Shockwave

Origin

U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jason A. Faria was born in Dearborn, Michigan. Shockwave became the youngest member of the police department in nearby Detroit. He was also a choir singer since he was a boy, and still occasionally sings to this day (he's a half-decent tenor when his voice is in shape). As part of the Detroit PD S.W.A.T. team, Shockwave was the man who kicked down the door and was the first one to find out how bad it really was behind that door. He held two citations for bravery when he signed up for the Army and the G.I. Joe team. His primary MOS is Special Weapons and Tactics and his secondary MOS is Military Police Officer. He holds the rank of corporal E-4.

Creation

Shockwave debuted in 1988 both in the Hasbro toy line and Marvel's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic series. His story was adapted from the toy line and used in the comics by Larry Hama.

Character Evolution

Shockwave's role early on in G.I. Joe was clearly that of the S.W.A.T. and police force nature. His first two missions, both appearing in the G.I. Joe: Special Missions series dealt with hostage situations. He also served in reconnaissance (observing a Cobra attack on Castle Destro) and undercover roles (rescuing rebel leader El Jefe in Sierra Gordo). He would later serve as a member of the Drug Elimination Force where he carried out anti-drug missions, most notably against the Headman.

When the G.I. Joe team was reinstated in 2001 (a part of the Image/DDP series), Shockwave returned to the team and was apart of the World War III story line.

Major Story Arcs

Other Media

Television

During the year his figure was first released, Shockwave was featured in a few of the toy and comic book commercials animated by Sunbow Productions (just before they lost the license to DIC in 1989), namely the ones for the Swampmasher and Cobra IMP vehicles and for issue #72 of the comic book.

Shockwave also appears in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero animated series taken up by DIC, where he appeared in two episodes voiced by Garry Chalk. The two episodes in particular were part one and part two of the 1991 episode "The Greatest Evil", which featured the Joes and their new Drug Elimination Force reluctantly teaming with Cobra in order to take down the criminal empire of the Headman. Shockwave found himself paired with a Crimson Guard Immortal whose sister was in the hospital after nearly overdosing on the Headman's latest drug concoction "Spark", making his stake in the fight personal. The two are nearly captured by the Headman's Headhunter troopers, but manage to outwit them and aid in the final battle, which sees an OD'd Headman buried alive by his collapsing mountain fortress.

Toys

Shockwave's first figure was released in 1988 as one of the year's new Joes. He came with a backpack, a knife that could be held by the pack, a pistol, and a sub-machine gun. The figure would be repainted the next year as part of the Toys 'R' Us exclusive Night Force sub-team, where he was sold in a two-pack with explosives expert Lightfoot. That same figure would later be offered (along with the Night Force version of the member Repeater and the character Fast Draw) as part of a 1993 mail-order exclusive "Rapid Deployment Force" 3-pack that came with an exclusive version of the Pocket Patrol Pack carrying case. He would get an all-new figure in 1992 as part of the G.I. Joe sub-team the Drug Elimination Force, and came with a missle-firing robot drone that could light up. It would be over sixteen years before he got another figure, which was a bonus figure as part of the 2008 G.I. Joe Collectors Convention exclusive figure set "Cobra Headhunters", where the figure re-used the upper half of the original Shockwave figure and the lower half of the original version of the character Low-Light (who was also part of the figure set). His name would also be changed to "Shockblast" due to copyright issues (a similar thing that happened to the Transformers figure of the same name). His next figure was for the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary Comic Pack line in 2008, where he was packed with a pilot version of Destro. The figure would then be released as a Night Force-inspired repaint as part of the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie line, in a Wal-Mart exclusive 2-pack with a Cobra Night Creeper ninja.