The Joes recruited retired G.I. Joe spy Sparkplug Witwicky to lead the ongoing Ark Project. Sparkplug was tasked with the duty of bringing back the remaining offlined Autobots and assimilating the awakened Autobots into Earth's culture. Sparkplug isn't the only Witwicky to work with the Joes. Sparkplug's youngest son, Buster, was recruited while he was still in college to be a computer code cracker. In the early '80s, Susan Witwicky (also an undercover Joe agent) was killed by an unknown assailant in front of Spike, the eldest son of Susan and Sparkplug. That event traumatized Spike to the point where he became extremely depressed and eventually suicidal.