Review by Frank Plowright

The first prolonged toy tie-ins for comics were served up by Marvel in the late 1970s, and it seems when the 1982 Action Force line of assorted figures in combat gear and their accessories were designed, promotion as a comic strip was very much part of the package.

It duly arrived a year after the figures were launched, produced by Gerry Finley-Day and Geoff Campion, two men who themselves had served in the British armed forces. It was an ideal background for the adventures of an international military force deployed to keep the world safe from threats like Baron Ironblood whose Red Shadow troops occupy Ascendancy Island in the opening episode.

Baron Ironblood is the feature’s Doctor Doom, hellbent on taking over the world and with an army and array of futuristic threatening weapons at his disposal, while his leading henchman was once a member of Action Force. Wearing the less distinctive standard military gear, the forces of good aren’t as identifiable and require reintroducing with every appearance.

Week by week and over a variety of locations Finley-Day gradually expands the team to incorporate all options supplied by the toy line, meaning one of the thrills for the weekly readers in the 1980s was never knowing whether the coming adventure would take place on land or at sea, or very occasionally even in space. Wherever Baron Ironblood struck, the assorted special forces are there to ensure he fails.

A good number of pages are contributed by all others listed, but Campion is the primary artist, very much old school, and an expert at packing one hell of a lot of plot into a colour spread and two black and white pages per episode. It now looks cluttered and fussy, but the priority is telling a story, not artistic admiration, and none of the other artists overcome the limitation.

Finley-Day is a better writer than James Tomlinson, years of experience apparent in the way his plots progress naturally from start to finish, and under his own name and assorted aliases he writes most of the content. However, no matter the page length, there’s little sophistication. These are comics aimed at thrilling young boys with guns, fights and explosions, and there’s no nuance supplied by showing Baron Ironblood’s abused childhood. As such, these frankly expensive collections are aimed at stirring the emotions of the original readers, now in their fifties at least, rather than attracting a new audience. If you’re among the original readership and now a wealthy stockbroker or architect on the verge of retirement this might provide a hit of sheer adrenaline the like of which you’ve not experienced in decades. In that case you may also want to consider Volume 02: World in Peril. Anyone else will find the content uninspired and occasionally mediocre.

This isn’t circulated via online booksellers, but is available to comic shops and from co-publisher Total Toy Books.