Characters / The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers

aka: The Transformers Sins Of The Wreckers

This is the character sheet for The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers and for The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers

Last Stand of the Wreckers

Wreckers

Springer/Ostaros

Welcome to the team. Just be prepared: sometimes in the Wreckers, your first day is your last.

• The Ace: He'd have to be to be leader of the Wreckers.
  • Broken Ace: He's not the same after Garrus-9.
• And I Must Scream: Trapped in a coma at the end of the series of Last Stand, but becomes better halfway through the first issue of Sins.
• Angst Coma: Inverted after his mutilation at the hands of Overlord. Despite being completely repaired and rebuilt, he suffers from "zero point", a seemingly incurable affliction that prevents his spark from powering his body. Rung suggests that Roadbuster read Ironfist's stories of the Wrecker's past exploits to him, and it almost works when Springer's painful memories of Pova resurface. He's finally roused when Kup orders him to do so.
• Antagonistic Offspring: He's essentially Tarantulas' son, and spends his portion of the Noisemaze fight trying to kill the scientist, unaware of this fact.
• Artificial Human: Or Artificial Cybertronian, in this case, created by Mesothulas from imitation Matrix energy.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Being the leader of a deadly, elite commando unit requires a firm hand at times, although Springer is far less rough than Impactor was.
• Badass in Distress: Captured by Stalker in Issue #3, along with Impactor and Twin Twist. Then again by Mesothulas as a test subject for Impetus.
• BFG: Ironfist supplies him with a huge rotary Gatling-style weapon to use against Overlord... that doesn't even slow Overlord down, at least until Ironfist detonates the thousands of deterrence chips it embedded in him.
• The Bus Came Back: He wakes up thanks to Kup, and takes the Wreckers to Earth to find Prowl.

• Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of Sins, he manages to walk away from everything and earn his peace, though he wonders how long it'll be until he's dragged back.
  • Gets a far more definitive one at the end of Requiem, when after having finally defeated Overlord for good, Springer decides to use Tarantulas' Timemaze to send himself back into the distant past to pre-war Cybertron to try and avert the Great War on an individual level, sending a message out to all the surviving Wreckers, their allies, and the group of trainee Wreckers he'd been remotely training telling them to destroy the Wreckers' legacy and create a better future before leaving.
• Eye Scream: One of his optics is knocked out of his head when Overlord tears his face off.
  • Facial Horror/Tear Off Your Face: Again, Overlord rips his face off.
• The Heart: Ironfist, Roadbuster, Impactor and many others consider him this for the Wreckers. They aren't wrong.
• Heroic Build: His encounter with First Aid in Bullets (told from First Aid's point of view) makes repeated mention of his huge chest. It almost comes off as First Aid Eating the Eye Candy.
• It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: His response when Kup tells him the story of Violator? The best story ever.

• Lantern Jaw of Justice: To emphasize how much more naturally heroic he is than his screwed up, morally grey teammates.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Becomes one for Roadbuster during his years offline.
• Meaningful Name: He can jump really high. Since he's got a flying alt-mode, this doesn't show up very often, though it does appear during the final fight in the Tor.
• The Mentor: The ending of Requiem reveals that Springer had been remotely training a new team consisting of Bulkhead, Quickswitch (possibly Sixknight due to continuity errors that would create), Breacher, and Strongarm. He includes them in his farewell message and asks them to create a better legacy for the Wreckers by building a better future.
• Morality Pet: To Impactor and Prowl when he was still Ostaros. Additionally implied to be an Exploited Trope in Prowl's case, with him keeping Springer around as a reminder of both his own better self and sorest moral failures. Also to his "father" Tarantulas, the sadistic Mad Scientist loving him with his whole Spark. Upon learning Springer is Ostaros he drops everything to reunite with him.
• My Greatest Failure: Failing to stop Impactor at Pova, despite being barely able to walk at the time.
• Nice Guy: Brave, amicable, and, perhaps most importantly, sane.
• Only Sane Man: Compared to most of his team, and even then Springer isn't without his own set of psychological issues, with PTSD being the biggest.
• Papa Wolf: Majority of the Wreckers maybe very fucked up people, but Springer loves them like family and we'll jump at the chance to save any of them.
• Put on a Bus: As a result of his injuries, he was out of commission for about five years. Happily, The Bus Came Back forSins.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Springer may be done with Garrus-9, but Garrus-9's not at all done with Springer, as his horrifying flashbacks to his own mutilation can attest to. He eventually retires from the Wreckers because of this.
• Shoulders of Doom: Wears a massive pair of shoulder pauldrons in the present day. These proved famous enough to eventually carry over to his toy◊.
• Team Dad: In spite of everything he and they have done in the past, Springer still cares deeply about his teammates and they him.

Impactor

'Autobot'? I'm a Wrecker, Snare. First and always.

• Anti-Heroes do the Dirty Work: Seems to have reached the conclusion that this is his lot in life at the end of Sins. Not only is he the only reason Prowl was able to walk away from Mesothulas' shop of horrors as cleanly as he did, but he also ends up tying up most of the series' loose ends. He ultimately joins Mayhem to exercise this against the various political forces on Cybertron.
• The Atoner: Appear to be this in the Sin of the Wreckers.
• Been There, Shaped History: He'a one of the guilty parties in Megatron's Start of Darkness, albeit indirectly.
• Blood Knight: Always a bit of a low-level one, but this becomes really obvious whenever he decides It's Personal. However, by Sins he's not only started to resist, but also tries to help out those in the same boat. And fails. And ends up not only doing most of the dirty work himself, but ends up having to put Guzzle down at the end of it all.
• Broken Pedestal: To Springer and Ironfist.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: Though neither of them get to witness it.
• Character Development: By the series' end, he has come to terms with his actions on Pova, and even refuses to kill Overlord in honor of Springer (and because killing him would be the kinder option at this point). Come Sins and he's evolved into an outright Team Dad who tries to prevent Guzzle from making the same mistakes he did.
• Cruel Mercy: Refuses to kill the broken Overlord in honor of Springer.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often has a couple dry quips ready to go.
• Fallen Hero: At first.
• Good is Not Nice: That red badge doesn't translate to him being a nice guy. Most of the time, anyway.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Trapped in a pile of rubble, with Springer caught behind him and Overlord quickly advancing, Impactor makes peace with Springer before giving him one final order; shoot through Impactor like he did to an unwilling Springer on Pova so Springer can free himself, even though doing so will be fatal for Impactor. Springer obeys.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Became as violent as the worst Decepticons he fought against.
• Hook Hand: He has a harpoon in place of his right hand.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Make no mistake, Impactor is a blunt asshole with an explosive temper, but he does truly love Springer like a little brother/surrogate son, even if they've come to blows several times due to their clashing ideologies and personalities.

• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Executing Squadron X was the final culmination of this, if he hadn't already.
• Knight of Cerebus: Semi-heroic version.
• The Lancer: More acerbic and hot blooded than Springer.
• Moral Myopia: Is called out on this by Carnivac in Reqiuem. The plan to use a brainwashed Cybertronian to kill Megan Guglione to permanently sabotage the peace process between Earth and Cybertron was originated by Impactor before he went undercover as a vehicle in her security detail. Impactor's only furious that Carnivac decided to use Springer as the gunman instead of some other Autobot he wouldn't have cared about. Springer, for his part, thinks they're both full of scrap.
• My Greatest Failure: Admits to Springer right before his death that it would have been better for both of them and probably the Autobot cause if he'd never recruited him to the Wreckers.
• Mysterious Past: It's never made entirely clear why Impactor joined the Autobots in the first place, especially since they evolved from the same fascist system which incarcerated him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Started a bar brawl that got Megatron arrested, and nearly murdered, which in turn was his Start of Darkness.
• Papa Wolf: Hurting or endangering Springer is a big no no. Which is ironic because Impactor himself blasted through the former's chest, using him as a Human Shield during their final confrontation with Squadron X. Something he's since deeply regretted, but still.
• The Pardon: For his help in retaking Garrus-9, he's issued a formal pardon for the massacre of Squadron X.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Hold it, Impactor's letting an enemy live? Wait, never mind, I get it now.
• Redemption Equals Life: Eventually accepts that what he did on Pova was wrong, and makes it out of the comic alive.
• Sixth Ranger: Unexpectedly rejoins the Wreckers halfway into their trip to Garrus 9.
• Sociopathic Hero: An insensitive, snarky jackass always eager for a nice, long fight who has trouble reigning in his more violent urges, yet still ultimately cares about his fellow Wreckers, especially Springer.
• Team Dad: While Springer lies dormant between the two series, he grows into this role. Though Roadbuster is a better fit, there are even some elements of Team Mom in the deep care he has for those under his command. Which only ends up making his Shoot the Dog moments all the worse.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His bread and butter, whether with the Wreckers at the moment or not.
• We Used to Be Friends: Used to be drinking buddies with Megatron. It saved his life at one point, if Ironfist's writing is to be believed.
  • His relationship with Springer also gets pretty thoroughly destroyed during Reqiuem with Springer wanting nothing more to do with him though they make peace with each other before Impactor orders Springer to kill him.
• Vigilante Execution: He executed Squadron X with a nice shot to the head as they were tied town and defenseless.
  • Later does the same to Hubcap in Sins, citing his status as a security risk.

Ironfist

You can't beat "Wreck and Rule". Pure poetry.

• Addiction Displacement: Used to be obsessively fanbotish about the Primal Vanguard, is now obsessively fanbotish about the Wreckers.
• Ascended Fanboy: Author of the popular Wreckers: Declassified datalogs under the alias "Fisitron", now an actual Wrecker. Deconstructed however in that, despite idolizing and romanticizing the Wreckers, he was in no way prepared for the actual life of one, being shell-shocked after witnessing Overlord kill Rotorstorm, his reaction prompting Topspin to question how he even joined the squad when he wasn't approved like the other rookies. Turns out Prowl is the reason, having pulled some strings to get Ironfist on the team in exchange for him being the one to activate Aequitas and sacrifice his life, knowing Ironfist would want to join his idols before he died, and was likely gonna die anyway even if he didn't join. Before Prowl had stepped in, Rung had actually advised against Ironfist being approved, due to his Hero-Worshipper traits and lack of field experience making him unfitting for the actual life of a Wrecker, which is pretty close to what happened.
• Awesome Backpack: Wears his Lightformer Cannon in this manner.

• Badass Bookworm: Has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Wreckers, to the extent that he knows more about some of their members than they do.
• Been There, Shaped History: Designed Optimus Prime's signature rifle while serving as Wheeljack's apprentice. Optimus never knew his name.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Possibly one of the only Wreckers ever to be, all in all, a pretty Nice Guy. That being said, there's a reason use of most of his inventions constitutes a war crime, and he is more than capable of throwing together obscenely lethal weaponry to even out his relative lack of combat power. Overlord finds this out the hard way.
  • He didn't take being set up to die in a "lab accident" kindly either, and throws together an awesome Thanatos Gambit to ensure Skyfall goes down hard.
• BFG: His Lightformer Cannon.
• Boom, Headshot!: Inventor of the Cerebro-Sensitive Bullet, which results in one of these whenever it's used.
• The Cameo: In the flashback "Shadowplay" arc of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.
  • A really horrific example's to be had in the finale of Sins, where his corpse rains down from the damaged Debris to further traumatize Verity.
• Catchphrase: Said "glorious" all the time, because Delta Magnus said it. As Fisitron, there are of course his "Fisitronisms"...
• Chekhov's Gun: The wound on his head.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Ironfist's death could have been prevented as we discovered in the first season of More Than Meets The Eye when it's revealed that both Ratchet and First Aid, two of the Autobots' top medical professionals, could have performed surgery to remove the cerebro-bullet in his head, if he'd only ever told somebody about the accident. Worse, both of them were Wreckers: Declassified readers so most likely would have leapt at the opportunity to save Fisitron. First Aid even sadly notes that he thinks about how he could have saved Ironfist quite a bit.
• The Cutie: And with a group like The Wreckers, it was only a matter of time until he was broken and killed.
• Fanboy: Of the Wreckers. Before that, he was a huge fan of the Primal Vanguard and Delta Magnus.
• Friendless Background: From all indications, he didn't have many friends on the force, probably because he never stopped talking about the Primal Vanguard.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The best weapons designer around, barring maybe Brainstorm.

• Hoist by His Own Petard: Killed by one of his Cerebro-Sensitive Bullets.
• Horrible Judge of Character: If only he could've picked up on the warning signs that Skyfall wasn't such a pleasant guy.

• Living on Borrowed Time: Read Secretly Dying below.
• MacGyvering: Makes a detour to Garrus-9's armory and throws together a deterrence chip-launching chaingun. It proves critical in defeating Overlord.
• Manchild: Of the dorky, sheltered fanboy variety.
• Naïve Newcomer: Knows the Wreckers have an amazingly high fatality rate, but he's still surprised when people start dying.
• Nice Guy: A very friendly person in general who loves to share his Wrecker enthusiasm with others.
• Secretly Dying: That mark on his head that looks like a bullet wound? That's exactly what it is, courtesy of one of his own Cerebro-Sensitive-Bullets, and it's been killing him for the past 18 months. It's because of this that Prowl figured he'd be the perfect choice for activating Aequitas, since doing so would kill him anyway.
• Significant Anagram: Ironfist -> Fisitron.
• The Smart Guy: Fulfills this role with Perceptor.
• Thanatos Gambit: His death may be inevitable, but he sets up events so that Skyfall, the one responsible, is utterly screwed when he does die.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He idolized The Wreckers and romanticized all their missions as space adventures. But then he realizes during the mission in Garrus-9 that War Is Hell.

Guzzle

• BFG: The Judge. Also, his tank turret.
• Blood Knight: By far the most at home with the Wreckers' usual methods of the four reservists. Originally, he wasn't even considered physically eligible for the army, but went and had himself redesigned so that he could fight.
  • Psycho Party Member: He gets more unhinged as Sins progresses. Ultimately, though, it's his calculated, years-in-the-making bid for revenge that proves his undoing.
• Big Eater: Or Big Drinker, really. His name comes from the fact that he guzzles far more energon than most bots; he wasn't combat ready, and had his body upgraded so he could fight. This resulted in him becoming rather fuel-inefficient. This crosses into horrifying territory when, after killing Polar Claw, he hefts the corpse up and begins guzzling the fuel leaking from it.
• The Big Guy: Becomes this in Sins after upgrading to a bigger body.
• Gun Nut: Little guy loves him some boom sticks.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Overlord tears him in half in the climax of Last Stand. This doesn't kill him, though.
• I Call It "Vera": His weapon is a massive Hand Cannon dubbed "The Judge".
• I'm a Humanitarian: Again, he chugged Polar Claw's fuel.
• Long Game: His plan to murder Kup, avenging the friends he slaughtered while temporarily insane. Guzzle is in no hurry to enact it, biding his time, waiting for just the right moment. Which finally comes near the end of Sins.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In 'Sins' he wears a massive armor, making him actually bigger than Roadbuster.
• Not Quite Dead: Survives a seemingly fatal vivisection.
• Only Sane Man: At least compared to the other "Wrookies", which is quite telling. Not so much in the sequel.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: In Last Stand, anyhow. Not so much after his upgrade, whereupon he even towers over Roadbuster.
• Psycho Party Member: Following the events of 'Last Stand', to the point that Impactor had to put him inside a box in order for him to stop wrecking shit up.
• You Killed My Friends: Changes his mind about not joining after hearing that Kup will be on the team. A while back, Kup killed Guzzle's friends after being driven insane by the radioisotope Ore-8, and Guzzle's been wanting to confront him about it. He gets his chance at last at the end of Sins, only to be shot dead by Impactor before he can actually carry anything out.
• Your Head Asplode: After betraying Kup and Prowl, he meets his demise by way of a harpoon through his head, blowing it to pieces.

Pyro

• Catchphrase: Doesn't have one yet. We see him trying to come up with one, and failing miserably.
• Death Seeker: But only because he wants a Dying Moment of Awesome.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Subverted. He's torn to pieces in a very anti-climatic scene.
• Face Death with Dignity: Plans to. Unfortunately the murderous Decepticon horde unceremoniously butcher him.
• Jerkass: He tries to convince Ironfist to commit a Heroic Sacrifice instead of him because Ironfist worked in a lab and in Pyro's eyes, probably hadn't done or wouldn't do anything important.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He undergoes some much needed growth over the course of Last Stand, culminating in him sacrificing himself in an inglorious way to make sure that the comrades he's come to care for have a chance to get out alive.
• Glory Hound: He's desperate for Optimus Prime to notice him, hoping for a glorious heroic death saving millions of lives solely so Optimus would see him and believe his delusion that they're one and the same. He doesn't get it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Just not the one he was hoping for.
• Hero-Worshipper: Suffers from primus apotheosis, a programming disorder which causes the affected to emulate the mannerisms and deeds of Optimus Prime.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Faced with no good options, Pyro chose to hold the line against a horde of Decepticon prisoners to ensure that the other Wreckers wouldn't have to sacrifice Impactor to survive and wouldn't hopelessly hold the line with him.

Rotorstorm

And yes, I am that good.

• Ace Pilot: Really good pilot.
  • Broken Ace: But with a lot of issues.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he died.

• Dark and Troubled Past: His flight instructor, Jetstorm, used to bully him verbally. Then it graduated to physical assault, until Jetstorm beat Rotorstorm so badly he wound up in a CR chamber.
• Deadpan Snarker: Biggest amongst the Wrookies.
• Gallows Humor: "Wreckers, combine!"
• Sacrificial Lion: It's his death that let us know how high the stakes are in Last Stand
• Sad Clown: His carefree, snarky demeanor is a cover for all the trauma he's been dealt in life.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Rotorstorm was already messed up from his Dark and Troubled Past, but it was being present at Simanzi that did the most visible damage.
• Stepford Smiler: Mention Simanzi at all, and the smiling stops dead.

Topspin

"Maybe I should change my name to Top Secret"

• Badass Bookworm: He was originally a cartographer. He only joined the Wreckers to make sure Twin Twist stayed alive.
• Driven to Suicide: By extension of Twin Twist's ongoing torture.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Of the Non-Action variety.
• Face Death with Dignity: Though he was doing it mostly for Twin Twist's sake.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Opts to die turning on Aequitas, euthanizing Twin Twist in the process.
• Mercy Kill: Offers up his spark to activate Aequitas, so he may spare Twin Twist even more suffering.
• Mutual Kill: Him and Twin Twist.

• Synchronization: With Twin Twist.

Twin Twist

"Get slagged."

• Blood Knight: Much more violent that his brother.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Victim to this
• Body Horror: Ends up with an eye missing and his lower jaw ripped off.
• Drill Tank: His alt mode is a twin drilled tank.
• Fate Worse than Death: Courtesy of Stalker's "dentistry."
• Mercy Kill: He dies when Topspin sacrifices himself, in part to spare him the torture.
• Synchronization: With Topspin.

Kup

"Hold this, stay there, an' get ready to take notes."

• Converse with the Unconscious: 'Sins' implies he had a conversation over the phone with a comatose Springer, and his orders made Springer wake up.
• Cool Old Guy: Naturally.
• Manchurian Agent: Prowl had him turned into this while he was being repaired. It is hinted this is still in place in 'Sins'.

• The Mentor: Has taught a lot of 'bots the ropes, including Optimus Prime himself.

• Restraining Bolt: His cygar. Given a nod when he has Guzzle hold it as he tears apart some guards in their way.
• Smoking Is Cool: Since it stops him from going mad again, yeah.

Perceptor

• Eyepatch of Power: Sorta. His right optic has a built-in targeting system and is consequently much larger.

• Not So Stoic: There are few instances where he shows significant emotion, but he's particularly horrified and enraged at Rotorstorm's death.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Right before dangling upside-down through a hole in the drop pod to snipe some pursuing Decepticons.
  Perceptor: Hold my legs, Topspin... I feel the urge to shoot someone.

Verity Carlo

Thank you for flying Wrecker Airlines. Please deposit your round-trip ticket to hell and back with the stewardess.

• Blackmail Backfire: Openly blackmails Prowl with the Aequitas data, which puts a huge target on her.
• Break Them by Talking: Does it to Overlord.

• Death Seeker: Stakeout claims she's kind of this after going ahead and taunting Prowl about the Aequitas trials.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Requiem ends Verity's story on a well-deserved note, transferring a fortune to her own bank-account from the funds Tarantulas had appropriated and being welcomed home by her estranged mother.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: She quickly establishes herself as this amidst the Wreckers, as even those initially dismissive or hostile towards her like Pyro and Arcee tend to quickly come around after she demonstrates she has the will to match any Autobot. Even Impactor cares for her to an extent, and recognizes how much she means to Springer during the events of Requiem.
• Ms. Fanservice: Wears some revealing clothing before Sins of the Wreckers and the cover of Cybertronian Homesick Blues featuring her as Magnus' holomatter avatar has her in them as well.
• Narrator All Along: The events of Last Stand are frequently narrated by "Fisitron", the pen name belonging to Ironfist and author of the "Wreckers: Declassified". As a result, it was believed that he was the one narrating the events of the story. He wasn't, Verity was, having used his pen name to make one final entry, doing so in Ironfist's memory after he died before her eyes.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Topspin "Tin Man" and Overlord "Thunderlips".
• Odd Friendship: With Ultra Magnus.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Eventually Subverted.
• Powered Armor: She wears an armored space suit that allows her to keep up with the mechs.
• Secretly Dying: Hinted at and eventually confirmed in issue 4 of Sins. It seems being exposed to the energy of Aequitas being downloaded into Ironfist poisoned her, which gets worse anytime she's exposed to more Cybertronian energy. Her attempt to blackmail Prowl was actually her hoping to be cured. However, by the end of the issue she reveals she feels fine...because Tarantulas has done something weird to her when he scanned her earlier in the issue.

• Trauma Conga Line: She went through a lot in the previous "-ation" series and the Last Stand of the Wreckers, which has caused her to be a bit of a Death Seeker.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her attempt to blackmail Prowl with the Aequitas data winds up drawing the attention of Mayhem and ultimately sets the story in motion.

Roadbuster

• The Big Guy: Him and Broadside used to share this role back in the old days.
• BFG: As big as he is, Roadbuster always lugs around an even bigger gun. He even wields the Pathblaster (a massive gun that overloaded and killed him back in his Marvel appearance) and destroys Squadron X's ship, The Pale Fire.
• The Caretaker: For Springer.
• Dark Secret: Hoo boy. Being hooked up to Impetus reveals that even though Roadbuster stopped Whirl's attempt to euthanize Springer while he was still comatose, he wished he was brave enough to do it himself. Additionally, he makes mention of ending many young lives in their sleep, fearful of what they might have become. Perhaps most wrenching of all, he misses the security and direction carrying out sacrifices in the name of "Mortilus" gave him, despite being horrific and making him doubt his own sanity.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Seemingly averted, as for all his faults, he seems to value his cadets highly. In reality, he's even worse than Whirl, albeit unintentionally, and his paternalistic attitude really just makes his torture and sacrifice of them to Mesothulas-as-Mortilus all the more chilling.
• Flat Character: In-Universe, he's a bit upset at his portrayal as a one-note Gun Nut in Fisitron's writing. Very much averted in the comic itself, however.
• Gun Nut: Roadbuster is loaded down with weaponry, both here and on his toy.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Busies Tarantulas long enough for the others to escape and formulate a plan to destroy the Noisemaze, resulting in his extremely unambiguous death.
• I Call It "Vera": During AHM, the Autobots repurposed one of their battleship's guns as a turret, and Roadbuster was positively giddy about it, and wanted to give it a name. Whatever relationship he had with said gun is tragically cut short when it runs out of ammunition and he ends up smashing a hoard of Insecticons with it.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: By the time the other Wreckers catch up to him in Tidal Wave, he's torn off several tentacles and mashed the rest of him in an attempt to get information.
• Manchild: In a nod to the most enduring trait of his original bio, Roadbuster is curiously childlike at times, particularly concerning Springer's affliction...
  • Psychopathic Manchild: ...But when things get nasty, Roadbuster does one worse. More Than Meets the Eye reveals that he once force-fed a Decepticon comms officer his spine in a drug-induced frenzy, and he brutally interrogates the crippled Claw Jaw to the point that Springer has to intervene. He was also manipulated into kidnapping, torturing and murdering untold numbers of cadets, and is implied to have killed more of his own accord.
• Never Learned to Read: It's mentioned that he was functionally illiterate until Springer fell into a Zero Point coma. Roadbuster reads to him every day in the hope that it might help him recover.
• Noodle Incident: "The Roadbuster Incident" was originally this. Then James Roberts tried to establish that it was ripping out a Decepticon's spine and beating him with it. Then Nick Roche went "hold my beer"...
• Properly Paranoid: Is convinced, but not sure, that Nanocons exist. As The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye proves, they do.
• Roadburster: How he dies at the hands of a mass-shifting Tarantulas.
• Team Mom: Roadbuster's care of Springer has gradually shaped him into this for the Wreckers stationed on Debris.
• Took a Level in Kindness: As Last Stand and More than Meets the Eye show, Roadbuster was at one point as unscrupulous and dangerous as Impactor, sadistically causing pain to an imprisoned Squadron X and brutally torturing and murdering a Decepticon named Radar in a fit of Syk-induced rage. Zero Point has Springer's condition forcing him to confront his sordid past, and he later mentions that caring for his leader has made him feel like a better 'bot.
• Undying Loyalty: To Springer.
• Unwitting Pawn: For all the atrocities he's committed, the worst turns out to simply be him being used by Tarantulas.

Broadside

• Adaptational Badass: In most media, Broadside is mostly known for being "that one guy that turns into a seasick aircraft carrier and Acrophobic Jet." Here, he's not only one of the longest serving Wrecker members, he's one of the few that actually survives his tenure, and still has his sanity intact.

• Demoted to Extra: By virtue of being the only member of the older Wrecker's team who hasn't gone onto doing anything significant. Whirl's gotten a huge role in MTMTE, Roadbuster got to star in a short story, and Sandstorm had his major role in Punishment. Only Rack'n'Ruin hasn't gone onto do much but they're dead, and even then they had a bit of focus during Orion Pax's spotlight.
• Genius Bruiser: He's pretty competent as Mission Control.
• Mission Control: In The Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
• Old Soldier: He's been around since the events of Megatron: Origin.

Sandstorm

• Adaptational Villainy: By the time Transformers: Punishment rolls around, he's become an extrajudicial killer in the vein of Impactor in this miniseries.
• Ascended Extra: While little more than a background character here, the Punishment miniseries gives him a central role as the antagonist.
• Big Bad: Of Transformers: Punishment.
• Enemy Mine: He works with the Dinobots to stop Bludgeon in Salvation.

• Foreshadowing: The only member of the Pova unit who doesn't try to get Springer to acquit them of war crimes. John Barber ran with this in the Punishment miniseries.
• Hero Killer: Shoots and kills Slug in the opening of Salvation.
• History Repeats: Impactor's massacre of Squadron X is a major plot point of this series. Fast-forward to Punishment, and guess what Sandstorm is doing?
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Pretty much his whole MO in Punishment.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Killing Slug was a bad move, allowing Starscream to recover the corpse and hand it over to Flatline for... "experimentation".
• Opening a Can of Clones: At some point during his time in the Wreckers, he had to deal with an anti-matter clone of himself.
• Vigilante Execution: Performs a whole slew of these on war criminals in the Punishment miniseries.

Rack'n'Ruin

• Ascended Extra: Not here, but in Spotlight: Orion Pax, where we hear them speak for the first time in this continuity.
• Black Comedy: Thanks to him (them?), there's always been a spot of confusion as to whether or not the Wreckers' pre-Pova survival rate is 38% or 42%.
• Coordinated Clothes: Both olive-green and yellow, and with sensory deprivation helmets covering their faces.
• Handicapped Badass: Blew out their transformation cogs eons ago, never bothered getting them fixed.

• Identical Twin ID Tag: Rack has an anvil for a hand, Ruin has a Hammer. Ruin also has a disfigured face.
• Irony: They were horrified by the thought of combining with the other.

• Minion with an F in Evil: Used to be Decepticons, before the war really got started.
• Mysterious Past: We don't know how they ended up fused together, or... anything about them, really.
  • We do know there was a third brother, but that he died, and that Rack joined the Wreckers first.
• Soap Opera Disease: Implied to be what forced them to become conjoined, and what ultimately killed them.

Whirl/Jetstream

• Drill Sergeant Nasty: During his time at the IAA as a flight instructor, he gave Rotorstorm an endless supply of physical and emotional abuse.
• Non-Standard Character Design: We later find out why, in MTMTE.

Other Autobots

Prowl

Visit here for tropes regarding Prowl.

Ultra Magnus

Visit the The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye character sheet for tropes pertaining to him.

Fortress Maximus

Visit the character sheet for The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye for Fort Max's tropes.

Kick-Off

• Morton's Fork / Sadistic Choice: After winning 12 gladiatorial rounds, you get two choices: commit suicide, or fight Overlord — both are practically one and and the same.

Skyfall

• All There in the Manual: His story is only available in the trade paperback and hardcover version of the mini-series, in the "Bullets" short-story.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Whatever "compliments" he gave Ironfist were ultimately all pretty backhanded.
• Driven to Suicide: Rather than be subjected to the tender mercies of Fisitron's incensed fanbase and the Cybertronian legal system, he drinks a vial of the chemical weapon Gideon's Glue.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: If The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye is any indication, it wasn't as quick a death as he'd hoped.
• False Friend: To Ironfist.
• Hate Sink: One of the least noble people the Autobot ranks had to offer.

• Make It Look Like an Accident: Tampers with Ironfist's equipment so one of his Cerebro-Seeking-Bullets will kill him, so he can inherit his lab.
• Nominal Hero: The red badge Skyfall wears in no way reflects his true character.
• The Sociopath: High functioning enough to be a (semi) successful inventor, yet still prone to passive aggressive remarks and shady behavior.
• Stolen Credit Backfire: Skyfall stole credit for designing Optimus Prime's trademark ion blaster, claiming that the only reason he didn't correct Optimus was to protect Optimus's image. This leads to Skyfall being hailed as a genius weapons designer and assigned to the Kimia Facility, the key Autobot research and development facility. When Ironfist developed cold phosphex (better known as the glass gas famously used by Cliffjumper), Skyfall developed an even more potent version called black phosphex. It was so potent, in fact, that a group of Autobots field testing it were almost killed when their weapons crumbled to dust in their hands, leaving them defenseless. The debacle resulted in Skyfall being demoted to prison guard.

First Aid

Go here for his tropes.

Rung

Visit here for Rung's character tropes.

Decepticons

Overlord

Look at you. All brittle bones and ligaments and red, red ventricles, so sticky-soft and bendable... I wonder what noise you'll make when I pop your seams?

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Pleads with Springer for mercy as the Autobot sends his tank half back to the distant past.
• An Arm and a Leg: Has variously lost a hand to Perceptor, an arm to Impactor and another arm to the Lost Light's guns over in MTMTE.
• Asshole Victim: In More Than Meets The Eye, Duplicate!Overlord is decapitated by the D.J.D.
• Ax-Crazy: Doesn't even begin to describe him.
• Big Bad: Of this miniseries. He later becomes an Arc Villain in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Becomes part of a Big Bad Triumvirate with Tarn and Deathsaurus in The Dying of the Light. In Requiem of the Wreckers he appears to be part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Tarantulas, but quickly takes over as the sole threat after turning on the spider.
• Blood Knight: Possibly the pre-eminent example amongst the IDW Decepticons. And that's saying a lot.
• Body Horror: Due to the detonation of thousands of deterrence chips Springer fired into him, he's reduced to a flaming endoskeleton.
• Bread and Circuses: How he entertains himself and the Decepticons under his command, forcing both Autobot prisoners and those who fail him to battle each other to the death in his arena.
• Bullying a Dragon: Seems to think repeatedly mocking and needling Tarn over the DJD's various failings is a good idea. This is the same group that actually offed his quantum duplicate. Needless to say, Tarn doesn't take it well, and ends up offing Kaon to prove a point.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye...twice. And again in Requiem of the Wreckers.
• The Caligula: Naturally. In addition, Word of God states that his famous pout was inspired by Greco-Roman busts, meaning he may very well have taken visual cues from the actual Caligula.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's revealed during a flashback sequence in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye that he subjected Fortress Maximus to this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: This is essentially the result of Overlord vs. anyone. While in his pre-Phase Sixer days Megatron was the stronger of the two, following his being made into a super soldier he's nigh unbeatable. The closest he's come to an even fight is against Tarn and he was uninjured by anything the DJD leader threw at him.
• Dangerous Deserter: A nigh-invulnerable sociopath capable of ending life on entire planets? Hell yes. He's number one on the DJD kill list for a reason.
• Deadpan Snarker: "Amazing. You speak entirely in names."
• Defector from Decadence: Abandoned the Decepticons when he objected to being a Phase-Sixer at Megatron's personal beck and call.
• The Dreaded: Autobots and Decepticons alike are terrified of him.
• Disney Death: In his first encounter with the Lost Light. He comes back in issue 52.
• The Dragon: Kinda sorta - he's repaired by the Galactic Council after getting smashed by the Lost Light's guns due to their shared goal of getting rid of Megatron. However, it's pretty clear by the time he's on the ground he's doing whatever the hell he wants with regards to killing Megatron and doesn't actually give a damn about the Council.
• Enemy Mine: Doesn't take kindly to Tarn's desire to kill Megatron, as he wants to be the one to do it. Nevertheless, he's convinced to ally with him for the time being to kill Megatron and his allies.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sort of. When he joins the D.J.D.'s hunt for Megatron in MTMTE, he witnesses Tarn rip his subordinate Kaon's head off as punishment for being worried over his pet. Overlord's visual reaction implies this was too much even for him, before Tarn crushes Kaon's severed head against his chestplate to prove a point.
  • He elicits this from other Decepticons. Several of the Predators, especially Snare, are disturbed by his unhesitant willingness to offline his own men without any regret.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • The DJD put him on their list of Decepticon traitors to be killed after his flight, and end up brutally decapitating his quantum duplicate. Later, the real deal battles Tarn over who gets to kill Megatron.
  • In Requiem he ends up fighting with Tarantulas, although he's far and away the more Obviously Evil of the two by that point.
• Eye Scream: Impactor gouges out one of his eyes with his hook. Overlord takes it better than he has any reason to. In Requiem Impactor deliberately does it again to his other eye this time, though he notes with some irritation he was trying for the same eye as before.
• Fatal Flaw: Has two - his pathological fear of defeat and, more enduringly, his inability to let go of his obsession with Megatron.
• Fate Worse than Death: Springer defeats him in Requiem of the Wreckers by throwing his upper body through a time portal into the distant future... and his legs into the distant past.
• Faux Affably Evil: Best demonstrated with his execution of Rotorstorm. He's also this way towards other Decepticons, who he'll kill just for "wasting his time".
• Foreshadowing: There are a number of clues that Overlord is actually Megan Guglione before The Reveal. Her name is derived from Mega and Giga, Overlord's Godmaster components from Super-God Masterforce, and she even calls her supporters "the real Powermasters", Powermasters being the Western equivalent of Japan's Godmasters (of which the original Overlord was one). Megan also uses the same pose from Overlord's "please attend carefully" speech in Last Stand while addressing the crowd at the rally.
• Four-Star Badass: Formerly.
• Genius Bruiser: Despite not appearing to be one.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: An odd example. In Requiem of the Wreckers, Carnivac uses his Outlier howl ability to force Overlord to split into his separate alt-modes. Springer then uses Tarantulas' Time Maze to send Overlord's jet into the future while sending the tank into the past.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: In issue 52, where he fights Tarn.
• Hero Killer: There's a reason why he's The Dreaded.
• He's Back!: Following his Disney Death in MTMTE issue 15, he comes back in full force in issue 52.
• It's All About Me: He kills two Decepticons for 'wasting his time'. In fact, this defines everything he does.
• It Amused Me: His other driving motivation. Possibly best seen in his utter apathy towards the idea of buggering up the timeline irrevocably using Tarantulas' equipment as long as he gets to kill Megatron. A lot.
• It's Personal: Requiem makes it clear he has a particular grudge against Verity for breaking the news to him that Megatron was dead.
• The Juggernaut: A functionally indestructible super soldier who was born for the sole purpose of annihilating civilizations. He can be slowed down but he's yet to be truly stopped. Until Requiem of the Wreckers anyway...
• Kick the Dog: Too many to count. Taunting Chromedome about how he killed Rewind probably takes the prize though.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: In Remembrance Day we find out he kidnapped Trepan to be taught mnemosurgery.
• Killed Off for Real: Finally given a very permanent ending in Requiem of the Wreckers, courtesy of Springer and Carnivac - he's separated into his tank and jet halves by Carnivac's Outlier powers - which are then sent to the start and end of time by Tarantulas' time equipment.
• Knight of Cerebus: Particularly in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.
• Made of Indestructium: The Ununtruim bonded to his endoskeleton renders it virtually invulnerable. Not so much his exterior, though. Or his joints.
• Major Injury Underreaction: When Impactor puts a hook through his eye, he just pops a Slasher Smile before stomping him into the ground, and then there's his reaction to Perceptor shooting his hand off...
  Overlord: (turns) Hm?
  • Subverted when Ironfist blows his exterior plating off; though it's more because he knows he can't face down Megatron in such a compromised state than a reaction to the pain.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Was already this before Megatron had him infused with Ununtrium.
• Not Worth Killing: Ultimately decides this of Megatron. Seeing him cower, or at least pretend to cower, inside the "panic bubble" shield he took from Trailbreaker's remains, makes Overlord realize that his vendetta is pointless and he has no need to prove himself against Megatron anymore. He takes his leave and as a result, survives. Subverted in Requiem of the Wreckers, which indicates he's as obsessed with the idea of killing Megatron as ever - but Megatron throughout history, starting with the pre-war miner he was, then other Megatrons in AlternateTimelines created by his actions.
• Off with His Head!: The DJD track one version of him down and and decapitate him with an Ununtrium-bladed chainsaw. Pretend you're sorry.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: How he feels towards Megatron. He loses this feeling after seeing how far Megatron has fallen at the end of Dying of the Light, deciding that Megatron is no longer worth it. Or at least, not in his current state...
• This Is a Drill: Learned mnemosurgery, but his fingers turn into drills rather than the more common needles.
• One-Man Army: Designed to be one.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In his prime, Overlord was selected to become a Phase Sixer - a super soldier that would arrive on worlds the Decepticons had already trashed and finish the job. An incident in the paperback of LSOTW claims that it took the combined military of an entire stellar empire just to make him consider calling for support. He's lacking his weapons upon his return in More Than Meets the Eye, but he's happy to take a bare-handed approach.
  • It's stated at one point that the pulse of his spark killed two people before it was properly harvested.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Shows shades of this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Spends much of his panel time in MTMTE #52 mocking Tarn and the DJD, making fun of Tarn's lack of sophistication, their making alliances to take down Megatron and especially their having a Pet. Tarn being who he is, this isn't a good idea (even for Overlord) and after Tarn wigs out and kills Kaon to prove a point, the DJD leader gives it right back to Overlord, ripping him for having a life defined by either running away from Megatron or having a tantrum over being ignored by Megatron.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of the most famous examples in current continuity.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he realizes how broken and defeated Megatron has become after the DJD destroy his fusion cannon not realizing that it was actually an act to lure the DJD close enough for Megatron to use a secret weapon on them (and how deranged Tarn's similar obsession has made him), he declares he no longer needs to waste his life on his former leader and bails on the fight. That said, given that he's snapped right back in "Requiem", it's possible he was being influenced by the conscience-weapon Swerve was using from the Necrobot's fortress.
• Shout-Out: According to Word of God, he sounds like the John Simm's version of the Master.
• Slasher Smile: Well, he's a sadistic sociopath, what did you expect... and with sexy lips to boot.
• The Sociopath: Probably the most disturbing example in Transformers history.
• The Starscream: Intentionally defied. Kup notes Overlord didn't really have any ambition as a Decepticon beyond killing things, merely wanting to move up to genocide on a grand scale. However, Megatron (as always surrounded by a plethora of examples of this trope in the Decepticons) got paranoid it was all a facade and started to exert more and more control over Overlord to the point he finally snapped and abandoned the cause.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Narrowly averted. Following their final confrontation in the pages of More Than Meets the Eye, Overlord has given up on getting his fight with Megatron, but has not lost his obsession with the idea of the fight. So when Tarantulas calls him up and shows him the Timemaze, Overlord wants to use it solely to fight versions of Megatron throughout history, starting with the period when Megatron was still a miner and hadn't yet formed the Decepticons. As Tarantulas points out though, Megatron pre-war is effectively a "temporal cornerstone", so Overlord killing him would create a Reality-Breaking Paradox and kill them all. Overlord doesn't care though, thinking he could just hop into a variant timeline and find another Megatron after that ad infinitum. Fortunately, he's stopped from even attempting thanks to Springer and Impactor's arrival, and the former tossing his two halves to different periods in time makes sure he can never try to do so.
• Super-Soldier: Rebuilt by Megatron using the super-metal ununtrium as part of the supergroup the Warriors Elite. Later was selected to be one of the Phase-Sixers, Decepticons single-handedly capable of bringing about a planetary apocalypse.
• Tank Goodness: A villainous example, where his body can split into a tank as well as a jet. With the best example being where he transforms into a Tank to crush Tarn (who is also a tank).
• Temporal Paradox: Gives zero shits that his traveling back in time to kill Megatron before the war will cause this, much to Tarantulas' horror.
• Underestimating Badassery: Does it to Ironfist, and pays dearly for it.
• Unknown Rival: To Megatron. He became obsessed with the idea Megatron would hunt him down in retaliation for his defection (though to be fair Megatron did indicate such a thing at the time). In reality, Megatron seemed to proceed with business as usual and just had the DJD put Overlord on the list - then was near-fatally wounded on Earth with no indication he was even aware of Overlord's stint on Garrus-9, even though he'd engineered it solely to attract the Decepticon leader's attention. Neatly summed up by Verity:
  You can't accept that he never gave chase! You lived your life thinking about him every day, and he died forgetting all about you!
  • Despite all his obsession with Megatron, outside of flashbacks the two never directly interact, not even after Overlord's return in "The Dying of the Light" arc specifically to kill the now-Autobot Megatron - in stark contrast to Tarn.
• Unusual Weapon Mounting: He can kill you with his abs.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • His composure slips when Ironfist reduces him to a burning skeleton, saying that he won't be able to face Megatron in such a state. Verity then decides to let the other shoe fall, telling him that Megatron a) never cared enough to track Overlord down, and b) is kind of dead, forever robbing him of the opportunity to best him. It works.
  • Later suffers one in MTMTE when Chromedome exploits his pathological fear of losing and uses Trepan's Trigger to force a fashback of all his past defeats.
• Worth Living For: Happens in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, where finding out that Megatron is alive is all that is needed to give him back his fighting spirit. Thanks Chromedome.

Snare

Let's just say I had an epiphany. I watched too many people make choices and realized I had one of my own to make.

• The Atoner: Implied to have done some things he's not too proud about. All but confirmed in his bio, which states that he once tortured prisoners with Stalker in the Skomiloch Territories.
• Broken Faceplate: Shattered when Stalker shoots him in the head.
• The Dragon/Co-Dragons: With Stalker.

• Fangs Are Evil: Subverted. Despite the fang-esque indentations on his faceplate, he's an Anti-Villain at worst by the time the series rolls around.

• Killed Mid-Sentence: Impactor obliges his request for a Mercy Kill... before Snare has a chance to finish it.
• Mercy Kill: Horribly injured and with Overlord on the way, Snare begs Impactor to kill him. Impactor complies maybe a little too quickly.

• Sixth Ranger: He briefly joins the extraction team against Overlord and his Decepticons.
• Token Good Teammate/Token Evil Teammate: To the Predators and the extraction team, respectively.

Stalker

Now, I really think it's time that one of you died.

• Ax-Crazy: Of The Stoic variety.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Makes zero attempt to pretend what he's doing isn't wrong. Totally reveling in the pain he inflicts on others.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: His specialty.
• The Dragon/Evil Genius: To Overlord.
  • Co-Dragons: With Snare.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He doesn't take Snare's betrayal and assisting the Wreckers well at all.
• Expy: Basically a less kid-friendly version of Tarantulas.
• Et Tu, Snare?: Doesn't take his partner's defection too well.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Stabbed through the head with his own endoscopic claw.
• Faux Affably Evil: He would be a casual, joke-y kinda guy. If he wasn't a monstrous Torture Technician.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Springer kills him with his own endoscopic claw.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Through the head.
• Jerkass: Putting it lightly.
• Knight of Cerebus: His scenes are matched only by Overlord in terms of how terrifying this comic can get.
• Lack of Empathy: He has no empathy whatsoever. In fact, he enjoys all the suffering he causes.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Considering that his job when working at Grindcore was to install devices into the prisoners skulls which fatally skewered them if they tried to escape, it's fitting that Stalker meets his end by way of Springer graphically impaling his head on Stalker's own Endoscopic Claw, the same tool he used to implant said devices.
• Nonstandard Character Design: One of the only members of the Predators with a land-based altmode.
• Number Two: To Overlord.
• Psycho for Hire: Clearly pretty happy with how things are working under the big O.
• Sadist: He doesn't try to hide it either and even bluntly uses the word "sadism" at one point.
• The Sociopath: Just as bad as Overlord himself, which is saying a lot.
• The Stoic: Not that you'd be able to tell.
• Torture Technician: And he loves every moment of it.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Snare leads Kup and Guzzle to his lab, his response is to start yelling "Traitor!" over and over right before shooting him in the face. Springer does a number on Stalker's own head before he can finish the job, though.

Squadron X

• Big Bad: Macabre.
• Coup de Grâce: How they met their death, at the hands of Impactor.
• The Dragon: Tornado to Macabre.
• Face–Heel Turn: The team's first member was former Wrecker Valve, who the Wreckers refuse to acknowledge.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Wreckers.

• Klingon Promotion: How Macabre got the job.
• Mad Scientist: Ferak, who helped build the Nightmare Engine.

• Retirony: Ferak was going to retire after one more job...
• Spikes of Villainy: Macabre and Fang.
• Took a Level in Badass: A meta one. From a bunch of Redshirts from The Transformers (Marvel), to the Wreckers' arch-enemies.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Hinted at with Macabre, who appears as a cameo in MTMTE's "Shadowplay" storyline working as a thug for the Senate, the same Senate the Decepticons killed.
• Villainous Friendship: Triton and Crosscut.
• We Used to Be Friends: Ferak and Wheeljack.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Earthquake was scheduled for execution anyhow, what with having Primus Apotheosis.

Shockwave

The open graves, the torture chambers... All just hollow theatrics. This is an exercise in provocation.

Tropes regarding him in other IDW series can now be found on the Dark Cybertron Antagonists portion of the Robots in Disguise character sheet.

---

• Boxed Crook: In return for removing Overlord's Restraining Bolt, he's allowed to leave.
• Cyber Cyclops: As always.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  Overlord: Having one eye makes you see the world in unusual ways, Shockwave...
  Shockwave: Thankfully.
• Ludicrous Precision: Natch.
  Shockwave: You've had control of the last resort for eleven months, three weeks, four days, fifteen hours, fifty-five minutes and eleven seconds... and only now do you choose to reunite me with my body?
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Doesn't give a snot about Overlord's plans to attract Megatron, but cooperates with him in removing the Achilles virus so he can get off Garrus-9 to set his own plans in motion.

Skyquake

• In the Back: Overlord shoots him in the back to take over his forces.
• Killed Off for Real: Winds up the first person Overlord slaughters on G9.
• Offstage Villainy: Most of his war crimes are described in supplementary material.
• Sacrificial Lion: He's killed to show how dangerous Overlord is, regardless of faction.
• Too Dumb to Live: Badmouthing Overlord to his face while refusing to surrender command to him won't be securing Skyquake a place in future historical texts reserved for the wisest military leaders.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Didn't have a lot of screen time before he's offed by Overlord.

Borehole

• Drill Tank: Hence the name.

Sins of the Wreckers

Allies

Stakeout

A Deputy of the Tyrest Accord and Verity's closest friend in the present day.

---

• By-the-Book Cop: Not quite as Ultra Magnus, but Verity points out every now and then he's just so Ultra Magnus.
• Body Horror: Tidal Wave's T-Cog utterly mashes him.
• Dynamic Entry: One of his first scenes are of him drop-kicking a bear.
• Remember the New Guy?: When he's first introduced, Verity is already familiar with him, and the two treat each other like longtime friends. Subsequent exposition makes clear that, shortly after the events of Last Stand, Ultra Magnus asked Stakeout to look after Verity in his stead, and the two had been friends for roughly five years before Stakeout abruptly left, due to the poisoning of Aequitas making his very presence toxic to Verity, his introduction serving as the first time she'd seen him since then.

Hubcap

The Debris' station administrator, who somehow gets caught up in the Wreckers' exploits. Though he's a twiggy little thing who doesn't seem like much, there is of course More than Meets the Eye to him.

---

• Dark and Troubled Past: When he was being trained by Roadbuster, he was on the brink of death due to Roadbuster's belief in Mortilus (which was because of Tarantulas' manipulation), but it was Prowl letting Roadbuster go as a favor to Impactor that made him defect to Tarantulas' cause.
• Face Framed in Shadow: When he rushes over to Verity. If the great resemblance to Ironfist is no coincidence, it could double as Foreshadowing or a Wham Shot.
• He Knows Too Much: The reason why Prowl almost kills him. Hubcap manages to talk him out of it, but it doesn't stop Impactor from killing Hubcap himself.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Right as he was about to convince Prowl that they can change things together, and do things the right way, he's killed by Impactor.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Particularly because no one cared about him, even after his abuse at the hands of Roadbuster. The fact that even as an outlier, no one even cares or remembers him is distressing to him.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Hubcap has apparently thrown his lot in with Tarantulas. That's not to say he feels averse to popping Claw Jaw's head when he begins to be annoying...
• Revenge Before Reason: Subverted. Despite his Dark and Troubled Past under Roadbuster, he knows that Tarantulas was the one responsible for his behavior, and as such doesn't really desire revenge on Roadbuster, even willingly releasing him after his Heel Realization. Instead, he sees what happened with Roadbuster as just a symptom of the bigger issue that is Prowl, but more than anything wants Prowl to face justice, rather than just getting revenge.
• Walking Spoiler: That he's secretly working for Tarantulas.
• Verbal Tic: Um. Ha. Heh. Uh. Noticeably absent when he talks to Verity, however.

"Mayhem"

"Mesothulas"/Tarantulas

A shadowy, sadistic figure from Prowl's past.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: Make no mistake, he's still the sadistic lunatic he was in his original incarnation, but here he's been tweaked a bit. His pursuit of science while still cruel is more to the amoral ends of pushing the boundaries of what can be done rather than the immoral ends of pain for the sake of it. While his partnership with Prowl is a twisted form of affection, he does genuinely care about his creation Ostaros, similar to his comrade Rampage's affection to the Transmutate.
• Adaptational Species Change: While it was ambiguous just what he was, the Beast Wars incarnation of Tarantulas was explicitly not Cybertronian, as when he attempted to cause the Ret-Gone of the Autobots and Decepticons by destroying the Ark, he explained to Tigerhawk that he and the Tripredacus Council would remain unaffected by the timestorm, thanks to not being descendants of the Autobots nor Decepticons. Here, Mesothulas was a Cybertronian, being both a student of Shockwave's and a neutral party in the Great War, albeit one allied with Prowl.
• All Webbed Up: Seems to have the ability.
• Artificial Human: Or artificial Cybertronian in this case. It appears that he created the first example of artificial Cybertronian life, crafted without any connection to Primus, the Matrix, or a Metrotitan. He holds this out as his greatest achievement.
• Badass Bookworm: He's a surprisingly capable fighter, at various points holding off the Wreckers in "Sins" and Overlord in "Requiem".
• Big Bad: Of "Sins of the Wreckers''. Looks like he's part of the Big Bad Duumvirate with Overlord for "Requiem of the Wreckers", but Overlord turns on him pretty quickly in that story.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Turns into a giant spider. This accounts for us finding Prowl All Webbed Up.
• Composite Character: His design is a blend of Tarantulas's first form (hairy organic spider, solid colors, and less detailed chest) and his Transmetal form (the general shape, hands, and shoulders). And his original form was that of Sideways.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He never meant to abandon Ostaros/Springer. Impactor shoved him through a portal to the Noisemaze and destroyed it before he could escape. You can tell Tarantulas feels immense guilt over not being there for him when they properly reunite in Requiem.
• Death Equals Redemption: While he turned on Overlord to stop him mucking about with the timeline rather than any genuine Heel–Face Turn, he achieves this when he has a poignant dying reconciliation with Springer, lamenting he'd spent his life without his greatest creation, but at least he was leaving behind something good.
• Dying as Yourself: He shares a poignant final conversation with Springer. As he passes, Springer (who previously always referred to him as Tarantulas, having only ever known what he'd become) finally calls him Mesothulas, an indication he'd finally forgiven his creator.
• "Eureka!" Moment: At the end of "Sins of the Wreckers" Impactor tells him that he was the one who actually threw him inside the Noisemaze, leading Tarantulas to twig that as Prowl never gets his hands dirty if he can help it, Prowl never killed Ostaros as he had claimed - and when he sees Prowl's reaction to Springer, it all falls into place...
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's in love with Prowl bordering on obsession. He also genuinely loves his son, Ostaros/Springer, which proves his undoing in "Requiem" when Springer's arrival distracts him long enough for Overlord to gun him down.
• Eviler than Thou: While Prowl himself isn't exactly a fine example of moral fortitude, Tarantulas callous disregard for those their secret projects hurt/killed was too much even for him to stomach.
• For Science!: What Tarantulas approach as a researcher ultimately stems from. That, if something is scientifically possible, you do it and see how far you can test it's limits. Ultimately this results in him doing incredibly "naughty" things...
• Expendable Alternate Universe: His ultimate goal in Requiem of the Wreckers. He expands the Noisemaze into a time machine a plans to create an endless number of timelines with an infinite supply of subjects to experiment upon.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Invented the Noisemaze, and was thrown into the Noisemaze. Even though he was smart enough to install a jump gate on his person in order to escape, the Noisemaze invades his mind and makes him forget everything. It would be centuries before he could escape.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Genuinely thought Prowl would see things his way. And later thought giving Overlord the keys to all of time was a great idea...
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Admits that it was ultimately for the best that Springer grew up without knowing him.
• Killed Off for Real: Overlord kills him by shooting him in the head when he's distracted, though he lives long enough to reconcile with Springer.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He created Ostaros/Springer and considers him his son.
• Mad Scientist: Mesothulas is a brilliant scientific mind, and utterly amoral. He makes bigger and more horrifying weapons, simply because someone brought the idea up and wondered if it were possible. He's invented a number of devices like Aequitas, the Noisemaze, the spark extraction procedures, etc. Prowl describes his view of the war as a means to an end.
  Prowl: The Specimen. Do I have it right? The concept that Cybertronian Civilization and the War itself was some living macrocosmic organism. Our race was your lab animal, and you were obsessed with finding new ways to prod it until it squeaked.
• Not Good with Rejection: A more pitiful example than anything else - he can't handle that first Prowl then Overlord reject him for their own reasons throughout the series.
  Tarantulas: WHY?! Why couldn't it have been enough for you?! Why am I never enough?!
• Pet the Dog: Protects Verity from Overlord in "Requiem", as he thinks it's what Springer would want.
• That Man Is Dead: On the receiving end. When he finally reunites with Springer in "Requiem" he's genuinely delighted to see his creation - but Springer doesn't realize he's just undergone a (sort of) Heel–Face Turn and states that while he was created by Mesothulas he's here to stop Tarantulas, prompting a Villainous Breakdown from his genuinely repentant creator.
• Transplant: While other Beast Wars characters had cameoed up to that point (Rhinox most notably in RID), he was the first BW character to have this major a role in IDW's G1 fiction.
• Villain Cred: Mesothulas is a man of science, and he carries a great deal of respect for others in the field. After leaving the Noisemaze, he goes on a pilgrimage, following the foot paths of other great minds so he can understand them. He name drops Shockwave, and examines his Ore project.
• Villain Respect: Prowl's amoral callousness to the world around him is a trait Mesothulas finds genuinely charming about the bot, and he resents Prowl's attempts to deny his ruthless nature.
• Yandere: Either Prowl submits to him, renewing their partnership, and more, or he's screwed.
• Your Head Asplode: Inflicts one of the nastiest examples in TF fiction - he can size-change when in spider form, so when Roadbuster runs him over he changes size, crawls inside Roadbuster's head then changes back to full size, tearing the Autobot's head apart as his giant spider form comes out.

Carnivac

The self-proclaimed head of Mayhem, Carnivac takes the Earth form of a wolf.

---

• Affably Evil: Carnivac may be a frigid bastard, but he's surprisingly couth when explaining his aims to Springer and Impactor. When a mortally wounded Stakeout is fished out of Tidal Wave's T-Cog, Carnivac opts to sit with him out of respect for their shared past.
• Big Bad: If his statement about being the head of Mayhem is correct. However, given the way Mesothulas is being built up, this is probably not the actual case.
• Broken Pedestal: Springer comes to regard him as a complete failure as one of Ultra Magnus' former trainees by the time Reqiuem rolls around.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: But after Carnivac helps defeat Overlord, Springer includes him in the transmission of his final message before departing to pre-War Cybertron as a "bot who can make a difference" in helping to create a better future.
• Canis Major: His Earth disguise.
• Cast from Hit Points: His attack cry is enough to force Springer out of the air, but doing so weakens him badly.
• Disappointed in You: Is on the receiving end of this from Springer in Reqiuem, who tells Carnivac that he was trained by Ultra Magnus, like Verity and Stakeout, but has accomplished nothing good like they have. Carnivac doesn't take it well.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Shows up near the end of Springer's final fight with Overlord to use his howl ability to force Overlord into his dual alt-modes, which proves instrumental in putting him down for good.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Possesses a paralytic sonic cry as his outlier ability.
• Manipulative Bastard: Right alongside Impactor.
• Mind Rape: Springer describes Carnivac using his powers on him to be like this. He explicitly calls both him and Impactor out on how violated he feels by the loss of control it inflicted upon him.
• Mythology Gag: His respect for Springer is a throwback to the respect he had for the Wrecker in the G1 Marvel Comics.
• The Mole: Provided his sole earlier appearance hasn't been retconned away, he once purported to serve as a Decepticon.
• Mutant: Carnivac is an outlier, a term established in previous fiction as label for Cybertronians with special innate abilities that aren't tied to their alt-modes.
• Noble Wolf: Despite being a Decepticon and turning into a wolf, he does have a sense of honor.
• Pet the Dog: Agrees to sit with a fatally wounded Stakeout in his final hours, gently holding his hand the whole time.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of Reqiuem Carnivac is the only member of Mayhem left.
• We Have Reserves: Coldly dismisses Polar Claw's imminent death as irrelevant— the cause still lives, after all.

Claw Jaw

• An Arm and a Leg: Arcee severs his primary tentacles with her swords. Roadbuster shortly thereafter rips off several more of his secondary appendages.
• Asshole Victim: A smug, taunting little crap stain nobody weeps over.
• Butt-Monkey: Has his arms brutally ripped off, gets pressed into the ground by Roadbuster's foot during the latter's attempt at Cold-Blooded Torture and just when it seems like Clawjaw's luck has turned, with him arrogantly talking down to the Wreckers his head explodes like a popped zit.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He's the one who tries to keep Tidal Wave under control, with poor results.
• Unfriendly Fire: Hubcap may be a traitor, but he has no patience and seemingly little pleasure in the task, which the smug Claw Jaw pays dearly for.
• Your Head A-Splode: His smug nature annoys Hubcap to the point that the traitorous 'bot uses his abilities to shut off, and then invert, his neural protectors,causing the Noisemaze's effects to burst his head.

Tidal Wave

No! I'm sensitive. The more of me there is, the more feelings I have to hurt.

An oversensitive, easily angered 'bot of mammoth proportions. He's the base of operations for Mayhem on Earth.

---

• Accidental Murder: Stakeout is violently and fatally crushed by Tidal Wave's transformation sequence. Tidal Wave didn't even know he was there.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: He's a lot more hapless and silly in this version rather than the lumbering brute in Armada. In a way he's similar to his Mirage personality from Energon, but the humor is different.
• The Brute: Though much smaller than a metrotitan, he's nevertheless huge and extremely powerful. To date, only the Titans and Trypticon have been depicted as being larger than he is in robot mode; even Omega Supreme and the various Combiners aren't as big.
• Canon Immigrant: Hails from Transformers: Armada.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: When he first emerges from the water and adopts his vehicle mode, Impactor asks if he's a fish tank.
• Leeroy Jenkins: When sufficiently angered, he'll disobey orders and engage the enemy himself. It doesn't really take a whole lot to reach this threshold.
• Living Ship: He transforms into a mobile fortress.
• Paper Tiger: He looks big and menacing, but he's actually a loser who fails to accomplish anything.
• Restraining Bolt: If his accusation is in fact correct, Carnivac did something to prevent him from transforming into his robot mode. This is in fact a subversion; Stakeout was trapped inside his cog during conversion.
• Space Whale: His earth disguise, though he has at least one vehicle mode in addition to it.
• Walking Armory: His robot mode has numerous gun turrets sprouting from his chest.

Overbite

• Threatening Shark: A Hammerhead, unusually for the trope.

Polar Claw

So sick of taking this crap.

A scout disguised as a polar bear.

---

• Adaptational Villainy: While previous iterations were quite violent, it's doubtful they'd work for somebody like Tarantulas.
• Bears Are Bad News: His altmode is a polar bear.
• Butt-Monkey: His first appearance sees him dropkicked in the face by Stakeout. In his second, he's shot, beaten unconscious, dismembered and eaten by Guzzle.
• Character Death: Courtesy of Guzzle.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Being graphically split in half by Guzzle is certainly not for children.

Half the Man He Used to Be/I'm a Humanitarian: His ultimate fate at the hands of Guzzle.

Stampy

A scout disguised as an Arctic Hare. He's the one to steal Aequitas from Verity.

---

• Adaptational Villainy: Compared to his original, anime incarnation who, as far as we know, wasn't a violent radical.
• Fragile Speedster: He's tiny in hare form, but fast enough to outrace Stakeout.
• Hair-Raising Hare: His altmode.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are red as a hare.

Leobreaker

• Flat Character: Due to only appearing for one panel.
• Panthera Awesome: His Alt-Mode this time around, making his name somewhat of an artifact.
• Transplant: From Transformers: Cybertron.

---