of Microspace warships. Wrath of Karza #1
Following the capture of Garrison Kreiger, one of the masterminds behind Baron Ironblood's Iron Ring, Rock 'n Roll was part of the team sent to the Onyx tower in Buenos Aires to take the defeated villain into G.I. Joe custody. When Centurion hacked and activated the building's defenses, however, Rock 'n Roll and his teammates were forced to bail out of their bisected transport and, with the help of Sgt. Savage, hold off the Red Shadows trying to free their captured leader — and unmasked Ironblood as the real Joe Colton. When Eagles Scream Though Optimus Prime and Metrotitan eventually intervened, they were too late to prevent Kreiger from slipping his cuffs, escaping with Colton and retaking the magical Talisman. Ghost in the Machine
Though the Fatal Fluffies had been defeated, Rock remained perturbed by troubling nightmares. When Cobra - now led by the Baroness as the new Cobra Commander - resurfaced, Rock 'n Roll was one of the Joes assembled by acting commander Shipwreck to serve as a fast response team after Cobra began stealing ancient artifacts from museums around the world. The team encountered Cobra and their new VENOM allies in New York City, where he and Skywarp managed to cut off Sly Rax from his objective. That's when VENOM retaliated by combining their vehicles into their new weapon: the gigantic "King Cobra." G.I. Joe: First Strike The Joes were able to defeat it, but even after the conclusion of their mission Rock 'n Roll remained haunted by his nightmares. M.A.S.K.: First Strike
Notes
- Transformers alumni Frank Welker was one of the voices of Rock in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
External links
- Rock 'n Roll at YoJoe.com
- Rock 'n Roll at G. I. Joe Comics Homepage
- Rock 'n Roll on the IDW Hasbro Wiki
