Afterburn

2011-08-27T20:18:03Z

76.249.245.2:

{{faction|autobot|eliteguard|decepticon}}
:''Afterburn is an awesome dude working for the [[Autobot]]s from the [[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Transformers Animated]] [[continuity family]].''

[[Image:Afterburn ish1.jpg|right|250px|thumb|"What a guy!"]]
A ward of the [[Elite Guard]] and a Special Ops man, '''Afterburn''' is a highly skilled and highly confident soldier with a sleek off-road car form. A born leader, a quick thinker, a nice guy and capable of laying the smackdown with his agility and fireblasts, he's got a PhD in Being Handsome And Wonderful.

He's so handsome, in fact, that Sari, a human child, declared him [[Transformer romance|"dreamy"]]. That's somewhat creepy.

==Fiction==
===Titan Magazines===

At the Academy, he was nicknamed "Squeak-Clean Afterburn" (no, really) because he was so fantastic he is always clean and shiny. He came top in his class in Anti-Virus Diagnosis ''and'' Nano-Virus class. {{storylink|Animated Comic issue 2|Ratchet & Grimlock Are DEAD?}} He went on to join the Elite Guard and was eventually dispatched to Earth by [[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] to join [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime's]] team; Magnus intended for Afterburn to learn skills and knowledge from them, so that their successes could be replicated on other worlds.

He arrived in the middle of a battle between the Autobots and fashion disaster [[Quake-Maker]]. He saved Optimus, won Sari's heart and Bumblebee's admiration, quickly took control of the Autobots, and just as quickly worked out and exploited Quake-Maker's weakness. Because he rules. (Optimus got ignored on the sidelines and got a rock in the face.)

[[Image:Afterburn_GOOOOOMPH.JPG|left|250px|thumb|"Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back forrr—"]]

Everyone loved him and everyone in the Autobase rapidly became his best bud! {{storylink|Animated Comic issue 1|Burnout}}

He was part of a mission to [[Dinobot Island (Animated)|Dinobot Island]] when [[Snarl (Animated)|Snarl]] and [[Swoop (Animated)|Swoop]] went berserk, due to his virus knowledge. He effortlessly took control of the mission and came up with the strategy that won the day; he identified the Rage virus and how to neutralise it; and he even put up with [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] faking his death without being annoyed! What an awesome dude! (Bumblebee got made to look bad and was deliberately put down several times, and had big sad puppy-dog eyes.) {{storylink|Animated Comic issue 2|Ratchet & Grimlock Are DEAD?}}

Later, he attended a basketball game with [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]], [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] and Sari, until he picked up a police alert of major traffic chaos—leading to a battle with the villain [[Crossroads]], who had taken control of Detroit's robots! Rather kindly, Afterburn let Prowl save the day while he relaxed by providing covering fire. Afterwards, he leaned on a wall and smirked slightly while warning everyone that Decepticons were cunning and could strike at any time. What a nice guy he is to remind us of this, and it totally didn't look dodgy! {{storylink|Animated Comic issue 3|Crossroads!}}

After a failure to acquire enough information, it turned out that astonishingly, he wasn't the charmball we thought—he was actually a spy sent by [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]]! ''The cake is a lie!'' We didn't see that one coming... {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 23|Divebomb!}}

But then it turned out that not only was the cake a lie, but everything else was too—in actual fact, Afterburn was a [[Spark]]less [[Drone|drone]], built by Megatron as a prototype and sent off to be a spy. He wasn't even 'real'. Afterburn's job failed, Megatron then ''murdered him'' and taunted Bumblebee over it. Bumblebee lamented the [[death]] of a sparkless spy, while Optimus told him to get over it. They've both got points, if you think about it. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 24|Megatron's Revenge}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
* Originally, Afterburn was going to be the ''Animated'' version of [[Sideswipe (Animated)|Sideswipe]]. However, when Titan released a preview image of the character, the online response to this [[Iron Man|Iron-Man]]-crossed-with-a-duck-monster-thing was so overwhelmingly negative that the preview was soon pulled.<ref>http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/animated-8/titan-uk-transformers-animated-comic-original-character-sideswipe-in-color-165967/ Reaction to ''Animated'' "Sideswipe" thread at TFW2005.com]</ref>
* When the comic was released two weeks later, Sideswipe had ever-so-conspicuously become "Afterburn". This may be due to the fan reaction. Considering his story arc and that the cartoon couldn't even have [[Cliffjumper (Animated)|a Cliffjumper]] be ''framed'' as a baddie, it's possible Hasbro said "no".
* Afterburn's [[Autobrand]] can broadcast fake hologram messages, making the Autobots believe [[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] vouched for him.
* So if he never was on Cybertron and never studied Anti-Virus classes, how ''did'' he stop that Rage Virus...?
* He was in "Special Ops" work, so that's why no one's ever heard of him. Including [[Derrick J. Wyatt]].<ref>[https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=21975298&postID=1347621366776933520 Derrick Wyatt blog response—"I wasn't involved at all. I hadn't seen it, or even heard they were doing it until it showed up on all the fan sites in the past few days."]</ref>
* If he's "dreamy", then Sari has a ''bad'' taste in 'Bots.
* Afterburn looks similar to [[Iron Man]].

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Animated Autobots]]
[[Category:Animated Decepticons]]
[[Category:Comic-only Transformers]]
[[Category:Drones]]
[[Category:Elite Guard]]
[[Category:European-original characters]]
[[Category:Spies]]

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Afterburn