Optimus (Cybertron episode)

The name or term Megatron refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Megatron (disambiguation).

Megatron is a Decepticon in the Generation 1 continuity family.

File:Megatrong1.jpg

Megatron is (sometimes) the founder of the Decepticon uprising, and their most well-known and feared leader. As a young, charismatic combatant in the gladiatorial pits, he began to believe in a grand purpose for his race -- it is the Transformers' glorious destiny to rule. He feels great contempt for other Transformers who, he feels, betray their proud heritage by demanding peace and cooperation with weaker life forms.

Megatron will attempt almost anything to achieve his goals, but his schemes are never in any way subtle. This is perhaps due to his arrogance, but his pride is not so strong as to dissuade him from abandoning a battle he is losing. Some would question his sanity, though these few are mostly now dead by his hands.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Generation 1

(Note: Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.)

No, not fascist at all.

Four million years ago, rising from his beginnings as a gladiator for the city-state of Tarn, Megatron and the Decepticons developed the ability of transformation, using it to begin the war against the Autobots, who fought back by mimicking the technology. Megatron declared his intent to transform Cybertron into a mobile battlestation to conquer the universe, but only got as far as building massive engines deep beneath the planet's surface. Legion of the Lost!, Part 1

Megatron also vowed to possess the planet's superdatabase, the Underbase, for himself, so he followed a young Optimus Prime on his quest into the Temple of Knowledge, where he destroyed the temple's curator, Boltax. In order to keep the Underbase out of Megatron's hands, Optimus Prime destroyed the temple and launched the Underbase into space. The Flames of Boltax!

Check out my awesome preproduction model!

After the death of Sentinel Prime, Megatron's troops poised themselves around the Autobot capital city of Iacon, slowly disintegrating its defenses. Emirate Xaaron chose Optimus Prime, a warrior, to take the Council of Autobot Elders' place as leader of the Autobot forces. Optimus Prime and Megatron met in battle, and though Iacon was levelled by Decepticon forces, Megatron was defeated and forced into retreat. And There Shall Come... A Leader!

In time, the war grew so fierce that Cybertron itself was shaken from its orbit, and set adrift in the cosmos. Eventually, a hundred years after Megatron's war had begun, the planet fell into the path of an asteroid cluster in the Sol system that threatened to destroy it, and so Optimus Prime led a contingent of his troops in the Ark to reduce the asteroids to rubble, saving Cybertron. The plan was a success, but immediately afterwards, Megatron and his troops attacked, forcing Optimus Prime to crash the Ark into prehistoric Earth.

Four million years later, in 1984, the Transformers were reawakened, and Megatron immediately set about trying to locate a source of fuel for the Decepticons. Unable to ingest common Earth gasoline, the Decepticons kidnapped Sparkplug Witwicky and forced him to develop a conversion process. Megatron soon found his Decepticons and his base of operations under seige by the Autobot Gears and a strange superpowered human named Spider-Man. The pair escaped with Sparkplug, but not before he had managed to convert Earth fuel into usable energy. Prisoner of War!

After an argument with Megatron, Starscream left their headquarters and set about on a plan to position himself above Megatron in the eyes of his comrades. Ravage, sent by Megatron to spy on Starscream, was discovered overhearing Starscream's treachery, and so Starscream tried to eliminate the elusive jaguar. This enraged Megatron, who punished Starscream by having him duel the Autobot Brawn. The Enemy Within! Soon, Megatron and the full fury of the Decepticons under his command, seiged the Ark itself, but his attack was stopped short by a malfunctioning Auntie, the Ark's computer systems. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Get used to this, Megatron.

While Sparkplug was kidnapped, this had only afforded him the chance to poison their fuel, and the Decepticons were forcibly deactivated at the end of a climactic fight between the two factions. The Autobots were not saved, however, as Shockwave suddenly arrived and defeated the Autobots with a single blast. He brought the Decepticons back online to serve him - including Megatron. Chafing under his command, Megatron battled Shockwave, but was soundly defeated, forcing him into an alliance with Ratchet, who located and reactivated the Dinobots, who had defeated Shockwave in the past. However, Ratchet loosed them on Megatron, and was willing to sacrifice himself to knock Megatron off a cliff. While Ratchet survived, Megatron disappeared for some time.

Soon, however, Megatron re-emerged, trapped in pistol mode, his higher brain functions disconnected. Used as a weapon by wannabe gangster, Joey Slick, Megatron eventually restored himself, and was impressed enough with Slick for standing up to him that he allowed him to live. But at this point, Megatron was desperately low on fuel, and attacked a coal mine, attempting to locate some, when he eventually completely ran out, and froze in place. He was soon located by Soundwave, who brought him back online, and they subsequently entered into an alliance with the human Donny Finkleberg, who used the alias of "Robot Master" to con humankind into thinking the Transformers worked for him. Shockwave and Megatron entered into a period of shared leadership, but when a two-pronged attack by the Autobots saw Megatron defeated by Omega Supreme, and Shockwave allowing the Autobots to capture the secrets of Devastator, Megatron was able to spin the situation and reclaim his leadership.

SPOILERS!

A mysterious Decepticon called Galvatron, along with his henchmen Cyclonus and Scourge, entered the Decepticon camp and claimed he was the future Decepticon leader from the year 2006. Megatron found this preposterous, but though he tried to destroy the alleged imposter, he and Soundwave were buried under rubble by the powerful newcomers. Megatron was retrieved from the rubble by Ironhide, and he and the Autobots forged an uneasy alliance against Galvatron. This was still not enough, as Galvatron (who was revealed to be Megatron himself from the future) easily disposed of all of them, and was only deterred when he was tricked into believing he had travelled back in time to a past that would not become his own future. Target 2006

Megatron summoned the Predacons to Earth with the intention of having them hunt down Optimus Prime, but Shockwave used the opportunity to try and remove Megatron from the picture. After trailing Prime through a forest and bringing him to his knees, the Predacons turned on Megatron, blindsiding him, stealing his fusion cannon, and absconding. When Megatron came to, he continued hunting Prime, but when the Autobot leader attacked him, he summoned the space bridge in hopes of escaping to Cybertron, only for Prime to be transported with him. On Cybertron, Megatron established contact with local Decepticon commander Lord Straxus, whose body had been destroyed by Blaster, leaving him a head floating in a jar. Straxus soon came to consider the irrational Megatron a liability and sought to dispose of him by transplating his mind into Megatron's body, giving him mobility again while trapping Megatron in his remains. Megatron resisted the transfer, however, and the process went awry, leaving both Straxus and Megatron's minds trapped in Megatron's body together. Outwardly, Megatron seemed to become more and more unstable as the two personalities inside him battled for control; when attacked by Prime and Ultra Magnus, he even proved desperate enough to use his anti-matter manipulation powers, nearly destroying the entire Decepticon complex, until Ratbat activated the space bridge and sent him back to Earth. Straxus's consciousness fled Megatron's body, and Megatron himself was left with no memory of the whole affair.

Yes, you're very smart. Shut up.

In order to attain possession of a new energy-generating device, the hydrothermacline, Megatron battled Optimus Prime in a video game duel, using a cheat code to continue the fight after he had lost. Prime defeated him again, but at the expense of some of the game's characters, and ruled himself the loser because he would not have committed such an act in real life. Prime was destroyed, and Megatron's elation soon turned into paranoia, as he had not killed Prime with his own hands, and believed he could still be alive. Bringing the Predacons back to Earth, Shockwave had them pose as Autobots and attack Megatron in another attempt to remove his threat, but the plan failed when the deranged Megatron defeated even Predaking. Believing (correctly, as it would turn out) that Prime's mind could have been preserved on computer disk, Megatron descended into outright insanity, and boarded the space bridge, vowing to go where Prime could not follow - right before he blew it up with his fusion cannon, apparently killing himself.

buggabuggaWHA?

Megatron's absence allowed a contingency plan arranged by Lord Straxus to be put into motion. In the event that his attempt to seize Megatron's body failed, Straxus had had a clone of Megatron created, complete with a copy of his brain patterns, into which his consciousness retreated following the previous debacle. Straxus lay dormant within the clone, which was activated following Megatron's seeming demise, and sent to Earth, to the sewers beneath Londond. There, the clone - believing itself to be the genuine article - battled the Autobots, Action Force, and the mechanoid Centurion, and wound up submerged in the Thames river. Some time later, it was salvaged by Shockwave, who brainwashed it and unleashed it on Galvatron, a recreated future version of Megatron who had traveled back in time from the year 2006 and posed a threat to Shockwave's leadership. The clone Megatron, however, saw a possible partner in Galvatron, and the two teamed up to battle Autobots and Decepticons from both present and future in the apocalyptic Time Wars. Subsequently, the clone returned to Cybertron, where it defeated the ruling Decepticon Triumvirate, but was then confronted with the real Megatron - the Spacebridge explosion had deposited him in the Dead End region of Cybertron, where he had wandered, with no recollection of who he was, until he had saved a Decepticon from Autobots and regained his memories. The clone Megatron subsequently destroyed itself to prevent Straxus, buried inside its mind, from taking over.

As you can tell, the Marvel Comics weren't very good to Megatron.

While Megatron's Micromaster Air Strike Patrol created a diversion which pitted Optimus Prime's forces against Scorponok's, Megatron sent his Micromaster Sports Car Patrol capture Ratchet from the Ark, bringing him to Cybertron. Back from the Dead Threatening Ratchet with the destruction of the Ark and all of his patients aboard, Megatron forced him to recreate Starscream as a Pretender. Ratchet did so, but also restored Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee in the same manner, thwarting his scheme, and also bringing the explosives on board the Ark through a trans-time dimensional portal into Megatron's base. When Megatron then attempted to flee through the portal, Ratchet tackled him as the Decepticon's base exploded around them, apparently killing them both. Skin Deep

Soon after, however, Autobot detective Nightbeat discovered that the explosion had actually blown them through the portal, and he dispatched a probe to pull them back from the gaps between reality. However, when they rematerialised, it was revealed that the explosion had fused the two enemies together, into a hideous, twisted mockery of a being, which ran rampant through the Ark. The half that was Ratchet begged Optimus Prime to kill them, but Prime could not, and had the Micromaster, Fixit, separate their bodies. Unfortunately, Fixit could not separate their minds, as the two discovered when they were reactivated with Nucleon - sharing each other's thoughts, feeling, sensations and sights, Ratchet attempted to break the cycle by crashing the Ark on Earth.

(Note: The following four sections all split off from the Generation 1 comic, but in four different, irreconcileable directions.)

"Another Time And Place" text story

Bludgeon and his followers locate Megatron's body and revive it with Nucleon, only for him to be defeated by Optimus Prime and Grimlock.

Generation 2

Although thought dead for a year or two, Megatron had actually survived the Ark crash, and had quietly worked to repair it, concealing it beneath the ground (apparently, Ratchet died in the crash, as their shared mind does not come up in the story). Tracking a transforming signal mistakenly believing it was another Transformer, Megatron came across the shape-shifting castle of the terrorist organisation, Cobra, and entered into a bargain with its leader, Cobra Commander, offering him the technology of the Ark in exchange for the new weapons his organisation was developing. Reconstructed into a new tank body, with a powerful rail gun, Megatron defeated a squad of Autobots sent to stop him, and then turned on Cobra, capturing the scientist who had developed his gun, Doctor Biggles-Jones, and escaping in the airborne Ark.

File:G2 megatron comic.jpg

What else is there to say, really?

Following a climactic battle with Fortress Maximus, Megatron then battled and soundly defeated Bludgeon, reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons and stealing the Matrix from Optimus Prime, using it to bring his newest warriors online - only to have his faction bested by the forces of Jhiaxus and his second-generation Cybertronians. Megatron then entered into an alliance with the Autobots to both defeat Starscream, who had seized control of the Decepticon ship, the Warworld, through the power of the Matrix, and stop Jhiaxus. The tale ended with the Autobots and Decepticons uniting.

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Animated continuity

Voice Actor: Frank Welker (US), Seizō Katō (Japan)

Megatron has no nostrils.

Following a war between the Decepticons and the other robot race, the Autobots, the Decepticons were defeated by the Autobots' invention of transformation, which allowed them the advantage of stealth. The Autobot victory in the war began the Golden Age of Cybertron, but a viper lurked within this paradise, as the Decepticons too eventually developed transformation, eventually leading to the creation of Megatron. FFOD, Part 4

Gathering a small number of troops together, Megatron made a small strike on an outer city, killing the current Autobot leader. However, this event was not made public knowledge, and young robots like the naive Orion Pax still looked up to Megatron and his followers because of their new robot-mode flight powers. However, Pax soon learned the error of his ways when Megatron duped him into allowing him access to Energon warehouses, and Megatron fatally injured him in a scuffle. However, the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, reconstructed Pax into a battle hardy configuration - now, he was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and Megatron's sworn opponent as the civil war erupted again. War Dawn

Megatron and his energy flail/mace/morning star/thingamajig.

Eventually, the war drained Cybertron of most of its energy, necessitating that both factions seek out new worlds and new sources of power. Megatron and his elite forces pursued the Autobots' craft, (referred to as the The Ark in Beast Wars, following the ship's name from the G1 Marvel Comics) in their star cruiser (referred to as the Nemesis in Beast Wars) and attacked and boarded the craft, causing it to crash on a prehistoric planet, entombing all on the ship in emergency stasis as it crashed into a dormant volcano. MTMTE, Part 1

Four million years later, a volcanic eruption reactivated the Transformers and the war began again on the energy-rich world they found themselves on; Earth. After their first series of battles, the Autobots believed Megatron and the Decepticons destroyed when their new space cruiser crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but in reality they survived and reconstructed the cruiser to serve as a sub-oceanic staging base and bunker. MTMTE, Part 2

Megatron re-established contact with Cybertron, and began construction of an intergalactic transport system called a "space bridge," although the early tests nearly resulted in his destruction when he was sucked into the portal and teleported to Cybertron. The technology was eventually stabilised, however, and used in a grand scheme to transport Cybertron through space into Earth's orbit, where the natural disasters its gravity wreaked created tremendous energy that Megatron and the Decepticons gathered. Transport to Oblivion The Ultimate Doom, Part 1

The Earth was saved, however, when Megatron's stockpiles of energy were detonated by the Autobots, the explosion forcing Cybertron out of orbit. Again, however, Megatron was able to cheat death, and was forced to team up with Optimus Prime in order to stop the machinations of his treacherous lieutenant, Starscream. The Ultimate Doom, Part 3 Countdown to Extinction

In his next scheme, Megatron absorbed all the separate powers of the other Decepticons into himself, and challenged Optimus Prime to one-on-one combat. With the added abilities of all his minions, Megatron easily defeated Prime in the battle, but when his deception was revealed, he and his followers were defeated in a group attack. Heavy Metal War

Over the following years, Megatron's schemes to obtain Earth's energies continued. His assorted plans included various attempts to harness the power of Earth's core, thefts of several unstable energy devices from human scientists, the draining of energy from a time-lost prehistoric island, and partnership with a human politician that allowed him to force the Autobots off of Earth, and actually allowed him to conquer Central City among many, many others. The Core Dinobot Island, Part 1 Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1 Aerial Assualt

Eventually, however, Megatron turned his attention away from Earth, and succeeded in completely conquering Cybertron by the Earth year 2005. Learning the Autobots were preparing a strike against the planet, Megatron and the Decepticons intercepted the shuttle sent to Earth to acquire energy to power the raid, and unleashed a mighty assault on Autobot City. In the course of the conflict, word was sent to Optimus Prime, who arrived the following morning after the slaughter and confronted Megatron in another one-on-one struggle. Megatron appeared beaten, but spying a discarded pistol, stalled for time by pleading for mercy as he attempted to reach it. The young Autobot Hot Rod then intervened, tackling Megatron, but the Decepticon was too powerful for him, seizing him and using him as shield as he grabbed the pistol and opened fire on Prime. The wounds were fatal and sent Prime to the grave - but not before he delivered his own final blow to Megatron, seriously damaging him and forcing the Decepticons to flee.

On the return trip to Cybertron, it became necessary to jettison excess mass, or the Decepticons would be unable to reach the planet. The wounded Decepticons were voted out, and set adrift in space, including Megatron. But this was not to be the end for the great slag-maker, as the world-devourer, Unicron, found him and recreated him into Galvatron. The Transformers: The Movie

Generation 1 manga (Japan-only)

After the events of The Transformers: The Movie and Five Faces of Darkness, Galvatron attempted to destroy the Autobots with a legion of Megatron clones dubbed "The Megatron Military". Each clone was equipped with its own unique fusion cannon and were capable of combining the blasts into an intense attack. As a unified force, the Megatron Military crushed Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Springer, Blurr and Kup. Their victory was assured until Rodimus managed to deduce that the Megatron Military was being controlled by Galvatron. As it turned out, Galvatron was actually disguised as one of the Megatron clones. Once Rodimus defeated Galvatron, all the Megatron clones lost power and were easily vanquished.

Robot Masters (Japan-only)

Voice Actor: Jirō Saitō (Japan)

HAH! I fooled you for all of five seconds!

In the exclusive Japanese toyline, Transformers: Robot Masters, whose story began in the timeline of the G1 animated series, but branched off at some point in the twenty-year interim between seasons 2 and 3, Megatron was lost in an undisclosed accident, leaving his time-displaced Beast Wars descendant to take his place as Decepticon leader (the toyline applied the qualifying titles of "G1 Megatron" and "Beast Megatron" to the characters to distinguish them). As events progressed, it was revealed that G1 Megatron's consciousness took possession of the body of a "Convoy" (an Autobot leader) known as Reverse Convoy, leader of the planet Vehicon, via an inter-dimensional uplink to a black hole, and then used it to pose as an ally to the Autobots, only to betray them by revealing himself as the aptly-named "Rebirth Megatron."

Battlestars: Return of Convoy (Japan-only)

File:Supermeg.jpg

Super Megatron transforms into a "spaceship"

(Note: With his transformation into Galvatron, Megatron departed from the animated continuity, until five years later, in the Japanese-exclusive storyline, Battlestars: The Return of Convoy, which, although not animated itself (told instead through one chapter of manga and several story pages), continues the tale of the cartoon universe.)

In the previous Japanese-exclusive animated series, Headmasters, Galvatron had been apparently destroyed when he was buried on an iceberg. In the Return of Convoy storyline, a new evil force named Dark Nova recovered Galvatron's body, and restored him to life as Super Megatron, pitting him against Star Convoy (the reborn Optimus Prime) and his Autobots. Super Megatron didn't fare too well against his old adversary and was swiftly defeated. Dark Nova then upgraded him into Ultra Megatron who had a similar success rate.

For the final battle, Dark Nova merged with the remains of Ultra Megatron and formed the massive Star Giant. Star Giant was virtually invincible from the outside, so Star Convoy, Grandus and Sky Garry traveled inside his body and began tearing up the joint. As soon as they'd inflicted enough damage, the trio escaped just as Star Giant detonated, leaving only his head some-what intact. Fortunately for Megatron, his body was stored within the head, allowing him to survive the explosion.

Generation 2 manga (Japan-only)

He hasn't lost his nack for monologuing in his old age

After Battlestars, Megatron recovered from the Star Giant incident and returned to his original body. Appearing to have discarded his evil ways, he joined with Optimus Prime to form the Cybertron Alliance and ushered in the Second Generation of Transformers. However, after human soldiers killed one of his dearest comrades, he adopted a new body and began the war anew.

Megatron coordinated an onslaught of attacks which mortally wounded Optimus Prime (who had adopted a new missile trailer mode to counter Megatron). Megatron then delivered the fatal blow, personally, and believed his enemy dead. Killing Optimus Prime wasn't so easy, as the sparks of the previous Autobot Supreme Commanders within the Matrix of Leadership used the Reconfiguration Matrix to transform Optimus into Battle Convoy. The fight raged on for a while until Prime managed to drive the Decepticon forces to retreat into outer space.

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Kid Stuff Talking Story Books continuity

Voice actor: Earl Hammond(?)

In When Continents Collide, Megatron calls Soundwave a "blundering tape-filled idiot." This is notable because it is hilarious. Also, Megatron totally sounds like "Mumm-Ra" from Thundercats. This version of Megatron also has an odd obsession with drills, mole machines, and other burrowing devices, as he uses them frequently in his plans for energy gathering and conquest.

Marvel Books Big Looker Storybook continuity

Megatron rides in style.

In The Great Car Rally, a bunch of humans set up a race for charity. The victor would received a year's supply of oil and gasoline. Well, the Decepticons desperately wanted that bounty, so rather than just steal it, they decided to sneak into the race. Cliffjumper was one of the Autobots driving in the rally and was unaware that the scary black Cadillac was actually being driven by Megatron! Megatron dogged Cliffjumper for quite a while but ended up losing to the Minibot. Cliffjumper won the race and everybody smiled, even Optimus Prime

Frighteningly.

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Dreamwave comics continuity

Gladiators can afford extra paint applications.

Young Megatron was a gladiatorial combatant in the depths of Cybertron’s underworld. As victory upon victory mounted, he began to realize that the games were nothing more than an elaborate conspiracy by the Council of Ancients to divert the attentions of the masses from the dangerous truth of Cybertron’s history. When Megatron began to show interest in Cybertron's buried past through exploration and research, the Council of Ancients attempted to have him assassinated - a plan that only resulted in stirring up even more discontent among Cybertronians, allowing Megatron to begin recruiting for the Decepticon movement.

Megatron is so grass-roots.

First his "inner circle," then many of the gladiators, and then finally disgruntled civilians answered his call to action. The Decepticons were born. The Route of All Evil

Megatron's forces began a civil war of Autobot against Decepticon in order to mask his reactivation of the ancient planetary engines buried beneath Cybertron’s surface. As a result, Cybertron would be transformed into a massive warworld that would cut a swathe of destruction through the galaxy. This plan failed. During a conflict with Optimus Prime, Megatron's lieutenant Starscream activated the planet mechaforming process too soon, resulting in the destruction of the machinery.

Roughly 7.4 million years BCE, Megatron and Optimus Prime disappeared in an early test of the then-unstable Space Bridge matter-transport system. Spending an undisclosed time on the planet Quintessa, Megatron returned with an overwhelming army of lifeless seeker clones, quickly subjugating Cybertron. (This story was never finished due to the closure of Dreamwave, though the seekers and presumably Megatron as well were eventually defeated.)

Four million years BCE, Cybertron was threatened by a massive approaching asteroid, so Optimus Prime led a contingent of Autobots aboard the Ark to blow the rock to fragments, which were transported away by an orbital Space Bridge network. When this task was completed, Megatron chose this moment to strike, attacking the Ark with his troops. Crippled, the craft flew through one of the Space Bridge portals, and was transported to prehistoric Earth, where it crashed, entombing the occupants in stasis for four million years.

The Autobots and Decepticons were reactivated in 1984, but specific details of the battles were unrecorded until 1999, when a Autobot/Human military alliance succeeded in capturing and deactivating the Decepticons. However, the Ark II spaceship carrying them back to Cybertron exploded shortly after liftoff, and the Transformers were believed destroyed. In actuality, they had been scattered back to Earth, where they lay in stasis lock across the globe for three years. This slumber was brought to an end when Adam Rook (aka Lazarus), a rogue military scientist who had devised a method of controlling Transformers, salvaged many of the fallen Cybertronians and reprogrammed them as mass killing machines, which he then attempted to sell on the black market. Megatron was first to break free of the human's control, overriding the new programming and capturing Lazarus during an auction. Megatron forced Lazarus to watch as he unleashed a technorganic virus designed to transform all of Earth into a new Cybertron. It also served to lure Optimus Prime and the Autobots, also now reactivated, to his location. Megatron, tired of the war, continuously asked Prime to join him. After his first failed attempt, Megatron unleashed Devastator on San Francisco, ensuing in mass slaughter, in an attempt to show Prime the humans were not worth fighting for. However, the selfless sacrifice of several firemen restored Prime's faith in humanity and allowed him and the Autobots to beat back Megatron.

Several months later. Megatron was subliminally summoned to a remote area in Alaska along with the other Earthbound Transformers. There they battled until Megatron's former second-in-command, Shockwave, arrived and revealed that in their absence the war on Cybertron had ended. He arrested Megatron, Prime, and their troops as war criminals. Megatron, weakened by battle, was quickly defeated by Shockwave and loaded aboard his shuttle for return to Cybertron, only to have Starscream seize the opportunity by jettisoning him into space on the return trip. Megatron used the time floating in space to contemplate his existence and the Decepticon goal. Realizing that he had wasted millennia in his feud with Prime, Megatron resolved to once again conquer Cybertron as a means of enhancing the Transformer race and strengthening it from outside threats. It seemed as through he would not live to accomplish this goal, however, as death closed in on him... only for him to be retrieved by the Junkion Wreck-Gar. Wreck-Gar took Megatron to the planet Junkion and repaired and re-armed him, as well as digging up and reactivating a number of seeker clones that had wound up there after being dumped through space bridge portals. Megatron returned the favor by stabbing him in the back with an energy dagger.

Traveling to the Planet Beest, Megatron defeated the exiled Decepticon warlords, the Predacons, and rebuilt them into the mightiest of all combiners, Predaking, to serve as his ace in the hole in his quest to reclaim leadership of the Decepticons. Moving in stealth on Cybertron, Megatron defeated Shockwave, severing his laser arm and forcing him into servitude. He then returned to Earth to collect the remaining Decepticons under Starscream's command, and to teach Starscream a lesson long in coming.

While it was alluded that Megatron had a grand goal in mind that also included the subjugation of the Quintessons, the remainder of the story has yet to be told due to the closure of Dreamwave. However it has been stated by representatives of IDW publishing, the current holders of the Transformer comic license, that once Dreamwave has exited bankruptcy court, they intend to finish the story.

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IDW comics continuity

Megatron is established in the Infiltration arc as being extremely powerful. He emerges unscathed from the destruction by aerial bombardment of the Nebraska command bunker and takes two direct hits in the chest from Blitzwing's tank-mode cannon without breaking stride. A single shot from his arm cannon blew a massive hole clean through Skywarp, and he wrecked Blitzwing simply by grabbing his turret-cannon in one hand and swinging him into the ground. It's no great surprise that, even having sampled the power of Ore-13, the remaining Decepticons under Starscream's command chose to back down rather than face Megatron in direct combat.

Their decision turned out to be a prudent one. Starscream, almost overdosed on Ore-13, launched a one-Decepticon assault on Megatron, yet even with its (supposedly) incredible power boosting his systems, Megatron was no more than scratched. The Decepticon leader then punished Starscream with a point blank shot from his fusion cannon.

This Megatron is definitely not the Maniacal Villain of original continuity. He is disciplined; the only emotion he ever expresses is anger, and he rarely lets it out of his control. He is focused, disregarding a minor distraction like Verity Carlo in favour of gathering data on Starscream's operations and and apparently ignoring the presence of Bumblebee and Ratchet at the Nebraska bunker in his pursuit of his rebellious lieutenant. He's a military robot through and through, brooking no breaches of discipline or the chain of command in his subordinates. He has little time for grand speeches or rants; he simply orders his wayward subordinates to stand down and informs them that "There is no room for mercy. In the end, you are ALL expendable."

Finally, he has a keen mind for strategy and a willingness to prioritise threats. Although the location of the Oregon command bunker became known to the Autobots, he chose to downgrade the infiltration unit's status from Starscream's premature Phase Five to Phase Two, presumably while he assesses how Earth and Ore-13 fit into the overall Decepticon plan of conquest. Aiding this is a strong pragmatic streak; during the final stages of the Cybertronian cataclysm, Megatron was unwilling even to let Optimus Prime die, knowing that he would be needed to stop the threat of Thunderwing (though it is unclear if this Megatron possesses the nigh-pathological hatred of Optimus Prime that his predecessors did).

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Beast Wars

Voice actor: Garry Chalk (US)

The original Megatron made three appearances (four if you count the scene removed from "Nemesis") in the Beast Wars TV series. He first appeared in a flashback in "The Agenda" inscribing a message on the Golden Disk. His second apperence, also from "Agenda", was in the message itself. The third apperence, in "Master Blaster", Megatron was shown offline in the Ark as Megatron (BW) takes his spark. A fourth apperence, which showed Optimus Primal returning the Decepticon leader's spark to his body, was removed because of time constraints but was included as an easter egg in Rhino's Beast Wars Season 3 box set.

Also, in Hasbro/Kenner's original plans, Beast Wars Megatron (Basic and Ultra forms) was supposed to be Generation 1 Megatron in a new body, which is supported by the tech specs.

Toys

Generation 1

• Megatron

Japanese ID number: 16

Megatron was released in 1984 as part of the first year of the Transformers line in the United States. It transformed into a Walther P-38 pistol, as seen in the popular 1960s spy television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with attachments. It was originally released in Takara's Microman toyline as "MC13 Gun Robo - P38 U.N.C.L.E." The Japanese release, however, didn't come with the attachments.

Megatron was also redecoed (red became blue, and flat grey was used instead of chrome, one of the Microman decos for the standard P-38) in the Japanese VS-X giftset with Optimus Prime.

It was again released in the VS-X deco with Starscream in the Good-Bye Megatron set. This time, it came with his fusion cannon.

• Galvatron

See Galvatron

• Megatron (Action Master)

Megatron returned as an Action Master in 1990. This non-transformable version of Megatron came packaged with the Neutro-Fusion Tank.

• Reissues

In 2001, Megatron was reissued in Japan, and came with all of the American and Japanese accessories. A black redeco (the other standard P-38 Microman deco) was released the same year as a BotCon Japan exclusive.

Megatron was again reissued in 2002 in Takara's Transformer Collection series. This release was identical to the previous reissue, but came with the mace used in the episode "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2", a sheet of Decepticon stickers, and a Decepticon mouse pad.

• World's Smallest

World's Smallest Megatron was released in 2004, coming with only his fusion cannon. Its other attachments were planed to be released, but were scraped. A VS-X homage set was also released the same year.

Generation 2

G2 Megatron is always ready for tank combat in one of Earth's many green and purple jungles.

• Megatron

Owing to the inability of Hasbro to re-release the original Megatron toy (in keeping with the usual pattern for early G2 figures) because that toy was a pistol, Megatron was released in 1992 as a large green tank with electronic sounds and a voice chip.

• Hero Megatron

Japanese ID number: TRF-2

Megatron was released again the following year as "Hero" Megatron: a smaller, but essentially similar tank. This Megatron was purple and came with a bellows that fired an air-propelled missile.

• Megatron (Go-Bot)

Megatron was released in a third form, "Go-Bot" Megatron. This was a minor repaint of the previously released Blowout mold.

• Unreleased

In addition to these, Megatron had a few unreleased toys in the G2 line. The first was the Megatron ATB (with Starscream), a recolor of the Dreadwing mold. The Beast Wars II BB and Starscream used the same deco, but had diffrent stickers. A second toy was a recolor of the Hero mold in a grey deco with black camoflauge stripes. The third toy was the flip changer used in 1997 as Machine Wars Megatron and Megaplex (MW).

Machine Wars

• Megatron

This toy was redecoed from an unreleased Generation 2 flipchanger Megatron.

Oddly, all on-package art and pictures show Megatron as a grey jet with Megaplex as the blue jet, the opposite of the actual toys. Like most other toys in the line, the boxart was recycled from an earlier figure, in this case from the Predator Falcon.

Robot Masters

• Reverse Convoy

Japanese ID number: RM-24

Titanium

• Megatron

The Titanium Megatron toy was inspired by Dreamwave's first G.I. Joe crossover set in World War II. Since that Megatron's gun form was nonviable as a toy, a "tweaked-out" Maus tank alternate mode was designed. The backstory of the Megatron from the crossover, including references to Cobra, was retained on the package, make it the first US figure ever produced as part of a G.I. Joe / TransFormers crossover.

• War Within Megatron

A new Megatron titanium based on his War Within design was shown at Botcon 2006. Commensts from designers Don Figueroa suggest that this may be released in a 2-pack with a War Within Optimus whose joints have been corrected from the original release.

Classics

Paint me black and give me to a kid, ASAP.

• Megatron (Voyager, 2006)

This Megatron is a "fusion blaster" based loosely on the original Megatron toy and inspired by the Nerf N-Strike Maverick blaster. Its scope/arm cannon houses a working crosshairs and its trigger includes clicking action. In order to pass modern safety regulations (both the government's and Hasbro's), its blaster mode includes lots of purple and green, plus bright orange on both the tip of the "barrel" and the scope.

Although some official Hasbro photographs, including those appearing on the toy's packaging, show the gun mode's trigger and other small parts as being orange, those parts were gray in later stock photography and the final release.

In these above mentioned early promotional photographs, Megatron also had noticeably different "eyebrow" paint applications that matched those of the original Megatron toy. These were two small black triangles on a gray plastic forehead. The final release has the placement of the black reversed, with two small gray triangles and a black forehead, sometimes referred to as Megatron's "unibrow" by fans.

• Optimus Prime vs Megatron: The Ultimate Battle (Deluxe versus set, 2006)

The Megatron included in this two-pack is a tank inspired by the first Megatron toy from Generation 2. Instead of a right hand, its arm ends in a blade with "spinning dervish action." He comes packaged with Optimus Prime and a "The Ultimate Battle" DVD.

Trivia

Microman Megatron's concept art. Back then, he was a little less happy to see you.

The fusion cannon's got that handle because... well, we're not sure.

• Early in the Transformers series preproduction, Megatron's look was based not on the toy, but on concept art for an unproduced prototype version. This early version, sporting a different, black head, a very different scope/fusion cannon, and the gun's barrel on his back, managed to make its way into not only early commercial animation and licensed material, but into the art of the early Marvel Comics. Though the model was altered before the animated series was produced, elements from the first model were perpetuated such as the back-mounted barrel in both the comic and the cartoon. The Marvel Comics continued to color Megatron's helmet black (well, blue) until the end of its run.
• Bob Budiansky suggested the name "Megatron," but Hasbro initially rejected it, claiming that "mega" conjured images of nuclear bombs. Budiansky reminded them that the name was supposed to sound evil, because he's the leader of the badguys. Hasbro responded, "Oh, right," and then approved the name.

External links

• Megatron at TFU.info
• Megatron's Universe profile at NTFA.net

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