Joy Meadows is a minor human character from the Marvel UK Transformers comics. She was created by Simon Furman and Barry Kitson.
Biography[]
Joy was first seen in "Dinobot Hunt". She was a journalist who investigated the appearance of Sludge, reduced to an animal level of intelligence by circuit corrosion, in a local swamp. She formed a bond with him but they were interrupted by an attack by Soundwave and the Decepticons, who knocked Joy unconscious and took Sludge away.
Some time later, in "In the National Interest", Joy publicly expressed her desire to get to the truth about the Autobots and Decepticons, unconvinced by the government cover story that they were controlled by a terrorist named "Robot Master". This resulted in an attempt on her life by agents of government agency Triple I but she was saved by the Dinobots, with Sludge shielding her from gunfire and Swoop catching her car when it was pushed off a cliff. The Dinobots explained the truth about the war and the cover-up and smuggled a camera crew to her hoping to reveal the truth to the world. However, Megatron, Soundwave and the Constructicons arrived and launched an attack. The Dinobots fought the Decepticons with aid from the human-controlled robot Centurion but Soundwave managed to get the drop on Joy and force her to hand over the footage, which he had Laserbeak destroy, threatening her with further retribution if she attempted to go public again. She briefly encountered Optimus Prime and Prowl when they arrived in the aftermath before departing the scene.
Joy last appeared in "Ladies' Night" when she reported on archaeologist Susan Hoffman's discovery of Ultra Magnus and Galvatron encased in lava. They met with Cindy Newell, who also had experience of the Autobots and had once befriended Ultra Magnus, before Soundwave and the Combaticons attacked. The three women encountered Goldbug and Rollbar, who decided to leave quietly on learning the Decepticons planned to destroy Galvatron, willing to sacrifice Ultra Magnus to see him gone for good. Cindy convinced Joy and Susan to help her, with Joy thinking it would make a good story and putting the fact she had once learned to drive a tank to use when they ambushed Swindle. They attempted to use the explosives he had been planting on the other Combaticons but this resulted in the three of them suffering minor injuries and nearly being killed by Onslaught, until they were saved by the Throttlebots. After Goldbug and Blaster had disarmed the explosives, Goldbug warned the trio about taking on the Decepticons. Joy reacted angrily, thinking he meant because they were women, and wasn't much appeased when a bemused Goldbug explained he meant because they were humans.