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Thrust (G1)/toys

2025-12-30T19:52:07Z

MetalMuncher11: /* War for Cybertron: Earthrise */

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[[File:G1 boxart Thrust.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb]]

As a [[Conehead]] [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]], '''Thrust''' less often receives a toy whenever [[Starscream (G1)/toys|Starscream]] does.

==Toys==
===''The Transformers''===
{{anchor|Generation 1}}
[[File:G1Thrust toy.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Thrusts in the direction of the problem.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Decepticon Plane, 1985)}}</ul>
:*''Takara ID number'': '''D-57'''
:*''Accessories'': Left & right fists, 2 missile launchers, 2 small & 2 large "air to air missiles", left & right wings, left & right tail fins, front landing gear
{{toydesigner|[[Kōjin Ōno]] (TakaraTomy, original mold)|[[Takayoshi Doi]] (TakaraTomy, new accessories)}}

: Released in the second year of the [[The Transformers (toyline)|original ''The Transformers'' toyline]] in all three major markets (US, Europe and Japan), Thrust is a [[retool]] of the original [[Starscream (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Starscream]] toy, who was originally a ''[[Diaclone]]'' "Jet Robo Acrobat-Type" F-15 Eagle. His central F-15 body is unchanged, but he has new wings with ducted VTOL fans, and new rear stabilizers. Unlike his 1985 mold-mates [[Dirge (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Dirge]] and [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Ramjet]], Thrust retains the original launchers, null-ray lasers and cluster bomb projectiles used in Starscream, [[Thundercracker (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Thundercracker]], and [[Skywarp (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Skywarp]]. Thrust's robot mode stickers are the same design as Skywarp's, but in different colors.

:In [[robot mode]] his official instructions have the user pulling down his nose cone to complete his head transformation, like Starscream. However, Thrust's television incarnation (like Ramjet and Dirge) depicts him as having his head untransformed, giving a distinctive 'conehead' shape. This has led many owners to do the same thing, differentiating the three later Decepticon jets from the three earlier ones.

: The [[Joustra]] version of Thrust, released in parts of mainland Europe in 1986, has a number of small changes from the Hasbro/Takara version, most notably a hard-plastic nosecone (ouch!) and unchromed black landing gear wheels.

::*''[http://www.transformerland.com/wiki/toy-info/transformers-g1-decepticon-jets-thrust/761/ Patent info, price guide, and further reading on Thrust at Transformerland.com]''
::*''[http://tfu.info/1985/Decepticon/Thrust/thrust.htm More information on Thrust at TFU.info]''
{{G1SeekerMold}}
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===''Collector's Edition''===
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Jetron, 2001)}}</ul>
:*''ID number:'' '''Set D'''
:*''Release date'': July ??, 2001
:*''Accessories'': Left & right fists, 2 missile launchers, 2 small & 2 large "air to air missiles", left & right wings, left & right tail fins, front landing gear

: Thrust was rereleased as part of Takara's ''[[The Transformers: Collector's Edition|Collector's Edition]]'' series. Packaged with Ramjet, he was [[exclusive]] to JafCon 10 in July 2001.
{{G1SeekerMold}}
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===''Commemorative Series''===
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Decepticon Plane, <s>2004</s>)}}</ul>
:*''Accessories'': Left & right fists, 2 missile launchers, 2 small & 2 large "air to air missiles", left & right wings, left & right tail fins, front landing gear

: Like many of the toys reissued in Japan through 2000-2001, Thrust was slated to get a reissue in Western markets as part of the ''[[The Transformers: Generation One Commemorative Series|Commemorative Series]]'' released at [[Toys"R"Us]]. While he was listed in Toys"R"Us computers in Canada and Australia, the release was ultimately canceled.
{{G1SeekerMold}}
{{canceledtoy}}
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===''Smallest Transforming Transformers''===
[[File:STFThrust toy.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Conehead without the cone.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (2003)}}</ul>
:*''ID number'': '''GTF-11'''
:*''Accessories'': Left & right fists, 2 missiles, left & right wings, left & right tail fins

: Released in the second wave of ''[[Smallest Transforming Transformers]]'', Thrust is, of course, a retool of [[Starscream (G1)/toys#Smallest Transforming Transformers|Starscream]]. Like all toys in the line, Thrust is a tiny, simplified version of the original toy, transforming into a modified F-15 fighter jet.

: These toys were sold "blind-packed" in boxes, so you could not know which one you had until you actually opened the box.

::*''[http://tfu.info/2004/Destron/SmallestThrust/thrust.htm More information on ''Smallest Transforming Transformers'' Thrust at TFU.info]''
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===''Timelines''===
[[File:Classics Thrust Toy.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Unlike his fellow coneheads, Thrust likes to wear his wings up...]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Games of Deception!''' (Multi-pack, 2007)}}</ul>
:*''Accessories'': Left & right missile launchers, 2 missiles

: ''[[Transformers Timelines (toyline)|Timelines]]'' Thrust is a [[retool]] of the ''[[Transformers: Classics|Classics]]'' [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Classics|Ramjet]] toy (itself a retool of [[Starscream (G1)/toys#Classics|''Classics'' Starscream]]), transforming into a heavily modified F-15 with VTOL wings and new tailfins. This figure holds the distinction of being the first toy to feature significant molding modifications from [[Fun Publications]]. His spring-loaded missile launchers can mount under his wings, on his upper arms, or serve as hand-held weapons. The missiles themselves are the same style as ''Classics'' Ramjet's. As with most ''Classics'' toys, he features a heat-sensitive [[rubsign]] rather than a [[tampograph]]ed [[insignia|faction symbol]].

: A factory error put the new wings' screw-holes on the ''top''; Fun Publications added a set of small decals to the head of the screws to hide them, a rare instance of such use on a modern figure.

: Thrust only available as part of the [[BotCon 2007]] box set "[[Games of Deception]]", along with [[Bug Bite (GoBots)#Timelines 2|Bug Bite]], [[Dirge (G1)/toys#Timelines|Dirge]], [[Dreadwind (G1)#Timelines|Dreadwind]], and [[Thundercracker (G1)/toys#Timelines|Thundercracker]]. There were 1500 Classics Thrust figures produced; a limited number of non-boxed sets were made available, but only to people who'd bought a boxed set.

: The Ramjet version of this mold was also used to make his fellow BotCon exclusive Dirge. The original version of this mold was used to make ''Classics'' Starscream and Skywarp, ''Timelines'' [[Thundercracker (SG)#Timelines|''Shattered Glass'' Thundercracker]], and ''[[Transformers: Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]]'' [[Acid Storm (G1)#Universe (2008)|Acid Storm]]. ''Timelines'' [[Nacelle (G1)#Toys|Nacelle]] features Thrust's wings paired with Starscream's head.

::*''[http://tfu.info/2007/Decepticon/BCThrust/thrust.htm More info on Botcon Thrust on TFU.info]''
{{ClassicsSeekerMold}}
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===''Universe'' (2008)===
[[File:Universe-AR-Thrust.JPG|upright=1.66|thumb]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-a1d1|'''Aerial Rivals''' (Multi-pack, 2008)}}</ul>
:*''Series'': Classic Series
{{toydesigner|[[Joe Kyde]] (deco artist)}}

:A [[redeco]] of the ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (toyline)|Cybertron]]'' [[Legends Class (2005)|Legends Class]] [[Starscream (Armada)/toys#LOC|Starscream]], Thrust transforms into a Cybertronic "tetrajet". His wings, which end up on his arms in robot mode, each feature a swing-out weapon; the right arm has a blade, while the left has a (non-firing) cannon. He was only available in a [[Target]]-[[exclusive]] five-pack with [[Air Raid (G1)#Universe (2008)|Air Raid]], [[Blades (G1)#LOC|Blades]], [[Skydive (G1 Aerialbot)#Universe (2008)|Skydive]], and [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Universe (2008)|Ramjet]] (who shares his mold).

:There is a touch of irony to a Cybertron Starscream mold being redecoed as Thrust, as the Voyager-Class version's original U.S. release was given a colour scheme very much like Thrust's own.

:This mold was also used to make ''Cybertron'' [[Skywarp (Armada)#Cybertron|Skywarp]] and [[Sunstorm (Universe)#Cybertron|Sunstorm]], ''Universe'' [[Ramjet (Universe)#Cybertron|Ramjet]], ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron (franchise)|War for Cybertron]]'' [[Starscream (WFC)#War for Cybertron|Starscream]], and [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon (toyline)|''Dark of the Moon'']] [[Starscream (Movie)/toys#BeeStarscream|Cybertronian Starscream]].

::*''[http://tfu.info/2008/Decepticon/TFUThrust/thrust.htm More information on Universe (2008) Thrust on TFU.info]''
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====''Titanium Series''====
{{anchor|Titanium Series|}}
[[File:Titanium-toy Thrust.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Sssssooooooo does this mean I won't be a VTOL again?]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (6-inch Cybertron Heroes, 2009)}}</ul>

: Thrust is one of many redecoes of the ''[[Titanium Series]]'' [[Thundercracker (G1)/toys#Titanium Series|Thundercracker]] mold, supposedly representing Thrust's appearance in the "[[Transformers: The War Within|The War Within]]" comic series, transforming into a slightly different "tetrajet" than the above toy. As with all 6-inch Titanium Cybertron Heroes, he is constructed mostly of fully-painted die-cast metal.

: Unlike previous ''Titanium'' toys which were subtitled by the fictional universe/continuity they came from, Thrust and the other 2009 ''Titanium'' redecoes are marketed under the [[Transformers: Universe (2008 toyline)|2008-2009 ''Universe'' line]], and do not include display stands.

:This mold was also used to make [[Starscream (G1)/toys#Titanium Series|Starscream]], [[Sunstorm (G1)#Titanium Series|Sunstorm]], and [[Skywarp (G1)/toys#Titanium Series|Skywarp]].

::*''[http://tfu.info/2009/Decepticon/TitThrust/thrust.htm More information on Titanium Series Thrust on TFU.info]''
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===''Gentei! Gentei!''===
[[File:Henkei Thrust toy.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|...unless, that is, he's on his day off.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Deluxe, 2009)}}</ul>
:*''Accessories'': Left & right missile launchers, 2 "Air-to-Air Missiles", 2 VTOL turbines

:''[[Henkei! Henkei! Transformers (toyline)|Gentei! Gentei!]]'' Thrust is a Ganbo Store [[exclusive]] retool of ''Classics'' Ramjet. Rather than a re-release of "[[Games of Deception]]" Thrust from BotCon 2007, the toy features entirely new tooling for his wings and rear stabilizers. The VTOL turbines feature free spinning rotors, and can be mounted either on the rear stabilizers or on the wings by way of a peg and socket.<ref>[http://ameblo.jp/ganbo-store/entry-10164701777.html "Interview Urgent! Transformers Thrust" at Moe - Kyon Blog]</ref> This release also uses the thinner null-ray missiles from ''Classics'' Starscream for better Generation 1 toy/[[show-accuracy|cartoon accuracy]], while, in a rare move for any TakaraTomy figure based on a pre-existing character, featuring entirely new deco patterns for his wings that are totally not "accurate" to ''anything''. Like all ''Henkei! Henkei!'' toys, he has [[Vacuum metallizing|vacuum metallized]] parts, specifically the barrels of his missile launchers and his cockpit interior.

:Be VERY careful when attaching or removing the turbines from the wings, as doing so can place a great deal of strain on the small mushroom pegs that keeps the wings attached to the body if not handled properly.

:Thrust was available for pre-order from [[November 13]]th through [[December 10]]th, 2008, and shipped in early April of 2009.
{{ClassicsSeekerMold}}
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===''Generations''===
[[File:Generations-toy Thrust.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Bought the Botcon version already, huh? Gentei too? Oh well...]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Deluxe Class, [[2010]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories'': Left & right missile launchers, 2 missiles, 2 VTOL turbines

: Released in the first wave of ''[[Transformers: Generations (toyline)|Generations]]'' Deluxe Class toys, Thrust is a redeco of the ''Gentei Gentei!'' figure (with the same VTOL turbine sculpts), but with a generally more original-toy-accurate color scheme. Interestingly, he retains the vacuum metallized cockpit seat, although his cockpit canopy is golden yellow, unlike his fellow coneheads ''Classics'' Ramjet and ''Generations'' Dirge, whose Hasbro versions featured an animation-accurate clear-colored cockpit canopy.

:Like [[Starscream (G1)/toys#HenkeiGhost|Ghost Starscream]], Thrust uses the older version of the Classics Seeker sculpt used from ''Classics'' [[Skywarp (G1)/toys#Classics (2006)|Skywarp]] to [[Acid Storm (G1)#Universe (2008)|Acid Storm]], rather than the newer version used for the majority of the ''Henkei'' figures and [[Starscream (G1)/toys#Generation 1 Series|Universe Starscream]], right down to the 2006 [[copyright]] rather than 2008 featured on ''Gentei'' Thrust.

:Similar to [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Classics|''Classics'' Ramjet]], Thrust’s instructions neglect a couple of features on his toy; the wings should be flipped upside down in robot mode to allow his arms space to move (pictured right), and the circular air intakes on his chest can swivel in or out. The latter is used to form landing gear in his vehicle mode, as it was in both Starscream and Skywarp.

::*''[http://tfu.info/2010/Decepticon/Thrust/thrust.htm More information on Generations Thrust on TFU.info]''
{{ClassicsSeekerMold}}
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===''United''===
{{anchor|elites}}
[[File:United Seekers Elites.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Seekers: Elites''' ([[December 28]], [[2012]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories:'' Left & right missile launchers, 2 missiles, 2 VTOL turbines

: ''[[Transformers United|United]]'' Thrust is a redeco of the ''[[Henkei! Henkei! Transformers (toyline)|Gentei! Gentei!]]/[[Transformers: Generations (toyline)|Generations]]'' Thrust retooling of the ''[[Transformers: Classics|Classics]]'' Deluxe Class [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Classics|Ramjet]] mold, this time more closely based on his cartoon appearance. Like his ''Gentei!''/''Generations'' releases, he comes with the thinner Starscream missiles. His missile launchers are solid dark grey except for the triggers, which are dark red. Like his ''Gentei!'' release, his Decepticon [[Insignia|faction symbols]] have been tampographed onto his otherwise-undecorated wings; additional symbols have been applied to the undersides of his horizontal stabilizers. Thrust features metallic dark red paint applications on much of his red plastic.

: He was only available in a three-pack with [[Dirge (G1)/toys#United|Dirge]] and [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#United|Ramjet]]; this set though was ''not'' part of the Japanese ''United'' line, being released only in China.
{{ClassicsSeekerMold}}
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===''Kre-O''===
[[File:KreO-Toy ThrustKreon.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Kreon Micro-Changer, 2013)}}</ul>
:*''Collection'': '''Collection 3'''
:*''Bag number'': '''***** 51'''
:*''Accessories'': Logo brick, 2 clip-on rifles
{{toydesigner|[[Ed Masiello]] (Hasbro)}}

: As part of the third wave of [[blindpacking|blindpacked]] ''[[Kre-O]]'' [[Micro-Changer]]s, Thrust is a [[Kreon]] that can be rebuilt into a jet. He is essentially a redeco of Kreon [[Dirge (G1)/toys#Kre-O|Dirge]], using almost all the same parts and construction; except that he comes with a new back-harness attachment piece to replace the flak jacket used by Dirge's assortment.

: This Micro-Changer assortment was the last one to appear at [[Target]], with later waves showing up only at [[Toys"R"Us]] or drug/discount stores.

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2013/Decepticon/Kre-OThrust/thrust.htm More information on Thrust at TFU.info]''

{{-}}{{anchor|SDCC2015}}
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-a1d1|'''Kreon Class of 1985''' (Kreon figure set, [[2015]])}}</ul>
:*''Set number'': '''B5152'''
:*''Voted'': Class Loudmouth
:*''Accessories'': 2 clip-on rifles

: [[Kreon Class of '85]] Thrust's deco is much more heavily toy-based and extensively detailed. Oddly, he uses a black nosecose-helmet instead of the burgundy you'd think he'd have. Like the rest of the set, he uses the almost-totally-[[retool]]ed 2015 style of Kreon body (making most parts incompatible with older Kreons).

:This box set of thirty Kreons was a [[San Diego Comic-Con]] 2015 [[exclusive]], with leftovers being sold on [[Hasbro Toy Shop]] online after the show.

{{-}}{{anchor|2015Kreon}}
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Kreon Micro-Changer, [[2017]])}}</ul>
:*''Collection'': '''Collection 3'''
:*''Accessories'': Logo plate, 2 clip-on rifles

:In 2017, the Collection 3 Micro-Changers were re-released in a whole new production run, first appearing at [[Walgreens]] stores in the US. These releases use the almost-entirely-[[retool]]ed 2015 Kreon, with slightly-differently-hued plastics than the originals. Thrust's [[tampograph]]s are slightly altered, changing the flat light gray to metallic silver.

:Sadly, this release has no individual-identification code on the bag, requiring you to use the feel-through-the-bag method or just buy blind and hope.
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===''Platinum Edition''===
{{anchor|SeekerSquadron}}
[[File:TF-Platinum-Edition-Seeker-Squadron.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Seeker Squadron''' (Multi-pack, [[2015]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories'': Left & right fists, 2 missile launchers, 2 small & 2 large "air to air missiles", left & right wings, left & right tail fins, front landing gear

: ''[[Transformers: Platinum Edition|Platinum Edition]]'' Thrust is a reissue of the original Thrust toy in a three-pack with [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Platinum Edition|Ramjet]] and [[Dirge (G1)/toys#Platinum Edition|Dirge]]. All three toys appear to be identical their previous releases.

:In the United States, this set was officially a [[Target]] exclusive, though only ever found at a single Target store, otherwise only available via the company's website. However, it was also stocked by US-based online retailers [[BigBadToyStore]] and TFSource, who supposedly obtained it as an import from Asia. It was available in several of Hasbro's Asian markets (namely Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines; it's currently unknown whether it was exclusive to any particular stores there or not). In Australia, it was sold at Myer stores, whereas in Canada, it was available via the Canadian [[Walmart]] website (but never found in stores).

:In the United Kingdom, it was sold at [[Toys"R"Us]] stores and A1 Toys, whereas in Spain, was officially available via the Spanish division of [[Amazon (website)|Amazon]]. In Germany, it was originally available via Bankroft, an online retailer that otherwise specializes in [[Nerf]] blasters and accessories, as part of a special "Fan Edition" arrangement through Hasbro Germany, with the help of several German [[fandom|fan]] sites. Due to low sales, the unsold stock was later sold to Actionfiguren24, a German online retailer that specializes in imported toys, who was able to lower its price for its existing stock of imported Seeker Squadron sets as a result.
{{G1SeekerMold}}
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===''Masterpiece''===
[[File:TF-Masterpiece-MP-11NT-Thrust.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb| Better, louder, definitely flashier.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' ([[2016]])}}</ul>
:*''ID Number'': '''MP-11NT'''
:*''Release date'': [[October 29]], 2016
:*''Accessories'': 2 "null rays", 2 rockets, clear hologram pilot figurine

:''[[The Transformers: Masterpiece|Masterpiece]]'' Thrust is a redeco/retool of [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Masterpiece|Ramjet]], who is also a retool of [[Starscream (G1)/toys#MP11|''Masterpiece'' MP-11 Starscream]], and features new VTOL wings and new tailfin pieces. Unlike Dirge and Ramjet, Thrust has no wing pieces attached to his back (where the original Starscream mold's wings would be), the two flaps are bare. His null rays are the same shape as Starscream's, however they fold in two during the transformation and are hidden under the plane body. Instead of them, two separate rocket pieces can be attached to the underside of his wings. ''Masterpiece'' Thrust was available for pre-order at TakaraTomy Mall from [[June 11]]th till [[June 27]]th, 2016, and shipped in late October.

:Unfortunately, many specimens have loose waist joints.
{{MP11SeekerMold}}
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===''War for Cybertron: Earthrise''===
[[File:TF-WFC-E-Thrust.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|People who already got the other 5 have a Thrust thirst.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Thrust''' (Voyager Class, [[2020]]/[[2025]])}}</ul>
:*''Hasbro ID number'': '''WFC-E26'''
:*''TakaraTomy ID number'': '''ER EX-24'''
:*''TakaraTomy release date'': [[April 24]], [[2021]]
:*''Accessories'': 2 "[[null-ray]]s"
{{toydesigner|[[Hirofumi Ichikawa]] (detailing)}}

: As part of the ''[[War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Earthrise]]: Cybertronian Villains'' subline, Thrust is a retooling of [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Ramjet]] (who in turn is a heavy retooling of [[Starscream (G1)/toys#War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Starscream]]) from the same line, transforming into a modified F-15 fighter jet with VTOL turbofan wings like his original toy. As one of the Coneheads, Thrust features a headsculpt based on the original conehead design, though it is a faux piece not formed from the actual nosecone, and can also facilitate the [[C.O.M.B.A.T. System]]. Interestingly, Thrust lacks the black color on the actual nosecone that the other Coneheads have. While the null-rays can be wielded by his pair of hands, it's almost impossible for him to properly hold them due to the size of his forearms.

: Like all other uses of the mold, Thrust has a missing molded panel-line detail on the right wing hinge that is supposed to curve in towards the body of the jet. The reason for this missing detail is likely due to it being missing from the metal mold itself. Likely because Thrust's wings placement is similar to Starscream's (conventional wings) rather than other coneheads (delta/canard wings), his wings are parts of his upper body in robot mode rather than parts of his legs like his cartoon model. If one chooses, Thrust's wings can be faced upwards in robot mode to recreate the look of his [[#Timelines|"Games of Deception!" figure]], or to homage ''Timelines'' [[Nacelle (G1)#Toys|Nacelle]], though in this configuration they cannot hinge back to facilitate backward arm movement.

: His head is susceptible to paint chipping due to the transformation scheme. Similarly, due to the figure's lack of landing gear, the jet mode must lay on Thrust's painted knees and chest if not on a [[flight stand]], so exercise caution when moving the jet mode across a surface to avoid paint chipping.

: Due to his status in the ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (cartoon)|War for Cybertron Trilogy]]'' cartoon, the cardboard backdrop features a [[Mercenary]] symbol instead of Decepticon. Also on that backdrop, like all ''Earthrise'' toys, is an exclusive clip-and-save piece of a larger star map, with a thin red piece of transparent plastic to read the star map. Thrust's piece of the map contains the labeled location of "[[Nexus Zero|'''NEXUS ZERO''']]", but unfortunately continues wave 2's trend of misprinting with the "decodable" red graphics from the map piece included with ''Earthrise'' Starscream on top of the details unique to Thrust's piece. Much like the other ''Earthrise'' Seekers (except for Starscream), Thrust is marked as part of "TEAM: SEEKER ELITE".

:Thrust spent a while not being fully unveiled, with the product copy for the July 2020 [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Ramjet]] and [[Dirge (G1)/toys#War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Dirge]] set mentioning "WFC-E26 Thrust sold separately".<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Toys-Generations-War-for-Cybertron-Earthrise-Voyager-WFC-E27-Seeker-Elite-2-Pack/dp/B083VMBWCK/ Amazon.com listing for ''Earthrise'' Ramjet and Dirge]</ref> Thrust's jet mode is also shown in the box art of that set, and he makes an even more prominent appearance on ''Earthrise'' [[Sky Lynx (G1)#War for Cybertron: Earthrise|Sky Lynx]]'s box art. The toy finally got an official reveal on [[Hasbro Pulse]] on the [[October 16]]th [[Hasbro Pulse#Fan First Friday|Fan First Friday]].

:Thrust was exclusively available at [[Target]] in the US and at [[TakaraTomy Mall]] in Japan, though he was available at general retail in Hasbro's Asian markets such as Taiwan and Singapore. Despite being marked as WFC-E26 (out of 41), he was the last numbered ''Earthrise'' toy to be released. Thrust was reissued through Target and Hasbro Pulse at the end of 2025.
{{WFCEarthriseStarscreamMold}}
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===''Legacy''===
[[File:TF-Legacy-Nemesis-Thrust-figure.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Decepticon Nemesis''' (Titan Class, [[2023]])}}</ul>
{{toydesigner|[[Sam Smith]] (Hasbro), [[Hisashi Yuki]] (TakaraTomy)|[[Emiliano Santalucia]] (concept artist)<ref>[[April 4]], [[2023]]'s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qv8dh66d48 Hasbro Pulse Transformers Fanstream] on YouTube, with [[Ben MacCrae]], [[Evan Brooks]], [[Mark Maher]], [[Sam Smith]], [[Shogo Hasui]], and [[Delaney Norris]]</ref><ref>Sam Smith's [https://www.instagram.com/p/CrzuqU8MUtc/ Instagram] [https://www.instagram.com/p/Crzu54Qs1Tk/ posts] [https://www.instagram.com/p/CrzvOrbMY2X/ about] ''Legacy'' Decepticon Nemesis</ref>}}

: A tiny [[slug figure]] of Thrust in jet mode was included with Titan Class [[Nemesis (G1)#Legacy 2|Nemesis]].

:* ''Designer commentary on ''Legacy'' Nemesis from Sam Smith on Instagram:''
:** ''[https://www.instagram.com/p/CrzuqU8MUtc/ Part I]''
:** ''[https://www.instagram.com/p/Crzu54Qs1Tk/ Part II - Robot Mode]''
:** ''[https://www.instagram.com/p/CrzvOrbMY2X/ Part III - Ship Mode]''
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==Merchandise==
===''Super Collection Figure''===
[[File:SCF Thrust.jpg|thumb|300px|Thrust, put on some got-dang pants.]]
*'''Thrust''' (2002)
**''Act'': '''6'''
**''Accessories'': Stand

: A [[retool]]ing of the ''[[Heroes of Cybertron|Super Collection Figure]]'' [[Starscream (G1)/merchandise#Super Collection Figure|Starscream]] figure, Thrust was released in the sixth "act" of the line. No he's not super cartoon-accurate, shape-wise. He was available in both full-color and pewter versions, one of each in a case of twelve.

: The pewter version of the figure has a potential problem with connector peg breakage, due to said pegs often getting a layer of pewter paint before being forced into a socket, leading to sticking and tearing. Care should be used when moving or removing the arms; shaving down the socket interior with a thin hobby knife is usually sufficient to fix the issue.

: In eight out of every ten cases, the pewter version of Thrust was packed with the left arm of the Act's "build-a-figure" [[Grand Maximus#Super Collection Figure|Grand Maximus]]. This part too could be in either full color or pewter, packed at a ratio of six color pieces to two pewters.

: This Act was seemingly in shorter supply than the others before and since, and is not terribly common on the secondary market.

: This mold was also used to make his Act-mates [[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Super Collection Figure|Ramjet]] and [[Dirge (G1)/toys#Super Collection Figure|Dirge]]. The original tooling was also used to make [[Thundercracker (G1)/toys#Super Collection Figure|Thundercracker]], [[Skywarp (G1)/toys#Super Collection Figure|Skywarp]], and the ''Heroes of Cybertron'' special releases [[Sunstorm (G1)#Heroes of Cybertron|Sunstorm]] and [[Air Warrior#Heroes of Cybertron|Air Warrior]].
{{-}}

===''MyClone''===
*'''Thrust''' (2003)
**''ID number:'' '''MTF017'''
{{toydesigner|[[Kazutami Abiko]] (TakaraTomy)}}

:''[[MyClone]]'' Ramjet was released in the fifth series of the ''MyClone'' trading figure line, which was third and final series to feature ''Transformers'' characters. Following the ''MyClone'' aesthetic, he is a cutesy representation of Thrust's animation model in super-deformed proportions. He features articulation in his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips and knees, all of the parts capable of being removed, then mixed and matched with any other ''MyClone'' figure.
{{-}}

===''Robot Heroes''===
[[File:Robotheroesblasterthrust.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Not a Hunter-Seeker Skyship.]]
*'''Autobot Blaster & Thrust''' (Two-pack, 2008)
{{toydesigner|[[Bill Rawley]] (Hasbro)|[[Marcelo Matere]] (concept artist)}}

:Part of the fourth wave of ''[[Transformers: Universe (2008 toyline)|Universe]] [[Robot Heroes (toyline)|Robot Heroes]]'', "Generation 1 Series" Thrust comes packaged with [[Blaster (G1)/toys#Robot Heroes|Blaster]]. Jets of air fly forcefully from his tuckus. He has the standard shoulders-and-neck articulation.

:Interestingly, his wings are based on the [[#Timelines|BotCon 2007 version of the toy]], featuring the twin raised screw-holes between the wing-base and VTOL fans.

::*''[http://tfu.info/2008/Decepticon/RHThrust/thrust.htm More information on ''Robot Heroes'' Thrust at TFU.info]''
{{-}}

===Transformers - Mini Bust===
[[File:Thrust statue.jpg|thumb|A statue named Thrust, how ironic.]]
*'''Thrust''' (Diamond Select, 2008)

:Thrust was released by [[Diamond Select Toys]] in 2008 and exclusive to online retailer Big Bad Toy Store. He was sculpted by [[Mark Wong]] of [[Art Asylum]] and limited to 250 pieces. The sculpt features Thrust's distinctive wings and he has the proper null rays, different from Dirge and Ramjet's.
{{-}}

===''The Loyal Subjects''===
*'''Thrust''' (2014)
{{charstubtoys}}
{{anchor|The Loyal Subjects Ghost}}
*'''Ghost Seekers''' (2014)
{{charstubtoys}}
{{-}}

===''Transformers Trading Card Game''===
[[File:W2Thrust.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66]]
*'''Thrust, Supersonic Interceptor''' (2019)
**'''Wave 2: Rise of the Combiners'''
**''Rarity: '''''UT'''
**''Card Number: '''''T43/T46'''
**''Stars: ''9

:Thrust, Supersonic Interceptor is one of forty character cards released in Wave 2 of the [[Transformers Trading Card Game]], Rise of the Combiners.

:The artwork for the card is reused from the [[Transformers Legends (mobile game)|Transformers Legends]] mobile game, and is based on the ''[[Transformers: Generations (toyline)|Transformers: Generations]]'' Thrust figure.
{{-}}

===Eaglemoss===
* '''Transformers Gen-1 Chess Set''' (<s>2021</s>)
:In the planned [[Chess#Eaglemoss|Transformers Chess Set]] by [[Eaglemoss]], a relatively large and very well detailed statue of Thrust was slated to be one of the Pawn pieces on the Decepticon side.

:A Kickstarter campaign to raise the necessary funds for this project was launched, but failed to meet its goal by September 24, 2021 and the whole thing was canceled.
{{canceledtoy}}
{{-}}

===Auldey===
{{toystub}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
[[File:Ehobbygobotscatalog.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb]]
* A 1980s Japanese catalog picture shows the then-new second year Seeker jet wings in different colors attached to unaltered first year Seeker bodies. In Thrust's case, the preliminary toy uses [[Thundercracker (G1)/toys|Thundercracker]]'s main body parts. [[Fun Publications]] would later turn this design into the separate character [[Nacelle (G1)|Nacelle]].
* Hasbro designed a "pretooled" alternate head on the ''[[Combiner Wars (toyline)|Combiner Wars]]'' Deluxe Class [[Air Raid (G1)#Generations|Air Raid]] body tooling styled on the 1985 Coneheads, but ultimately, only TakaraTomy used this head to make ''[[Transformers Unite Warriors|Unite Warriors]]'' [[Thrust (Armada)#Unite Warriors|Curse Armada Thrust]].<ref>[https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/127888-tfss-50-live-update-now-open-to-formers-members-2012-and-on/?p=3441554 Post by Powered Convoy on The Allspark Forums, 13 February 2017]</ref>
{{--}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:BotCon exclusives]]
[[Category:Classics Decepticons]]
[[Category:Generations]]
[[Category:Generation 1 toy Decepticons]]
[[Category:Henkei! Henkei! Decepticons]]
[[Category:Kre-O Decepticons]]
[[Category:Kreons]]
[[Category:Masterpiece]]
[[Category:MyClone]]
[[Category:Platinum Edition]]
[[Category:Robot Heroes]]
[[Category:SDCC exclusives]]
[[Category:TakaraTomy Mall exclusives]]
[[Category:Target exclusives]]
[[Category:Timelines characters]]
[[Category:United Decepticons]]
[[Category:Universe (2008)]]
[[Category:War for Cybertron: Earthrise Decepticons]]

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:15:13Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’m new-ish to the wiki, and I’ve since reviewed the rules over such matters. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and I deeply apologize for the issue. It will not happen again. -- [[User:MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11]]
([[User talk: MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:12:49Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer. -- [[User:MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11]]
([[User talk: MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:11:06Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer. -- [[User:MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11]]
([[User:MetalMuncher11|MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:09:21Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User:MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:08:51Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User talk:MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:07:30Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)
([[User talk:MetalMuncher11|talk]])

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:07:11Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 19:06, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:05:06Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User:MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:03, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:04:27Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User talk:MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:03, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:04:06Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
([[User talk: MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:03, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:03:41Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{welcome}}
{{captionhappy}}
Seriously, please stop changing captions. If you keep this up, you'll be blocked from editing. -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] ([[User talk:Cyberlink420|talk]]) 14:54, 6 December 2025 (EST)

Thank you, I’ve since reviewed the rules over editing and such. I will start genuinely contributing to the wiki, and hopefully, this will be an issue no longer.
(User talk: MetalMuncher11|talk]]) 19:03, 6 December 2025 (CST)

User talk:MetalMuncher11

2025-12-07T01:02:15Z

MetalMuncher11:

Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

2025-12-06T19:42:35Z

MetalMuncher11: /* Notes */

{{factions|{{factions/icons|custom=Megatron Origin Symbol.png|cSize=35x35px|cLink=Gladiatorial combat}}|decepticon|autobot}}
{{featured}}
{{suite}}
 
[[File:IDWMegatron.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron A, Megatron B, Megatron Retailer's Incentive, Megatron Dynamic Forces Exclusive variant, and Megatron (Second Printing).]]
'''Megatron''' waged a battle to destroy the evil forces of the [[Senate]]! Then he ''continued'' to wage a war against the not-so-evil forces of freedom, organic life, and the very idea of an Autobot living. After [[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|some life-changing events]], he waged a war against the evil forces of his own past [[Decepticon Justice Division|legacy]]. Currently, however, Megatron's revolution has come full circle, waging a war against the evil forces of the [[Functionist Council]]!

Megatron is a master planner, constantly a step ahead of any opponent and even ahead of what he wants ''now'', preparing for anything he may want in the future. He has the physical might to overpower most foes but it's his mind that has one-upped three Primes and rival Decepticons. But his cold clinical nature is a front he has to struggle to keep up, as he's quick to anger and quicker to use excessive violence as his answer to any problem. Megatron's trying to change but he's spent such a long time revelling in violence, it may have been a lost cause from the start.

:*''First Appearance:'' [[Infiltration issue 4|''Transformers: Infiltration'' #4]]

{{quote|So long as you stand in my way—so long as '''anyone''' stands in my way, I will respond by killing. Murder on an '''industrial''' scale. Because in the final analysis, I would happily wade across a river of corpses, chest-deep in rust and grease and engine oil, just to crush the spark of the last Autobot standing. And I would not do so simply as a means to an end. No. I'd do it, Prime, because it would give me '''pleasure'''.|Megatron to Optimus Prime|"[[Chaos Theory Part 1]]"}}

{{quote|I once told Optimus that I killed for the sake of killing. I wanted to make him hurt me, you see, because when he hurts others, he hurts himself. And the thing is, when those words were in my head I didn't think I meant them; but when they left my mouth, I realized that I '''did'''. If the world thinks you're a monster, what does it matter? The world is '''wrong'''. But when you start to think of '''yourself''' as a monster...|Megatron on the previous quote|"[[slaughterhouse]]"}}

__TOC__
==Fiction==
===Birth of a tyrant===
[[File:Mtmte17-point one percenter spark.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Not so tough without a body, are ya?]]
'''Megatron of [[Tarn (polity)|Tarn]]''' was the first "hybrid" Transformer, a powerful forged superspark in a constructed cold body. His [[spark]] came to life in the middle of a field full of newborn sparks, a so-called "[[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]", on [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]], the "Seething Moon". The hot spot remained dormant for ages until it was finally fertilized when [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rodimus]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] set foot on the ground in the year [[2013]]. Within an instant, the entire moon lit up, as a billion sparks suddenly flared to life all over its surface. [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] was the first to point out that one of the sparks was glowing green, which [[Brainstorm (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Brainstorm]] recognized as a "superspark"—a vanishingly rare, insanely powerful [[Point One Percenter]]. Despite [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor's]] horrified protestations, Brainstorm immediately began to excavate and harvest the spark, {{storylink|Remain in Light 1 of 5: The Fecund Moon|The Fecund Moon}} taking it with him for future use. {{storylink|Remain in Light 5 of 5: This Calamitous Life|This Calamitous Life}}

[[File:MTMTE37 megatron under construction.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.0|Megatron (Work in progress)]]
Megatron's original body, on the other hand, was one of many [[reproduction|constructed cold]] during the [[Silver Harvest]], specifically built in the 1st Cycle 012, during the era of [[functionism]], in [[Con Facility 113]]. The spark originally intended for this body was one generated from the [[Matrix of Leadership]] by [[Solomus|Tyrest]], but this spark was destroyed by [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had travelled back in time alongside several other [[Autobot]]s, originally to ''prevent'' a time-travelling Brainstorm from killing Megatron and thereby unwittingly creating a [[Functionist Universe|dystopian alternate timeline]] in which the [[Functionist Council]] would rule [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. In the process, Brainstorm had also begun to erase data about Megatron, including his batch code. After Rewind had "killed" Megatron in order to prevent the destruction he knew the latter would come to wreak upon the universe, fellow time-travelling Autobot [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], who loathed the Functionists, took it upon himself to fix the timeline, taking advantage of a temporary distraction by nabbing the harvested Point One Percenter spark Brainstorm had taken back in time with him and placing it inside Megatron's now sparkless body—and thus Megatron was ''truly'' born. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

Megatron desired to be a medic, {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} but the doctrine of functionism was such that one's [[alternate mode]] denoted one's role in society, and one's role determined one's rights. With the true nature of his exceptionally rare spark evidently unknown, Megatron was assigned the task for which his body had been built: that of [[energon]] miner, a member of the lower class, toiling in a mine under [[Nova Point]]. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron symbol creation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|... And thus the "Silica Fracturism" art movement was born.]]
An idealist, intellectual, and poet, Megatron was sickened by the caste-ridden social apartheid of [[Nominus Prime]]'s Cybertron, and so he wrote [[After the Ark: Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress|a treatise]] on how pacifist dissent and the exchange of ideas could change things. It was while he was sharing this work with his miner friend [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] over a drink in [[Maccadam's Old Oil House|Maccadam's New Oil House]] that the event occurred which would change the course of his life, as Impactor wound up being drawn into a bar brawl with some of the city's upper classes (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Rung and a [[curly straw]]), and Megatron, who himself had actually ''not'' been involved in the brawl, instead cowering underneath a table, was among those arrested after the fracas. Megatron's writings had been growing in popularity and inspiring some dissent against the current regime, so in order to silence him, the [[Senate]] arranged for a police officer on their payroll, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], to kill him. Before Whirl could finish the job, however, police captain [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]], having discovered Megatron's innocence thanks to the bartender's testimony, arranged for his release. Despite Pax expressing support for the message of his writings, Megatron now found himself filled with rage and hate, disillusioned with his former ideology and realizing the power of applied violence. Angrily hurling the datapad on which he had written his treatise through a public info-screen, Megatron observed the jagged shape of the shattered glass, and later turned it into a [[insignia|symbol]] for his cause. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}}

[[File:MTMTE34 what you might call a thinker.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|When considering the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, one question remains unanswered. Why am I always pictured with phallic-shaped items in awkward positions?]]
Megatron's samizdat writings began to circulate in Cybertron's underground, spawning the "[[Decepticon]]" movement, its name derived from its own slogan, "You are being deceived", warning the common 'bot of the Senate's true nature. Knowing that, at this stage, assassinating Megatron would merely make him a martyr, the Senate instead elected to relocate him off-planet, reassigning him to a mining facility on the world of [[Messatine]] while they tried their own schemes to defuse the growing Decepticon movement. {{storylink|Shadowplay, Part 1: Post Hoc|Post Hoc}} It was there that Megatron met [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]], an elderly fellow miner who encouraged him to keep writing, and who, in addition to proofreading his works for him, smuggled each new tract back to Cybertron, helping to continue the spread of the Decepticon movement. When Terminus was maimed in a mining accident and had his fuel rations cut off, Megatron kept him alive by sharing his own [[energon]] with the old 'bot. Eventually, Senate agents [[Froid]] and [[Trepan]] were dispatched to Messatine to perform mind-altering [[Shadowplay]] upon Megatron, in order to cut his writings off at the source. Tased into submission and strapped to Trepan's operating table, Megatron was helpless to stop the [[mnemosurgery|mnemosurgeon]] from beginning his vile work. Though the arrival of Froid's rival psychopathologist [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] fortunately forced Trepan to stop before Megatron's personality was altered, the experience left the miner with a lifelong fear of mnemosurgery. Subsequently, a mysterious surge of energy deep within the mine (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Brainstorm) forced an evacuation of the facility; Megatron raced back to his quarters to carry Terminus to safety, but found his friend was not there. With time running out and no sign of Terminus anywhere, Megatron instead chose to save the stack of datapads containing his unpublished works—a decision that would haunt him. {{storylink|Births, Deaths, and Interventions}}

[[File:MegatronOrigin1 first kill.jpg|thumb|upright=1.38|"You know, sometimes I think I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now its all gone. And I'll never get it back in me. It's too late."]]
Megatron was relocated to [[Mining Outpost C-12]], and continued to seethe with hate and frustration in his new workplace. His discontent reached a peak when, some time later, [[Decimus|Senator Decimus]] arrived to announce that the mine was being automated and the workers would be relocated. When one of the Senator's guards killed a worker for insubordination and claims of Senate corruption, Megatron's fury boiled over and he hurled his pickaxe at Decimus. In turn, he was attacked by the Senator's guard, whom he killed by smashing his head to fragments—the first time he had ever taken a life. A riot erupted around him, but Megatron himself could only sit amongst the chaos, staring at his fuel-stained hands in abject horror, which allowed him to be easily pacified and rounded up with the other miners as the mayhem was quickly suppressed. En route to [[Penal Facility H-3|imprisonment]] back on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], however, [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] broke free and started a riot aboard [[Longshot (G1)|their ship]]. Megatron joined in their effort, and together, they overpowered their guards, took control of the ship, and disappeared into the [[Kaon (polity)|Kaon]] underground. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 1|Megatron Origin #1}}

[[File:MegsOrigin2 Cykill.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Battle of the Awesome Voices!]]
After evading law enforcement, Megatron joined a team of underworld gladiators under the tutelage of [[Clench (G1)|Clench]]. Initially repulsed by killing his opponents, the games eventually turned him more brutal and excessive, and he took control of the entire operation from Clench. The opportunistic Senator [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]], after seeing how much money there was in the underworld matches, covertly sent his agent [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] to offer Megatron weaponry and technology to upgrade himself and his comrades. Their meeting was spied upon by [[Bumper (G1)|Bumper]] and [[Fastback (G1)|Fastback]], agents from the Senate's forces, who Megatron slew. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 2|Megatron Origin #2}} Subsequently, impressed by how he treated his animal-form [[Decepticon Mini-Cassette|cassette partners]] as equals (in contradiction to the teachings of his Senate masters), Megatron invited Soundwave back to the gladiator pits and gave him permission to use his mind-reading abilities on him. Within Megatron's mind, Soundwave saw his honest desire for all Cybertronians to be true equals, and was so moved by it that he joined Megatron's cause. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}}

Gradually, Megatron used the gladiatorial games to drum up an army of violent malcontents, sending Soundwave to recruit more and more warriors to his cause. Such recruits included [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who he was presented with while having an arm he lost in a brawl replaced with a new limb that incorporated an [[energon mace]], {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} and the disenfranchised warrior [[Drift (G1)|Drift]], who was personally asked by Megatron to fight at his side when he attended a Decepticon rally, and whom Megatron rechristened "Deadlock", {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} and transformed into a capable Decepticon warrior. {{Storylink|Drift issue 3|Drift #3}} A wave of terrorism and sabotage spread across Cybertron at his command: bombings, wrecking factories and fuel plants, shutting down transport links, a mass poisoning to tank a corporation, and a very public kidnapping of Senator Decimus. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}}

Seeking to enhance his army even further, Megatron reached out to [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Senator Shockwave]], offering to supply him the resources he required to carry out his own mysterious experiments in exchange for his using the teachings of his lost mentor [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] to create a [[combiner]] that would serve the Decepticons. Shockwave cautioned that it could take some time, but Megatron was content to wait. {{storylink|Shockwaves}}

[[File:Apexthrone.JPG|upright=1.4|thumb|You should have gone to IKEA.]]
Despite all his efforts, Megatron believed that the Senate was still not taking the Decepticons seriously, so Soundwave formulated a plan for a declaration of intent that could be not denied: lure the Senate to Kaon and murder them. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}} In preparation for this scheme, Megatron offered to restore Shockwave's lost hands—a victim of [[empurata]]—believing that doing so might speed his work. {{storylink|Shockwaves}} The following day, in accordance with Soundwave's plan, Megatron and the Decepticons allowed themselves to be arrested by Sentinel Prime's men, after which Soundwave was freed on Ratbat's orders, while Starscream would ensure his own release by pretending to defect. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} Together, Soundwave and Starscream exterminated the entire Senate, then liberated Megatron and the rest of their comrades, in the process granting their leader the gift of a [[fusion cannon]] liberated from the Senate forces' armory. Megatron led his army against Sentinel Prime's men, killed Sentinel himself, and took control of Kaon, now ready to turn his insurgency into a full-blown war. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 4|Megatron Origin #4}}

After Sentinel Prime's body was laid to rest, his head inexplicably went missing. With the people of Cybertron unaware that Sentinel was a [[Titan Master]] who had disconnected from his [[Transtector]], the Decepticons were blamed for mutilating the corpse, allegations that Megatron denied. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Early days of war===
Megatron formally declared war on "[[Declaration Day]]" when he delivered a stirring speech from [[Nova Point|Nova Peak]]. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The self-described "second order" he ever gave was that under no circumstances was any Decepticon to kill Whirl—Megatron wanted his old tormentor for himself. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} The growing Decepticon forces swiftly spread across six [[Polities of Cybertron|Torus-States]], {{storylink|Parasites}} and to combat them, Cybertron's new leader [[Zeta Prime (G1)|Zeta Prime]] assembled a new military force, the "[[Autobot]]s", led by Megatron's old acquaintance [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]]. Researching his new opposite number, Megatron was intrigued to discover that his now-abandoned treatise had been a source of inspiration for Pax, who had even quoted from it when he confronted the Senate and openly accused them of corruption. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}} Early into the war, [[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] would admit to Pax that Megatron talked about him sometimes, when he was tired. When Pax asked what was said, Bludgeon told him that it would make "both of us feel ''uncomfortable''". {{storylink|Omega's Conundrum}}

[[File:Autocracy4 backroom meeting.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron Delightful Destruction Exclusive Variant]]
When Orion Pax came close to Kaon during a mission, Megatron saw it as a chance to speak to him and had his Decepticons bring him in. {{storylink|The Hunt for Soundwave}} Megatron attempted to convince him that Zeta Prime was even worse than he appeared—that he had planned to let Orion die in [[Nyon]] so that he could use his death as pretext to invade the rebel-infested city and drain the citizens of their energon—and proposed they work together against him, but Orion refused to hear him and then escaped. Knowing the doubts he'd placed in his head would only serve to damage the Autobot cause, Megatron let him go. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}}

[[File:Autocracy8 megs and pax together.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|"Megatron, let's roll." "What you thinking?" "...Pub?"]]
Megatron continued to keep an eye on Orion Pax's activities, spying on his encounter with the Nyon insurgent [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Hot Rod]]. {{storylink|Ruins}} When Zeta Prime's [[Guardian robot|Omega Destructor]]s suddenly attacked Nyon, Megatron was surprised by how zealously the new Prime fought against the city's rebels, but his real interest still lay on how Orion would handle the crisis. {{storylink|Purge}} Orion turned on Zeta, who in turn attempted to kill him, prompting Megatron to intervene and force the Prime to retreat. Taking Orion back to Kaon, he again offered that they work together against Zeta's corruption, and this time the Autobot officer accepted. {{storylink|Choices}} As their combined forces invaded the [[Citadel]] in Iacon, Megatron and Orion Pax made their way inside and fought Zeta Prime in person. The battle ended with Megatron killing the Prime with a head shot, and with his objective complete, he then betrayed the injured Orion by shooting him in the back. {{storylink|Overthrown}} This moment lived in infamy as the point at which Megatron revealed his true colors, no longer couched in ideology; {{storylink|Dinobot Hunt (IDW)|Dinobot Hunt}} though curiously, an alternate report incorrectly implied he had assassinated Zeta from afar, sniping him with the rifle alternate mode of [[Vos (G1)|Vos]]. {{storylink|Bullets}} {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}}

[[File:Autocracy12 no you dont megatron.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|I can't be the only one with déjà vu here.]]
With Zeta dead, Megatron conquered Iacon and declared himself ruler of Cybertron. His soldiers patrolled the planet's streets to "keep the peace", mostly by hunting down and capturing any remaining Autobots who opposed him. {{storylink|Transformation (issue)|Transformation}} During his rule, Megatron attempted to sway the neutral Hot Rod into joining the Decepticons, but he decided otherwise upon witnessing Megatron ordering the execution of several Autobot prisoners. {{storylink|Rise}} Megatron was shocked to learn that Orion Pax had survived the betrayal and was organizing a rebellion against him under the name "Optimus Prime", and even more shocked that people actually had the courage to listen to him. He wasted no time in striking back against the rebels approaching the Citadel with the full force of his army. {{storylink|Broadcast}} During the battle, Megatron unleashed Zeta Prime's energy-draining [[vamparc ribbon|vamparc annihilator]], but when the gigantic [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] took out the cannon, Megatron fell to the streets and was confronted by Optimus Prime himself. He lost the ensuing [[The Transformers: The Movie|familiar-looking duel]] and was badly wounded after a failed attempt to defeat Prime by holding Hot Rod hostage, forcing him to escape aboard Astrotrain. As he fled, he warned Optimus that he hadn't won, he had only started a war unlike any Cybertron had ever seen. {{storylink|Endgame}}

[[File:Monstrosity3 Megatron and Pentius.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron insists on wearing his Darksiders cosplay when he's walking his pet Quintesson.]]
Before Megatron could recover from his injuries, he was betrayed by [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]], who was gunning for the position of Decepticon leader (with aid from Starscream). As punishment for his failure to hold Iacon, Scorponok banished the wounded Megatron to the hell-world of [[Junkion (planet)|Junkion]]. {{storylink|Derelicts}} Further injured in battle with some [[Junkion (species)|cannibalistic natives]], he stubbornly refused to give up and used the trash littering the world to patch himself up, leaving him with a mismatched, monstrous appearance. {{storylink|Wreckage (issue)|Wreckage}} While searching for a way off Junkion, Megatron entered the wreckage of a starship and found a trapped [[Quintesson]] named [[Pentius]], who had mapped the planet and knew of an area known as the [[Pillar of Rust]] where starships may land and take off. Megatron freed the alien to guide him there, while also putting him in chains to serve as his slave. {{storylink|Faces of Darkness}}

[[File:Monstrosity7 megatron takes pentius spark.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"Thanks for turning me into the psychopath I've been the whole time!"]]
While crossing the [[Acid Sea]] on the way to the Pillar, Megatron was attacked by [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticons]] who pulled him into the depths. {{storylink|Rage (IDW)|Rage}} For reasons unknown he was then released, the creatures having allowed him to live. As he emerged, Pentius was waiting with a history lesson, telling him that Junkion was once a prosperous world until its inhabitants drained it of resources, leaving it the broken husk it is today: a fate that may also await Cybertron. Megatron rejected this possibility, declaring that under his rule, Cybertron—and his legacy—would last forever. {{storylink|Fallout (issue)|Fallout}} On arrival at the Pillar of Rust, Megatron was met by the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]], who had come to Junkion to finish what Scorponok had started by killing him. He was able to fight off several of his attackers, but [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Gar]] was too much for him to handle in his injured state. Egged on and taunted by Pentius, Megatron realized he had one last resource left to use: the Quintesson himself. Telling Pentius that his legacy would live on within him, he tore out the alien's [[spark]] and used it to fuel himself, granting him enough power to defeat Hun-Gar. He spared the Terrorcons in exchange for their loyalty, then returned to Cybertron on their ship to take revenge on Scorponok and take back control of the Decepticons. {{storylink|Prey (issue)|Prey}}

[[File:Monstrosity12 strange turns.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Well, well, well... how the [[Microbots|tables turn]]...]]
Megatron returned to a Cybertron in chaos, as the ancient reptilian [[Trypticon (G1)|Trypticon]] had been unleashed by Scorponok and was in the midst of razing Iacon. After reasserting his leadership of the Decepticons by beating Scorponok nearly to death, he had Shockwave restore his body to its original shape and condition, {{storylink|The Illusion of Control}} and set out to investigate the Trypticon situation alone, unwilling to risk his soldiers in the face of the beast's uncontrolled fury. Finding an injured Optimus Prime on the battlefield, Megatron lectured him, but opted to leave him alive so that he could watch as the Decepticon leader defeated the enemy that Prime could not. Megatron was attacked by [[Grimlock (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Grimlock]], but as they grappled, they were swallowed by Trypticon. {{storylink|Annihilation}} Within the giant, the pair set their differences aside to fend off the [[cyber-morphic predator]]s that populated his interior, and together, they destroyed Trypticon's internal power cell, taking him offline. A tense standoff between the Autobots and Decepticons followed as the two warriors emerged from within Trypticon, but both sides agreed to go their separate ways for the time being. Not long after the battle, however, Megatron removed Pentius's spark from within himself and installed it within Trypticon. {{storylink|Belly of the Beast (issue)|Belly of the Beast}}

[[File:Primacy4 megatron imprisoned.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"I just need a feather from Laserbeak and I'll be out of here in no time..."]]
After being fully repaired following his ordeals, Megatron roused Trypticon by exploiting the connection they now shared thanks to both having borne Pentius's spark. Discovering that Trypticon now possessed the consciousness of Pentius, Megatron was immediately suspicious of the Quintesson's potential treachery and was staggered by the visions of undiluted evil he saw in the aliens' past via their spark-link, but Trypticon assured him that he was dedicated to their shared goal of breaking a world. {{storylink|Primacy issue 1|Primacy #1}} Using Trypticon's city-ship alternate mode, Megatron took to the stars, rounding up the scattered Decepticon army and even recruiting Junkions and Sharkticons. {{storylink|Primacy issue 2|Primacy #2}} Returning to Cybertron in force, Megatron was content to wait and watch from the sidelines while his troops viciously tore into Iacon. Trypticon was defeated in battle by Metroplex, at which point Megatron's folly was revealed: through their link, Pentius mockingly revealed his intention to use Trypticon consume Cybertron once the Autobots and Decepticons had weakened each other. {{storylink|Primacy issue 3|Primacy #3}} Leaving his men with orders to burn Iacon to the ground if he failed in order to spare it such a fate, Megatron set off for Trypticon's fallen body in hopes that he would be able to remove Pentius's spark before the giant revived. Confronted atop Trypticon by Optimus Prime, Megatron tried to goad the Autobot leader into destroying him, believing that Pentius would be destroyed with him thanks to their link. Refusing to accept death as the answer, Optimus instead used the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to purify Megatron, burning Pentius's spark away; Megatron, however, vowed that he would never stop hating Optimus in spite of what he had done for him. Sadly resigned to the fact that the once-noble revolutionary he had admired was now lost, Optimus knocked out the weakened Megatron and took him into custody. {{storylink|Primacy issue 4|Primacy #4}}
{{-}}

===The spreading conflict===
[[File:MTMTE14 megatron vs overlord.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"For you, the day Megatron graced your Pit was the most important Day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."]]
Megatron's forces were quick to come to his rescue however, breaking him out under cover of the night. {{storylink|Post}} Early in the continuing conflict, Megatron authored ''[[Towards Peace]]'', a new treatise to replace ''After the Ark'', in which he described continuing to fight the war until the very notion of conflict was literally inconceivable. Then and only then would he finally give up his fusion cannon. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The earliest edition of the work featured a dedication to Terminus, which Megatron would later remove to reflect the lesson his friendship with Terminus had taught him: not to get attached. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Friendships were a weakness, and Megatron exploited this in the cruelest way possible: by corrupting Optimus Prime's old friend [[Tarn (G1)|Damus]], turning him into one of the most vicious, dedicated Decepticons of all, a devoted worshiper at the altar of Megatron, purely to hurt Prime. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

Megatron oversaw the creation of a class of super-warriors known as the [[Warriors Elite]], selecting only his most powerful troops to undergo the torturous upgrade, including [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]], a brilliant sadist and frequent opponent of his from his pit-fighting days who had developed an obsession with Megatron after the Decepticon leader dealt him his first ever defeat. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} At some point, he also created the [[Decepticon Justice Division]] to deal with traitors, and appointed Damus—now code-named "Tarn"—as its leader, {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} though he elected not to send them after Deadlock when he defected, valuing the warrior enough to instead dispatch [[Lockdown (G1)|Lockdown]] to bring him in. {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} He would reportedly spend "half the war" searching for a way to remotely access a [[black hole]], in order to use [[antimatter]] for power, but never succeeded. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:ChaosTheory prime vs megatron montage.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Good times, bad times.]]
Megatron would personally clash with Optimus Prime many times; Optimus grew to respect and fear Megatron as a calm, calculating and measured opponent, while Megatron himself respected Prime's sheer power and his skill as a tactician and as a leader. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} Megatron would later incorrectly recall their battle on [[Sherma Bridge]] during the [[Rorsha Campaign]] as the first time they met. Said battle was certainly momentous—every Autobot and Decepticon stopped fighting to witness their duel, during which Megatron's cannon arm was sliced off by Prime's [[energon-axe]], and he claimed revenge by throwing the Autobot leader off the bridge. As the war spread to other planets, they would meet again and again: during the [[Siege of Massunstrad]], Megatron sealed Prime in an anti-matter chamber; on [[Rada Mor]], Prime reduced Megatron to ashes with sentient explosives; and in the midst of the [[Vorsk Offensive]], Megatron was nearly sliced in half by Prime. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Though he resisted [[Solomus|Tyrest]]'s attempts to find a "Two City-State Solution" to the war, he did agree to abide by the [[Tyrest Accord]]. {{storylink|Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus|House of Ambus}}

Megatron took on a new pistol alternate mode for the [[Battle for Hell's Point]], during which he was used by [[Heretech]] to blast [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ultra Magnus]]. {{storylink|The Gloaming}} During the same skirmish, Megatron took off half of Prime's face with his energon mace, but had a city block dropped on him by Prime in retribution, which shattered his [[Transformation cog (biology)|transformation cog]] and trapped him in gun mode for two years. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Prime was not the only old face that Megatron would see again during the war: during a battle on an aerial drilling platform over the [[Manganese Mountains]], Megatron came face-to-face with his old friend Impactor, and stood poised to execute him until Impactor gave him a moment's pause by recalling his old fondness for poetry. In this moment, Megatron was knocked from the platform by [[Springer (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Springer]] and sent plummeting to the mountains below. {{storylink|Zero Point}}

[[File:LastStandoftheWreckers2-teleconference.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|"We attack the Rice Krispies guys at dawn! Assuming Judd Hirsch delivers the goods."]]
At the war's zenith, Megatron sealed himself in an [[Omniglobe]] to absorb the relentless flood of data coming in from countless fronts. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} With total war going nowhere, he would go on to develop a six-stage [[infiltration protocol]] to be used for conquering targeted planets. The sixth phase called for outright planetary razing, and Megatron selected three of his Warriors Elite for this task: [[Sixshot (G1)|Sixshot]], {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} Overlord, and [[Black Shadow (G1)|Black Shadow]]. He informed this trio of his decision via teleconference, but Overlord, tired of being used as someone else's weapon, refused. Megatron threatened to hunt Overlord down for his disobedience, {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 2|Last Stand of the Wreckers #2}} but while the powerful warrior spent the rest of his life preparing for this conflict, Megatron never followed up and left him to stew in his own obsession. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}

[[File:Stormbringer1 get up and fight.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|You don't gotta go home Prime but you can't stay here.]]
Deducing that the Autobot/Decepticon war would culminate in an energy crisis that would threatened the stability of Cybertron itself, Shockwave left Cybertron to secretly pursue alternate energy sources. Around 10,000 years ago, when Shockwave did not return, Megatron ordered Bludgeon to investigate his files, {{storylink|Spotlight: Shockwave}} secretly assigning Soundwave to investigate Bludgeon {{storylink|Spotlight: Soundwave}} and probe deeper into whatever it was Shockwave had created. {{storylink|Shockpoint}}

Shockwave's prediction soon proved accurate, and Cybertron found itself in the throes of an energy shortage. Decepticon scientist [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]] came to Megatron with a revolutionary, controversial plan to stave off this energy death by [[Pretender|polydermal grafting]], a process where they encased themselves in "symbiotic carapaces", or shells created from living tissue. When Megatron dismissed him angrily and cut him down, Thunderwing did not abandon his research; instead, he experimented on himself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 4|Stormbringer #4}} The process gave him immense power, but drove him insane. He became so dangerous that Megatron had to join forces with Optimus Prime to stop him. This battle at [[Thunderhead Pass]] accelerated the apocalypse destined to befall Cybertron, leaving it an uninhabitable, radioactive husk and forcing both armies to continue their war on other worlds. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #1}} Megatron advocated that they simply destroy Cybertron to ensure that Thunderwing was destroyed, but Prime refused, and threatened to stop Megatron if he tried. Megatron agreed not to destroy the planet, but warned Prime that whatever happened was on his head. Shortly after the last big push by the Decepticons, Cybertron was abandoned by both factions. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #2}}

In the mid-19th century, Starscream reported to Megatron regarding a failed alliance with the [[Dire Wraith]]s and their unfeasibility as allies. Megatron congratulated Starscream... for finding yet another way to disappoint him. {{storylink|Shining Armor issue 5|Shining Armor #5}}

===Breaking protocol===
[[File:Infiltration4 enter megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|left|thumb|Megatron (Second Printing Preview)]]
In the early 21st century, when word reached Megatron that the infiltration unit led by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], stationed on the planet [[Earth]], had broken protocol, he headed for the planet to investigate. Examining the unit's abandoned bunker in [[Nebraska]] for information, he discovered that Starscream had stumbled across [[Ore-13]]—an incredible energy source that (unbeknownst to Megatron) was the result of Shockwave's experiments—and was planning to use it to usurp Megatron's command. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} While studying the bunker's files, he was contacted by [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] with some distressing news: Bludgeon's investigations of Shockwave's files had led him to revive Thunderwing. Megatron ordered the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to Cybertron, authorizing them to do whatever was necessary to destroy Thunderwing, including the destruction of their homeworld itself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} Just as he was handing down this order, Megatron was happened upon by [[Verity Carlo]], a human ally of the Autobot unit active on the planet, {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} but he utterly ignored her. The bunker was then leveled by an airstrike courtesy of [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who were merely covering their unit's tracks and unaware of Megatron's presence; when their leader furiously emerged from the wreckage, Skywarp attempted to explain their ignorance, but Megatron simply responded by blasting him out of the sky. Blitzwing favored opening fire rather than attempting explanations, so Megatron beat the stuffing out of him too, then set off for Starscream's new bunker in [[Oregon]]. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 5|Infiltration #5}}

[[File:Infiltration6 takeyourpunishment.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Those librarians are getting really strict on late returns.]]

{{quote|You will stand down. If you fight, you ''die''. There is no room anymore for mercy. In the end, you are ''all'' expendable. Choose.|Megatron's ultimatum to Starscream's renegade troops|[[Infiltration issue 6|''Infiltration'' #6]]}}

[[Orbital jump]]ing to Oregon, Megatron called Starscream out and ordered the team to stand down, disgusted to see such power games being played amongst his troops. His brief, chilling speech was enough to take the fight out of all but Starscream, who, powered-up on Ore-13, took Megatron on himself. Though the new power source made Starscream a formidable adversary, Megatron was still more deadly than he, and Starscream was taken out by a point-blank fusion cannon blast through his torso. Megatron ordered the Decepticons to ensure that Starscream survived, and then, observing the Autobots who had been watching the battle, announced that it was time to begin phase two. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 6|Infiltration #6}}

In light of the discovery of Ore-13, Megatron took stock of Starscream's progress on Earth and elected to get the infiltration protocol back on track himself, calling a meeting of Starscream's former troops and making them aware, in no uncertain terms, that any further insurrections would be met with deadly force. {{storylink|Escalation issue 1|Escalation #1}} He continued to order his troops on Earth directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} and was even able to revisit his past gun alternate mode, once again able to achieve the [[size changing|mass displacement]] the mode required thanks to the extra energy Ore-13 provided. {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}}

[[File:Megsandspidy.jpg|left|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron/Spider-Man #1 Retailer's Incentive]]
With his forces joined by [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]], a new arrival who Megatron suspected of having ulterior motives, {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} the Decepticon leader initiated phase two of infiltration protocol by destabilizing relations between the European nations of [[Latveria]] and [[Symkaria]] through use of an aggression-inducing [[Psycho-Prism]], stolen from Latverian dictator [[Doctor Doom]]. When the superhero team known as the [[Avengers]] investigated the array the Decepticons' were using to broadcast the prism's signal, Megatron abducted the arachnid-powered [[Spider-Man]] to use as a subject for their [[mirror response mode]], {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part One}} draining the hero's powers and infusing himself and the other Decepticons with them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} He proceeded to forge a brief alliance with Doctor Doom, who helped him defeat and capture the allied Autobot/Avenger team who snuck inside the Decepticons' array, but when Doom's suggestion to threaten the captives in order to force the other heroes to lay down their arms failed, Megatron violently dissolved the partnership. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Three}} Emerging from the confines of the array to take on the Autobots and Avengers himself, Megatron refrained from engaging Prime, foreseeing a more intimate confrontation between the two of them in the near future, and instead turned his attention to destroying [[Iron Man]]'s Transformer-sized armor. The tables soon turned, however, when Doctor Doom freed the captive Autobots and used the Decepticon's mirror response technology to empower them. Defeated by these enhanced Autobots and with the Psycho-Prism destroyed by [[Wolverine (Marvel)|Wolverine]], Megatron used the last of his extra power to teleport the Decepticons out with an [[emergency warp-out]]. He refrained from departing alongside his warriors, intending to slaughter the Avengers for their interference, but when he was immobilized by Spider-Man's webbing, knocked to the ground by [[Luke Cage]], and rattled by a hail of Autobot fire, he finally warped-out with a final taunt to Optimus Prime of the battle yet to come between them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Four}}
[[File:Escalation3-Massdisplacement.jpg|upright=2.2|thumb|Shock and Awe]]
With phase two of [[infiltration protocol]] properly underway, Megatron recognized that he ''should'' rightly withdraw and install a new unit commander on Earth, but could not resist the chance to try out his new Ore-13 empowered body, selecting the nation of [[Brasnya]], where Decepticon subterfuge was already underway, as his testing ground. {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} Allowing the Decepticon's [[facsimile construct]] [[Georgi Koska]] to wield him in pistol mode, Megatron had Koska use him to first sever a [[Russia]]n oil pipeline, and then to fire upon the soldiers who came to investigate, furthering the political and military tensions already brewing in the region. When word came through from Blitzwing that Optimus Prime and the Autobots had arrived, {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}} Megatron at last engaged Optimus directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 4|Escalation #4}} and although Prime was able to destroy his fusion cannon, the extra strength afforded Megatron by Ore-13 allowed him to physically beat Prime into submission, punching directly into his chest and crushing his [[spark]]. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Optimus Prime}} [[File:Escalation5 prime vs megs.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|''I got me a shovel I'm digging a ditch...'']] The horrified Autobots moved into a full but ineffective counterattack, their only edge being that Megatron had no long-range guns left. It turned out that Prime's apparent death was a desperate ruse when the Autobot leader countered with a surprise attack on Megatron, able to exploit Ore-13's weakness—the more it's used, the faster it burns itself out. Megatron almost collapsed from power loss and was forced to have Skywarp take him to safety before the Autobots could kill him. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}}

Furious over the embarrassing defeat, Megatron threw protocol out the window and ordered that Sixshot be summoned to the planet. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}} He took out some of his anger on Ramjet, who he discovered had been busy cooking up a plot to overthrow him; without saying a word, he beat the attempted traitor to death before tearing him apart and keeping his head as a trophy. {{storylink|Spotlight: Ramjet}}
[[File:Devastation5 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|''And I'm gonna fight for this four square feet of land Like a mean old son of a bitch'']]
Upon Sixshot's arrival, Megatron ordered him to utterly destroy the Autobots, and although the [[Phase Sixer]] questioned his early deployment, he was happy to go along with the abandonment of the phase structure. The other Decepticons, on the other hand, were worried that Megatron was losing his grip—and since they were too scared to tell him that, they decided to revive Starscream to do it for them. {{storylink|Devastation issue 1|Devastation #1}} {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 1|Maximum Dinobots #1}} Megatron monitored Sixshot's attack on the Autobots' [[Ark-19]], ordering him to pursue the escape pod that broke away from the crashing craft, {{storylink|Devastation issue 2|Devastation #2}} but before he could obliterate the Autobots, Megatron was forced to recall him to deal with a new threat assaulting the Decepticon base—the alien [[Reaper]]s. {{storylink|Devastation issue 4|Devastation #4}} Unfortunately, the Reapers convinced Sixshot to side with them, and when an Ore-13 powered Starscream entered the fray to take Sixshot down, Megatron realized his troops had been conspiring against him. He decided not to punish them '''yet''', due to greater threat posed by the Reapers, {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} and entered battle alongside them all, even allowing Starscream to wield him in pistol mode against the aliens. After the invaders were dead, however, he turned on his men, starting with Blitzwing—but was forced to realize that they needed to remain united when it became apparent that their battle with the Reapers had made humanity inescapably aware of their existence {{storylink|Devastation issue 6|Devastation #6}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}
{{-}}

===All Hail Megatron===
[[File:AHM7 megs rips out matrix.jpg||left|thumb|[[The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|"I don't think I'd have made a good medic. No patience."]]]]
While the Decepticons were occupied fighting the Reapers, the Autobots had left Earth to deal with the greater threat of an incursion by the [[Dead Universe]]. Exploiting their enemies' absence, Megatron and his men went to ground; when Autobots returned, they could find no trace of the Decepticons, who kept one step ahead of them for months. Secretly abducting [[Hunter O'Nion]], former [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] partner to the Autobot [[Sunstreaker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sunstreaker]], Megatron and his men returned to Cybertron, where Megatron had [[Deluge (G2)|Deluge]] conduct experiments that bred a [[Insecticon swarm|swarm]] of monstrous [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]]. The experiments culminated in the creation of [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]], who Megatron employed in a series of key tasks in his plan: the Insecticon obtained from Hunter's mind various Autobot secrets and codes, completed Shockwave's long-gestating combiner process, granting the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] the ability to combine into [[Devastator (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Devastator]], and created a working [[space bridge]] {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} based on designs sold to them by Sixshot in exchange for his freedom. {{storylink|Spotlight: Metroplex}}

Returning to Earth, the Decepticons staged a phony schism within their ranks, allowing the Autobots to believe that they had "disappeared" as a result of a power struggle that had split their ranks into two camps, one led by Megatron and one by Starscream. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} Starscream then approached Sunstreaker, whose experience as a Headmaster had left him bitter and jaded, with the proposition that the Autobots join with his forces against Megatron, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 8|All Hail Megatron #8}} but when the Autobots arrived at the designated time and place, they were instead confronted by the united Decepticon army and quickly defeated by Devastator. After personally tearing the [[Matrix of Leadership]] from Optimus Prime's chest, Megatron marched the captive Autobots through the space bridge back to Cybertron, where the Insecticon swarm waited for them. Prime, however, was able to damage the bridge, causing it to deposit the Autobots a safe distance from the swarm, but in the process, fried his own circuits and left himself comatose. Though the Autobots had escaped the fate he had intended for them, Megatron had successfully exiled his enemies to their dead homeworld; moreover, using information and codes gained from Sunstreaker and Hunter, he concurrently orchestrated the event that would later be known as [[Surge (event)|The Surge]], as Decepticons stormed Autobot installations all across the galaxy, achieving total victory. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}}

[[File:AHM1 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's urban renewal program was off to a flying start.]]
With galaxy-wide domination accomplished, one year after the Decepticons' battle with the Reapers, Megatron chose Earth to become the new Decepticon homeworld. Together with his men, Megatron stormed [[New York City]], humiliating Starscream with a display of his greater capacity for destruction. When the US Air Force retaliated, Megatron shrugged off their fire and ordered the other Decepticons to engage them; when one damaged jet threw itself toward him in a suicide run, Megatron, outraged at the [[DJ (G1)|pilot]]'s temerity, destroyed it and its occupant with a furious swipe of his hand. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 1|All Hail Megatron #1}} When US Army forces arrived, Megatron ordered [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] dispatched to deal with them, then sent Devastator to destroy the subway tunnels leading out of the city. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 2|All Hail Megatron #2}} With New York secured, Megatron directed the Constructicons to begin building a new space bridge in the city's heart, and had a candid talk with Starscream, revealing his belief that the [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]]'s attitude and actions marked him as the embodiment of the Decepticon cause, even if he was blind to seeing it himself. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 3|All Hail Megatron #3}} After a series of further attacks on major American cities saw the country firmly crushed under the Decepticons' collective heel, Megatron made a propaganda speech to his men in the ruins of New York. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 4|All Hail Megatron #4}} As night fell upon the city, Megatron withdrew to privately gloat over the Matrix. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 5|All Hail Megatron #5}}

[[File:AHM6MegatronVsIsrael.jpg|left|upright=1.66|thumb|Starscream just told Megatron that ''All Hail Megatron'' is going to go on for another six issues. He's taking it pretty well, all things considered.]]
As the Decepticons began attacking other countries around the globe, Megatron was questioned by Starscream on what the next step in his plan was. A recalcitrant Megatron merely informed him that it was merely time to savor their victory, but Starscream accused him of not ''having'' any plans post-victory, and was merely allowing his men to run wild to distract them from any notion of taking power for themselves. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}} What Starscream did not realize was that Megatron did indeed have a plan: to defeat the Autobots, he had created an army of killers and monsters, but in order to create his perfect rule, that army would have to be destroyed, the dissenting, distasteful elements obliterated before Megatron's peace could dawn. Megatron was not distracting his warriors... he was ''waiting'' to see which of them would question and turn on him. Silently sorrowful to already know that such dissent would begin with Starscream, an otherwise-model Decepticon, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} Megatron withdrew to [[Israel]] for some silent reflection amid wholesale devastation. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}}

[[File:AHM10 megs vs devastator.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's negotiations regarding the Constructicons' Work Union going unusually SMOOTHLY this time around.]]
Some time later, Megatron surveyed the space bridge Bombshell and the Constructicons had built in New York. He congratulated Bombshell on his work, but revealed that he had always foreseen Bombshell's intellect as a danger—had always known he and his fellow Insecticons would side with Starscream when the time came. His gambit exposed, Starscream made his move and attacked, but the Insecticons proved no match for Megatron's might. The Decepticon leader had failed to anticipate one thing, however: he did not foresee the Constructicons siding with Starscream, and found himself having to fight the mighty Devastator. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} The in-fighting was halted by a last-ditch attack by the mustered might of what remained of the human resistance, forcing Megatron and Starscream to put their differences aside momentarily and organize a defense. This attack came as no surprise to Megatron, but the same could not be said for the next entrants onto the battlefield: the Autobots had returned.

After assuring Starscream that he would be leader in the future, when his time was done, Megatron confronted Optimus Prime, surprised not so much that his old foe had survived, but that he had bothered to return to Earth. Both leaders had always maintained a policy of acceptable losses through their millennia-long war, so Megatron assumed Prime had come back for selfish reasons, to reclaim the Matrix, but Prime insisted that he had changed, and would no longer allow their cold war to endanger innocent lives on this scale. [[File:AHM12 prime vs megs.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.66|Like Homer Simpson putting on his pants, the struggle between Optimus Prime and Megatron remains eternal. [[...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|Almost.]]]] Megatron scoffed at the notion, reavling that Prime's supposedly "innocent" humans were planning to [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]] New York, killing millions of their own just to get rid of the Decepticons, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 11|All Hail Megatron #11}} but Prime retorted that it wasn't ''just'' about the humans, but also about the difference between Autobots and Decepticons. The two came to blows, but Megatron triumphed in short order and commanded the Decepticons to depart, leaving the Autobots to be killed by the humans' nuke... but just before they withdrew, he was shot in the face by human soldier [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Spike Witwicky]], wielding a powerful weapon reverse-engineered from Cybertronian technology. Injured and disoriented by the blast, Megatron was finished off when Prime smashed his face in with his own fusion cannon. As he wanted to ''take'' leadership rather than just have it fall in his hands, Starscream picked up his damaged leader and ordered the Decepticons to retreat. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 12|All Hail Megatron #12}}

[[File:AllHisEngines-Megatron.jpg|thumb|Pretty sure when you float in a bacta tank you're supposed to be wearing a diaper.]]
The Decepticons departed Earth aboard Astrotrain, where the gravely wounded Megatron was put on life support and tended to by Soundwave and his cassettes. With Megatron's life signs only at ten percent capacity, Starscream attempted to appeal to Soundwave's sense of logic and have him shut down so that leadership could be his, but Soundwave refused. Starscream was soon able to take command, however, when he recovered the Matrix of Leadership and professed to have been chosen by it. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 13|Uneasy Lies the Head}}

===New body, new powers===
The Decepticons eventually settled on a desolate asteroid, where Megatron was installed in a [[CR chamber|CR tank]]. Retaining some level of awareness of the events occurring around him during his convalescence, he was forced to watch as his army languished in inactivity, their energy slowly ebbing away until they were reduced to cannibalism. {{storylink|All His Engines}} After a year of trying to free his leader from this living death, Soundwave was finally forced to conclude that Megatron's body was beyond repair, and recruited the recently returned Shockwave, whom Starscream had provided with the majority of the Decepticons' resources to create a space bridge, to help build a new body for Megatron's consciousness to inhabit. The operation succeeded and Megatron was reborn in a deadly new body, powered by Ore-13, armed with a devastatingly powerful rail gun, and even equipped with space bridge nodes stolen from Metroplex, which gave him the ability to open space bridge portals on his own. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing15 megatrons new body.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"Uh, it's like...did anyone ever see the movie ''Tron''?"]]
Back in action, Megatron devised a plan to destabilize the relationship between the humans and Autobots on Earth. Together with Soundwave and Shockwave, he chopped up his old body and used it to create human-scaled replicas of his former gun mode, containing small pieces of his own consciousness. When Starscream caught them in the act, Megatron elected to table his plan for the moment, as he considered it folly to go against Starscream's wishes for the moment since the Seeker was still in possession of the Matrix of Leadership. Megatron had never truly understood what the talisman ''did'', but it served as a threat merely by being an unknown variable. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} Fortunately, for Megatron this variable was soon removed from the equation when Hot Rod, estranged from the Earthbound Autobots, infiltrated the Decepticons' asteroid base and recovered the Matrix from Starscream. Megatron seized his chance, intercepting the Autobot and blasting him and the Matrix out into the void of space. {{storylink|Heart Like a Wheel}}

[[File:SLMegatron stealth bomber mode.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Behold... the ''Bomberang!'']]
With Starscream's trump card now gone, Megatron had the Decepticons gathered so he could address them. Distrustful of Shockwave's motives for preparing his new body, wary of Soundwave's constant surveillance, and repulsed by the state of his once fearsome Decepticon war machine, Megatron decided that he needed to unequivocally reestablish dominance over the now Matrix-less Starscream. He intended to beat Starscream near to death as a means of letting them both work out their frustrations with Starscream's inability to lead effectively during Megatron's absence, but Starscream did not want to fight—spiritually broken by his failures, he simply wanted Megatron to kill him. Rather than accept this, Megatron instead goaded Starscream into opening fire upon him. This began a running battle between the two, with Megatron pursuing the fleeing Seeker in his new stealth bomber alternate mode, continuing to bait Starscream every time he appeared willing to give up the fight. Incensed by Starscream's accusation that he did not know what it felt like to see everything he had worked for fall apart, when that was exactly what Starscream's pitiful leadership had done to the empire he had created, Megatron pummeled him to within an inch of his life, then paused to explain why he kept a schemer like Starscream around: as a constant reminder to watch his back. The brutal display galvanized the languid Decepticons, and Megatron was ready to begin his scheme. {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing14 megatron guns.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron doesn't support the NRA. He IS the NRA.]]
Roughly two years after the Decepticons' defeat on Earth, Megatron used his space bridge powers to dispatch a container full of the guns made from his old body to Earth, where they were found by South American gun-runners and illegally disseminated amongst an increasingly paranoid public seeking ways to protect themselves against Transformers. This allowed Megatron's consciousness to spread across North America, until it was focused enough to contact one particular owner of a Megatron gun: [[Joe Gladki]]. He deceived and manipulated the paranoid human, and eventually convinced him to perform an assassination attempt on [[Bumblebee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Bumblebee]], the new Autobot leader. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} In their ignorance, the Autobots then mistook Gladki's gun for Megatron himself and held it captive. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man|The Demolished Man}}

[[File:IDWongoing16 megatron vs autobots.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|Not the [[Realignments|first time]] he's traded his [[fusion cannon]] for a [[rail gun]].]]
With the Autobots in chaos, Megatron started the next phase of his plan and returned to Earth personally, where he used his new stealth bomber mode to shoot down a plane carrying Optimus Prime and several other Autobots. He then hunted down the remaining Autobots, effortlessly defeating them and their new temporary leader Ultra Magnus with his powerful new body, and killing some of their [[Skywatch]] allies. Magnus tried to draw Megatron's attention from the humans, claiming the Autobots were the ones he really wanted, but Megatron assured him that humanity was his real target. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 3: Woken Furies|Woken Furies}} Taking the defeated Autobots captive, Megatron dumped them in a city and directed three of his mind-controlled human puppets to kill them. Contacting Prime directly, Megatron summoned him to the city's outskirts and revealed his plan: crush Prime's spirit and destroy the Autobots' alliance with humanity by forcing them to choose between fighting the humans or allowing them to kill them. Prime found the hole in Megatron's plan, however, when he realized that Soundwave was maintaining the connection between Megatron and his guns, and shot him in the head. His connection to his pawns severed, Megatron scooped up Soundwave and withdrew. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 4: Burning Chrome|Burning Chrome}} Thanks to a tracker Ultra Magnus had slipped on Soundwave, though, Prime was able to follow the Decepticons to their bolthole and called Megatron out for a full and proper confrontation. In actuality, Prime had lured Megatron outside so Skywatch could drop a [[kinetic harpoon]] on him, but even a weapon dropped from orbit barely proved able to put a scratch in Megatron's mighty new exostructure. Megatron proceeded to beat Prime senseless, but then returned him to the Autobots, and to their great shock, surrendered to their custody. After recovering, Optimus demanded to know why he had surrendered, but Megatron merely taunted him by revealing that Spike Witwicky had murdered a Decepticon in cold blood. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: Enemy Mine|Enemy Mine}} Prime immediately had Prowl begin investigating Spike and Skywatch, and Prowl interrogated the Decepticon leader for information, which he provided after a little verbal sparring. {{storylink|Police Action: Prologue}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron imprisoned.jpg|upright=1.5|left|thumb|Megatron and Optimus Prime can't agree on a safe word.]]
When Rodimus returned to Earth and warned the Autobots that [[Galvatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Galvatron]] had taken control of Cybertron, Optimus decided to lead the Autobots in reclaiming their homeworld. In the name of Earth's safety, he elected to bring Megatron and the confiscated guns made from his old body with them. {{storylink|Space Opera—Final Tableaux: Orphans of the Helix|Orphans of the Helix}} On the way to Cybertron aboard [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]], Prime again attempted to discern why Megatron had surrendered, even releasing his old foe from his bonds and having a civil conversation with him about their past together and their dueling ideologies. Optimus tried to reach out to Megatron, offering him the chance to end the war once and for all with a handshake; Megatron appeared to consider it for a moment but ultimately remained silent. With Megatron returned to the confines of the [[variable voltage harness]], the other Autobots pressured Optimus for a decision on his fate: execution or imprisonment. Trying to come to a conclusion, Prime asked Megatron if he regretted any of his actions, but the Decepticon leader remarked that he only regretted not killing ''more'' Autobots. He taunted Prime with the notion that even he was thankful for the war, as it had raised him from a nobody to the greatest Autobot in history, and a furious Prime activated the harness, electrocuting Megatron. The jolt would have killed Megatron if Omega Supreme had not cut the power in time and Megatron, struggling to stay conscious, offered Prime his thanks for saving his life all those years ago in Rodion. Shocked by his actions, Prime realized that Megatron wanted to die and wanted Prime to be the one to kill him. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Eventually, Prime decided to let Megatron choose his own fate, and Megatron calmly replied that he chose death. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 2|Chaos Theory #2}}

[[File:Chaos2 armored megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|...Again...?]]
As Omega drew close to Cybertron, Megatron demanded to know who or what was threatening their homeworld, but Optimus Prime refused to provide him with any information. {{storylink| Chaos Part One: Lamentations|Lamentations}} The Autobots subsequently engaged Galvatron's forces in battle, and while they were occupied, Megatron put into motion the ace he had up his sleeve: taking remote control of the numerous "Megatron guns" aboard Omega, Megatron summoned them to him and combined with them into a new armored mode. Breaking free from his restraints, he headed out to confront Galvatron, intent that nobody would take his world from him. {{storylink|Chaos Part Two: Numbers|Numbers}} As he tore through the Sweeps, Megatron also revealed the reason for his surrender: now that he was back on Cybertron, he could open a space bridge that would allow the massed forces of the Decepticons on Earth to return to their home planet as well. Unfortunately, not long after the Decepticons arrived on the battlefield, Galvatron's secret puppet master, the Dead Universe entity known as the [[D-Void]], seized control of their minds and those of the Sweeps, merging them into a gigantic, monstrous avatar. With Prime occupied pursuing Galvatron into Cybertron's depths, Megatron was left to face this "[[Deceptigod]]" alone. {{storylink|Chaos Part Three: Kings|Kings}} Fighting against the D-Void's attempts to ensnare his own mind and make him part of the collective, Megatron was gravely wounded and even lost an arm to the beast, but succeeded into destroying it, blasting it apart with one massive beam from his weapons. {{storylink|Chaos Part Four: Genesis|Genesis}}

===The long game===
Even as the Deceptigod disintegrated back into its component Decepticons, Megatron could see the potential the creature embodied—the D-Void had, in essence, created the perfect combiner by means of utterly obliterating free will. With Cybertron reverting into a primordial wasteland around him—a result of Optimus Prime purifying [[Vector Sigma]] with the Matrix to stop Galvatron and the D-Void—Megatron chose to withdraw to experiment with the possibilities this presented. He informed Shockwave, the sole Decepticon who had not been made part of the Deceptigod, of his plans, and Shockwave in turn revealed them to Soundwave and Bombshell. {{storylink|Shockpoint}} While Megatron hid in the wilderness, his Decepticons were left to live as second-class citizens in the new [[Iacon (polity)|Iacon]] that the Autobots built; Optimus Prime left Cybertron two weeks after the D-Void's defeat to calm tensions with "NAILs"—other unaffiliated Cybertronians—who had returned to their homeworld, but even as he did so, he mused that Megatron must still be out there somewhere. {{storylink|Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime|The Death of Optimus Prime}}

[[File:RID11 megatron in wilderness.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|Megatron can't find anyone who wants to join his nudist colony to save his skin.]]
In the months of study and experimentation that followed, Megatron discerned that the combination of Ore-13 and space bridge technology in his body somehow gave him the ability to manipulate the natural energy of Cybertron that the D-Void had used to merge the Decepticons into the Deceptigod. After experiments on [[turbofox]]es created larger, more ferocious beasts, Megatron stepped up trials when the [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbots]] seceded from the shaky government Bumblebee, [[Metalhawk (G1)|Metalhawk]] and Starscream were building in Iacon and ventured into the wilderness. The signal Megatron had created from the combination energy first drove the Aerialbots mad, before uniting them in body and mind, spontaneously merging them into the gestalt [[Superion (G1)|Superion]], but this newborn Autobot combiner was considered hopelessly insane by Megatron and left to die in the wilderness. The madness aspect of the signal afforded him the chance to revive some of the principles of the infiltration protocol, however, as he blanketed the wastelands in it, forcing the Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs to stay in Iacon, causing natural conflict among them to snowball, providing a useful cover for his actions. To gain a pawn within Autobot high command, Megatron even provided Bombshell with the energy to use in conjunction with his own mind-controlling [[cerebro-shell]]s, ensnaring the mind of Prowl. With the resources and cover control of Prowl provided, Shockwave, Soundwave and Bombshell were able to use Megatron's findings to perfect the combination process, rebuilding the Constructicons with new modular designs that would allow them to merge into a perfect Devastator. The endgame was for Megatron himself to form the head of the combiner, but before risking his own mind and body, Megatron decided that Prowl would be used first as a test subject. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}}

[[File:RID12 kill him.jpg|upright=1.95|thumb|"Your armor. Give it to me now."]]
The appearance of [[Metrotitan (G1)|Metrotitan]] on Cybertron who declared that Starscream was the "Chosen One" threatened Megatron's ability to easily re-take leadership of his Decepticons, forcing him to step up his schedule. Through Prowl, he had his inner circle gathered together in the secret "[[Black Room]]", then boldly strode into Iacon for all to see. {{storylink|The End of the Beginning of the World}} His body shattered and skeletal, he professed to come in peace, but Bumblebee did not accept his surrender and ordered his Autobots to kill him. Indeed, Megatron could possibly have died there and then had Iacon's Decepticons not stepped in, insisting that Megatron's defense of Cybertron during the D-Void's attack marked him a hero and that he be taken into custody instead. {{storylink|City on Fire}} After [[Wheeljack (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Wheeljack]] got through examining him to prove his body concealed no weapons, Starscream approached the imprisoned Megatron and attempted to explain that he was not far away from taking complete power in the government, ensuring a Decepticon victory of a different kind. Megatron merely smiled silently at the notion, terrifying his ex-lieutenant with his grin. Presently, the Decepticons rose up in an angry mob and marched on Autobot high command to insist on Megatron's release; the situation quickly devolved into a riot, during which a squad led by [[Needlenose (G1)|Needlenose]] stormed the prison and freed Megatron. {{storylink|The Verge}}

[[File:RID14 new body redux.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.55|New body or not, Megatron may want to think twice about standing [[:File:Devastator-ROTFenemyscrotum.jpg|underneath Devastator's legs.]]]]
Megatron brought Starscream and the captured Bumblebee and Metalhawk to the Black Room, where he explained his plans and had himself transferred into a pre-prepared new body that could combine with the Constructicons' new forms. At his command, the Constructicons and Prowl combined into the new Devastator, who immediately set about razing Iacon. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}} Even the return of Superion seemed unable to stop the powerful new combiner, until help came from an unexpected quarter—Prowl's secret assassin [[Arcee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Arcee]] killed Bombshell, taking out Prowl's controller and causing Devastator to shut down. This was no real impediment to Megatron, however, as the successful function of the new combiner process had been proven, and he set out to take ''his'' place as Devastator's head. Before Megatron could reach the fallen gestalt, though, Devastator awoke, possessed of his own unique, united consciousness for the first time, and resumed tearing into Iacon. {{storylink|Plan for Everything}}

[[File:RID20 megatron in forcefield.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|You know you can't catch a break when you find yourself trapped inside a novelty plasma lamp from Spencer's.]]
Still Megatron remained unfazed, calmly fending off Autobot attacks and waiting for the inevitable moment when the heroes would take Devastator down. When [[Ironhide (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ironhide]] succeeded in doing so by managing to reach Prowl, Devastator separated, and Megatron immediately stepped in, re-initiating the combination with himself in control. Seconds before uniting with the Constructicons, though, his plan was foiled by Bumblebee, Ironhide and Prowl's activation of a secret failsafe: Wheeljack had integrated a forcefield generator into Megatron's spark casing during his examination of him, and when it was triggered, he was completely paralyzed in mid-transformation. {{storylink|Heavy Is the Head}}

In the fallout of the battle, Starscream killed Metalhawk, took control of Iacon and banished the Autobots and Decepticons from the city. He took custody of the immobilized Megatron, and silently gloated over the victory he had accomplished by using guile and politics, rather than Megatron's ways of brute force and firepower. {{storylink|Three Monologues}}

===A new approach===
Megatron would not remain incapacitated for long. That night, as the result of millennia-long secret machinations by Shockwave, an [[Quintessa (IDW)|undead Metrotitan]] appeared on Cybertron and opened a portal to the Dead Universe in the planet's skies. Through the portal, Shockwave made contact with Galvatron and his master, the exiled Cybertron despot [[Nova Prime]], but was unable to bring them through to Cybertron thanks to the unexpected disappearance of the Titan's space bridge system. Intending to use the space bridge within Megatron as a replacement, {{storylink|Black Metal: Dark Cybertron Chapter 2|Black Metal}} Shockwave reanimated the deceased Metalhawk with a wave of necrotic energy from the Titan and had him liberate Megatron and bring him to his secret lab in [[Crystal City]]. {{storylink|Winners & Losers: Dark Cybertron Chapter 3|Winners & Losers}}

[[File:RID24 i remember you.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Somewhere in the multiverse, [[Override (G1)|Override]] and [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]] are smiling.]]
Shockwave hoped that Megatron would comply with his plans willingly, but the Decepticon leader refused and Shockwave forcibly activated the space bridge technology in Megatron's body. {{storylink|Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4|Into the Abyss}} The opening of the bridge in his chest caused Megatron agony, but his screams were heard by Soundwave, who led the united forces of the exiled Autobots and Decepticons to Shockwave's lab to free his leader. Nova Prime and Galvatron attempted to squeeze their way through the space bridge despite this interference, but Ironhide was able to punch Nova back through into the Dead Universe. Just then, Shockwave's "Necrotitan" came crashing into the subterranean city, and in the chaos, Megatron was freed from the restraints holding him. No sooner had Megatron carried Ironhide to the safe hands of the other Autobots, however, than he was ripped in half from behind by Galvatron, who had successfully emerged through the portal {{storylink|Finest Hour: Dark Cybertron Chapter 5|Finest Hour}}—a briefer battle, no doubt, than the one Shockwave had foreseen between the pair in a vision at the outset of his scheme. {{storylink|Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1|Dark Dawn}}

[[File:MTMTE26 megs and bee.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|I smell a sitcom!]]
After the battle was over, Galvatron and [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] lugged Megatron's bisected remains back into Crystal City, only to find their way barred by the unlikely form of Bumblebee, who demanded they hand Megatron over. Galvatron attacked the Autobot, at which point Megatron revealed that he was fine, as he took down Waspinator and knocked Galvatron out with a barrage of fusion cannon fire. {{storylink|The Dead Are Not Enough: Dark Cybertron Chapter 7|The Dead Are Not Enough}} Bumblebee lugged Megatron back to Iacon, currently being razed by the Necrotitan, where the Decepticon leader announced to the assembled Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs his plan to withdraw to [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]], summon the Decepticon Justice Division and other scattered troops, and strike back. Bumblebee rejected Megatron's notion of retreating, and struck a nerve within him by questioning his entire philosophy: Megatron had ''long'' ago abandoned any notion of fighting for freedom and equality, Bumblebee attested, and merely used the claim to ideology as an excuse for his actions. {{storylink|Burning Bright: Dark Cybertron Chapter 8|Burning Bright}} Fortunately, fighting back suddenly got a lot easier when Metroplex and the ''[[Lost Light]]'' space-bridged to Cybertron. During the battle between the Titans, Megatron observed Metroplex reaching for the ''Lost Light''; when the ship's crew explained that they had Metroplex's severed thumb aboard, Megatron had Bumblebee carry him to it, whereupon he realized that the thumb contained one of Shockwave's [[Regenesis]] ores. Megatron used his internal space bridge to teleport the thumb back to Metroplex, and the ore provided the giant with the power boost to defeat the Necrotitan. {{storylink|Finis Temporis: Dark Cybertron Chapter 9|Finis Temporis}}

[[File:DCFinale megatron the autobot.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|ಠ_ಠ]]
At Bumblebee's order and under protest, [[Ratchet (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ratchet]] repaired Megatron's injuries and reattached his legs, reminding Megatron of his desire in youth to be a medic. His recent string of failures, the success of ''Starscream'', of all 'bots, and Bumblebee's stinging words had turned the Decepticon leader introspective, and he realized he had forgotten something very important that had driven his writings in his early years: winning meant turning people to your way of thinking, not dominating them. {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} Subsequently, when Shockwave initiated his millennia-long plan to collapse all reality into a universal black hole, Megatron placed himself and the Decepticons under Bumblebee's command to co-ordinate a counter-strike, and journeyed with his uneasy new "friend" into Shockwave's [[Crystal City]] base to confront their shared enemy. There, they found the weakened Galvatron, who Megatron prepared to destroy for past indignities, until Bumblebee talked him down, convincing him that blood did not have to be repaid with blood. At that moment, Shockwave struck, slaying Bumblebee with a blast, and driving Megatron into a rage. {{storylink|Black Planet: Dark Cybertron Chapter 11|Black Planet}} Empowered by his various ores and the energy of the Dead Universe, Shockwave was a formidable opponent and it was all Megatron could do to hold his own against him until Optimus Prime arrived to join the fight. Prime attempted to reason with Shockwave and remind him of the kindly senator he had once been, but his words had little effect, so Megatron opted for a more object lesson: removing the fallen Bumblebee's insignia, he placed it upon his chest and declared himself an Autobot. The stunned Shockwave lost control of the time machine powering his plot, causing his old pre-[[Shadowplay]] memories to emerge. Horrified at what he had become, he allowed Megatron and Prime to kill him, which caused the time machine to collapse into a singularity. Megatron and Prime made what seemed to be a futile dash for freedom, but were saved from the singularity's pull at the last moment by the timely arrival of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}}

===Crimes against the Species===
{{quote|I don't want to be acquitted. I want to '''make amends'''|Megatron on his new goal in life|"[[World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide]]"}}
[[File:DCFinale this is not a trick.jpg|thumb|upright=1.95|Optimus apparently decided a sincere Megatron was a cue for mood lighting.]]
In a private meeting between Optimus Prime and Megatron a short time after Shockwave's defeat, Megatron affirmed that his change of heart was genuine, and Optimus assured him that he could see past his wartime deeds and remember the well-intentioned 'bot he had started out as. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}} The rest of Cybertron, however, demanded a trial; Autobot High Command agreed, realizing that the Decepticon leader's fate had to be decided in public. Before the trial, Megatron was approached by Optimus, [[Chromedome (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Chromedome]] and Rodimus in an attempt to extract some of the Decepticon's memories as evidence in hopes of expediting the proceedings, but a horrified Megatron refused, considering the sanctity of his mind all he had left. After Optimus departed, Rodimus remained to taunt Megatron with the certainty of his execution; in return, the impassive Decepticon simply asked Rodimus to deliver a [[communicube]] to Optimus, {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} containing a request to have the trial moved to the [[Raskol Arena]] on Luna 2, in order, he alleged, to accommodate the huge number of spectators that would inevitably attend. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron pleads guilty.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|I agreed to this trial on the condition of meeting Matlock.]]
Megatron's trial lasted five months. At the outset of the proceedings, Megatron pled guilty to "Crimes against the Species", {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} but things changed when Starscream took the stand and gave a testimony that presented Megatron as an incapable leader who was unable to control the Decepticon forces under his command, a powerful brute lacking in the qualities of true leadership who led his followers down an ultimately self-destructive path. His treacherous lieutenant's words struck home, and Megatron stunned the assembled crowd by changing his plea to "not guilty". {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} Just as his defender, Ultra Magnus, was reading a statement declaring this, the trial was dramatically interrupted by a small army of Decepticons led by [[Snaptrap (G1)|Snap Trap]] and [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Grr]], who had escaped from the brig on the ''Lost Light''. The invading force attempted to teleport Megatron away to safety, but he refused to escape and the uprising was quickly quelled. During the recess that followed, Optimus confronted Megatron over his true motives: he had requested that the trial be held on Luna 2 in order to exploit the moon's different legal system in the event that he felt the trial was unjust. Caused by Starscream's speech to realize that, were he to submit to execution now, his legacy would be one only of pain and death, Megatron invoked one of the moon's forgotten laws: an individual who had committed sufficiently heinous crimes could request he be judged by the long-lost [[Knights of Cybertron]]. Megatron requested that he be allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' in their search for the Knights and their homeworld of [[Cyberutopia]], thus ensuring that ''that'' would be his legacy, after which he would submit to whatever punishment was deemed necessary. Optimus agreed on the condition that Megatron read a prepared speech denouncing the Decepticon cause and asking all active Decepticons to stand down. Megatron did so, at great personal pain. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Hurt and angry over this perceived abandonment, Soundwave used Megatron's change of faction as evidence to forge a new allegiance of his own, decamping to Earth and working with the [[Earth Defense Command]] to create a new home for Decepticons there. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 2: Detonation Boulevard|Detonation Boulevard}}
[[File:MTMTE30 cocaptains.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|O captain, my co-captain.]]
Megatron was assigned co-captaincy of the ''Lost Light'' alongside Rodimus, who immediately hated the idea and everything about it, leading to a particularly antagonistic relationship between the two. Megatron was permitted only to fuel himself with "[[Fool's Energon]]", which left him substantially weakened. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Shockwave's machinations had left his internal organs a tortured Gordian knot of space bridge wormholes from which it was impossible to extract his spark; his outward appearance changed between the end of his trial and his co-captaincy, suggesting that his armor was rebuilt around him, or his entire internal structure was transplanted into a new body. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Megatron would later lament that his body did not graft to his spark like past chassis, which he considered a sign of his waning age. {{storylink|slaughterhouse}} Optimus would see Megatron off on his voyage before he himself headed off to Earth, a meeting Prowl found deeply disturbing. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 1: Hello Cruel World|Hello Cruel World}}

===Towards Peace===
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron head examined.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"So Megatron, tell me about your mother". "She was hot".]]
The ''Lost Light'' warped back out to the Galactic Rim and set off on the trail of [[Thunder Clash|Thunderclash]], who they considered their best lead on the location of the Knights. A month into the journey, Megatron agreed to a therapy session with ship's psychoanalyst Rung, during which he espoused his current thinking on personal history, and one's ability to selectively edit or abandon entirely previously held truths. Following the session, Megatron discovered that the door to his quarters had been graffitied, and was almost immediately attacked by the culprit, Whirl. During the fight—which Whirl deemed "inevitable"—the ex-Wrecker punched Megatron in the stomach, only to find his hand teleported away by the space bridge tangle inside his body. This took the fight out of Whirl, and Megatron offered to forget the incident if the graffiti was removed from his wall. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Through his internal space bridge, Megatron could sense that Whirl's arm had been teleported into the vicinity of a black hole, and—ever the forward planner, preparing even for the unlikely eventuality that he might change his mind about what he wanted—Megatron was inspired to revive his wartime plan to remotely channel antimatter.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

Megatron subsequently oversaw the bringing onboard of a mysterious coffin the ''Lost Light'' found floating in space. A short time later, a drunken dare gone awry resulted in [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailcutter]] accidentally cracking the coffin open with his forcefield. Megatron reprimanded him by permanently engaging his fuel intake moderation chip, and assigned him the role of Security Director in order to focus his mind. The pair then turned their attention to the opened coffin, which was revealed to contain the body of another Rodimus! {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} A brief analysis suggested that the body was of Rodimus from the future, but before the matter could be settled, the crew of the ''Lost Light'' were forced to abandon the ship as it suddenly began disappearing around them. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE32 i came to hate the person id become.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Lolcat is watching you deprecate.]]

Megatron found himself on the [[Rodpod]] with a score of other 'bots, but when ''they'' then began to vanish too, [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] accused Megatron of being responsible. A tense standoff ensued, which was brought to a surprising end when [[Ravage (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ravage]] was discovered to have been hiding on the pod, having secreted himself on the ''Lost Light'' in order to spy on Megatron for Soundwave. {{storylink|Twenty Plus One}} The weirdness continued as the remaining crew of the Rodpod—Megatron, Ravage, Nightbeat, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]], [[Nautica (G1)|Nautica]], [[Riptide (G1)|Riptide]], and [[Getaway]]—discovered the wreckage of a second ''Lost Light'', point of origin for the mystery second Rodimus, orbiting the planet [[Ofsted XVII]]. Still believing that the duplicate ship hailed from the future, Skids accused Megatron of being responsible for the devastation, and, realizing that the recent huge changes he had made in his life left him devoid of any surety in his future actions, Megatron allowed himself and Ravage to be imprisoned until the truth could be determined. Locked in a supply closet with Ravage, Megatron had a heart-to-heart with his angry ex-subordinate, justifying his decisions and unable to offer Ravage any consolation. When power returned to the ship, the pair discovered the dead bodies of Ratchet, [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] and [[Hound (G1)|Hound]] in the closet with them, sporting injuries that allowed Megatron to realize that the Decepticon Justice Division were responsible for the slaughter. The team prepared to immediately withdraw until an even stranger discovery was made: Autobot archivist [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had died months beforehand... still alive, the only survivor of the D.J.D.'s attack! {{storylink|slaughterhouse}}

[[File:MTMTE33 megatron skids right there.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"...But you're not the [[Skyfall (G1)|worst]] [[Zeta Prime (G1)|guy]] [[Star Saber (G1)#2005 IDW continuity|to]] [[Getaway|wear]] the badge. So keep trying."]]
Nautica and Nightbeat were able to deduce that the duplicate ''Lost Light'' and its crew, including the second Rodimus, were actually quantum duplicates created in the explosion of the [[quantum generator|quantum engines]] during the ship's original launch two years prior. To make matters worse, the [[quantum foam]] leaking from the engines was threatening to destroy Ofsted XVII, but Megatron had no compunctions about getting to safety and leaving the planet to its fate until Skids called him out, forcing him to face up to the fact that choosing to be an Autobot meant reflecting it in one's actions. Megatron used his old mass-displacement ability to shrink his robot form down, enabling him to safely make it through the foam and deactivate the engines, saving Ofsted XVII, "cancelling out" the duplicate ''Lost Light'', and reinstating their own. As they made their way back to the returned ''Lost Light'', Megatron invited Ravage to remain at his side. {{storylink|slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken|The Road Not Taken}}

[[File:MTMTE38 send me back.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|"AND I WANT YOUR LUNCH MONEY TOO NERD!"]]
Back aboard "their" ''Lost Light'', Megatron discovered the DJD had killed Trailcutter. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Though depressed by his death, Megatron was not above removing Trailcutter's forcefield generators from his body in another instance of forward planning. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Subsequently, the realization that Brainstorm had used his mysterious [[Time case|briefcase]] to travel back in time caused Megatron to have a mini-breakdown over how ''ridiculous'' the whole situation was, but he soon got ahold of himself, and theorized that Brainstorm was attempting to change history by killing Orion Pax. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Rodimus led a squad back in time in pursuit, which led to Megatron having a cross-time conversation with the young Orion Pax via Rodimus's "[[time phone]]" communicator. Pretending to be his own younger self during the call, Megatron found the young 'bot's optimism for the future a mixed source of both affirmation and tragic amusement. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays|All Our Parlous Yesterdays}} After Rodimus's team made several further jumps, Megatron deduced that the dates they were travelling to were not important moments in Pax's life, but Megatron's own. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 2: Stet|Stet}} Realizing that Brainstorm intended to kill ''him'' at the moment of his creation, he flew into a panicked rage, attacking [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor]] and demanding the scientist send him back in time to save himself, until Ultra Magnus restrained him and the pair talked him down. As events in the past played out, Megatron was visibly shaken to hear that Rewind had been the one to pull the trigger that destroyed the original spark in his body, and that the universe would truly be a better place had he never existed. Although Whirl subsequently set the timeline to rights, Megatron did not join in the celebrations when everyone returned from the past, retiring to his quarters. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE43 the old man.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"Oh my Primus! WHAT IS THAT?! SOME ONE GET RATC-?!?! ... Oh, wait. Nevermind. False alarm. It's my hand. Almost had me there guys." *tries to look relaxed, and nails it*]]

In silent isolation, Megatron reached out with his mind, trying to make contact with Whirl's arm through his space bridge. If he could teleport the arm ''back'', it would mean he would finally having a working two-way connection to a black hole. After days of trying, however, he still failed to succeed, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} and established another contingency plan by having Ravage recover one of Brainstorm's time-machine briefcases for him before they were all destroyed, thinking he might use it to escape his fate by traveling back in time. Megatron also dedicated some of his spare time to writing poetry, but his works remained largely unappreciated- a single poetry reading at [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]'s bar, [["Visages"]], was enough to empty the bar of its patrons. {{storylink|Our Steps Will Always Rhyme}} He, Rodimus, and Magnus answered a call from Optimus Prime inviting the ''Lost Light'' back to Cybertron for first contact with the colony world of [[Caminus (planet)|Caminus]], but they declined. {{storylink|First Contact (IDW)|First Contact}}

While the rest of the crew attended a party aboard the ''[[Vis Vitalis]]'', Rodimus and Megatron refrained from going. {{storylink|The Sensuous Frame}} The pair soon received an S.O.S. alerting them to an infestation of emotion-eating [[personality tick]]s on the ship; they headed over to help, and their combined charisma proved strong enough to "overdose" and kill the ticks as soon as they stepped into the room. {{storylink|The Frail Gaze}} Soon after, when [[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]]'s dying mind created a holomatter duplicate of Earth, Megatron took part in the voyage to the artificial planet to help save the metallurgist. The journey required him to project a holomatter avatar for the first time, which led him to note the fragility—but not weakness—of humans when his avatar was cut by broken glass. {{storylink|The One Where They Go to Earth}}

[[File:MTMTE44-MegatronLookAtTheFlowers.jpg|upright=2|right|thumb|"I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sound; the sound of billions of people calling your name." 
"My followers?" 
"Your victims."]]

When it was discovered that Swerve's life-threatening injuries had been caused by a bullet lodged in his body by the Autobot deep-cover spy [[Dominus Ambus|Agent 113]], Megatron and Magnus studied the bullet together, and discovered that it contained a map to [[Necroworld]], base of operations of the supposedly-mythical [[Mortilus|Necrobot]]. Rodimus proceeded to barge into the room to announce that he had unconsciously drawn a complete map to Cyberuptopia on his desk, and Megatron, unsettled to realize that this meant his day of judgement was now actually on the horizon, announced that, before following said map, they would first detour to investigate Necroworld. Megatron privately confided in Ravage that he wished to stave off his day of reckoning as long as possible... but found that such thoughts rudely pushed from his mind when he bore witness to the massive field of [[Cybertronian remembrance flower|flowers]] the Necrobot had planted in his honor, representing the countless lives he had taken. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}} With the weight of his history laid out before him so beautifully and terribly, Megatron realized that the future could not be avoided, and that any attempt to hide in the past was pointless. He buried the time-case Ravage had stolen for him amid the flowers. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:SpeakMemory2 MegatronRenouncesViolence.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|I have no enemies.]]
Megatron's fear of mnemosurgery would once again plague him when he awoke to find little Tailgate trying to perform mnemosurgery on him—part of a plot from [[Getaway]] to provoke Megatron into killing the little guy, in order to have Megatron either executed or imprisoned. The panicked Megatron almost fulfilled Getaway's plan for him, until [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] interceded by running Megatron through with his [[Great Sword]]. {{storylink|The Lopsided Triangle}} Once Getaway's plot had been foiled, Megatron was patched up and made amends with Cyclonus. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}} The whole experience proved to be the last straw; determined to break from his old ways, Megatron renounced all violence and became a pacifist. He chose a poor time to do it, unfortunately, as the halls of the ''Lost Light'' were soon stalked by the serial killer [[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]]. Megatron's attempts to talk the murderer into surrendering met with failure, and he had to be saved by Tailgate, whose recent traumatic experiences had induced a mutation in his spark that gave him super strength. {{storylink|Speak, Memory! (Part 2)}} Intrigued, Megatron wondered if ''pain'' was the factor that would give his spark the power to complete his black hole quest. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When the ''Lost Light'' was preparing to sneak through Mauler-inhabited space, Megatron and Ultra Magnus set about preparing the ship and the crew for the crossing. When a [[Scraplet]]-controlled [[Magnus Armor]] came shambling towards him, Megatron panicked, believing Magnus had come for a hug, before Swerve, Nautica and Whirl arrived to save him. {{storylink|Silent Light}} Not long after, Megatron joined the crew in a brief excursion into the past via "time windows" left over from Brainstorm's time-trip, which they used to honor the fallen crew members of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases}} In the days that followed, unable to think of a reason ''not'' to go, Megatron reluctantly accepted Whirl's invitation to "movie night", which turned out to be a screening of a documentary about his defeat of Sentinel Prime. Megatron disliked the whole production, especially the allegation that he had desecrated Sentinel's remains by ordering the theft of his head. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Do Not Go Gentle===
[[File:MTMTE50 megatron class dismissed.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|This is why we don't let you stay up all night listening to "''Instruments of Destruction''", Megs.]]
Megatron oversaw the ''Lost Light''{{'}}s campaign to liberate [[Miliarium]] from [[Rust Giant]]s, though he refrained from setting foot on the planet itself in order to maintain his vow of non-violence. He was irked to learn that the crew had withheld the information the inhabitants of the planet were organic, but he softened when he was given the chance to finally use the "[[roll out]]" command. Subsequently, during one of a series of classes Megatron had begun holding on the subject of the Knights of Cybertron, the ''Lost Light'' was attacked by a kind of "psychic weapon" that made multiple crew members experience terrible visions. Megatron heard the sound of every organic he had ever killed screaming, and momentarily driven mad, he lashed out at Minimus Ambus, who had come to his aid, and was horrified a moment later when he realized he'd reflexively forgotten his pacifism. Megatron and Rodimus led a team aboard the Rodpod to track the signal back to its source; it turned out to have actually been bait in a trap luring them back to Necroworld, where they were attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division, out to claim revenge on Megatron for renouncing Decepticonism. The Autobots took refuge in the Necrobot's fortress and re-established contact with the ''Lost Light'', only to learn that Getaway had staged a mutiny and taken control of the ship in their absence, and had alerted the [[Galactic Council]] to their location. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light: (1) How Bright Their Frail Deeds|How Bright Their Frail Deeds}}

[[File:TheSunInFlight MegatronTarn.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|"Look how old you've become." "Something far worse has happened to you."]]
Searching for weapons to fight the D.J.D., the Autobots found a teleport chamber and a room full of helpless organics in stasis pods. Brainstorm advocated using the chamber to escape, but Megatron—now truly realizing how alike organic and mechanical life was thanks to the trauma of the psychic attack—delivered a stirring speech that convinced everyone to stay to defend the pods. At Ravage's suggestion, Megatron went out to meet with Tarn one-on-one, and offered to surrender on the condition none of the others would be harmed. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 2: The Sun in Flight|The Sun in Flight}} As the two talked, Megatron expressed regret for "corrupting" who Tarn had been, and even for the fact Brainstorm's attempt to kill him hadn't succeeded. Disgusted to see his hero having "fallen" thus, Tarn began viciously beating Megatron, but Megatron refused to fight back; he even laughed at the irony of how Fool's Energon might have been changing his nature, and he didn't even care. Before Tarn could finish Megatron off, however, Overlord arrived, allied with the Galactic Council in pursuit of his own chance to kill Megatron. Tarn and Overlord fought, giving Megatron a chance to escape. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

[[File:RageRage-Megatronappears.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.67|You can practically hear "Instruments of Destruction" playing.]]

Though patched up, Megatron still refused to take part in the Autobots' battle with the D.J.D, rejecting the gift of a new fusion cannon Brainstorm had built from the teleport chapter for him, and urging the group to cherish what time they had left rather than waste it in battle. Megatron declared himself too weak and afraid to fight, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day|At Close of Day}} fearful that if he gave into violence, he would lose control and be unable to stop himself from once again becoming the monster he had been in the past. As the others went out to fight, Ratchet attempted to allay Megatron's fears by disclosing that Fool's Energon was only ever a placebo—Megatron had, in fact, been in control of himself all along. This revelation, coupled with the sight of Ravage being torn in half by Tarn out on the battlefield, spurred Megatron to action. Pain was, indeed, the trigger he had sought; in that moment, he successfully managed to draw Whirl's arm back through his space bridge, forging a functioning link with the black hole. Donning his new fusion cannon, he stormed out onto the battlefield and took on the D.J.D. single-handed while the other Autobots took Ravage back to the safety of the fortress. The fire in Megatron's belly seemed short lived, however, when a well-placed shot from Tarn destroyed his cannon, and he dropped to his knees in the middle of the battlefield, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 5: Rage, Rage|Rage, Rage}} but this quickly proved to be nothing more than a feint to draw the D.J.D. in, to trap them within a forcefield created by the generators Megatron had taken from Trailbreaker's body. [[File:mtmte 55 antimatter.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|"I'll light our [[Darkest hour]] the only way I know how! With more darkness!"]] Dropping his charade, Megatron unleashed the full power of the black hole's antimatter on the D.J.D., slaughtering each and every one of them. Before ending Tarn, he snatched his Decepticon-insignia facemask and slapped it onto his own chest; he would allow the antimatter to destroy him, and he would die as a Decepticon. Fate had a different path planned for Megatron, however; using the time-case Megatron had buried on the planet, which had been recovered by the Necrobot, Rodimus teleported into the forcefield and whisked Megatron away to safety before the antimatter detonated.

Reappearing in the fortress, Megatron was able to be by Ravage's bedside as he died from his injuries, with a final entreaty to Megatron that he "not change back". Megatron flew into a rage and almost turned his cannon on the Autobots before regaining control of himself. Realizing what he had done, Megatron tried to leave, only for [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]] to suddenly appear to bar his way—one of the occupants of the pods, who were ''not'' organics, but causalities of conflict rescued from throughout time by the Necrobot using the case. Pulled back from the brink at the last moment, Megatron dropped his cannon and embraced his old friend. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When [[Scarlett]] and [[Joe Colton (Dire Wraith)|Joe Colton]] discussed the Cybertronian influence on [[Earth]], Megatron's infiltration unit as well as his devastating invasion of Earth were key points. In light of Optimus Prime's recent actions, Colton seemed to have his doubts on whether or not Megatron had truly been the 'evil' one. {{storylink|Secret Raiders: A Revolution Prelude|Secret Raiders}}
{{-}}

===A New World===
[[File:SomeOtherCybertron MegatronTerminus.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Terminus' reappearance was down to the Necrobot time-travelling to rescue 'missing in action' robots, and the "organics" in the basement had in fact been those robots in disguise.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Megatron tried to fill in his old friend about the war, much as he doubted his objectivity. This was a disrupted by a minor quake which shook the whole planet. Deciding to finish his story later, Megatron paid his last respects to Ravage before [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] burst free from the ground. The two explained the quake as a [[geobomb]] sent by the [[Galactic Council]] but had seemingly burnt itself out. Megatron joined the group to return to Cybertron and collect a new ship, mainly to see Starscream's face when he revealed he was still alive. When Terminus said that Iacon was beautiful, Megatron began to correct him before he saw a bustling metropolis. Before the crew could process what happened, [[Twelve-of-Twelve]] showed up to arrest them. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron|Some Other Cybertron}}

[[File:anomie jabbing megs.jpeg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Hey. Put it away before I take it away.]]

Rewind quickly managed to deduce that the crew had been sent into [[Functionist Universe|another universe]], one where Megatron had never come online and the Functionists still ruled. After trading wits with the councillor, Megatron ordered the crew to surrender in the hope of reasoning with the Council. As the crew was marched through Iacon, the rebel [[Anti-Vocationist League]] tried to save them and got their arses kicked by [[Functionary|Functionaries]] in short order. Rodimus talked Megatron into action who, with a weary sigh, casually broke out of his stasis cuffs and directed the battle without even lifting a finger, much to Terminus' pride and amazement. The moment was ruined when [[Six-of-Twelve]] appeared on every TV on Cybertron, telling everyone they would see what the "Useless One", Rung, was actually ''for''. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 2: Anomie|Anomie}} The crew was brought to [[Kalis|Adaptica]] where [[Clicker]] explained why the Council had to grant the refugees safe haven before they were greeted by the sympathetic [[Nine-of-Twelve]]. Megatron abstained from the following meeting to meet with those who had removed their optics in protest of the Council using them as spies. Megatron approved. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|A World Misplaced}}

[[File:BadMoonRising MegatronTirade.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Even when [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]] suddenly returned, Megatron continued to watch Six-of-Twelve's broadcast and began fearing for the future when it was announced the Council was going to try and get to [[Vector Sigma]]. Megatron went to collect everyone so as to rescue both Rung and Vector Sigma. Before that discussion could continue, Luna 2 grew new craters and began sucking up people with its [[tractor beam]]s. Megatron quickly demanded details from Nine-of-Twelve (lest they decide he was complicit in this) who quickly offered them. Rodimus however was more interested in the moon's teleporter which Megatron called him out on for being more interested in chasing down the ''[[Lost Light]]'' than saving people. Rodimus in turn accused Megatron of wanting to stay in the Functionist timeline so as to not be judged by the [[Knights of Cybertron]] and laughing that Megatron wanted to do good after killing so many. Minimus Ambus halted their argument and Rodimus agreed to Megatron's plan to rescue Rung but on the condition that they would leave once they'd saved the day. Megatron told Nine-of-Twelve to rally the troops only for the councillor to inform him they had no troops. When he asked about offensive capabilities, Megatron learnt that most of the more powerful weapons hadn't been invented in the current timeline. He made due with putting what few weapons he had in the best positions before ordering Nine-of-Twelve to lead the evacuations. Megatron managed a small smile when he learnt that Ambus didn't share Rodimus' belief that Megatron was running from his trial. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 4: Bad Moon Rising|Bad Moon Rising}}

[[File:ModesOfProduction MegsConscience.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2]]
With Megatron's tactics, the beleaguered defenders were able to distract Luna 2 long enough for the refugees to escape. As Megatron and [[Roller (IDW)|Roller]] discussed the conspicuous absence of the native Orion Pax, the tractor beams increased in intensity prompting Terminus to call the two to evacuate. After Roller made his way out, Terminus attempted to convince Megatron to stay in the Functionist Universe, an idea Megatron admitted to entertaining, but ultimately refused to do, citing his need to make amends back home and that his friends aboard the ''Lost Light'' were the conscience he had to answer to. At the point, the statue they were in was sucked up by the tractor beams. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 5: Modes of Production|Modes of Production}}

[[File:LostLight6MegatronEnding.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.4|A brand new autobiography. Same title. Different words.]]
Though the beams began ripping Megatron apart, Terminus managed to free himself and saved his protege by firing at the tractor beam emitters, though accidentally shooting down the commandeered [[Cog (facility)|Cog]] in the process. As the native Rung super-sized himself to attack the moon, Megatron assured [[Clicker]] that Rung's own choices were open defiances of Functionism. At that moment, Rodimus came with the news that they could head home and save this Cybertron. Terminus revealed his intent to stay behind with Megatron requesting a moment to say goodbye to his mentor, his serious demeanour convincing Rodimus to grant it. As Megatron and Terminus said their final words, Terminus got a call and quickly ushered Megatron to a [[matter transporter]] only to find it abandoned. As Megatron ran back out to tell Terminus, Luna 2 teleported away to Megatron's shock and horror. Deciding to make the most of his new situation, he went on a "speaking tour", visiting the [[Anti-Vocationist League]]'s scattered cells, all over the planet, uniting them via his rhetoric and his new slogan of "Peace Through Empathy". After speaking at his old stomping ground of [[Nova Point]], Megatron went outside to contemplate the night sky before being interrupted by the chime of his communicator... having been contacted by the native Orion Pax. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 6: This Machine Kills Fascists|This Machine Kills Fascists}}

===Legacy===
Among [[Agonizer]]'s rare knick-knacks was an unfinished poem by Megatron. {{storylink|An Axe to Break the Ice}} When questioned by Bumblebee on why he insisted on remaining alone in the world, Starscream brought up the many beatings he'd received at Megatron's hand as a life lesson to remain alone and constantly on guard. {{storylink|The Price of You}} Such was Starscream's fear of his former leader that the Seeker seized up with fear when [[Vigilem]] assumed Megatron's form as he was when leading the Decepticons. Using the image of Megatron, Vigilem came within a hair's breath of destroying Starscream's mind, all the while the Seeker being too terrified to fight back. {{storylink|Your First Mistake}} Despite Megatron's defection, [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] still considered him a wise man and quoted his writings to incite a [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticon]] rebellion. {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 5: Future Glories Lost|Future Glories Lost}}

When [[Jazz (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Jazz]] was interviewed by the human news, he remembered Megatron's invasion of Earth. {{storylink|What It's Really Like}} [[Sideswipe (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sideswipe]] also remembered Megatron making a deal with Sunstreaker that preceded the invasion. {{storylink|The Life of Sideswipe}}

When Earth was properly inducted into the [[Council of Worlds]], [[Scarlett]] remembered the devastation Megatron had brought to Earth and wondered whether or not Earth was out of its weight class against Cybertronians as well as if Earth was truly ready to join the Council. {{storylink|First Strike issue 1|First Strike #1}} While in jail on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], Scarlett confessed to Optimus Prime that she had primarily come to Cybertron to save [[Joe Colton]] from himself, something which Optimus sympathized with, having gone through similar experiences with Megatron. {{storylink|First Strike issue 4|First Strike #4}} When justifying his genocidal campaign to Scarlett, Joe Colton claimed Earth was "one more Megatron" away from complete extinction. {{storylink|First Strike issue 6|First Strike #6}}

In [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]]'s [[Starscream: The Movie (film)|biopic]] of Starscream, Megatron was portrayed by [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]]. Thundercracker admitted he'd taken some creative liberties with Megatron's bodily appearance but felt those changes would help an unfamiliar audience more readily recognize the characters. {{storylink|Starscream: The Movie (comic)|Starscream: The Movie}}

After receiving a life sentence, Starscream defended his reign to Bumblebee by stating that, unlike Megatron, he hadn't plunged Cybertron into four million years of war. {{storylink|The Falling, Chapter 1: Surfeit of Primes|Surfeit of Primes}}

After seemingly dying and being sent to the [[Transformer afterlife|Afterspark]] had sent Rodimus into a mild depression, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] rhetorically asked "What Would Megatron Do?", threatening Rodimus's fragile ego enough to rally him into action. {{storylink|The Everlasting Voices (1): Metastasis|Metastasis}}

===The Great Return===
[[File:LL21 Megatron Returns.jpg|thumb|left||"Did'ja miss me?"]]
Megatron subsequently became leader of the AVL, drawing both Orion and [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] into the fold, while also taking time to fulfill his original ambition of becoming a medic. Megatron also found the discarded ''Unitrex-1'' and claimed it as the flagship of the AVL, dubbing it the ''[[Last Light (ship)|Last Light]]''. When the Functionist Council built a set of [[planetary engine]]s onto Cybertron to compensate for Luna 2's loss, the AVL followed them through the [[Warren]], warning many alien populations of the Functionists' genocidal intentions and allowing them to evacuate in time. The Functionists responded to this by engineering Cybertron with a robot mode cast in the likeness of [[Primus]]. Megatron's heroism eventually drew the attention of the Functionists who took great pride in killing his closest allies before eventually believing to have slain the ex-tyrant at [[Perseppalae]]. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

[[File:ReturnOfTheKing MegatronTreatsDrift.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2.0|''Instruments of re-construct-iooooon, tools of first aiiiiid!'']]
In truth, both Megatron and the ''Last Light'' had survived and continued to follow the Functionist recon ships. When the [[Adaptus|Grand Architect]]'s [[God Gun]] opened a portal back into Megatron's native universe, the ''Last Light'' was caught up in the rush, emerging ahead of the enemy fleet. Detecting his friends' spark signatures, Megatron immediately called Rodimus. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 3): Farsickness|Farsickness}} Though the Autobot initially believed that Megatron was the one staging the invasion, Megatron was quick to correct him, drawing their attention to the planet-sized Primus effigy, before requesting their coordinates for rescue. Once the ''Last Light'' shook off the recon ships, Megatron ordered his friends freed, recovering most of them from the Architect's clutches ([[Scavengers (G1)|and a few Decepticons too]]) before he caught them all up on what had transpired since they'd parted ways. He also demonstrated his new skills as a medic by treating the wounded Drift for a [[zero point]] affliction. When the [[Epistemus|Magnificence]] proposed blowing up "Primus", Megatron immediately shot down the idea, noting the billions of innocent Cybertronians still trapped on their homeworld. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

After Rodimus had freed himself and reclaimed his ship, the two ships set down to compare notes with everyone transferring over to the ''Lost Light''. Despite the Magnificence's boasts of intelligence, Megatron still refused to blow up "Primus". His devotion to saving the citizenry proved the catalyst for a group brainstorm to come up with a plan to simultaneously open ''twelve'' [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrices of Leadership]], one on each of the planet's [[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]s, to overload Vector Sigma and kill the Functionists merged with the computer. At this, the Magnificence spoke in the unholy voice of the [[Omega Guardian]]s, revealed to have been manipulating events and needing "Primus" to explode, who swore to return and "eat everything". Megatron made an impassioned speech to the aliens, swearing to stop them, and distracting them long enough for [[Nickel]] to simply crush the Magnificence. The distraction however meant that the ''Last Light'' was left unattended when the Functionists finally turned their attention to the last Cybertron, violently dying with the planet. When the ''Lost Light'' took off, Megatron ordered the ship turned around so they could save the universe. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 5): The Unremembering|The Unremebering}}

[[File:LL24 Megatron GNNN!.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|left|Megatron is forced to admit that he'll never truly have [[The Touch]].]]
After [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]] showed up and slammed [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]] into the gargantuan robot's [[neural cluster]] to convert it back into planet mode, Megatron coordinated with [[Flame (Marvel)|Flame]] to properly ally with the Grand Architect's remaining troops. With Rodimus, Megatron made his way to the [[Nova Point]] hot spot where they were beset upon by legions of [[Functionary|Functionaries]]. To complicate matters, the Matrices refused to open, prompting Megatron to rally Rodimus into giving a final speech to the crew and reaffirm their morality. Though the speech had the desired effect, it left Rodimus open to having his left arm blown off before he could open his own Matrix. Megatron took over and tried to open the talisman himself, but his lingering doubts and guilt meant it refused to open for him. The weakened Rodimus then requested the artifact, managing to open it by substituting his missing limb with his teeth, the energies of all twelve destroying the Functionists and reigniting Luna 1's dormant hot spot. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 6): A Spark Among Embers|A Spark Among Embers}}

[[File:MegatronGoodbye.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|"One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."]]
As the crew took stock, [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] arrived to inspect "New Cybertron" before declaring that, since the [[Knights of Cybertron]] didn't exist, Megatron would once again have to stand trial, this time with the [[Galactic Council]] presiding. Over Rodimus's protests, Megatron agreed to go quietly but was nonetheless allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' for one last "victory lap" cruise. As the crew prepared to quantum jump home, the science team proposed the risky gamble of recreating the malfunctioning launch, thereby quantum duplicating themselves before then shunting the duplicates into a parallel universe to ensure that the ''Lost Light''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s adventures would never truly end. When the time to jump came, the crew simply wound up back on Cybertron.

As they all settled into ''Swerve's'' for a last drink, Magnus recited his favorite poem, which Megatron revealed he had written under a pseudonym. Adding that it was Impactor's favorite too, Megatron lamented that he'd wasted his life. Not wanting to leave it at that, Magnus gave a toast to all the friendships and bonds they'd forged... before construction cranes killed the moment and began disassembling the ship.

With Ultra Magnus once again acting as his defense orator, Megatron stood trial, Rodimus even falsely testifying that Megatron had been the one to open the duplicate Matrix. As the jury debated between infinite imprisonment and outright execution, Rodimus and Megatron had one last discussion, with Megatron revealing he'd always held onto his [[Rodimus Star]], before Magnus led him away. On their way to the sentencing chamber, Magnus revealed he was going to follow Megatron's advice and destroy the [[Magnus Armor]].

Years later, when Ratchet had passed, Rodimus placed Megatron's withered Rodimus Star on his tomb.

And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate ''Lost Light'' materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. {{storylink|How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2}}

===Pax Cybertronia===
In a vision of the future seen by Ironhide and Alpha Trion during the reformatting of Cybertron, fifteen million years hence, Ironhide still believed Megatron to be alive and promised a young Autobot they would defeat him again if he ever returned. {{storylink|Pax Cybertronia (issue)|Pax Cybertronia}} {{storylink|A Better Tomorrow}}
{{-}}

==''Spotlight: Mirage''==
[[File:SLMirage all in good time.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5]]
Somewhere, in an unknown time or place, the self-serving mercenary Mirage dreamed of Megatron and his Decepticons launching a massive attack on the Autobots. But Mirage knew that to only be a dream; in reality, the Autobots were almost eradicated, and Megatron had hired him to hunt down the last of their number. Megatron was outraged by the mercenary's demand for a majority share in all energon mining operations as payment, but it proved to be fuel well spent, as he soon succeeded in locating Optimus Prime and forcing him to surrender. Megatron demanded the prisoners be executed despite Mirage's promise to spare Autobot lives. Seeing Mirage's hesitation, Megatron appealed to his greed. {{storylink|Spotlight: Mirage}}
{{--}}

==Ask Vector Prime==
[[File:AHM 1cvrEXCL.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.85|I think this is a killing joke!]]
In [[Primax 708.10-R Lambda]], Megatron cracked the codes to an Autobot forward listening outpost. He walked in, shot [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]], and then laughed and took a photo of what he had done. {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/06}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
[[File:MegatronOrigin2 Megs hair.jpg|thumb|upright=0.55|Megatron shakes his dreads.]]
*In [[Megatron Origin issue 2|''Megatron Origin'' #2]], we see that Megatron's helmet is, in fact, a helmet and not part of his head (at least in his original body). Upon removing his helmet, Megatron then briefly unfurls a crest. The significance of this moment is not explained, but it is briefly revisited in [[Remembrance Day|''More than Meets the Eye'' #14]] when a helmetless Megatron spars with [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]].
[[File:MTMTE Megatron Alt.jpg|thumb|left]]
*Apparently, the [[:File:DonFigStealthMegatronPitchedDesign.jpg|stealth bomber Megatron design]] debuted in [[Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|''The Transformers'' vol. 1 #15]] and used by IDW for a while was created by artist [[Don Figueroa]]. However, Figueroa created the design as part of a story pitch to editor [[Andy Schmidt]]; a pitch the editor rejected. Schmidt proceeded to use the design for this comic, but without compensation or credit to Figueroa; something the artist was highly displeased about.<ref>[http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/don-figueroa-designed-idw-s-stealth-bomber-megatron-but-wasn-t-compensated--t96022s0.php archive of Figueroa's post on the subject at Seibertron forum]</ref>
*Megatron's post-"[[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|Dark Cybertron]]" body was never seen transformed into its alt mode, although [[Alex Milne]] tweeted concept art during the run of ''Lost Light'' that showed Megatron transformed into a heavy tank.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Because you asked for it and because I found the old sketch which I recently cleaned up. Here is MTMTE Megatron's alt mode (Fusion canon included) I recently found all the design scribbles which I will clean up to share soonish. Enjoy #transformers #MTMTE #megatron https://t.co/Dth3GnOXQ8|link=https://twitter.com/markerguru/status/951902998141087744|name=Alex Milne|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=01|day=12|(defunct=)}}</ref> As this tank design would have required Megatron's signature Fusion Cannon, which had been discarded prior, it would have been left largely unhelpful anyway. By contrast, [[Nelson Dániel]]'s [[:File:LL3 cvrRI.jpg|retailer incentive cover]] for [[Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|''Lost Light'' #3]] showcases a different tank design using a different cannon.
*[[James Roberts]] clarified on Twitter that any members of the [[Functionist Council]] who survived into the Great War era were assassinated by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]] at Megatron's command.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Megs' choice|link=https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/1055107548318220288|name=James Roberts|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=10|day=24|(defunct=)}}</ref>
*In [[How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2|''Lost Light'' #25]], it is revealed that Megatron (under a pseudonym) wrote Ultra Magnus's, and Impactor's, favorite poem, "[[Afterlight]]". ''"You flare, you flicker, you fade. And in the end, all your tomorrows become yesterdays."''
*Megatron's serial number, "071-980", is an apparent reference to July 1980, the month in which [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]]'s ''{{w|Shogun Warriors (toys)|Shogun Warriors}}'' #18 was published, in which the name "Megatron" was first used by the company.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Anti-Vocationist League]]
[[Category:Combiners]]
[[Category:Decepticon leaders]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Autobots]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Decepticons]]
[[Category:Gladiators]]
[[Category:Lost Light crew]]
[[Category:Point One Percenters]]
[[Category:Rulers of Cybertron]]
[[Category:Turncoats]]

Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

2025-12-06T19:41:51Z

MetalMuncher11: /* Notes */

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[[File:IDWMegatron.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron A, Megatron B, Megatron Retailer's Incentive, Megatron Dynamic Forces Exclusive variant, and Megatron (Second Printing).]]
'''Megatron''' waged a battle to destroy the evil forces of the [[Senate]]! Then he ''continued'' to wage a war against the not-so-evil forces of freedom, organic life, and the very idea of an Autobot living. After [[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|some life-changing events]], he waged a war against the evil forces of his own past [[Decepticon Justice Division|legacy]]. Currently, however, Megatron's revolution has come full circle, waging a war against the evil forces of the [[Functionist Council]]!

Megatron is a master planner, constantly a step ahead of any opponent and even ahead of what he wants ''now'', preparing for anything he may want in the future. He has the physical might to overpower most foes but it's his mind that has one-upped three Primes and rival Decepticons. But his cold clinical nature is a front he has to struggle to keep up, as he's quick to anger and quicker to use excessive violence as his answer to any problem. Megatron's trying to change but he's spent such a long time revelling in violence, it may have been a lost cause from the start.

:*''First Appearance:'' [[Infiltration issue 4|''Transformers: Infiltration'' #4]]

{{quote|So long as you stand in my way—so long as '''anyone''' stands in my way, I will respond by killing. Murder on an '''industrial''' scale. Because in the final analysis, I would happily wade across a river of corpses, chest-deep in rust and grease and engine oil, just to crush the spark of the last Autobot standing. And I would not do so simply as a means to an end. No. I'd do it, Prime, because it would give me '''pleasure'''.|Megatron to Optimus Prime|"[[Chaos Theory Part 1]]"}}

{{quote|I once told Optimus that I killed for the sake of killing. I wanted to make him hurt me, you see, because when he hurts others, he hurts himself. And the thing is, when those words were in my head I didn't think I meant them; but when they left my mouth, I realized that I '''did'''. If the world thinks you're a monster, what does it matter? The world is '''wrong'''. But when you start to think of '''yourself''' as a monster...|Megatron on the previous quote|"[[slaughterhouse]]"}}

__TOC__
==Fiction==
===Birth of a tyrant===
[[File:Mtmte17-point one percenter spark.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Not so tough without a body, are ya?]]
'''Megatron of [[Tarn (polity)|Tarn]]''' was the first "hybrid" Transformer, a powerful forged superspark in a constructed cold body. His [[spark]] came to life in the middle of a field full of newborn sparks, a so-called "[[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]", on [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]], the "Seething Moon". The hot spot remained dormant for ages until it was finally fertilized when [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rodimus]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] set foot on the ground in the year [[2013]]. Within an instant, the entire moon lit up, as a billion sparks suddenly flared to life all over its surface. [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] was the first to point out that one of the sparks was glowing green, which [[Brainstorm (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Brainstorm]] recognized as a "superspark"—a vanishingly rare, insanely powerful [[Point One Percenter]]. Despite [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor's]] horrified protestations, Brainstorm immediately began to excavate and harvest the spark, {{storylink|Remain in Light 1 of 5: The Fecund Moon|The Fecund Moon}} taking it with him for future use. {{storylink|Remain in Light 5 of 5: This Calamitous Life|This Calamitous Life}}

[[File:MTMTE37 megatron under construction.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.0|Megatron (Work in progress)]]
Megatron's original body, on the other hand, was one of many [[reproduction|constructed cold]] during the [[Silver Harvest]], specifically built in the 1st Cycle 012, during the era of [[functionism]], in [[Con Facility 113]]. The spark originally intended for this body was one generated from the [[Matrix of Leadership]] by [[Solomus|Tyrest]], but this spark was destroyed by [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had travelled back in time alongside several other [[Autobot]]s, originally to ''prevent'' a time-travelling Brainstorm from killing Megatron and thereby unwittingly creating a [[Functionist Universe|dystopian alternate timeline]] in which the [[Functionist Council]] would rule [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. In the process, Brainstorm had also begun to erase data about Megatron, including his batch code. After Rewind had "killed" Megatron in order to prevent the destruction he knew the latter would come to wreak upon the universe, fellow time-travelling Autobot [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], who loathed the Functionists, took it upon himself to fix the timeline, taking advantage of a temporary distraction by nabbing the harvested Point One Percenter spark Brainstorm had taken back in time with him and placing it inside Megatron's now sparkless body—and thus Megatron was ''truly'' born. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

Megatron desired to be a medic, {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} but the doctrine of functionism was such that one's [[alternate mode]] denoted one's role in society, and one's role determined one's rights. With the true nature of his exceptionally rare spark evidently unknown, Megatron was assigned the task for which his body had been built: that of [[energon]] miner, a member of the lower class, toiling in a mine under [[Nova Point]]. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron symbol creation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|... And thus the "Silica Fracturism" art movement was born.]]
An idealist, intellectual, and poet, Megatron was sickened by the caste-ridden social apartheid of [[Nominus Prime]]'s Cybertron, and so he wrote [[After the Ark: Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress|a treatise]] on how pacifist dissent and the exchange of ideas could change things. It was while he was sharing this work with his miner friend [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] over a drink in [[Maccadam's Old Oil House|Maccadam's New Oil House]] that the event occurred which would change the course of his life, as Impactor wound up being drawn into a bar brawl with some of the city's upper classes (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Rung and a [[curly straw]]), and Megatron, who himself had actually ''not'' been involved in the brawl, instead cowering underneath a table, was among those arrested after the fracas. Megatron's writings had been growing in popularity and inspiring some dissent against the current regime, so in order to silence him, the [[Senate]] arranged for a police officer on their payroll, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], to kill him. Before Whirl could finish the job, however, police captain [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]], having discovered Megatron's innocence thanks to the bartender's testimony, arranged for his release. Despite Pax expressing support for the message of his writings, Megatron now found himself filled with rage and hate, disillusioned with his former ideology and realizing the power of applied violence. Angrily hurling the datapad on which he had written his treatise through a public info-screen, Megatron observed the jagged shape of the shattered glass, and later turned it into a [[insignia|symbol]] for his cause. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}}

[[File:MTMTE34 what you might call a thinker.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|When considering the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, one question remains unanswered. Why am I always pictured with phallic-shaped items in awkward positions?]]
Megatron's samizdat writings began to circulate in Cybertron's underground, spawning the "[[Decepticon]]" movement, its name derived from its own slogan, "You are being deceived", warning the common 'bot of the Senate's true nature. Knowing that, at this stage, assassinating Megatron would merely make him a martyr, the Senate instead elected to relocate him off-planet, reassigning him to a mining facility on the world of [[Messatine]] while they tried their own schemes to defuse the growing Decepticon movement. {{storylink|Shadowplay, Part 1: Post Hoc|Post Hoc}} It was there that Megatron met [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]], an elderly fellow miner who encouraged him to keep writing, and who, in addition to proofreading his works for him, smuggled each new tract back to Cybertron, helping to continue the spread of the Decepticon movement. When Terminus was maimed in a mining accident and had his fuel rations cut off, Megatron kept him alive by sharing his own [[energon]] with the old 'bot. Eventually, Senate agents [[Froid]] and [[Trepan]] were dispatched to Messatine to perform mind-altering [[Shadowplay]] upon Megatron, in order to cut his writings off at the source. Tased into submission and strapped to Trepan's operating table, Megatron was helpless to stop the [[mnemosurgery|mnemosurgeon]] from beginning his vile work. Though the arrival of Froid's rival psychopathologist [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] fortunately forced Trepan to stop before Megatron's personality was altered, the experience left the miner with a lifelong fear of mnemosurgery. Subsequently, a mysterious surge of energy deep within the mine (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Brainstorm) forced an evacuation of the facility; Megatron raced back to his quarters to carry Terminus to safety, but found his friend was not there. With time running out and no sign of Terminus anywhere, Megatron instead chose to save the stack of datapads containing his unpublished works—a decision that would haunt him. {{storylink|Births, Deaths, and Interventions}}

[[File:MegatronOrigin1 first kill.jpg|thumb|upright=1.38|"You know, sometimes I think I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now its all gone. And I'll never get it back in me. It's too late."]]
Megatron was relocated to [[Mining Outpost C-12]], and continued to seethe with hate and frustration in his new workplace. His discontent reached a peak when, some time later, [[Decimus|Senator Decimus]] arrived to announce that the mine was being automated and the workers would be relocated. When one of the Senator's guards killed a worker for insubordination and claims of Senate corruption, Megatron's fury boiled over and he hurled his pickaxe at Decimus. In turn, he was attacked by the Senator's guard, whom he killed by smashing his head to fragments—the first time he had ever taken a life. A riot erupted around him, but Megatron himself could only sit amongst the chaos, staring at his fuel-stained hands in abject horror, which allowed him to be easily pacified and rounded up with the other miners as the mayhem was quickly suppressed. En route to [[Penal Facility H-3|imprisonment]] back on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], however, [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] broke free and started a riot aboard [[Longshot (G1)|their ship]]. Megatron joined in their effort, and together, they overpowered their guards, took control of the ship, and disappeared into the [[Kaon (polity)|Kaon]] underground. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 1|Megatron Origin #1}}

[[File:MegsOrigin2 Cykill.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Battle of the Awesome Voices!]]
After evading law enforcement, Megatron joined a team of underworld gladiators under the tutelage of [[Clench (G1)|Clench]]. Initially repulsed by killing his opponents, the games eventually turned him more brutal and excessive, and he took control of the entire operation from Clench. The opportunistic Senator [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]], after seeing how much money there was in the underworld matches, covertly sent his agent [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] to offer Megatron weaponry and technology to upgrade himself and his comrades. Their meeting was spied upon by [[Bumper (G1)|Bumper]] and [[Fastback (G1)|Fastback]], agents from the Senate's forces, who Megatron slew. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 2|Megatron Origin #2}} Subsequently, impressed by how he treated his animal-form [[Decepticon Mini-Cassette|cassette partners]] as equals (in contradiction to the teachings of his Senate masters), Megatron invited Soundwave back to the gladiator pits and gave him permission to use his mind-reading abilities on him. Within Megatron's mind, Soundwave saw his honest desire for all Cybertronians to be true equals, and was so moved by it that he joined Megatron's cause. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}}

Gradually, Megatron used the gladiatorial games to drum up an army of violent malcontents, sending Soundwave to recruit more and more warriors to his cause. Such recruits included [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who he was presented with while having an arm he lost in a brawl replaced with a new limb that incorporated an [[energon mace]], {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} and the disenfranchised warrior [[Drift (G1)|Drift]], who was personally asked by Megatron to fight at his side when he attended a Decepticon rally, and whom Megatron rechristened "Deadlock", {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} and transformed into a capable Decepticon warrior. {{Storylink|Drift issue 3|Drift #3}} A wave of terrorism and sabotage spread across Cybertron at his command: bombings, wrecking factories and fuel plants, shutting down transport links, a mass poisoning to tank a corporation, and a very public kidnapping of Senator Decimus. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}}

Seeking to enhance his army even further, Megatron reached out to [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Senator Shockwave]], offering to supply him the resources he required to carry out his own mysterious experiments in exchange for his using the teachings of his lost mentor [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] to create a [[combiner]] that would serve the Decepticons. Shockwave cautioned that it could take some time, but Megatron was content to wait. {{storylink|Shockwaves}}

[[File:Apexthrone.JPG|upright=1.4|thumb|You should have gone to IKEA.]]
Despite all his efforts, Megatron believed that the Senate was still not taking the Decepticons seriously, so Soundwave formulated a plan for a declaration of intent that could be not denied: lure the Senate to Kaon and murder them. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}} In preparation for this scheme, Megatron offered to restore Shockwave's lost hands—a victim of [[empurata]]—believing that doing so might speed his work. {{storylink|Shockwaves}} The following day, in accordance with Soundwave's plan, Megatron and the Decepticons allowed themselves to be arrested by Sentinel Prime's men, after which Soundwave was freed on Ratbat's orders, while Starscream would ensure his own release by pretending to defect. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} Together, Soundwave and Starscream exterminated the entire Senate, then liberated Megatron and the rest of their comrades, in the process granting their leader the gift of a [[fusion cannon]] liberated from the Senate forces' armory. Megatron led his army against Sentinel Prime's men, killed Sentinel himself, and took control of Kaon, now ready to turn his insurgency into a full-blown war. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 4|Megatron Origin #4}}

After Sentinel Prime's body was laid to rest, his head inexplicably went missing. With the people of Cybertron unaware that Sentinel was a [[Titan Master]] who had disconnected from his [[Transtector]], the Decepticons were blamed for mutilating the corpse, allegations that Megatron denied. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Early days of war===
Megatron formally declared war on "[[Declaration Day]]" when he delivered a stirring speech from [[Nova Point|Nova Peak]]. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The self-described "second order" he ever gave was that under no circumstances was any Decepticon to kill Whirl—Megatron wanted his old tormentor for himself. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} The growing Decepticon forces swiftly spread across six [[Polities of Cybertron|Torus-States]], {{storylink|Parasites}} and to combat them, Cybertron's new leader [[Zeta Prime (G1)|Zeta Prime]] assembled a new military force, the "[[Autobot]]s", led by Megatron's old acquaintance [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]]. Researching his new opposite number, Megatron was intrigued to discover that his now-abandoned treatise had been a source of inspiration for Pax, who had even quoted from it when he confronted the Senate and openly accused them of corruption. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}} Early into the war, [[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] would admit to Pax that Megatron talked about him sometimes, when he was tired. When Pax asked what was said, Bludgeon told him that it would make "both of us feel ''uncomfortable''". {{storylink|Omega's Conundrum}}

[[File:Autocracy4 backroom meeting.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron Delightful Destruction Exclusive Variant]]
When Orion Pax came close to Kaon during a mission, Megatron saw it as a chance to speak to him and had his Decepticons bring him in. {{storylink|The Hunt for Soundwave}} Megatron attempted to convince him that Zeta Prime was even worse than he appeared—that he had planned to let Orion die in [[Nyon]] so that he could use his death as pretext to invade the rebel-infested city and drain the citizens of their energon—and proposed they work together against him, but Orion refused to hear him and then escaped. Knowing the doubts he'd placed in his head would only serve to damage the Autobot cause, Megatron let him go. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}}

[[File:Autocracy8 megs and pax together.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|"Megatron, let's roll." "What you thinking?" "...Pub?"]]
Megatron continued to keep an eye on Orion Pax's activities, spying on his encounter with the Nyon insurgent [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Hot Rod]]. {{storylink|Ruins}} When Zeta Prime's [[Guardian robot|Omega Destructor]]s suddenly attacked Nyon, Megatron was surprised by how zealously the new Prime fought against the city's rebels, but his real interest still lay on how Orion would handle the crisis. {{storylink|Purge}} Orion turned on Zeta, who in turn attempted to kill him, prompting Megatron to intervene and force the Prime to retreat. Taking Orion back to Kaon, he again offered that they work together against Zeta's corruption, and this time the Autobot officer accepted. {{storylink|Choices}} As their combined forces invaded the [[Citadel]] in Iacon, Megatron and Orion Pax made their way inside and fought Zeta Prime in person. The battle ended with Megatron killing the Prime with a head shot, and with his objective complete, he then betrayed the injured Orion by shooting him in the back. {{storylink|Overthrown}} This moment lived in infamy as the point at which Megatron revealed his true colors, no longer couched in ideology; {{storylink|Dinobot Hunt (IDW)|Dinobot Hunt}} though curiously, an alternate report incorrectly implied he had assassinated Zeta from afar, sniping him with the rifle alternate mode of [[Vos (G1)|Vos]]. {{storylink|Bullets}} {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}}

[[File:Autocracy12 no you dont megatron.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|I can't be the only one with déjà vu here.]]
With Zeta dead, Megatron conquered Iacon and declared himself ruler of Cybertron. His soldiers patrolled the planet's streets to "keep the peace", mostly by hunting down and capturing any remaining Autobots who opposed him. {{storylink|Transformation (issue)|Transformation}} During his rule, Megatron attempted to sway the neutral Hot Rod into joining the Decepticons, but he decided otherwise upon witnessing Megatron ordering the execution of several Autobot prisoners. {{storylink|Rise}} Megatron was shocked to learn that Orion Pax had survived the betrayal and was organizing a rebellion against him under the name "Optimus Prime", and even more shocked that people actually had the courage to listen to him. He wasted no time in striking back against the rebels approaching the Citadel with the full force of his army. {{storylink|Broadcast}} During the battle, Megatron unleashed Zeta Prime's energy-draining [[vamparc ribbon|vamparc annihilator]], but when the gigantic [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] took out the cannon, Megatron fell to the streets and was confronted by Optimus Prime himself. He lost the ensuing [[The Transformers: The Movie|familiar-looking duel]] and was badly wounded after a failed attempt to defeat Prime by holding Hot Rod hostage, forcing him to escape aboard Astrotrain. As he fled, he warned Optimus that he hadn't won, he had only started a war unlike any Cybertron had ever seen. {{storylink|Endgame}}

[[File:Monstrosity3 Megatron and Pentius.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron insists on wearing his Darksiders cosplay when he's walking his pet Quintesson.]]
Before Megatron could recover from his injuries, he was betrayed by [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]], who was gunning for the position of Decepticon leader (with aid from Starscream). As punishment for his failure to hold Iacon, Scorponok banished the wounded Megatron to the hell-world of [[Junkion (planet)|Junkion]]. {{storylink|Derelicts}} Further injured in battle with some [[Junkion (species)|cannibalistic natives]], he stubbornly refused to give up and used the trash littering the world to patch himself up, leaving him with a mismatched, monstrous appearance. {{storylink|Wreckage (issue)|Wreckage}} While searching for a way off Junkion, Megatron entered the wreckage of a starship and found a trapped [[Quintesson]] named [[Pentius]], who had mapped the planet and knew of an area known as the [[Pillar of Rust]] where starships may land and take off. Megatron freed the alien to guide him there, while also putting him in chains to serve as his slave. {{storylink|Faces of Darkness}}

[[File:Monstrosity7 megatron takes pentius spark.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"Thanks for turning me into the psychopath I've been the whole time!"]]
While crossing the [[Acid Sea]] on the way to the Pillar, Megatron was attacked by [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticons]] who pulled him into the depths. {{storylink|Rage (IDW)|Rage}} For reasons unknown he was then released, the creatures having allowed him to live. As he emerged, Pentius was waiting with a history lesson, telling him that Junkion was once a prosperous world until its inhabitants drained it of resources, leaving it the broken husk it is today: a fate that may also await Cybertron. Megatron rejected this possibility, declaring that under his rule, Cybertron—and his legacy—would last forever. {{storylink|Fallout (issue)|Fallout}} On arrival at the Pillar of Rust, Megatron was met by the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]], who had come to Junkion to finish what Scorponok had started by killing him. He was able to fight off several of his attackers, but [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Gar]] was too much for him to handle in his injured state. Egged on and taunted by Pentius, Megatron realized he had one last resource left to use: the Quintesson himself. Telling Pentius that his legacy would live on within him, he tore out the alien's [[spark]] and used it to fuel himself, granting him enough power to defeat Hun-Gar. He spared the Terrorcons in exchange for their loyalty, then returned to Cybertron on their ship to take revenge on Scorponok and take back control of the Decepticons. {{storylink|Prey (issue)|Prey}}

[[File:Monstrosity12 strange turns.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Well, well, well... how the [[Microbots|tables turn]]...]]
Megatron returned to a Cybertron in chaos, as the ancient reptilian [[Trypticon (G1)|Trypticon]] had been unleashed by Scorponok and was in the midst of razing Iacon. After reasserting his leadership of the Decepticons by beating Scorponok nearly to death, he had Shockwave restore his body to its original shape and condition, {{storylink|The Illusion of Control}} and set out to investigate the Trypticon situation alone, unwilling to risk his soldiers in the face of the beast's uncontrolled fury. Finding an injured Optimus Prime on the battlefield, Megatron lectured him, but opted to leave him alive so that he could watch as the Decepticon leader defeated the enemy that Prime could not. Megatron was attacked by [[Grimlock (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Grimlock]], but as they grappled, they were swallowed by Trypticon. {{storylink|Annihilation}} Within the giant, the pair set their differences aside to fend off the [[cyber-morphic predator]]s that populated his interior, and together, they destroyed Trypticon's internal power cell, taking him offline. A tense standoff between the Autobots and Decepticons followed as the two warriors emerged from within Trypticon, but both sides agreed to go their separate ways for the time being. Not long after the battle, however, Megatron removed Pentius's spark from within himself and installed it within Trypticon. {{storylink|Belly of the Beast (issue)|Belly of the Beast}}

[[File:Primacy4 megatron imprisoned.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"I just need a feather from Laserbeak and I'll be out of here in no time..."]]
After being fully repaired following his ordeals, Megatron roused Trypticon by exploiting the connection they now shared thanks to both having borne Pentius's spark. Discovering that Trypticon now possessed the consciousness of Pentius, Megatron was immediately suspicious of the Quintesson's potential treachery and was staggered by the visions of undiluted evil he saw in the aliens' past via their spark-link, but Trypticon assured him that he was dedicated to their shared goal of breaking a world. {{storylink|Primacy issue 1|Primacy #1}} Using Trypticon's city-ship alternate mode, Megatron took to the stars, rounding up the scattered Decepticon army and even recruiting Junkions and Sharkticons. {{storylink|Primacy issue 2|Primacy #2}} Returning to Cybertron in force, Megatron was content to wait and watch from the sidelines while his troops viciously tore into Iacon. Trypticon was defeated in battle by Metroplex, at which point Megatron's folly was revealed: through their link, Pentius mockingly revealed his intention to use Trypticon consume Cybertron once the Autobots and Decepticons had weakened each other. {{storylink|Primacy issue 3|Primacy #3}} Leaving his men with orders to burn Iacon to the ground if he failed in order to spare it such a fate, Megatron set off for Trypticon's fallen body in hopes that he would be able to remove Pentius's spark before the giant revived. Confronted atop Trypticon by Optimus Prime, Megatron tried to goad the Autobot leader into destroying him, believing that Pentius would be destroyed with him thanks to their link. Refusing to accept death as the answer, Optimus instead used the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to purify Megatron, burning Pentius's spark away; Megatron, however, vowed that he would never stop hating Optimus in spite of what he had done for him. Sadly resigned to the fact that the once-noble revolutionary he had admired was now lost, Optimus knocked out the weakened Megatron and took him into custody. {{storylink|Primacy issue 4|Primacy #4}}
{{-}}

===The spreading conflict===
[[File:MTMTE14 megatron vs overlord.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"For you, the day Megatron graced your Pit was the most important Day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."]]
Megatron's forces were quick to come to his rescue however, breaking him out under cover of the night. {{storylink|Post}} Early in the continuing conflict, Megatron authored ''[[Towards Peace]]'', a new treatise to replace ''After the Ark'', in which he described continuing to fight the war until the very notion of conflict was literally inconceivable. Then and only then would he finally give up his fusion cannon. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The earliest edition of the work featured a dedication to Terminus, which Megatron would later remove to reflect the lesson his friendship with Terminus had taught him: not to get attached. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Friendships were a weakness, and Megatron exploited this in the cruelest way possible: by corrupting Optimus Prime's old friend [[Tarn (G1)|Damus]], turning him into one of the most vicious, dedicated Decepticons of all, a devoted worshiper at the altar of Megatron, purely to hurt Prime. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

Megatron oversaw the creation of a class of super-warriors known as the [[Warriors Elite]], selecting only his most powerful troops to undergo the torturous upgrade, including [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]], a brilliant sadist and frequent opponent of his from his pit-fighting days who had developed an obsession with Megatron after the Decepticon leader dealt him his first ever defeat. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} At some point, he also created the [[Decepticon Justice Division]] to deal with traitors, and appointed Damus—now code-named "Tarn"—as its leader, {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} though he elected not to send them after Deadlock when he defected, valuing the warrior enough to instead dispatch [[Lockdown (G1)|Lockdown]] to bring him in. {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} He would reportedly spend "half the war" searching for a way to remotely access a [[black hole]], in order to use [[antimatter]] for power, but never succeeded. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:ChaosTheory prime vs megatron montage.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Good times, bad times.]]
Megatron would personally clash with Optimus Prime many times; Optimus grew to respect and fear Megatron as a calm, calculating and measured opponent, while Megatron himself respected Prime's sheer power and his skill as a tactician and as a leader. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} Megatron would later incorrectly recall their battle on [[Sherma Bridge]] during the [[Rorsha Campaign]] as the first time they met. Said battle was certainly momentous—every Autobot and Decepticon stopped fighting to witness their duel, during which Megatron's cannon arm was sliced off by Prime's [[energon-axe]], and he claimed revenge by throwing the Autobot leader off the bridge. As the war spread to other planets, they would meet again and again: during the [[Siege of Massunstrad]], Megatron sealed Prime in an anti-matter chamber; on [[Rada Mor]], Prime reduced Megatron to ashes with sentient explosives; and in the midst of the [[Vorsk Offensive]], Megatron was nearly sliced in half by Prime. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Though he resisted [[Solomus|Tyrest]]'s attempts to find a "Two City-State Solution" to the war, he did agree to abide by the [[Tyrest Accord]]. {{storylink|Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus|House of Ambus}}

Megatron took on a new pistol alternate mode for the [[Battle for Hell's Point]], during which he was used by [[Heretech]] to blast [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ultra Magnus]]. {{storylink|The Gloaming}} During the same skirmish, Megatron took off half of Prime's face with his energon mace, but had a city block dropped on him by Prime in retribution, which shattered his [[Transformation cog (biology)|transformation cog]] and trapped him in gun mode for two years. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Prime was not the only old face that Megatron would see again during the war: during a battle on an aerial drilling platform over the [[Manganese Mountains]], Megatron came face-to-face with his old friend Impactor, and stood poised to execute him until Impactor gave him a moment's pause by recalling his old fondness for poetry. In this moment, Megatron was knocked from the platform by [[Springer (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Springer]] and sent plummeting to the mountains below. {{storylink|Zero Point}}

[[File:LastStandoftheWreckers2-teleconference.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|"We attack the Rice Krispies guys at dawn! Assuming Judd Hirsch delivers the goods."]]
At the war's zenith, Megatron sealed himself in an [[Omniglobe]] to absorb the relentless flood of data coming in from countless fronts. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} With total war going nowhere, he would go on to develop a six-stage [[infiltration protocol]] to be used for conquering targeted planets. The sixth phase called for outright planetary razing, and Megatron selected three of his Warriors Elite for this task: [[Sixshot (G1)|Sixshot]], {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} Overlord, and [[Black Shadow (G1)|Black Shadow]]. He informed this trio of his decision via teleconference, but Overlord, tired of being used as someone else's weapon, refused. Megatron threatened to hunt Overlord down for his disobedience, {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 2|Last Stand of the Wreckers #2}} but while the powerful warrior spent the rest of his life preparing for this conflict, Megatron never followed up and left him to stew in his own obsession. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}

[[File:Stormbringer1 get up and fight.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|You don't gotta go home Prime but you can't stay here.]]
Deducing that the Autobot/Decepticon war would culminate in an energy crisis that would threatened the stability of Cybertron itself, Shockwave left Cybertron to secretly pursue alternate energy sources. Around 10,000 years ago, when Shockwave did not return, Megatron ordered Bludgeon to investigate his files, {{storylink|Spotlight: Shockwave}} secretly assigning Soundwave to investigate Bludgeon {{storylink|Spotlight: Soundwave}} and probe deeper into whatever it was Shockwave had created. {{storylink|Shockpoint}}

Shockwave's prediction soon proved accurate, and Cybertron found itself in the throes of an energy shortage. Decepticon scientist [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]] came to Megatron with a revolutionary, controversial plan to stave off this energy death by [[Pretender|polydermal grafting]], a process where they encased themselves in "symbiotic carapaces", or shells created from living tissue. When Megatron dismissed him angrily and cut him down, Thunderwing did not abandon his research; instead, he experimented on himself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 4|Stormbringer #4}} The process gave him immense power, but drove him insane. He became so dangerous that Megatron had to join forces with Optimus Prime to stop him. This battle at [[Thunderhead Pass]] accelerated the apocalypse destined to befall Cybertron, leaving it an uninhabitable, radioactive husk and forcing both armies to continue their war on other worlds. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #1}} Megatron advocated that they simply destroy Cybertron to ensure that Thunderwing was destroyed, but Prime refused, and threatened to stop Megatron if he tried. Megatron agreed not to destroy the planet, but warned Prime that whatever happened was on his head. Shortly after the last big push by the Decepticons, Cybertron was abandoned by both factions. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #2}}

In the mid-19th century, Starscream reported to Megatron regarding a failed alliance with the [[Dire Wraith]]s and their unfeasibility as allies. Megatron congratulated Starscream... for finding yet another way to disappoint him. {{storylink|Shining Armor issue 5|Shining Armor #5}}

===Breaking protocol===
[[File:Infiltration4 enter megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|left|thumb|Megatron (Second Printing Preview)]]
In the early 21st century, when word reached Megatron that the infiltration unit led by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], stationed on the planet [[Earth]], had broken protocol, he headed for the planet to investigate. Examining the unit's abandoned bunker in [[Nebraska]] for information, he discovered that Starscream had stumbled across [[Ore-13]]—an incredible energy source that (unbeknownst to Megatron) was the result of Shockwave's experiments—and was planning to use it to usurp Megatron's command. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} While studying the bunker's files, he was contacted by [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] with some distressing news: Bludgeon's investigations of Shockwave's files had led him to revive Thunderwing. Megatron ordered the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to Cybertron, authorizing them to do whatever was necessary to destroy Thunderwing, including the destruction of their homeworld itself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} Just as he was handing down this order, Megatron was happened upon by [[Verity Carlo]], a human ally of the Autobot unit active on the planet, {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} but he utterly ignored her. The bunker was then leveled by an airstrike courtesy of [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who were merely covering their unit's tracks and unaware of Megatron's presence; when their leader furiously emerged from the wreckage, Skywarp attempted to explain their ignorance, but Megatron simply responded by blasting him out of the sky. Blitzwing favored opening fire rather than attempting explanations, so Megatron beat the stuffing out of him too, then set off for Starscream's new bunker in [[Oregon]]. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 5|Infiltration #5}}

[[File:Infiltration6 takeyourpunishment.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Those librarians are getting really strict on late returns.]]

{{quote|You will stand down. If you fight, you ''die''. There is no room anymore for mercy. In the end, you are ''all'' expendable. Choose.|Megatron's ultimatum to Starscream's renegade troops|[[Infiltration issue 6|''Infiltration'' #6]]}}

[[Orbital jump]]ing to Oregon, Megatron called Starscream out and ordered the team to stand down, disgusted to see such power games being played amongst his troops. His brief, chilling speech was enough to take the fight out of all but Starscream, who, powered-up on Ore-13, took Megatron on himself. Though the new power source made Starscream a formidable adversary, Megatron was still more deadly than he, and Starscream was taken out by a point-blank fusion cannon blast through his torso. Megatron ordered the Decepticons to ensure that Starscream survived, and then, observing the Autobots who had been watching the battle, announced that it was time to begin phase two. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 6|Infiltration #6}}

In light of the discovery of Ore-13, Megatron took stock of Starscream's progress on Earth and elected to get the infiltration protocol back on track himself, calling a meeting of Starscream's former troops and making them aware, in no uncertain terms, that any further insurrections would be met with deadly force. {{storylink|Escalation issue 1|Escalation #1}} He continued to order his troops on Earth directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} and was even able to revisit his past gun alternate mode, once again able to achieve the [[size changing|mass displacement]] the mode required thanks to the extra energy Ore-13 provided. {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}}

[[File:Megsandspidy.jpg|left|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron/Spider-Man #1 Retailer's Incentive]]
With his forces joined by [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]], a new arrival who Megatron suspected of having ulterior motives, {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} the Decepticon leader initiated phase two of infiltration protocol by destabilizing relations between the European nations of [[Latveria]] and [[Symkaria]] through use of an aggression-inducing [[Psycho-Prism]], stolen from Latverian dictator [[Doctor Doom]]. When the superhero team known as the [[Avengers]] investigated the array the Decepticons' were using to broadcast the prism's signal, Megatron abducted the arachnid-powered [[Spider-Man]] to use as a subject for their [[mirror response mode]], {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part One}} draining the hero's powers and infusing himself and the other Decepticons with them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} He proceeded to forge a brief alliance with Doctor Doom, who helped him defeat and capture the allied Autobot/Avenger team who snuck inside the Decepticons' array, but when Doom's suggestion to threaten the captives in order to force the other heroes to lay down their arms failed, Megatron violently dissolved the partnership. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Three}} Emerging from the confines of the array to take on the Autobots and Avengers himself, Megatron refrained from engaging Prime, foreseeing a more intimate confrontation between the two of them in the near future, and instead turned his attention to destroying [[Iron Man]]'s Transformer-sized armor. The tables soon turned, however, when Doctor Doom freed the captive Autobots and used the Decepticon's mirror response technology to empower them. Defeated by these enhanced Autobots and with the Psycho-Prism destroyed by [[Wolverine (Marvel)|Wolverine]], Megatron used the last of his extra power to teleport the Decepticons out with an [[emergency warp-out]]. He refrained from departing alongside his warriors, intending to slaughter the Avengers for their interference, but when he was immobilized by Spider-Man's webbing, knocked to the ground by [[Luke Cage]], and rattled by a hail of Autobot fire, he finally warped-out with a final taunt to Optimus Prime of the battle yet to come between them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Four}}
[[File:Escalation3-Massdisplacement.jpg|upright=2.2|thumb|Shock and Awe]]
With phase two of [[infiltration protocol]] properly underway, Megatron recognized that he ''should'' rightly withdraw and install a new unit commander on Earth, but could not resist the chance to try out his new Ore-13 empowered body, selecting the nation of [[Brasnya]], where Decepticon subterfuge was already underway, as his testing ground. {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} Allowing the Decepticon's [[facsimile construct]] [[Georgi Koska]] to wield him in pistol mode, Megatron had Koska use him to first sever a [[Russia]]n oil pipeline, and then to fire upon the soldiers who came to investigate, furthering the political and military tensions already brewing in the region. When word came through from Blitzwing that Optimus Prime and the Autobots had arrived, {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}} Megatron at last engaged Optimus directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 4|Escalation #4}} and although Prime was able to destroy his fusion cannon, the extra strength afforded Megatron by Ore-13 allowed him to physically beat Prime into submission, punching directly into his chest and crushing his [[spark]]. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Optimus Prime}} [[File:Escalation5 prime vs megs.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|''I got me a shovel I'm digging a ditch...'']] The horrified Autobots moved into a full but ineffective counterattack, their only edge being that Megatron had no long-range guns left. It turned out that Prime's apparent death was a desperate ruse when the Autobot leader countered with a surprise attack on Megatron, able to exploit Ore-13's weakness—the more it's used, the faster it burns itself out. Megatron almost collapsed from power loss and was forced to have Skywarp take him to safety before the Autobots could kill him. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}}

Furious over the embarrassing defeat, Megatron threw protocol out the window and ordered that Sixshot be summoned to the planet. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}} He took out some of his anger on Ramjet, who he discovered had been busy cooking up a plot to overthrow him; without saying a word, he beat the attempted traitor to death before tearing him apart and keeping his head as a trophy. {{storylink|Spotlight: Ramjet}}
[[File:Devastation5 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|''And I'm gonna fight for this four square feet of land Like a mean old son of a bitch'']]
Upon Sixshot's arrival, Megatron ordered him to utterly destroy the Autobots, and although the [[Phase Sixer]] questioned his early deployment, he was happy to go along with the abandonment of the phase structure. The other Decepticons, on the other hand, were worried that Megatron was losing his grip—and since they were too scared to tell him that, they decided to revive Starscream to do it for them. {{storylink|Devastation issue 1|Devastation #1}} {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 1|Maximum Dinobots #1}} Megatron monitored Sixshot's attack on the Autobots' [[Ark-19]], ordering him to pursue the escape pod that broke away from the crashing craft, {{storylink|Devastation issue 2|Devastation #2}} but before he could obliterate the Autobots, Megatron was forced to recall him to deal with a new threat assaulting the Decepticon base—the alien [[Reaper]]s. {{storylink|Devastation issue 4|Devastation #4}} Unfortunately, the Reapers convinced Sixshot to side with them, and when an Ore-13 powered Starscream entered the fray to take Sixshot down, Megatron realized his troops had been conspiring against him. He decided not to punish them '''yet''', due to greater threat posed by the Reapers, {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} and entered battle alongside them all, even allowing Starscream to wield him in pistol mode against the aliens. After the invaders were dead, however, he turned on his men, starting with Blitzwing—but was forced to realize that they needed to remain united when it became apparent that their battle with the Reapers had made humanity inescapably aware of their existence {{storylink|Devastation issue 6|Devastation #6}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}
{{-}}

===All Hail Megatron===
[[File:AHM7 megs rips out matrix.jpg||left|thumb|[[The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|"I don't think I'd have made a good medic. No patience."]]]]
While the Decepticons were occupied fighting the Reapers, the Autobots had left Earth to deal with the greater threat of an incursion by the [[Dead Universe]]. Exploiting their enemies' absence, Megatron and his men went to ground; when Autobots returned, they could find no trace of the Decepticons, who kept one step ahead of them for months. Secretly abducting [[Hunter O'Nion]], former [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] partner to the Autobot [[Sunstreaker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sunstreaker]], Megatron and his men returned to Cybertron, where Megatron had [[Deluge (G2)|Deluge]] conduct experiments that bred a [[Insecticon swarm|swarm]] of monstrous [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]]. The experiments culminated in the creation of [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]], who Megatron employed in a series of key tasks in his plan: the Insecticon obtained from Hunter's mind various Autobot secrets and codes, completed Shockwave's long-gestating combiner process, granting the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] the ability to combine into [[Devastator (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Devastator]], and created a working [[space bridge]] {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} based on designs sold to them by Sixshot in exchange for his freedom. {{storylink|Spotlight: Metroplex}}

Returning to Earth, the Decepticons staged a phony schism within their ranks, allowing the Autobots to believe that they had "disappeared" as a result of a power struggle that had split their ranks into two camps, one led by Megatron and one by Starscream. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} Starscream then approached Sunstreaker, whose experience as a Headmaster had left him bitter and jaded, with the proposition that the Autobots join with his forces against Megatron, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 8|All Hail Megatron #8}} but when the Autobots arrived at the designated time and place, they were instead confronted by the united Decepticon army and quickly defeated by Devastator. After personally tearing the [[Matrix of Leadership]] from Optimus Prime's chest, Megatron marched the captive Autobots through the space bridge back to Cybertron, where the Insecticon swarm waited for them. Prime, however, was able to damage the bridge, causing it to deposit the Autobots a safe distance from the swarm, but in the process, fried his own circuits and left himself comatose. Though the Autobots had escaped the fate he had intended for them, Megatron had successfully exiled his enemies to their dead homeworld; moreover, using information and codes gained from Sunstreaker and Hunter, he concurrently orchestrated the event that would later be known as [[Surge (event)|The Surge]], as Decepticons stormed Autobot installations all across the galaxy, achieving total victory. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}}

[[File:AHM1 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's urban renewal program was off to a flying start.]]
With galaxy-wide domination accomplished, one year after the Decepticons' battle with the Reapers, Megatron chose Earth to become the new Decepticon homeworld. Together with his men, Megatron stormed [[New York City]], humiliating Starscream with a display of his greater capacity for destruction. When the US Air Force retaliated, Megatron shrugged off their fire and ordered the other Decepticons to engage them; when one damaged jet threw itself toward him in a suicide run, Megatron, outraged at the [[DJ (G1)|pilot]]'s temerity, destroyed it and its occupant with a furious swipe of his hand. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 1|All Hail Megatron #1}} When US Army forces arrived, Megatron ordered [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] dispatched to deal with them, then sent Devastator to destroy the subway tunnels leading out of the city. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 2|All Hail Megatron #2}} With New York secured, Megatron directed the Constructicons to begin building a new space bridge in the city's heart, and had a candid talk with Starscream, revealing his belief that the [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]]'s attitude and actions marked him as the embodiment of the Decepticon cause, even if he was blind to seeing it himself. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 3|All Hail Megatron #3}} After a series of further attacks on major American cities saw the country firmly crushed under the Decepticons' collective heel, Megatron made a propaganda speech to his men in the ruins of New York. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 4|All Hail Megatron #4}} As night fell upon the city, Megatron withdrew to privately gloat over the Matrix. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 5|All Hail Megatron #5}}

[[File:AHM6MegatronVsIsrael.jpg|left|upright=1.66|thumb|Starscream just told Megatron that ''All Hail Megatron'' is going to go on for another six issues. He's taking it pretty well, all things considered.]]
As the Decepticons began attacking other countries around the globe, Megatron was questioned by Starscream on what the next step in his plan was. A recalcitrant Megatron merely informed him that it was merely time to savor their victory, but Starscream accused him of not ''having'' any plans post-victory, and was merely allowing his men to run wild to distract them from any notion of taking power for themselves. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}} What Starscream did not realize was that Megatron did indeed have a plan: to defeat the Autobots, he had created an army of killers and monsters, but in order to create his perfect rule, that army would have to be destroyed, the dissenting, distasteful elements obliterated before Megatron's peace could dawn. Megatron was not distracting his warriors... he was ''waiting'' to see which of them would question and turn on him. Silently sorrowful to already know that such dissent would begin with Starscream, an otherwise-model Decepticon, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} Megatron withdrew to [[Israel]] for some silent reflection amid wholesale devastation. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}}

[[File:AHM10 megs vs devastator.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's negotiations regarding the Constructicons' Work Union going unusually SMOOTHLY this time around.]]
Some time later, Megatron surveyed the space bridge Bombshell and the Constructicons had built in New York. He congratulated Bombshell on his work, but revealed that he had always foreseen Bombshell's intellect as a danger—had always known he and his fellow Insecticons would side with Starscream when the time came. His gambit exposed, Starscream made his move and attacked, but the Insecticons proved no match for Megatron's might. The Decepticon leader had failed to anticipate one thing, however: he did not foresee the Constructicons siding with Starscream, and found himself having to fight the mighty Devastator. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} The in-fighting was halted by a last-ditch attack by the mustered might of what remained of the human resistance, forcing Megatron and Starscream to put their differences aside momentarily and organize a defense. This attack came as no surprise to Megatron, but the same could not be said for the next entrants onto the battlefield: the Autobots had returned.

After assuring Starscream that he would be leader in the future, when his time was done, Megatron confronted Optimus Prime, surprised not so much that his old foe had survived, but that he had bothered to return to Earth. Both leaders had always maintained a policy of acceptable losses through their millennia-long war, so Megatron assumed Prime had come back for selfish reasons, to reclaim the Matrix, but Prime insisted that he had changed, and would no longer allow their cold war to endanger innocent lives on this scale. [[File:AHM12 prime vs megs.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.66|Like Homer Simpson putting on his pants, the struggle between Optimus Prime and Megatron remains eternal. [[...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|Almost.]]]] Megatron scoffed at the notion, reavling that Prime's supposedly "innocent" humans were planning to [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]] New York, killing millions of their own just to get rid of the Decepticons, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 11|All Hail Megatron #11}} but Prime retorted that it wasn't ''just'' about the humans, but also about the difference between Autobots and Decepticons. The two came to blows, but Megatron triumphed in short order and commanded the Decepticons to depart, leaving the Autobots to be killed by the humans' nuke... but just before they withdrew, he was shot in the face by human soldier [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Spike Witwicky]], wielding a powerful weapon reverse-engineered from Cybertronian technology. Injured and disoriented by the blast, Megatron was finished off when Prime smashed his face in with his own fusion cannon. As he wanted to ''take'' leadership rather than just have it fall in his hands, Starscream picked up his damaged leader and ordered the Decepticons to retreat. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 12|All Hail Megatron #12}}

[[File:AllHisEngines-Megatron.jpg|thumb|Pretty sure when you float in a bacta tank you're supposed to be wearing a diaper.]]
The Decepticons departed Earth aboard Astrotrain, where the gravely wounded Megatron was put on life support and tended to by Soundwave and his cassettes. With Megatron's life signs only at ten percent capacity, Starscream attempted to appeal to Soundwave's sense of logic and have him shut down so that leadership could be his, but Soundwave refused. Starscream was soon able to take command, however, when he recovered the Matrix of Leadership and professed to have been chosen by it. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 13|Uneasy Lies the Head}}

===New body, new powers===
The Decepticons eventually settled on a desolate asteroid, where Megatron was installed in a [[CR chamber|CR tank]]. Retaining some level of awareness of the events occurring around him during his convalescence, he was forced to watch as his army languished in inactivity, their energy slowly ebbing away until they were reduced to cannibalism. {{storylink|All His Engines}} After a year of trying to free his leader from this living death, Soundwave was finally forced to conclude that Megatron's body was beyond repair, and recruited the recently returned Shockwave, whom Starscream had provided with the majority of the Decepticons' resources to create a space bridge, to help build a new body for Megatron's consciousness to inhabit. The operation succeeded and Megatron was reborn in a deadly new body, powered by Ore-13, armed with a devastatingly powerful rail gun, and even equipped with space bridge nodes stolen from Metroplex, which gave him the ability to open space bridge portals on his own. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing15 megatrons new body.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"Uh, it's like...did anyone ever see the movie ''Tron''?"]]
Back in action, Megatron devised a plan to destabilize the relationship between the humans and Autobots on Earth. Together with Soundwave and Shockwave, he chopped up his old body and used it to create human-scaled replicas of his former gun mode, containing small pieces of his own consciousness. When Starscream caught them in the act, Megatron elected to table his plan for the moment, as he considered it folly to go against Starscream's wishes for the moment since the Seeker was still in possession of the Matrix of Leadership. Megatron had never truly understood what the talisman ''did'', but it served as a threat merely by being an unknown variable. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} Fortunately, for Megatron this variable was soon removed from the equation when Hot Rod, estranged from the Earthbound Autobots, infiltrated the Decepticons' asteroid base and recovered the Matrix from Starscream. Megatron seized his chance, intercepting the Autobot and blasting him and the Matrix out into the void of space. {{storylink|Heart Like a Wheel}}

[[File:SLMegatron stealth bomber mode.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Behold... the ''Bomberang!'']]
With Starscream's trump card now gone, Megatron had the Decepticons gathered so he could address them. Distrustful of Shockwave's motives for preparing his new body, wary of Soundwave's constant surveillance, and repulsed by the state of his once fearsome Decepticon war machine, Megatron decided that he needed to unequivocally reestablish dominance over the now Matrix-less Starscream. He intended to beat Starscream near to death as a means of letting them both work out their frustrations with Starscream's inability to lead effectively during Megatron's absence, but Starscream did not want to fight—spiritually broken by his failures, he simply wanted Megatron to kill him. Rather than accept this, Megatron instead goaded Starscream into opening fire upon him. This began a running battle between the two, with Megatron pursuing the fleeing Seeker in his new stealth bomber alternate mode, continuing to bait Starscream every time he appeared willing to give up the fight. Incensed by Starscream's accusation that he did not know what it felt like to see everything he had worked for fall apart, when that was exactly what Starscream's pitiful leadership had done to the empire he had created, Megatron pummeled him to within an inch of his life, then paused to explain why he kept a schemer like Starscream around: as a constant reminder to watch his back. The brutal display galvanized the languid Decepticons, and Megatron was ready to begin his scheme. {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing14 megatron guns.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron doesn't support the NRA. He IS the NRA.]]
Roughly two years after the Decepticons' defeat on Earth, Megatron used his space bridge powers to dispatch a container full of the guns made from his old body to Earth, where they were found by South American gun-runners and illegally disseminated amongst an increasingly paranoid public seeking ways to protect themselves against Transformers. This allowed Megatron's consciousness to spread across North America, until it was focused enough to contact one particular owner of a Megatron gun: [[Joe Gladki]]. He deceived and manipulated the paranoid human, and eventually convinced him to perform an assassination attempt on [[Bumblebee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Bumblebee]], the new Autobot leader. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} In their ignorance, the Autobots then mistook Gladki's gun for Megatron himself and held it captive. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man|The Demolished Man}}

[[File:IDWongoing16 megatron vs autobots.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|Not the [[Realignments|first time]] he's traded his [[fusion cannon]] for a [[rail gun]].]]
With the Autobots in chaos, Megatron started the next phase of his plan and returned to Earth personally, where he used his new stealth bomber mode to shoot down a plane carrying Optimus Prime and several other Autobots. He then hunted down the remaining Autobots, effortlessly defeating them and their new temporary leader Ultra Magnus with his powerful new body, and killing some of their [[Skywatch]] allies. Magnus tried to draw Megatron's attention from the humans, claiming the Autobots were the ones he really wanted, but Megatron assured him that humanity was his real target. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 3: Woken Furies|Woken Furies}} Taking the defeated Autobots captive, Megatron dumped them in a city and directed three of his mind-controlled human puppets to kill them. Contacting Prime directly, Megatron summoned him to the city's outskirts and revealed his plan: crush Prime's spirit and destroy the Autobots' alliance with humanity by forcing them to choose between fighting the humans or allowing them to kill them. Prime found the hole in Megatron's plan, however, when he realized that Soundwave was maintaining the connection between Megatron and his guns, and shot him in the head. His connection to his pawns severed, Megatron scooped up Soundwave and withdrew. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 4: Burning Chrome|Burning Chrome}} Thanks to a tracker Ultra Magnus had slipped on Soundwave, though, Prime was able to follow the Decepticons to their bolthole and called Megatron out for a full and proper confrontation. In actuality, Prime had lured Megatron outside so Skywatch could drop a [[kinetic harpoon]] on him, but even a weapon dropped from orbit barely proved able to put a scratch in Megatron's mighty new exostructure. Megatron proceeded to beat Prime senseless, but then returned him to the Autobots, and to their great shock, surrendered to their custody. After recovering, Optimus demanded to know why he had surrendered, but Megatron merely taunted him by revealing that Spike Witwicky had murdered a Decepticon in cold blood. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: Enemy Mine|Enemy Mine}} Prime immediately had Prowl begin investigating Spike and Skywatch, and Prowl interrogated the Decepticon leader for information, which he provided after a little verbal sparring. {{storylink|Police Action: Prologue}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron imprisoned.jpg|upright=1.5|left|thumb|Megatron and Optimus Prime can't agree on a safe word.]]
When Rodimus returned to Earth and warned the Autobots that [[Galvatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Galvatron]] had taken control of Cybertron, Optimus decided to lead the Autobots in reclaiming their homeworld. In the name of Earth's safety, he elected to bring Megatron and the confiscated guns made from his old body with them. {{storylink|Space Opera—Final Tableaux: Orphans of the Helix|Orphans of the Helix}} On the way to Cybertron aboard [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]], Prime again attempted to discern why Megatron had surrendered, even releasing his old foe from his bonds and having a civil conversation with him about their past together and their dueling ideologies. Optimus tried to reach out to Megatron, offering him the chance to end the war once and for all with a handshake; Megatron appeared to consider it for a moment but ultimately remained silent. With Megatron returned to the confines of the [[variable voltage harness]], the other Autobots pressured Optimus for a decision on his fate: execution or imprisonment. Trying to come to a conclusion, Prime asked Megatron if he regretted any of his actions, but the Decepticon leader remarked that he only regretted not killing ''more'' Autobots. He taunted Prime with the notion that even he was thankful for the war, as it had raised him from a nobody to the greatest Autobot in history, and a furious Prime activated the harness, electrocuting Megatron. The jolt would have killed Megatron if Omega Supreme had not cut the power in time and Megatron, struggling to stay conscious, offered Prime his thanks for saving his life all those years ago in Rodion. Shocked by his actions, Prime realized that Megatron wanted to die and wanted Prime to be the one to kill him. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Eventually, Prime decided to let Megatron choose his own fate, and Megatron calmly replied that he chose death. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 2|Chaos Theory #2}}

[[File:Chaos2 armored megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|...Again...?]]
As Omega drew close to Cybertron, Megatron demanded to know who or what was threatening their homeworld, but Optimus Prime refused to provide him with any information. {{storylink| Chaos Part One: Lamentations|Lamentations}} The Autobots subsequently engaged Galvatron's forces in battle, and while they were occupied, Megatron put into motion the ace he had up his sleeve: taking remote control of the numerous "Megatron guns" aboard Omega, Megatron summoned them to him and combined with them into a new armored mode. Breaking free from his restraints, he headed out to confront Galvatron, intent that nobody would take his world from him. {{storylink|Chaos Part Two: Numbers|Numbers}} As he tore through the Sweeps, Megatron also revealed the reason for his surrender: now that he was back on Cybertron, he could open a space bridge that would allow the massed forces of the Decepticons on Earth to return to their home planet as well. Unfortunately, not long after the Decepticons arrived on the battlefield, Galvatron's secret puppet master, the Dead Universe entity known as the [[D-Void]], seized control of their minds and those of the Sweeps, merging them into a gigantic, monstrous avatar. With Prime occupied pursuing Galvatron into Cybertron's depths, Megatron was left to face this "[[Deceptigod]]" alone. {{storylink|Chaos Part Three: Kings|Kings}} Fighting against the D-Void's attempts to ensnare his own mind and make him part of the collective, Megatron was gravely wounded and even lost an arm to the beast, but succeeded into destroying it, blasting it apart with one massive beam from his weapons. {{storylink|Chaos Part Four: Genesis|Genesis}}

===The long game===
Even as the Deceptigod disintegrated back into its component Decepticons, Megatron could see the potential the creature embodied—the D-Void had, in essence, created the perfect combiner by means of utterly obliterating free will. With Cybertron reverting into a primordial wasteland around him—a result of Optimus Prime purifying [[Vector Sigma]] with the Matrix to stop Galvatron and the D-Void—Megatron chose to withdraw to experiment with the possibilities this presented. He informed Shockwave, the sole Decepticon who had not been made part of the Deceptigod, of his plans, and Shockwave in turn revealed them to Soundwave and Bombshell. {{storylink|Shockpoint}} While Megatron hid in the wilderness, his Decepticons were left to live as second-class citizens in the new [[Iacon (polity)|Iacon]] that the Autobots built; Optimus Prime left Cybertron two weeks after the D-Void's defeat to calm tensions with "NAILs"—other unaffiliated Cybertronians—who had returned to their homeworld, but even as he did so, he mused that Megatron must still be out there somewhere. {{storylink|Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime|The Death of Optimus Prime}}

[[File:RID11 megatron in wilderness.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|Megatron can't find anyone who wants to join his nudist colony to save his skin.]]
In the months of study and experimentation that followed, Megatron discerned that the combination of Ore-13 and space bridge technology in his body somehow gave him the ability to manipulate the natural energy of Cybertron that the D-Void had used to merge the Decepticons into the Deceptigod. After experiments on [[turbofox]]es created larger, more ferocious beasts, Megatron stepped up trials when the [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbots]] seceded from the shaky government Bumblebee, [[Metalhawk (G1)|Metalhawk]] and Starscream were building in Iacon and ventured into the wilderness. The signal Megatron had created from the combination energy first drove the Aerialbots mad, before uniting them in body and mind, spontaneously merging them into the gestalt [[Superion (G1)|Superion]], but this newborn Autobot combiner was considered hopelessly insane by Megatron and left to die in the wilderness. The madness aspect of the signal afforded him the chance to revive some of the principles of the infiltration protocol, however, as he blanketed the wastelands in it, forcing the Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs to stay in Iacon, causing natural conflict among them to snowball, providing a useful cover for his actions. To gain a pawn within Autobot high command, Megatron even provided Bombshell with the energy to use in conjunction with his own mind-controlling [[cerebro-shell]]s, ensnaring the mind of Prowl. With the resources and cover control of Prowl provided, Shockwave, Soundwave and Bombshell were able to use Megatron's findings to perfect the combination process, rebuilding the Constructicons with new modular designs that would allow them to merge into a perfect Devastator. The endgame was for Megatron himself to form the head of the combiner, but before risking his own mind and body, Megatron decided that Prowl would be used first as a test subject. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}}

[[File:RID12 kill him.jpg|upright=1.95|thumb|"Your armor. Give it to me now."]]
The appearance of [[Metrotitan (G1)|Metrotitan]] on Cybertron who declared that Starscream was the "Chosen One" threatened Megatron's ability to easily re-take leadership of his Decepticons, forcing him to step up his schedule. Through Prowl, he had his inner circle gathered together in the secret "[[Black Room]]", then boldly strode into Iacon for all to see. {{storylink|The End of the Beginning of the World}} His body shattered and skeletal, he professed to come in peace, but Bumblebee did not accept his surrender and ordered his Autobots to kill him. Indeed, Megatron could possibly have died there and then had Iacon's Decepticons not stepped in, insisting that Megatron's defense of Cybertron during the D-Void's attack marked him a hero and that he be taken into custody instead. {{storylink|City on Fire}} After [[Wheeljack (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Wheeljack]] got through examining him to prove his body concealed no weapons, Starscream approached the imprisoned Megatron and attempted to explain that he was not far away from taking complete power in the government, ensuring a Decepticon victory of a different kind. Megatron merely smiled silently at the notion, terrifying his ex-lieutenant with his grin. Presently, the Decepticons rose up in an angry mob and marched on Autobot high command to insist on Megatron's release; the situation quickly devolved into a riot, during which a squad led by [[Needlenose (G1)|Needlenose]] stormed the prison and freed Megatron. {{storylink|The Verge}}

[[File:RID14 new body redux.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.55|New body or not, Megatron may want to think twice about standing [[:File:Devastator-ROTFenemyscrotum.jpg|underneath Devastator's legs.]]]]
Megatron brought Starscream and the captured Bumblebee and Metalhawk to the Black Room, where he explained his plans and had himself transferred into a pre-prepared new body that could combine with the Constructicons' new forms. At his command, the Constructicons and Prowl combined into the new Devastator, who immediately set about razing Iacon. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}} Even the return of Superion seemed unable to stop the powerful new combiner, until help came from an unexpected quarter—Prowl's secret assassin [[Arcee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Arcee]] killed Bombshell, taking out Prowl's controller and causing Devastator to shut down. This was no real impediment to Megatron, however, as the successful function of the new combiner process had been proven, and he set out to take ''his'' place as Devastator's head. Before Megatron could reach the fallen gestalt, though, Devastator awoke, possessed of his own unique, united consciousness for the first time, and resumed tearing into Iacon. {{storylink|Plan for Everything}}

[[File:RID20 megatron in forcefield.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|You know you can't catch a break when you find yourself trapped inside a novelty plasma lamp from Spencer's.]]
Still Megatron remained unfazed, calmly fending off Autobot attacks and waiting for the inevitable moment when the heroes would take Devastator down. When [[Ironhide (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ironhide]] succeeded in doing so by managing to reach Prowl, Devastator separated, and Megatron immediately stepped in, re-initiating the combination with himself in control. Seconds before uniting with the Constructicons, though, his plan was foiled by Bumblebee, Ironhide and Prowl's activation of a secret failsafe: Wheeljack had integrated a forcefield generator into Megatron's spark casing during his examination of him, and when it was triggered, he was completely paralyzed in mid-transformation. {{storylink|Heavy Is the Head}}

In the fallout of the battle, Starscream killed Metalhawk, took control of Iacon and banished the Autobots and Decepticons from the city. He took custody of the immobilized Megatron, and silently gloated over the victory he had accomplished by using guile and politics, rather than Megatron's ways of brute force and firepower. {{storylink|Three Monologues}}

===A new approach===
Megatron would not remain incapacitated for long. That night, as the result of millennia-long secret machinations by Shockwave, an [[Quintessa (IDW)|undead Metrotitan]] appeared on Cybertron and opened a portal to the Dead Universe in the planet's skies. Through the portal, Shockwave made contact with Galvatron and his master, the exiled Cybertron despot [[Nova Prime]], but was unable to bring them through to Cybertron thanks to the unexpected disappearance of the Titan's space bridge system. Intending to use the space bridge within Megatron as a replacement, {{storylink|Black Metal: Dark Cybertron Chapter 2|Black Metal}} Shockwave reanimated the deceased Metalhawk with a wave of necrotic energy from the Titan and had him liberate Megatron and bring him to his secret lab in [[Crystal City]]. {{storylink|Winners & Losers: Dark Cybertron Chapter 3|Winners & Losers}}

[[File:RID24 i remember you.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Somewhere in the multiverse, [[Override (G1)|Override]] and [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]] are smiling.]]
Shockwave hoped that Megatron would comply with his plans willingly, but the Decepticon leader refused and Shockwave forcibly activated the space bridge technology in Megatron's body. {{storylink|Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4|Into the Abyss}} The opening of the bridge in his chest caused Megatron agony, but his screams were heard by Soundwave, who led the united forces of the exiled Autobots and Decepticons to Shockwave's lab to free his leader. Nova Prime and Galvatron attempted to squeeze their way through the space bridge despite this interference, but Ironhide was able to punch Nova back through into the Dead Universe. Just then, Shockwave's "Necrotitan" came crashing into the subterranean city, and in the chaos, Megatron was freed from the restraints holding him. No sooner had Megatron carried Ironhide to the safe hands of the other Autobots, however, than he was ripped in half from behind by Galvatron, who had successfully emerged through the portal {{storylink|Finest Hour: Dark Cybertron Chapter 5|Finest Hour}}—a briefer battle, no doubt, than the one Shockwave had foreseen between the pair in a vision at the outset of his scheme. {{storylink|Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1|Dark Dawn}}

[[File:MTMTE26 megs and bee.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|I smell a sitcom!]]
After the battle was over, Galvatron and [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] lugged Megatron's bisected remains back into Crystal City, only to find their way barred by the unlikely form of Bumblebee, who demanded they hand Megatron over. Galvatron attacked the Autobot, at which point Megatron revealed that he was fine, as he took down Waspinator and knocked Galvatron out with a barrage of fusion cannon fire. {{storylink|The Dead Are Not Enough: Dark Cybertron Chapter 7|The Dead Are Not Enough}} Bumblebee lugged Megatron back to Iacon, currently being razed by the Necrotitan, where the Decepticon leader announced to the assembled Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs his plan to withdraw to [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]], summon the Decepticon Justice Division and other scattered troops, and strike back. Bumblebee rejected Megatron's notion of retreating, and struck a nerve within him by questioning his entire philosophy: Megatron had ''long'' ago abandoned any notion of fighting for freedom and equality, Bumblebee attested, and merely used the claim to ideology as an excuse for his actions. {{storylink|Burning Bright: Dark Cybertron Chapter 8|Burning Bright}} Fortunately, fighting back suddenly got a lot easier when Metroplex and the ''[[Lost Light]]'' space-bridged to Cybertron. During the battle between the Titans, Megatron observed Metroplex reaching for the ''Lost Light''; when the ship's crew explained that they had Metroplex's severed thumb aboard, Megatron had Bumblebee carry him to it, whereupon he realized that the thumb contained one of Shockwave's [[Regenesis]] ores. Megatron used his internal space bridge to teleport the thumb back to Metroplex, and the ore provided the giant with the power boost to defeat the Necrotitan. {{storylink|Finis Temporis: Dark Cybertron Chapter 9|Finis Temporis}}

[[File:DCFinale megatron the autobot.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|ಠ_ಠ]]
At Bumblebee's order and under protest, [[Ratchet (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ratchet]] repaired Megatron's injuries and reattached his legs, reminding Megatron of his desire in youth to be a medic. His recent string of failures, the success of ''Starscream'', of all 'bots, and Bumblebee's stinging words had turned the Decepticon leader introspective, and he realized he had forgotten something very important that had driven his writings in his early years: winning meant turning people to your way of thinking, not dominating them. {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} Subsequently, when Shockwave initiated his millennia-long plan to collapse all reality into a universal black hole, Megatron placed himself and the Decepticons under Bumblebee's command to co-ordinate a counter-strike, and journeyed with his uneasy new "friend" into Shockwave's [[Crystal City]] base to confront their shared enemy. There, they found the weakened Galvatron, who Megatron prepared to destroy for past indignities, until Bumblebee talked him down, convincing him that blood did not have to be repaid with blood. At that moment, Shockwave struck, slaying Bumblebee with a blast, and driving Megatron into a rage. {{storylink|Black Planet: Dark Cybertron Chapter 11|Black Planet}} Empowered by his various ores and the energy of the Dead Universe, Shockwave was a formidable opponent and it was all Megatron could do to hold his own against him until Optimus Prime arrived to join the fight. Prime attempted to reason with Shockwave and remind him of the kindly senator he had once been, but his words had little effect, so Megatron opted for a more object lesson: removing the fallen Bumblebee's insignia, he placed it upon his chest and declared himself an Autobot. The stunned Shockwave lost control of the time machine powering his plot, causing his old pre-[[Shadowplay]] memories to emerge. Horrified at what he had become, he allowed Megatron and Prime to kill him, which caused the time machine to collapse into a singularity. Megatron and Prime made what seemed to be a futile dash for freedom, but were saved from the singularity's pull at the last moment by the timely arrival of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}}

===Crimes against the Species===
{{quote|I don't want to be acquitted. I want to '''make amends'''|Megatron on his new goal in life|"[[World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide]]"}}
[[File:DCFinale this is not a trick.jpg|thumb|upright=1.95|Optimus apparently decided a sincere Megatron was a cue for mood lighting.]]
In a private meeting between Optimus Prime and Megatron a short time after Shockwave's defeat, Megatron affirmed that his change of heart was genuine, and Optimus assured him that he could see past his wartime deeds and remember the well-intentioned 'bot he had started out as. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}} The rest of Cybertron, however, demanded a trial; Autobot High Command agreed, realizing that the Decepticon leader's fate had to be decided in public. Before the trial, Megatron was approached by Optimus, [[Chromedome (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Chromedome]] and Rodimus in an attempt to extract some of the Decepticon's memories as evidence in hopes of expediting the proceedings, but a horrified Megatron refused, considering the sanctity of his mind all he had left. After Optimus departed, Rodimus remained to taunt Megatron with the certainty of his execution; in return, the impassive Decepticon simply asked Rodimus to deliver a [[communicube]] to Optimus, {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} containing a request to have the trial moved to the [[Raskol Arena]] on Luna 2, in order, he alleged, to accommodate the huge number of spectators that would inevitably attend. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron pleads guilty.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|I agreed to this trial on the condition of meeting Matlock.]]
Megatron's trial lasted five months. At the outset of the proceedings, Megatron pled guilty to "Crimes against the Species", {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} but things changed when Starscream took the stand and gave a testimony that presented Megatron as an incapable leader who was unable to control the Decepticon forces under his command, a powerful brute lacking in the qualities of true leadership who led his followers down an ultimately self-destructive path. His treacherous lieutenant's words struck home, and Megatron stunned the assembled crowd by changing his plea to "not guilty". {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} Just as his defender, Ultra Magnus, was reading a statement declaring this, the trial was dramatically interrupted by a small army of Decepticons led by [[Snaptrap (G1)|Snap Trap]] and [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Grr]], who had escaped from the brig on the ''Lost Light''. The invading force attempted to teleport Megatron away to safety, but he refused to escape and the uprising was quickly quelled. During the recess that followed, Optimus confronted Megatron over his true motives: he had requested that the trial be held on Luna 2 in order to exploit the moon's different legal system in the event that he felt the trial was unjust. Caused by Starscream's speech to realize that, were he to submit to execution now, his legacy would be one only of pain and death, Megatron invoked one of the moon's forgotten laws: an individual who had committed sufficiently heinous crimes could request he be judged by the long-lost [[Knights of Cybertron]]. Megatron requested that he be allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' in their search for the Knights and their homeworld of [[Cyberutopia]], thus ensuring that ''that'' would be his legacy, after which he would submit to whatever punishment was deemed necessary. Optimus agreed on the condition that Megatron read a prepared speech denouncing the Decepticon cause and asking all active Decepticons to stand down. Megatron did so, at great personal pain. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Hurt and angry over this perceived abandonment, Soundwave used Megatron's change of faction as evidence to forge a new allegiance of his own, decamping to Earth and working with the [[Earth Defense Command]] to create a new home for Decepticons there. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 2: Detonation Boulevard|Detonation Boulevard}}
[[File:MTMTE30 cocaptains.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|O captain, my co-captain.]]
Megatron was assigned co-captaincy of the ''Lost Light'' alongside Rodimus, who immediately hated the idea and everything about it, leading to a particularly antagonistic relationship between the two. Megatron was permitted only to fuel himself with "[[Fool's Energon]]", which left him substantially weakened. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Shockwave's machinations had left his internal organs a tortured Gordian knot of space bridge wormholes from which it was impossible to extract his spark; his outward appearance changed between the end of his trial and his co-captaincy, suggesting that his armor was rebuilt around him, or his entire internal structure was transplanted into a new body. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Megatron would later lament that his body did not graft to his spark like past chassis, which he considered a sign of his waning age. {{storylink|slaughterhouse}} Optimus would see Megatron off on his voyage before he himself headed off to Earth, a meeting Prowl found deeply disturbing. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 1: Hello Cruel World|Hello Cruel World}}

===Towards Peace===
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron head examined.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"So Megatron, tell me about your mother". "She was hot".]]
The ''Lost Light'' warped back out to the Galactic Rim and set off on the trail of [[Thunder Clash|Thunderclash]], who they considered their best lead on the location of the Knights. A month into the journey, Megatron agreed to a therapy session with ship's psychoanalyst Rung, during which he espoused his current thinking on personal history, and one's ability to selectively edit or abandon entirely previously held truths. Following the session, Megatron discovered that the door to his quarters had been graffitied, and was almost immediately attacked by the culprit, Whirl. During the fight—which Whirl deemed "inevitable"—the ex-Wrecker punched Megatron in the stomach, only to find his hand teleported away by the space bridge tangle inside his body. This took the fight out of Whirl, and Megatron offered to forget the incident if the graffiti was removed from his wall. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Through his internal space bridge, Megatron could sense that Whirl's arm had been teleported into the vicinity of a black hole, and—ever the forward planner, preparing even for the unlikely eventuality that he might change his mind about what he wanted—Megatron was inspired to revive his wartime plan to remotely channel antimatter.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

Megatron subsequently oversaw the bringing onboard of a mysterious coffin the ''Lost Light'' found floating in space. A short time later, a drunken dare gone awry resulted in [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailcutter]] accidentally cracking the coffin open with his forcefield. Megatron reprimanded him by permanently engaging his fuel intake moderation chip, and assigned him the role of Security Director in order to focus his mind. The pair then turned their attention to the opened coffin, which was revealed to contain the body of another Rodimus! {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} A brief analysis suggested that the body was of Rodimus from the future, but before the matter could be settled, the crew of the ''Lost Light'' were forced to abandon the ship as it suddenly began disappearing around them. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE32 i came to hate the person id become.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Lolcat is watching you deprecate.]]

Megatron found himself on the [[Rodpod]] with a score of other 'bots, but when ''they'' then began to vanish too, [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] accused Megatron of being responsible. A tense standoff ensued, which was brought to a surprising end when [[Ravage (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ravage]] was discovered to have been hiding on the pod, having secreted himself on the ''Lost Light'' in order to spy on Megatron for Soundwave. {{storylink|Twenty Plus One}} The weirdness continued as the remaining crew of the Rodpod—Megatron, Ravage, Nightbeat, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]], [[Nautica (G1)|Nautica]], [[Riptide (G1)|Riptide]], and [[Getaway]]—discovered the wreckage of a second ''Lost Light'', point of origin for the mystery second Rodimus, orbiting the planet [[Ofsted XVII]]. Still believing that the duplicate ship hailed from the future, Skids accused Megatron of being responsible for the devastation, and, realizing that the recent huge changes he had made in his life left him devoid of any surety in his future actions, Megatron allowed himself and Ravage to be imprisoned until the truth could be determined. Locked in a supply closet with Ravage, Megatron had a heart-to-heart with his angry ex-subordinate, justifying his decisions and unable to offer Ravage any consolation. When power returned to the ship, the pair discovered the dead bodies of Ratchet, [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] and [[Hound (G1)|Hound]] in the closet with them, sporting injuries that allowed Megatron to realize that the Decepticon Justice Division were responsible for the slaughter. The team prepared to immediately withdraw until an even stranger discovery was made: Autobot archivist [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had died months beforehand... still alive, the only survivor of the D.J.D.'s attack! {{storylink|slaughterhouse}}

[[File:MTMTE33 megatron skids right there.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"...But you're not the [[Skyfall (G1)|worst]] [[Zeta Prime (G1)|guy]] [[Star Saber (G1)#2005 IDW continuity|to]] [[Getaway|wear]] the badge. So keep trying."]]
Nautica and Nightbeat were able to deduce that the duplicate ''Lost Light'' and its crew, including the second Rodimus, were actually quantum duplicates created in the explosion of the [[quantum generator|quantum engines]] during the ship's original launch two years prior. To make matters worse, the [[quantum foam]] leaking from the engines was threatening to destroy Ofsted XVII, but Megatron had no compunctions about getting to safety and leaving the planet to its fate until Skids called him out, forcing him to face up to the fact that choosing to be an Autobot meant reflecting it in one's actions. Megatron used his old mass-displacement ability to shrink his robot form down, enabling him to safely make it through the foam and deactivate the engines, saving Ofsted XVII, "cancelling out" the duplicate ''Lost Light'', and reinstating their own. As they made their way back to the returned ''Lost Light'', Megatron invited Ravage to remain at his side. {{storylink|slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken|The Road Not Taken}}

[[File:MTMTE38 send me back.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|"AND I WANT YOUR LUNCH MONEY TOO NERD!"]]
Back aboard "their" ''Lost Light'', Megatron discovered the DJD had killed Trailcutter. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Though depressed by his death, Megatron was not above removing Trailcutter's forcefield generators from his body in another instance of forward planning. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Subsequently, the realization that Brainstorm had used his mysterious [[Time case|briefcase]] to travel back in time caused Megatron to have a mini-breakdown over how ''ridiculous'' the whole situation was, but he soon got ahold of himself, and theorized that Brainstorm was attempting to change history by killing Orion Pax. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Rodimus led a squad back in time in pursuit, which led to Megatron having a cross-time conversation with the young Orion Pax via Rodimus's "[[time phone]]" communicator. Pretending to be his own younger self during the call, Megatron found the young 'bot's optimism for the future a mixed source of both affirmation and tragic amusement. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays|All Our Parlous Yesterdays}} After Rodimus's team made several further jumps, Megatron deduced that the dates they were travelling to were not important moments in Pax's life, but Megatron's own. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 2: Stet|Stet}} Realizing that Brainstorm intended to kill ''him'' at the moment of his creation, he flew into a panicked rage, attacking [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor]] and demanding the scientist send him back in time to save himself, until Ultra Magnus restrained him and the pair talked him down. As events in the past played out, Megatron was visibly shaken to hear that Rewind had been the one to pull the trigger that destroyed the original spark in his body, and that the universe would truly be a better place had he never existed. Although Whirl subsequently set the timeline to rights, Megatron did not join in the celebrations when everyone returned from the past, retiring to his quarters. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE43 the old man.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"Oh my Primus! WHAT IS THAT?! SOME ONE GET RATC-?!?! ... Oh, wait. Nevermind. False alarm. It's my hand. Almost had me there guys." *tries to look relaxed, and nails it*]]

In silent isolation, Megatron reached out with his mind, trying to make contact with Whirl's arm through his space bridge. If he could teleport the arm ''back'', it would mean he would finally having a working two-way connection to a black hole. After days of trying, however, he still failed to succeed, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} and established another contingency plan by having Ravage recover one of Brainstorm's time-machine briefcases for him before they were all destroyed, thinking he might use it to escape his fate by traveling back in time. Megatron also dedicated some of his spare time to writing poetry, but his works remained largely unappreciated- a single poetry reading at [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]'s bar, [["Visages"]], was enough to empty the bar of its patrons. {{storylink|Our Steps Will Always Rhyme}} He, Rodimus, and Magnus answered a call from Optimus Prime inviting the ''Lost Light'' back to Cybertron for first contact with the colony world of [[Caminus (planet)|Caminus]], but they declined. {{storylink|First Contact (IDW)|First Contact}}

While the rest of the crew attended a party aboard the ''[[Vis Vitalis]]'', Rodimus and Megatron refrained from going. {{storylink|The Sensuous Frame}} The pair soon received an S.O.S. alerting them to an infestation of emotion-eating [[personality tick]]s on the ship; they headed over to help, and their combined charisma proved strong enough to "overdose" and kill the ticks as soon as they stepped into the room. {{storylink|The Frail Gaze}} Soon after, when [[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]]'s dying mind created a holomatter duplicate of Earth, Megatron took part in the voyage to the artificial planet to help save the metallurgist. The journey required him to project a holomatter avatar for the first time, which led him to note the fragility—but not weakness—of humans when his avatar was cut by broken glass. {{storylink|The One Where They Go to Earth}}

[[File:MTMTE44-MegatronLookAtTheFlowers.jpg|upright=2|right|thumb|"I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sound; the sound of billions of people calling your name." 
"My followers?" 
"Your victims."]]

When it was discovered that Swerve's life-threatening injuries had been caused by a bullet lodged in his body by the Autobot deep-cover spy [[Dominus Ambus|Agent 113]], Megatron and Magnus studied the bullet together, and discovered that it contained a map to [[Necroworld]], base of operations of the supposedly-mythical [[Mortilus|Necrobot]]. Rodimus proceeded to barge into the room to announce that he had unconsciously drawn a complete map to Cyberuptopia on his desk, and Megatron, unsettled to realize that this meant his day of judgement was now actually on the horizon, announced that, before following said map, they would first detour to investigate Necroworld. Megatron privately confided in Ravage that he wished to stave off his day of reckoning as long as possible... but found that such thoughts rudely pushed from his mind when he bore witness to the massive field of [[Cybertronian remembrance flower|flowers]] the Necrobot had planted in his honor, representing the countless lives he had taken. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}} With the weight of his history laid out before him so beautifully and terribly, Megatron realized that the future could not be avoided, and that any attempt to hide in the past was pointless. He buried the time-case Ravage had stolen for him amid the flowers. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:SpeakMemory2 MegatronRenouncesViolence.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|I have no enemies.]]
Megatron's fear of mnemosurgery would once again plague him when he awoke to find little Tailgate trying to perform mnemosurgery on him—part of a plot from [[Getaway]] to provoke Megatron into killing the little guy, in order to have Megatron either executed or imprisoned. The panicked Megatron almost fulfilled Getaway's plan for him, until [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] interceded by running Megatron through with his [[Great Sword]]. {{storylink|The Lopsided Triangle}} Once Getaway's plot had been foiled, Megatron was patched up and made amends with Cyclonus. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}} The whole experience proved to be the last straw; determined to break from his old ways, Megatron renounced all violence and became a pacifist. He chose a poor time to do it, unfortunately, as the halls of the ''Lost Light'' were soon stalked by the serial killer [[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]]. Megatron's attempts to talk the murderer into surrendering met with failure, and he had to be saved by Tailgate, whose recent traumatic experiences had induced a mutation in his spark that gave him super strength. {{storylink|Speak, Memory! (Part 2)}} Intrigued, Megatron wondered if ''pain'' was the factor that would give his spark the power to complete his black hole quest. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When the ''Lost Light'' was preparing to sneak through Mauler-inhabited space, Megatron and Ultra Magnus set about preparing the ship and the crew for the crossing. When a [[Scraplet]]-controlled [[Magnus Armor]] came shambling towards him, Megatron panicked, believing Magnus had come for a hug, before Swerve, Nautica and Whirl arrived to save him. {{storylink|Silent Light}} Not long after, Megatron joined the crew in a brief excursion into the past via "time windows" left over from Brainstorm's time-trip, which they used to honor the fallen crew members of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases}} In the days that followed, unable to think of a reason ''not'' to go, Megatron reluctantly accepted Whirl's invitation to "movie night", which turned out to be a screening of a documentary about his defeat of Sentinel Prime. Megatron disliked the whole production, especially the allegation that he had desecrated Sentinel's remains by ordering the theft of his head. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Do Not Go Gentle===
[[File:MTMTE50 megatron class dismissed.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|This is why we don't let you stay up all night listening to "''Instruments of Destruction''", Megs.]]
Megatron oversaw the ''Lost Light''{{'}}s campaign to liberate [[Miliarium]] from [[Rust Giant]]s, though he refrained from setting foot on the planet itself in order to maintain his vow of non-violence. He was irked to learn that the crew had withheld the information the inhabitants of the planet were organic, but he softened when he was given the chance to finally use the "[[roll out]]" command. Subsequently, during one of a series of classes Megatron had begun holding on the subject of the Knights of Cybertron, the ''Lost Light'' was attacked by a kind of "psychic weapon" that made multiple crew members experience terrible visions. Megatron heard the sound of every organic he had ever killed screaming, and momentarily driven mad, he lashed out at Minimus Ambus, who had come to his aid, and was horrified a moment later when he realized he'd reflexively forgotten his pacifism. Megatron and Rodimus led a team aboard the Rodpod to track the signal back to its source; it turned out to have actually been bait in a trap luring them back to Necroworld, where they were attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division, out to claim revenge on Megatron for renouncing Decepticonism. The Autobots took refuge in the Necrobot's fortress and re-established contact with the ''Lost Light'', only to learn that Getaway had staged a mutiny and taken control of the ship in their absence, and had alerted the [[Galactic Council]] to their location. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light: (1) How Bright Their Frail Deeds|How Bright Their Frail Deeds}}

[[File:TheSunInFlight MegatronTarn.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|"Look how old you've become." "Something far worse has happened to you."]]
Searching for weapons to fight the D.J.D., the Autobots found a teleport chamber and a room full of helpless organics in stasis pods. Brainstorm advocated using the chamber to escape, but Megatron—now truly realizing how alike organic and mechanical life was thanks to the trauma of the psychic attack—delivered a stirring speech that convinced everyone to stay to defend the pods. At Ravage's suggestion, Megatron went out to meet with Tarn one-on-one, and offered to surrender on the condition none of the others would be harmed. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 2: The Sun in Flight|The Sun in Flight}} As the two talked, Megatron expressed regret for "corrupting" who Tarn had been, and even for the fact Brainstorm's attempt to kill him hadn't succeeded. Disgusted to see his hero having "fallen" thus, Tarn began viciously beating Megatron, but Megatron refused to fight back; he even laughed at the irony of how Fool's Energon might have been changing his nature, and he didn't even care. Before Tarn could finish Megatron off, however, Overlord arrived, allied with the Galactic Council in pursuit of his own chance to kill Megatron. Tarn and Overlord fought, giving Megatron a chance to escape. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

[[File:RageRage-Megatronappears.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.67|You can practically hear "Instruments of Destruction" playing.]]

Though patched up, Megatron still refused to take part in the Autobots' battle with the D.J.D, rejecting the gift of a new fusion cannon Brainstorm had built from the teleport chapter for him, and urging the group to cherish what time they had left rather than waste it in battle. Megatron declared himself too weak and afraid to fight, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day|At Close of Day}} fearful that if he gave into violence, he would lose control and be unable to stop himself from once again becoming the monster he had been in the past. As the others went out to fight, Ratchet attempted to allay Megatron's fears by disclosing that Fool's Energon was only ever a placebo—Megatron had, in fact, been in control of himself all along. This revelation, coupled with the sight of Ravage being torn in half by Tarn out on the battlefield, spurred Megatron to action. Pain was, indeed, the trigger he had sought; in that moment, he successfully managed to draw Whirl's arm back through his space bridge, forging a functioning link with the black hole. Donning his new fusion cannon, he stormed out onto the battlefield and took on the D.J.D. single-handed while the other Autobots took Ravage back to the safety of the fortress. The fire in Megatron's belly seemed short lived, however, when a well-placed shot from Tarn destroyed his cannon, and he dropped to his knees in the middle of the battlefield, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 5: Rage, Rage|Rage, Rage}} but this quickly proved to be nothing more than a feint to draw the D.J.D. in, to trap them within a forcefield created by the generators Megatron had taken from Trailbreaker's body. [[File:mtmte 55 antimatter.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|"I'll light our [[Darkest hour]] the only way I know how! With more darkness!"]] Dropping his charade, Megatron unleashed the full power of the black hole's antimatter on the D.J.D., slaughtering each and every one of them. Before ending Tarn, he snatched his Decepticon-insignia facemask and slapped it onto his own chest; he would allow the antimatter to destroy him, and he would die as a Decepticon. Fate had a different path planned for Megatron, however; using the time-case Megatron had buried on the planet, which had been recovered by the Necrobot, Rodimus teleported into the forcefield and whisked Megatron away to safety before the antimatter detonated.

Reappearing in the fortress, Megatron was able to be by Ravage's bedside as he died from his injuries, with a final entreaty to Megatron that he "not change back". Megatron flew into a rage and almost turned his cannon on the Autobots before regaining control of himself. Realizing what he had done, Megatron tried to leave, only for [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]] to suddenly appear to bar his way—one of the occupants of the pods, who were ''not'' organics, but causalities of conflict rescued from throughout time by the Necrobot using the case. Pulled back from the brink at the last moment, Megatron dropped his cannon and embraced his old friend. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When [[Scarlett]] and [[Joe Colton (Dire Wraith)|Joe Colton]] discussed the Cybertronian influence on [[Earth]], Megatron's infiltration unit as well as his devastating invasion of Earth were key points. In light of Optimus Prime's recent actions, Colton seemed to have his doubts on whether or not Megatron had truly been the 'evil' one. {{storylink|Secret Raiders: A Revolution Prelude|Secret Raiders}}
{{-}}

===A New World===
[[File:SomeOtherCybertron MegatronTerminus.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Terminus' reappearance was down to the Necrobot time-travelling to rescue 'missing in action' robots, and the "organics" in the basement had in fact been those robots in disguise.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Megatron tried to fill in his old friend about the war, much as he doubted his objectivity. This was a disrupted by a minor quake which shook the whole planet. Deciding to finish his story later, Megatron paid his last respects to Ravage before [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] burst free from the ground. The two explained the quake as a [[geobomb]] sent by the [[Galactic Council]] but had seemingly burnt itself out. Megatron joined the group to return to Cybertron and collect a new ship, mainly to see Starscream's face when he revealed he was still alive. When Terminus said that Iacon was beautiful, Megatron began to correct him before he saw a bustling metropolis. Before the crew could process what happened, [[Twelve-of-Twelve]] showed up to arrest them. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron|Some Other Cybertron}}

[[File:anomie jabbing megs.jpeg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Hey. Put it away before I take it away.]]

Rewind quickly managed to deduce that the crew had been sent into [[Functionist Universe|another universe]], one where Megatron had never come online and the Functionists still ruled. After trading wits with the councillor, Megatron ordered the crew to surrender in the hope of reasoning with the Council. As the crew was marched through Iacon, the rebel [[Anti-Vocationist League]] tried to save them and got their arses kicked by [[Functionary|Functionaries]] in short order. Rodimus talked Megatron into action who, with a weary sigh, casually broke out of his stasis cuffs and directed the battle without even lifting a finger, much to Terminus' pride and amazement. The moment was ruined when [[Six-of-Twelve]] appeared on every TV on Cybertron, telling everyone they would see what the "Useless One", Rung, was actually ''for''. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 2: Anomie|Anomie}} The crew was brought to [[Kalis|Adaptica]] where [[Clicker]] explained why the Council had to grant the refugees safe haven before they were greeted by the sympathetic [[Nine-of-Twelve]]. Megatron abstained from the following meeting to meet with those who had removed their optics in protest of the Council using them as spies. Megatron approved. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|A World Misplaced}}

[[File:BadMoonRising MegatronTirade.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Even when [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]] suddenly returned, Megatron continued to watch Six-of-Twelve's broadcast and began fearing for the future when it was announced the Council was going to try and get to [[Vector Sigma]]. Megatron went to collect everyone so as to rescue both Rung and Vector Sigma. Before that discussion could continue, Luna 2 grew new craters and began sucking up people with its [[tractor beam]]s. Megatron quickly demanded details from Nine-of-Twelve (lest they decide he was complicit in this) who quickly offered them. Rodimus however was more interested in the moon's teleporter which Megatron called him out on for being more interested in chasing down the ''[[Lost Light]]'' than saving people. Rodimus in turn accused Megatron of wanting to stay in the Functionist timeline so as to not be judged by the [[Knights of Cybertron]] and laughing that Megatron wanted to do good after killing so many. Minimus Ambus halted their argument and Rodimus agreed to Megatron's plan to rescue Rung but on the condition that they would leave once they'd saved the day. Megatron told Nine-of-Twelve to rally the troops only for the councillor to inform him they had no troops. When he asked about offensive capabilities, Megatron learnt that most of the more powerful weapons hadn't been invented in the current timeline. He made due with putting what few weapons he had in the best positions before ordering Nine-of-Twelve to lead the evacuations. Megatron managed a small smile when he learnt that Ambus didn't share Rodimus' belief that Megatron was running from his trial. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 4: Bad Moon Rising|Bad Moon Rising}}

[[File:ModesOfProduction MegsConscience.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2]]
With Megatron's tactics, the beleaguered defenders were able to distract Luna 2 long enough for the refugees to escape. As Megatron and [[Roller (IDW)|Roller]] discussed the conspicuous absence of the native Orion Pax, the tractor beams increased in intensity prompting Terminus to call the two to evacuate. After Roller made his way out, Terminus attempted to convince Megatron to stay in the Functionist Universe, an idea Megatron admitted to entertaining, but ultimately refused to do, citing his need to make amends back home and that his friends aboard the ''Lost Light'' were the conscience he had to answer to. At the point, the statue they were in was sucked up by the tractor beams. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 5: Modes of Production|Modes of Production}}

[[File:LostLight6MegatronEnding.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.4|A brand new autobiography. Same title. Different words.]]
Though the beams began ripping Megatron apart, Terminus managed to free himself and saved his protege by firing at the tractor beam emitters, though accidentally shooting down the commandeered [[Cog (facility)|Cog]] in the process. As the native Rung super-sized himself to attack the moon, Megatron assured [[Clicker]] that Rung's own choices were open defiances of Functionism. At that moment, Rodimus came with the news that they could head home and save this Cybertron. Terminus revealed his intent to stay behind with Megatron requesting a moment to say goodbye to his mentor, his serious demeanour convincing Rodimus to grant it. As Megatron and Terminus said their final words, Terminus got a call and quickly ushered Megatron to a [[matter transporter]] only to find it abandoned. As Megatron ran back out to tell Terminus, Luna 2 teleported away to Megatron's shock and horror. Deciding to make the most of his new situation, he went on a "speaking tour", visiting the [[Anti-Vocationist League]]'s scattered cells, all over the planet, uniting them via his rhetoric and his new slogan of "Peace Through Empathy". After speaking at his old stomping ground of [[Nova Point]], Megatron went outside to contemplate the night sky before being interrupted by the chime of his communicator... having been contacted by the native Orion Pax. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 6: This Machine Kills Fascists|This Machine Kills Fascists}}

===Legacy===
Among [[Agonizer]]'s rare knick-knacks was an unfinished poem by Megatron. {{storylink|An Axe to Break the Ice}} When questioned by Bumblebee on why he insisted on remaining alone in the world, Starscream brought up the many beatings he'd received at Megatron's hand as a life lesson to remain alone and constantly on guard. {{storylink|The Price of You}} Such was Starscream's fear of his former leader that the Seeker seized up with fear when [[Vigilem]] assumed Megatron's form as he was when leading the Decepticons. Using the image of Megatron, Vigilem came within a hair's breath of destroying Starscream's mind, all the while the Seeker being too terrified to fight back. {{storylink|Your First Mistake}} Despite Megatron's defection, [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] still considered him a wise man and quoted his writings to incite a [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticon]] rebellion. {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 5: Future Glories Lost|Future Glories Lost}}

When [[Jazz (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Jazz]] was interviewed by the human news, he remembered Megatron's invasion of Earth. {{storylink|What It's Really Like}} [[Sideswipe (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sideswipe]] also remembered Megatron making a deal with Sunstreaker that preceded the invasion. {{storylink|The Life of Sideswipe}}

When Earth was properly inducted into the [[Council of Worlds]], [[Scarlett]] remembered the devastation Megatron had brought to Earth and wondered whether or not Earth was out of its weight class against Cybertronians as well as if Earth was truly ready to join the Council. {{storylink|First Strike issue 1|First Strike #1}} While in jail on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], Scarlett confessed to Optimus Prime that she had primarily come to Cybertron to save [[Joe Colton]] from himself, something which Optimus sympathized with, having gone through similar experiences with Megatron. {{storylink|First Strike issue 4|First Strike #4}} When justifying his genocidal campaign to Scarlett, Joe Colton claimed Earth was "one more Megatron" away from complete extinction. {{storylink|First Strike issue 6|First Strike #6}}

In [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]]'s [[Starscream: The Movie (film)|biopic]] of Starscream, Megatron was portrayed by [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]]. Thundercracker admitted he'd taken some creative liberties with Megatron's bodily appearance but felt those changes would help an unfamiliar audience more readily recognize the characters. {{storylink|Starscream: The Movie (comic)|Starscream: The Movie}}

After receiving a life sentence, Starscream defended his reign to Bumblebee by stating that, unlike Megatron, he hadn't plunged Cybertron into four million years of war. {{storylink|The Falling, Chapter 1: Surfeit of Primes|Surfeit of Primes}}

After seemingly dying and being sent to the [[Transformer afterlife|Afterspark]] had sent Rodimus into a mild depression, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] rhetorically asked "What Would Megatron Do?", threatening Rodimus's fragile ego enough to rally him into action. {{storylink|The Everlasting Voices (1): Metastasis|Metastasis}}

===The Great Return===
[[File:LL21 Megatron Returns.jpg|thumb|left||"Did'ja miss me?"]]
Megatron subsequently became leader of the AVL, drawing both Orion and [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] into the fold, while also taking time to fulfill his original ambition of becoming a medic. Megatron also found the discarded ''Unitrex-1'' and claimed it as the flagship of the AVL, dubbing it the ''[[Last Light (ship)|Last Light]]''. When the Functionist Council built a set of [[planetary engine]]s onto Cybertron to compensate for Luna 2's loss, the AVL followed them through the [[Warren]], warning many alien populations of the Functionists' genocidal intentions and allowing them to evacuate in time. The Functionists responded to this by engineering Cybertron with a robot mode cast in the likeness of [[Primus]]. Megatron's heroism eventually drew the attention of the Functionists who took great pride in killing his closest allies before eventually believing to have slain the ex-tyrant at [[Perseppalae]]. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

[[File:ReturnOfTheKing MegatronTreatsDrift.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2.0|''Instruments of re-construct-iooooon, tools of first aiiiiid!'']]
In truth, both Megatron and the ''Last Light'' had survived and continued to follow the Functionist recon ships. When the [[Adaptus|Grand Architect]]'s [[God Gun]] opened a portal back into Megatron's native universe, the ''Last Light'' was caught up in the rush, emerging ahead of the enemy fleet. Detecting his friends' spark signatures, Megatron immediately called Rodimus. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 3): Farsickness|Farsickness}} Though the Autobot initially believed that Megatron was the one staging the invasion, Megatron was quick to correct him, drawing their attention to the planet-sized Primus effigy, before requesting their coordinates for rescue. Once the ''Last Light'' shook off the recon ships, Megatron ordered his friends freed, recovering most of them from the Architect's clutches ([[Scavengers (G1)|and a few Decepticons too]]) before he caught them all up on what had transpired since they'd parted ways. He also demonstrated his new skills as a medic by treating the wounded Drift for a [[zero point]] affliction. When the [[Epistemus|Magnificence]] proposed blowing up "Primus", Megatron immediately shot down the idea, noting the billions of innocent Cybertronians still trapped on their homeworld. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

After Rodimus had freed himself and reclaimed his ship, the two ships set down to compare notes with everyone transferring over to the ''Lost Light''. Despite the Magnificence's boasts of intelligence, Megatron still refused to blow up "Primus". His devotion to saving the citizenry proved the catalyst for a group brainstorm to come up with a plan to simultaneously open ''twelve'' [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrices of Leadership]], one on each of the planet's [[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]s, to overload Vector Sigma and kill the Functionists merged with the computer. At this, the Magnificence spoke in the unholy voice of the [[Omega Guardian]]s, revealed to have been manipulating events and needing "Primus" to explode, who swore to return and "eat everything". Megatron made an impassioned speech to the aliens, swearing to stop them, and distracting them long enough for [[Nickel]] to simply crush the Magnificence. The distraction however meant that the ''Last Light'' was left unattended when the Functionists finally turned their attention to the last Cybertron, violently dying with the planet. When the ''Lost Light'' took off, Megatron ordered the ship turned around so they could save the universe. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 5): The Unremembering|The Unremebering}}

[[File:LL24 Megatron GNNN!.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|left|Megatron is forced to admit that he'll never truly have [[The Touch]].]]
After [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]] showed up and slammed [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]] into the gargantuan robot's [[neural cluster]] to convert it back into planet mode, Megatron coordinated with [[Flame (Marvel)|Flame]] to properly ally with the Grand Architect's remaining troops. With Rodimus, Megatron made his way to the [[Nova Point]] hot spot where they were beset upon by legions of [[Functionary|Functionaries]]. To complicate matters, the Matrices refused to open, prompting Megatron to rally Rodimus into giving a final speech to the crew and reaffirm their morality. Though the speech had the desired effect, it left Rodimus open to having his left arm blown off before he could open his own Matrix. Megatron took over and tried to open the talisman himself, but his lingering doubts and guilt meant it refused to open for him. The weakened Rodimus then requested the artifact, managing to open it by substituting his missing limb with his teeth, the energies of all twelve destroying the Functionists and reigniting Luna 1's dormant hot spot. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 6): A Spark Among Embers|A Spark Among Embers}}

[[File:MegatronGoodbye.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|"One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."]]
As the crew took stock, [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] arrived to inspect "New Cybertron" before declaring that, since the [[Knights of Cybertron]] didn't exist, Megatron would once again have to stand trial, this time with the [[Galactic Council]] presiding. Over Rodimus's protests, Megatron agreed to go quietly but was nonetheless allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' for one last "victory lap" cruise. As the crew prepared to quantum jump home, the science team proposed the risky gamble of recreating the malfunctioning launch, thereby quantum duplicating themselves before then shunting the duplicates into a parallel universe to ensure that the ''Lost Light''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s adventures would never truly end. When the time to jump came, the crew simply wound up back on Cybertron.

As they all settled into ''Swerve's'' for a last drink, Magnus recited his favorite poem, which Megatron revealed he had written under a pseudonym. Adding that it was Impactor's favorite too, Megatron lamented that he'd wasted his life. Not wanting to leave it at that, Magnus gave a toast to all the friendships and bonds they'd forged... before construction cranes killed the moment and began disassembling the ship.

With Ultra Magnus once again acting as his defense orator, Megatron stood trial, Rodimus even falsely testifying that Megatron had been the one to open the duplicate Matrix. As the jury debated between infinite imprisonment and outright execution, Rodimus and Megatron had one last discussion, with Megatron revealing he'd always held onto his [[Rodimus Star]], before Magnus led him away. On their way to the sentencing chamber, Magnus revealed he was going to follow Megatron's advice and destroy the [[Magnus Armor]].

Years later, when Ratchet had passed, Rodimus placed Megatron's withered Rodimus Star on his tomb.

And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate ''Lost Light'' materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. {{storylink|How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2}}

===Pax Cybertronia===
In a vision of the future seen by Ironhide and Alpha Trion during the reformatting of Cybertron, fifteen million years hence, Ironhide still believed Megatron to be alive and promised a young Autobot they would defeat him again if he ever returned. {{storylink|Pax Cybertronia (issue)|Pax Cybertronia}} {{storylink|A Better Tomorrow}}
{{-}}

==''Spotlight: Mirage''==
[[File:SLMirage all in good time.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5]]
Somewhere, in an unknown time or place, the self-serving mercenary Mirage dreamed of Megatron and his Decepticons launching a massive attack on the Autobots. But Mirage knew that to only be a dream; in reality, the Autobots were almost eradicated, and Megatron had hired him to hunt down the last of their number. Megatron was outraged by the mercenary's demand for a majority share in all energon mining operations as payment, but it proved to be fuel well spent, as he soon succeeded in locating Optimus Prime and forcing him to surrender. Megatron demanded the prisoners be executed despite Mirage's promise to spare Autobot lives. Seeing Mirage's hesitation, Megatron appealed to his greed. {{storylink|Spotlight: Mirage}}
{{--}}

==Ask Vector Prime==
[[File:AHM 1cvrEXCL.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.85|I think this is a killing joke!]]
In [[Primax 708.10-R Lambda]], Megatron cracked the codes to an Autobot forward listening outpost. He walked in, shot [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]], and then laughed and took a photo of what he had done. {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/06}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
[[File:MegatronOrigin2 Megs hair.jpg|thumb|upright=0.55]]
*In [[Megatron Origin issue 2|''Megatron Origin'' #2]], we see that Megatron's helmet is, in fact, a helmet and not part of his head (at least in his original body). Upon removing his helmet, Megatron then briefly unfurls a crest. The significance of this moment is not explained, but it is briefly revisited in [[Remembrance Day|''More than Meets the Eye'' #14]] when a helmetless Megatron spars with [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]].
[[File:MTMTE Megatron Alt.jpg|thumb|left]]
*Apparently, the [[:File:DonFigStealthMegatronPitchedDesign.jpg|stealth bomber Megatron design]] debuted in [[Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|''The Transformers'' vol. 1 #15]] and used by IDW for a while was created by artist [[Don Figueroa]]. However, Figueroa created the design as part of a story pitch to editor [[Andy Schmidt]]; a pitch the editor rejected. Schmidt proceeded to use the design for this comic, but without compensation or credit to Figueroa; something the artist was highly displeased about.<ref>[http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/don-figueroa-designed-idw-s-stealth-bomber-megatron-but-wasn-t-compensated--t96022s0.php archive of Figueroa's post on the subject at Seibertron forum]</ref>
*Megatron's post-"[[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|Dark Cybertron]]" body was never seen transformed into its alt mode, although [[Alex Milne]] tweeted concept art during the run of ''Lost Light'' that showed Megatron transformed into a heavy tank.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Because you asked for it and because I found the old sketch which I recently cleaned up. Here is MTMTE Megatron's alt mode (Fusion canon included) I recently found all the design scribbles which I will clean up to share soonish. Enjoy #transformers #MTMTE #megatron https://t.co/Dth3GnOXQ8|link=https://twitter.com/markerguru/status/951902998141087744|name=Alex Milne|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=01|day=12|(defunct=)}}</ref> As this tank design would have required Megatron's signature Fusion Cannon, which had been discarded prior, it would have been left largely unhelpful anyway. By contrast, [[Nelson Dániel]]'s [[:File:LL3 cvrRI.jpg|retailer incentive cover]] for [[Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|''Lost Light'' #3]] showcases a different tank design using a different cannon.
*[[James Roberts]] clarified on Twitter that any members of the [[Functionist Council]] who survived into the Great War era were assassinated by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]] at Megatron's command.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Megs' choice|link=https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/1055107548318220288|name=James Roberts|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=10|day=24|(defunct=)}}</ref>
*In [[How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2|''Lost Light'' #25]], it is revealed that Megatron (under a pseudonym) wrote Ultra Magnus's, and Impactor's, favorite poem, "[[Afterlight]]". ''"You flare, you flicker, you fade. And in the end, all your tomorrows become yesterdays."''
*Megatron's serial number, "071-980", is an apparent reference to July 1980, the month in which [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]]'s ''{{w|Shogun Warriors (toys)|Shogun Warriors}}'' #18 was published, in which the name "Megatron" was first used by the company.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Anti-Vocationist League]]
[[Category:Combiners]]
[[Category:Decepticon leaders]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Autobots]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Decepticons]]
[[Category:Gladiators]]
[[Category:Lost Light crew]]
[[Category:Point One Percenters]]
[[Category:Rulers of Cybertron]]
[[Category:Turncoats]]

Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

2025-12-06T19:40:55Z

MetalMuncher11: /* Notes */

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[[File:IDWMegatron.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron A, Megatron B, Megatron Retailer's Incentive, Megatron Dynamic Forces Exclusive variant, and Megatron (Second Printing).]]
'''Megatron''' waged a battle to destroy the evil forces of the [[Senate]]! Then he ''continued'' to wage a war against the not-so-evil forces of freedom, organic life, and the very idea of an Autobot living. After [[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|some life-changing events]], he waged a war against the evil forces of his own past [[Decepticon Justice Division|legacy]]. Currently, however, Megatron's revolution has come full circle, waging a war against the evil forces of the [[Functionist Council]]!

Megatron is a master planner, constantly a step ahead of any opponent and even ahead of what he wants ''now'', preparing for anything he may want in the future. He has the physical might to overpower most foes but it's his mind that has one-upped three Primes and rival Decepticons. But his cold clinical nature is a front he has to struggle to keep up, as he's quick to anger and quicker to use excessive violence as his answer to any problem. Megatron's trying to change but he's spent such a long time revelling in violence, it may have been a lost cause from the start.

:*''First Appearance:'' [[Infiltration issue 4|''Transformers: Infiltration'' #4]]

{{quote|So long as you stand in my way—so long as '''anyone''' stands in my way, I will respond by killing. Murder on an '''industrial''' scale. Because in the final analysis, I would happily wade across a river of corpses, chest-deep in rust and grease and engine oil, just to crush the spark of the last Autobot standing. And I would not do so simply as a means to an end. No. I'd do it, Prime, because it would give me '''pleasure'''.|Megatron to Optimus Prime|"[[Chaos Theory Part 1]]"}}

{{quote|I once told Optimus that I killed for the sake of killing. I wanted to make him hurt me, you see, because when he hurts others, he hurts himself. And the thing is, when those words were in my head I didn't think I meant them; but when they left my mouth, I realized that I '''did'''. If the world thinks you're a monster, what does it matter? The world is '''wrong'''. But when you start to think of '''yourself''' as a monster...|Megatron on the previous quote|"[[slaughterhouse]]"}}

__TOC__
==Fiction==
===Birth of a tyrant===
[[File:Mtmte17-point one percenter spark.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Not so tough without a body, are ya?]]
'''Megatron of [[Tarn (polity)|Tarn]]''' was the first "hybrid" Transformer, a powerful forged superspark in a constructed cold body. His [[spark]] came to life in the middle of a field full of newborn sparks, a so-called "[[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]", on [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]], the "Seething Moon". The hot spot remained dormant for ages until it was finally fertilized when [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rodimus]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] set foot on the ground in the year [[2013]]. Within an instant, the entire moon lit up, as a billion sparks suddenly flared to life all over its surface. [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] was the first to point out that one of the sparks was glowing green, which [[Brainstorm (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Brainstorm]] recognized as a "superspark"—a vanishingly rare, insanely powerful [[Point One Percenter]]. Despite [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor's]] horrified protestations, Brainstorm immediately began to excavate and harvest the spark, {{storylink|Remain in Light 1 of 5: The Fecund Moon|The Fecund Moon}} taking it with him for future use. {{storylink|Remain in Light 5 of 5: This Calamitous Life|This Calamitous Life}}

[[File:MTMTE37 megatron under construction.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.0|Megatron (Work in progress)]]
Megatron's original body, on the other hand, was one of many [[reproduction|constructed cold]] during the [[Silver Harvest]], specifically built in the 1st Cycle 012, during the era of [[functionism]], in [[Con Facility 113]]. The spark originally intended for this body was one generated from the [[Matrix of Leadership]] by [[Solomus|Tyrest]], but this spark was destroyed by [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had travelled back in time alongside several other [[Autobot]]s, originally to ''prevent'' a time-travelling Brainstorm from killing Megatron and thereby unwittingly creating a [[Functionist Universe|dystopian alternate timeline]] in which the [[Functionist Council]] would rule [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. In the process, Brainstorm had also begun to erase data about Megatron, including his batch code. After Rewind had "killed" Megatron in order to prevent the destruction he knew the latter would come to wreak upon the universe, fellow time-travelling Autobot [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], who loathed the Functionists, took it upon himself to fix the timeline, taking advantage of a temporary distraction by nabbing the harvested Point One Percenter spark Brainstorm had taken back in time with him and placing it inside Megatron's now sparkless body—and thus Megatron was ''truly'' born. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

Megatron desired to be a medic, {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} but the doctrine of functionism was such that one's [[alternate mode]] denoted one's role in society, and one's role determined one's rights. With the true nature of his exceptionally rare spark evidently unknown, Megatron was assigned the task for which his body had been built: that of [[energon]] miner, a member of the lower class, toiling in a mine under [[Nova Point]]. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron symbol creation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|... And thus the "Silica Fracturism" art movement was born.]]
An idealist, intellectual, and poet, Megatron was sickened by the caste-ridden social apartheid of [[Nominus Prime]]'s Cybertron, and so he wrote [[After the Ark: Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress|a treatise]] on how pacifist dissent and the exchange of ideas could change things. It was while he was sharing this work with his miner friend [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] over a drink in [[Maccadam's Old Oil House|Maccadam's New Oil House]] that the event occurred which would change the course of his life, as Impactor wound up being drawn into a bar brawl with some of the city's upper classes (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Rung and a [[curly straw]]), and Megatron, who himself had actually ''not'' been involved in the brawl, instead cowering underneath a table, was among those arrested after the fracas. Megatron's writings had been growing in popularity and inspiring some dissent against the current regime, so in order to silence him, the [[Senate]] arranged for a police officer on their payroll, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]], to kill him. Before Whirl could finish the job, however, police captain [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]], having discovered Megatron's innocence thanks to the bartender's testimony, arranged for his release. Despite Pax expressing support for the message of his writings, Megatron now found himself filled with rage and hate, disillusioned with his former ideology and realizing the power of applied violence. Angrily hurling the datapad on which he had written his treatise through a public info-screen, Megatron observed the jagged shape of the shattered glass, and later turned it into a [[insignia|symbol]] for his cause. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}}

[[File:MTMTE34 what you might call a thinker.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|When considering the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, one question remains unanswered. Why am I always pictured with phallic-shaped items in awkward positions?]]
Megatron's samizdat writings began to circulate in Cybertron's underground, spawning the "[[Decepticon]]" movement, its name derived from its own slogan, "You are being deceived", warning the common 'bot of the Senate's true nature. Knowing that, at this stage, assassinating Megatron would merely make him a martyr, the Senate instead elected to relocate him off-planet, reassigning him to a mining facility on the world of [[Messatine]] while they tried their own schemes to defuse the growing Decepticon movement. {{storylink|Shadowplay, Part 1: Post Hoc|Post Hoc}} It was there that Megatron met [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]], an elderly fellow miner who encouraged him to keep writing, and who, in addition to proofreading his works for him, smuggled each new tract back to Cybertron, helping to continue the spread of the Decepticon movement. When Terminus was maimed in a mining accident and had his fuel rations cut off, Megatron kept him alive by sharing his own [[energon]] with the old 'bot. Eventually, Senate agents [[Froid]] and [[Trepan]] were dispatched to Messatine to perform mind-altering [[Shadowplay]] upon Megatron, in order to cut his writings off at the source. Tased into submission and strapped to Trepan's operating table, Megatron was helpless to stop the [[mnemosurgery|mnemosurgeon]] from beginning his vile work. Though the arrival of Froid's rival psychopathologist [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] fortunately forced Trepan to stop before Megatron's personality was altered, the experience left the miner with a lifelong fear of mnemosurgery. Subsequently, a mysterious surge of energy deep within the mine (inadvertently caused by a time-travelling Brainstorm) forced an evacuation of the facility; Megatron raced back to his quarters to carry Terminus to safety, but found his friend was not there. With time running out and no sign of Terminus anywhere, Megatron instead chose to save the stack of datapads containing his unpublished works—a decision that would haunt him. {{storylink|Births, Deaths, and Interventions}}

[[File:MegatronOrigin1 first kill.jpg|thumb|upright=1.38|"You know, sometimes I think I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now its all gone. And I'll never get it back in me. It's too late."]]
Megatron was relocated to [[Mining Outpost C-12]], and continued to seethe with hate and frustration in his new workplace. His discontent reached a peak when, some time later, [[Decimus|Senator Decimus]] arrived to announce that the mine was being automated and the workers would be relocated. When one of the Senator's guards killed a worker for insubordination and claims of Senate corruption, Megatron's fury boiled over and he hurled his pickaxe at Decimus. In turn, he was attacked by the Senator's guard, whom he killed by smashing his head to fragments—the first time he had ever taken a life. A riot erupted around him, but Megatron himself could only sit amongst the chaos, staring at his fuel-stained hands in abject horror, which allowed him to be easily pacified and rounded up with the other miners as the mayhem was quickly suppressed. En route to [[Penal Facility H-3|imprisonment]] back on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], however, [[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] and [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] broke free and started a riot aboard [[Longshot (G1)|their ship]]. Megatron joined in their effort, and together, they overpowered their guards, took control of the ship, and disappeared into the [[Kaon (polity)|Kaon]] underground. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 1|Megatron Origin #1}}

[[File:MegsOrigin2 Cykill.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Battle of the Awesome Voices!]]
After evading law enforcement, Megatron joined a team of underworld gladiators under the tutelage of [[Clench (G1)|Clench]]. Initially repulsed by killing his opponents, the games eventually turned him more brutal and excessive, and he took control of the entire operation from Clench. The opportunistic Senator [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]], after seeing how much money there was in the underworld matches, covertly sent his agent [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] to offer Megatron weaponry and technology to upgrade himself and his comrades. Their meeting was spied upon by [[Bumper (G1)|Bumper]] and [[Fastback (G1)|Fastback]], agents from the Senate's forces, who Megatron slew. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 2|Megatron Origin #2}} Subsequently, impressed by how he treated his animal-form [[Decepticon Mini-Cassette|cassette partners]] as equals (in contradiction to the teachings of his Senate masters), Megatron invited Soundwave back to the gladiator pits and gave him permission to use his mind-reading abilities on him. Within Megatron's mind, Soundwave saw his honest desire for all Cybertronians to be true equals, and was so moved by it that he joined Megatron's cause. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}}

Gradually, Megatron used the gladiatorial games to drum up an army of violent malcontents, sending Soundwave to recruit more and more warriors to his cause. Such recruits included [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who he was presented with while having an arm he lost in a brawl replaced with a new limb that incorporated an [[energon mace]], {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} and the disenfranchised warrior [[Drift (G1)|Drift]], who was personally asked by Megatron to fight at his side when he attended a Decepticon rally, and whom Megatron rechristened "Deadlock", {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} and transformed into a capable Decepticon warrior. {{Storylink|Drift issue 3|Drift #3}} A wave of terrorism and sabotage spread across Cybertron at his command: bombings, wrecking factories and fuel plants, shutting down transport links, a mass poisoning to tank a corporation, and a very public kidnapping of Senator Decimus. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}}

Seeking to enhance his army even further, Megatron reached out to [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Senator Shockwave]], offering to supply him the resources he required to carry out his own mysterious experiments in exchange for his using the teachings of his lost mentor [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] to create a [[combiner]] that would serve the Decepticons. Shockwave cautioned that it could take some time, but Megatron was content to wait. {{storylink|Shockwaves}}

[[File:Apexthrone.JPG|upright=1.4|thumb|You should have gone to IKEA.]]
Despite all his efforts, Megatron believed that the Senate was still not taking the Decepticons seriously, so Soundwave formulated a plan for a declaration of intent that could be not denied: lure the Senate to Kaon and murder them. {{storylink|Soundwaves (issue)|Soundwaves}} In preparation for this scheme, Megatron offered to restore Shockwave's lost hands—a victim of [[empurata]]—believing that doing so might speed his work. {{storylink|Shockwaves}} The following day, in accordance with Soundwave's plan, Megatron and the Decepticons allowed themselves to be arrested by Sentinel Prime's men, after which Soundwave was freed on Ratbat's orders, while Starscream would ensure his own release by pretending to defect. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 3|Megatron Origin #3}} Together, Soundwave and Starscream exterminated the entire Senate, then liberated Megatron and the rest of their comrades, in the process granting their leader the gift of a [[fusion cannon]] liberated from the Senate forces' armory. Megatron led his army against Sentinel Prime's men, killed Sentinel himself, and took control of Kaon, now ready to turn his insurgency into a full-blown war. {{storylink|Megatron Origin issue 4|Megatron Origin #4}}

After Sentinel Prime's body was laid to rest, his head inexplicably went missing. With the people of Cybertron unaware that Sentinel was a [[Titan Master]] who had disconnected from his [[Transtector]], the Decepticons were blamed for mutilating the corpse, allegations that Megatron denied. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Early days of war===
Megatron formally declared war on "[[Declaration Day]]" when he delivered a stirring speech from [[Nova Point|Nova Peak]]. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The self-described "second order" he ever gave was that under no circumstances was any Decepticon to kill Whirl—Megatron wanted his old tormentor for himself. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} The growing Decepticon forces swiftly spread across six [[Polities of Cybertron|Torus-States]], {{storylink|Parasites}} and to combat them, Cybertron's new leader [[Zeta Prime (G1)|Zeta Prime]] assembled a new military force, the "[[Autobot]]s", led by Megatron's old acquaintance [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Orion Pax]]. Researching his new opposite number, Megatron was intrigued to discover that his now-abandoned treatise had been a source of inspiration for Pax, who had even quoted from it when he confronted the Senate and openly accused them of corruption. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}} Early into the war, [[Bludgeon (G1)|Bludgeon]] would admit to Pax that Megatron talked about him sometimes, when he was tired. When Pax asked what was said, Bludgeon told him that it would make "both of us feel ''uncomfortable''". {{storylink|Omega's Conundrum}}

[[File:Autocracy4 backroom meeting.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron Delightful Destruction Exclusive Variant]]
When Orion Pax came close to Kaon during a mission, Megatron saw it as a chance to speak to him and had his Decepticons bring him in. {{storylink|The Hunt for Soundwave}} Megatron attempted to convince him that Zeta Prime was even worse than he appeared—that he had planned to let Orion die in [[Nyon]] so that he could use his death as pretext to invade the rebel-infested city and drain the citizens of their energon—and proposed they work together against him, but Orion refused to hear him and then escaped. Knowing the doubts he'd placed in his head would only serve to damage the Autobot cause, Megatron let him go. {{storylink|Cause and Effect}}

[[File:Autocracy8 megs and pax together.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|"Megatron, let's roll." "What you thinking?" "...Pub?"]]
Megatron continued to keep an eye on Orion Pax's activities, spying on his encounter with the Nyon insurgent [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Hot Rod]]. {{storylink|Ruins}} When Zeta Prime's [[Guardian robot|Omega Destructor]]s suddenly attacked Nyon, Megatron was surprised by how zealously the new Prime fought against the city's rebels, but his real interest still lay on how Orion would handle the crisis. {{storylink|Purge}} Orion turned on Zeta, who in turn attempted to kill him, prompting Megatron to intervene and force the Prime to retreat. Taking Orion back to Kaon, he again offered that they work together against Zeta's corruption, and this time the Autobot officer accepted. {{storylink|Choices}} As their combined forces invaded the [[Citadel]] in Iacon, Megatron and Orion Pax made their way inside and fought Zeta Prime in person. The battle ended with Megatron killing the Prime with a head shot, and with his objective complete, he then betrayed the injured Orion by shooting him in the back. {{storylink|Overthrown}} This moment lived in infamy as the point at which Megatron revealed his true colors, no longer couched in ideology; {{storylink|Dinobot Hunt (IDW)|Dinobot Hunt}} though curiously, an alternate report incorrectly implied he had assassinated Zeta from afar, sniping him with the rifle alternate mode of [[Vos (G1)|Vos]]. {{storylink|Bullets}} {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}}

[[File:Autocracy12 no you dont megatron.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|I can't be the only one with déjà vu here.]]
With Zeta dead, Megatron conquered Iacon and declared himself ruler of Cybertron. His soldiers patrolled the planet's streets to "keep the peace", mostly by hunting down and capturing any remaining Autobots who opposed him. {{storylink|Transformation (issue)|Transformation}} During his rule, Megatron attempted to sway the neutral Hot Rod into joining the Decepticons, but he decided otherwise upon witnessing Megatron ordering the execution of several Autobot prisoners. {{storylink|Rise}} Megatron was shocked to learn that Orion Pax had survived the betrayal and was organizing a rebellion against him under the name "Optimus Prime", and even more shocked that people actually had the courage to listen to him. He wasted no time in striking back against the rebels approaching the Citadel with the full force of his army. {{storylink|Broadcast}} During the battle, Megatron unleashed Zeta Prime's energy-draining [[vamparc ribbon|vamparc annihilator]], but when the gigantic [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]] took out the cannon, Megatron fell to the streets and was confronted by Optimus Prime himself. He lost the ensuing [[The Transformers: The Movie|familiar-looking duel]] and was badly wounded after a failed attempt to defeat Prime by holding Hot Rod hostage, forcing him to escape aboard Astrotrain. As he fled, he warned Optimus that he hadn't won, he had only started a war unlike any Cybertron had ever seen. {{storylink|Endgame}}

[[File:Monstrosity3 Megatron and Pentius.jpg|thumb|upright=1.66|Megatron insists on wearing his Darksiders cosplay when he's walking his pet Quintesson.]]
Before Megatron could recover from his injuries, he was betrayed by [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]], who was gunning for the position of Decepticon leader (with aid from Starscream). As punishment for his failure to hold Iacon, Scorponok banished the wounded Megatron to the hell-world of [[Junkion (planet)|Junkion]]. {{storylink|Derelicts}} Further injured in battle with some [[Junkion (species)|cannibalistic natives]], he stubbornly refused to give up and used the trash littering the world to patch himself up, leaving him with a mismatched, monstrous appearance. {{storylink|Wreckage (issue)|Wreckage}} While searching for a way off Junkion, Megatron entered the wreckage of a starship and found a trapped [[Quintesson]] named [[Pentius]], who had mapped the planet and knew of an area known as the [[Pillar of Rust]] where starships may land and take off. Megatron freed the alien to guide him there, while also putting him in chains to serve as his slave. {{storylink|Faces of Darkness}}

[[File:Monstrosity7 megatron takes pentius spark.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"Thanks for turning me into the psychopath I've been the whole time!"]]
While crossing the [[Acid Sea]] on the way to the Pillar, Megatron was attacked by [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticons]] who pulled him into the depths. {{storylink|Rage (IDW)|Rage}} For reasons unknown he was then released, the creatures having allowed him to live. As he emerged, Pentius was waiting with a history lesson, telling him that Junkion was once a prosperous world until its inhabitants drained it of resources, leaving it the broken husk it is today: a fate that may also await Cybertron. Megatron rejected this possibility, declaring that under his rule, Cybertron—and his legacy—would last forever. {{storylink|Fallout (issue)|Fallout}} On arrival at the Pillar of Rust, Megatron was met by the [[Terrorcon (G1)|Terrorcons]], who had come to Junkion to finish what Scorponok had started by killing him. He was able to fight off several of his attackers, but [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Gar]] was too much for him to handle in his injured state. Egged on and taunted by Pentius, Megatron realized he had one last resource left to use: the Quintesson himself. Telling Pentius that his legacy would live on within him, he tore out the alien's [[spark]] and used it to fuel himself, granting him enough power to defeat Hun-Gar. He spared the Terrorcons in exchange for their loyalty, then returned to Cybertron on their ship to take revenge on Scorponok and take back control of the Decepticons. {{storylink|Prey (issue)|Prey}}

[[File:Monstrosity12 strange turns.jpg|upright=1.66|thumb|Well, well, well... how the [[Microbots|tables turn]]...]]
Megatron returned to a Cybertron in chaos, as the ancient reptilian [[Trypticon (G1)|Trypticon]] had been unleashed by Scorponok and was in the midst of razing Iacon. After reasserting his leadership of the Decepticons by beating Scorponok nearly to death, he had Shockwave restore his body to its original shape and condition, {{storylink|The Illusion of Control}} and set out to investigate the Trypticon situation alone, unwilling to risk his soldiers in the face of the beast's uncontrolled fury. Finding an injured Optimus Prime on the battlefield, Megatron lectured him, but opted to leave him alive so that he could watch as the Decepticon leader defeated the enemy that Prime could not. Megatron was attacked by [[Grimlock (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Grimlock]], but as they grappled, they were swallowed by Trypticon. {{storylink|Annihilation}} Within the giant, the pair set their differences aside to fend off the [[cyber-morphic predator]]s that populated his interior, and together, they destroyed Trypticon's internal power cell, taking him offline. A tense standoff between the Autobots and Decepticons followed as the two warriors emerged from within Trypticon, but both sides agreed to go their separate ways for the time being. Not long after the battle, however, Megatron removed Pentius's spark from within himself and installed it within Trypticon. {{storylink|Belly of the Beast (issue)|Belly of the Beast}}

[[File:Primacy4 megatron imprisoned.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"I just need a feather from Laserbeak and I'll be out of here in no time..."]]
After being fully repaired following his ordeals, Megatron roused Trypticon by exploiting the connection they now shared thanks to both having borne Pentius's spark. Discovering that Trypticon now possessed the consciousness of Pentius, Megatron was immediately suspicious of the Quintesson's potential treachery and was staggered by the visions of undiluted evil he saw in the aliens' past via their spark-link, but Trypticon assured him that he was dedicated to their shared goal of breaking a world. {{storylink|Primacy issue 1|Primacy #1}} Using Trypticon's city-ship alternate mode, Megatron took to the stars, rounding up the scattered Decepticon army and even recruiting Junkions and Sharkticons. {{storylink|Primacy issue 2|Primacy #2}} Returning to Cybertron in force, Megatron was content to wait and watch from the sidelines while his troops viciously tore into Iacon. Trypticon was defeated in battle by Metroplex, at which point Megatron's folly was revealed: through their link, Pentius mockingly revealed his intention to use Trypticon consume Cybertron once the Autobots and Decepticons had weakened each other. {{storylink|Primacy issue 3|Primacy #3}} Leaving his men with orders to burn Iacon to the ground if he failed in order to spare it such a fate, Megatron set off for Trypticon's fallen body in hopes that he would be able to remove Pentius's spark before the giant revived. Confronted atop Trypticon by Optimus Prime, Megatron tried to goad the Autobot leader into destroying him, believing that Pentius would be destroyed with him thanks to their link. Refusing to accept death as the answer, Optimus instead used the [[Matrix of Leadership]] to purify Megatron, burning Pentius's spark away; Megatron, however, vowed that he would never stop hating Optimus in spite of what he had done for him. Sadly resigned to the fact that the once-noble revolutionary he had admired was now lost, Optimus knocked out the weakened Megatron and took him into custody. {{storylink|Primacy issue 4|Primacy #4}}
{{-}}

===The spreading conflict===
[[File:MTMTE14 megatron vs overlord.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|"For you, the day Megatron graced your Pit was the most important Day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."]]
Megatron's forces were quick to come to his rescue however, breaking him out under cover of the night. {{storylink|Post}} Early in the continuing conflict, Megatron authored ''[[Towards Peace]]'', a new treatise to replace ''After the Ark'', in which he described continuing to fight the war until the very notion of conflict was literally inconceivable. Then and only then would he finally give up his fusion cannon. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} The earliest edition of the work featured a dedication to Terminus, which Megatron would later remove to reflect the lesson his friendship with Terminus had taught him: not to get attached. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Friendships were a weakness, and Megatron exploited this in the cruelest way possible: by corrupting Optimus Prime's old friend [[Tarn (G1)|Damus]], turning him into one of the most vicious, dedicated Decepticons of all, a devoted worshiper at the altar of Megatron, purely to hurt Prime. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

Megatron oversaw the creation of a class of super-warriors known as the [[Warriors Elite]], selecting only his most powerful troops to undergo the torturous upgrade, including [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]], a brilliant sadist and frequent opponent of his from his pit-fighting days who had developed an obsession with Megatron after the Decepticon leader dealt him his first ever defeat. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} At some point, he also created the [[Decepticon Justice Division]] to deal with traitors, and appointed Damus—now code-named "Tarn"—as its leader, {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} though he elected not to send them after Deadlock when he defected, valuing the warrior enough to instead dispatch [[Lockdown (G1)|Lockdown]] to bring him in. {{storylink|Drift issue 2|Drift #2}} He would reportedly spend "half the war" searching for a way to remotely access a [[black hole]], in order to use [[antimatter]] for power, but never succeeded. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:ChaosTheory prime vs megatron montage.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Good times, bad times.]]
Megatron would personally clash with Optimus Prime many times; Optimus grew to respect and fear Megatron as a calm, calculating and measured opponent, while Megatron himself respected Prime's sheer power and his skill as a tactician and as a leader. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} Megatron would later incorrectly recall their battle on [[Sherma Bridge]] during the [[Rorsha Campaign]] as the first time they met. Said battle was certainly momentous—every Autobot and Decepticon stopped fighting to witness their duel, during which Megatron's cannon arm was sliced off by Prime's [[energon-axe]], and he claimed revenge by throwing the Autobot leader off the bridge. As the war spread to other planets, they would meet again and again: during the [[Siege of Massunstrad]], Megatron sealed Prime in an anti-matter chamber; on [[Rada Mor]], Prime reduced Megatron to ashes with sentient explosives; and in the midst of the [[Vorsk Offensive]], Megatron was nearly sliced in half by Prime. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Though he resisted [[Solomus|Tyrest]]'s attempts to find a "Two City-State Solution" to the war, he did agree to abide by the [[Tyrest Accord]]. {{storylink|Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus|House of Ambus}}

Megatron took on a new pistol alternate mode for the [[Battle for Hell's Point]], during which he was used by [[Heretech]] to blast [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ultra Magnus]]. {{storylink|The Gloaming}} During the same skirmish, Megatron took off half of Prime's face with his energon mace, but had a city block dropped on him by Prime in retribution, which shattered his [[Transformation cog (biology)|transformation cog]] and trapped him in gun mode for two years. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Prime was not the only old face that Megatron would see again during the war: during a battle on an aerial drilling platform over the [[Manganese Mountains]], Megatron came face-to-face with his old friend Impactor, and stood poised to execute him until Impactor gave him a moment's pause by recalling his old fondness for poetry. In this moment, Megatron was knocked from the platform by [[Springer (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Springer]] and sent plummeting to the mountains below. {{storylink|Zero Point}}

[[File:LastStandoftheWreckers2-teleconference.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|"We attack the Rice Krispies guys at dawn! Assuming Judd Hirsch delivers the goods."]]
At the war's zenith, Megatron sealed himself in an [[Omniglobe]] to absorb the relentless flood of data coming in from countless fronts. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} With total war going nowhere, he would go on to develop a six-stage [[infiltration protocol]] to be used for conquering targeted planets. The sixth phase called for outright planetary razing, and Megatron selected three of his Warriors Elite for this task: [[Sixshot (G1)|Sixshot]], {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} Overlord, and [[Black Shadow (G1)|Black Shadow]]. He informed this trio of his decision via teleconference, but Overlord, tired of being used as someone else's weapon, refused. Megatron threatened to hunt Overlord down for his disobedience, {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 2|Last Stand of the Wreckers #2}} but while the powerful warrior spent the rest of his life preparing for this conflict, Megatron never followed up and left him to stew in his own obsession. {{storylink|Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5|Last Stand of the Wreckers #5}}

[[File:Stormbringer1 get up and fight.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|You don't gotta go home Prime but you can't stay here.]]
Deducing that the Autobot/Decepticon war would culminate in an energy crisis that would threatened the stability of Cybertron itself, Shockwave left Cybertron to secretly pursue alternate energy sources. Around 10,000 years ago, when Shockwave did not return, Megatron ordered Bludgeon to investigate his files, {{storylink|Spotlight: Shockwave}} secretly assigning Soundwave to investigate Bludgeon {{storylink|Spotlight: Soundwave}} and probe deeper into whatever it was Shockwave had created. {{storylink|Shockpoint}}

Shockwave's prediction soon proved accurate, and Cybertron found itself in the throes of an energy shortage. Decepticon scientist [[Thunderwing (G1)|Thunderwing]] came to Megatron with a revolutionary, controversial plan to stave off this energy death by [[Pretender|polydermal grafting]], a process where they encased themselves in "symbiotic carapaces", or shells created from living tissue. When Megatron dismissed him angrily and cut him down, Thunderwing did not abandon his research; instead, he experimented on himself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 4|Stormbringer #4}} The process gave him immense power, but drove him insane. He became so dangerous that Megatron had to join forces with Optimus Prime to stop him. This battle at [[Thunderhead Pass]] accelerated the apocalypse destined to befall Cybertron, leaving it an uninhabitable, radioactive husk and forcing both armies to continue their war on other worlds. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #1}} Megatron advocated that they simply destroy Cybertron to ensure that Thunderwing was destroyed, but Prime refused, and threatened to stop Megatron if he tried. Megatron agreed not to destroy the planet, but warned Prime that whatever happened was on his head. Shortly after the last big push by the Decepticons, Cybertron was abandoned by both factions. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 1|Stormbringer #2}}

In the mid-19th century, Starscream reported to Megatron regarding a failed alliance with the [[Dire Wraith]]s and their unfeasibility as allies. Megatron congratulated Starscream... for finding yet another way to disappoint him. {{storylink|Shining Armor issue 5|Shining Armor #5}}

===Breaking protocol===
[[File:Infiltration4 enter megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|left|thumb|Megatron (Second Printing Preview)]]
In the early 21st century, when word reached Megatron that the infiltration unit led by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]], stationed on the planet [[Earth]], had broken protocol, he headed for the planet to investigate. Examining the unit's abandoned bunker in [[Nebraska]] for information, he discovered that Starscream had stumbled across [[Ore-13]]—an incredible energy source that (unbeknownst to Megatron) was the result of Shockwave's experiments—and was planning to use it to usurp Megatron's command. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} While studying the bunker's files, he was contacted by [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] with some distressing news: Bludgeon's investigations of Shockwave's files had led him to revive Thunderwing. Megatron ordered the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] to Cybertron, authorizing them to do whatever was necessary to destroy Thunderwing, including the destruction of their homeworld itself. {{storylink|Stormbringer issue 3|Stormbringer #3}} Just as he was handing down this order, Megatron was happened upon by [[Verity Carlo]], a human ally of the Autobot unit active on the planet, {{storylink|Infiltration issue 4|Infiltration #4}} but he utterly ignored her. The bunker was then leveled by an airstrike courtesy of [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] and [[Skywarp (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Skywarp]], who were merely covering their unit's tracks and unaware of Megatron's presence; when their leader furiously emerged from the wreckage, Skywarp attempted to explain their ignorance, but Megatron simply responded by blasting him out of the sky. Blitzwing favored opening fire rather than attempting explanations, so Megatron beat the stuffing out of him too, then set off for Starscream's new bunker in [[Oregon]]. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 5|Infiltration #5}}

[[File:Infiltration6 takeyourpunishment.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Those librarians are getting really strict on late returns.]]

{{quote|You will stand down. If you fight, you ''die''. There is no room anymore for mercy. In the end, you are ''all'' expendable. Choose.|Megatron's ultimatum to Starscream's renegade troops|[[Infiltration issue 6|''Infiltration'' #6]]}}

[[Orbital jump]]ing to Oregon, Megatron called Starscream out and ordered the team to stand down, disgusted to see such power games being played amongst his troops. His brief, chilling speech was enough to take the fight out of all but Starscream, who, powered-up on Ore-13, took Megatron on himself. Though the new power source made Starscream a formidable adversary, Megatron was still more deadly than he, and Starscream was taken out by a point-blank fusion cannon blast through his torso. Megatron ordered the Decepticons to ensure that Starscream survived, and then, observing the Autobots who had been watching the battle, announced that it was time to begin phase two. {{storylink|Infiltration issue 6|Infiltration #6}}

In light of the discovery of Ore-13, Megatron took stock of Starscream's progress on Earth and elected to get the infiltration protocol back on track himself, calling a meeting of Starscream's former troops and making them aware, in no uncertain terms, that any further insurrections would be met with deadly force. {{storylink|Escalation issue 1|Escalation #1}} He continued to order his troops on Earth directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} and was even able to revisit his past gun alternate mode, once again able to achieve the [[size changing|mass displacement]] the mode required thanks to the extra energy Ore-13 provided. {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}}

[[File:Megsandspidy.jpg|left|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron/Spider-Man #1 Retailer's Incentive]]
With his forces joined by [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]], a new arrival who Megatron suspected of having ulterior motives, {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} the Decepticon leader initiated phase two of infiltration protocol by destabilizing relations between the European nations of [[Latveria]] and [[Symkaria]] through use of an aggression-inducing [[Psycho-Prism]], stolen from Latverian dictator [[Doctor Doom]]. When the superhero team known as the [[Avengers]] investigated the array the Decepticons' were using to broadcast the prism's signal, Megatron abducted the arachnid-powered [[Spider-Man]] to use as a subject for their [[mirror response mode]], {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part One}} draining the hero's powers and infusing himself and the other Decepticons with them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Two}} He proceeded to forge a brief alliance with Doctor Doom, who helped him defeat and capture the allied Autobot/Avenger team who snuck inside the Decepticons' array, but when Doom's suggestion to threaten the captives in order to force the other heroes to lay down their arms failed, Megatron violently dissolved the partnership. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Three}} Emerging from the confines of the array to take on the Autobots and Avengers himself, Megatron refrained from engaging Prime, foreseeing a more intimate confrontation between the two of them in the near future, and instead turned his attention to destroying [[Iron Man]]'s Transformer-sized armor. The tables soon turned, however, when Doctor Doom freed the captive Autobots and used the Decepticon's mirror response technology to empower them. Defeated by these enhanced Autobots and with the Psycho-Prism destroyed by [[Wolverine (Marvel)|Wolverine]], Megatron used the last of his extra power to teleport the Decepticons out with an [[emergency warp-out]]. He refrained from departing alongside his warriors, intending to slaughter the Avengers for their interference, but when he was immobilized by Spider-Man's webbing, knocked to the ground by [[Luke Cage]], and rattled by a hail of Autobot fire, he finally warped-out with a final taunt to Optimus Prime of the battle yet to come between them. {{storylink|Man and Machine, Part Four}}
[[File:Escalation3-Massdisplacement.jpg|upright=2.2|thumb|Shock and Awe]]
With phase two of [[infiltration protocol]] properly underway, Megatron recognized that he ''should'' rightly withdraw and install a new unit commander on Earth, but could not resist the chance to try out his new Ore-13 empowered body, selecting the nation of [[Brasnya]], where Decepticon subterfuge was already underway, as his testing ground. {{storylink|Escalation issue 2|Escalation #2}} Allowing the Decepticon's [[facsimile construct]] [[Georgi Koska]] to wield him in pistol mode, Megatron had Koska use him to first sever a [[Russia]]n oil pipeline, and then to fire upon the soldiers who came to investigate, furthering the political and military tensions already brewing in the region. When word came through from Blitzwing that Optimus Prime and the Autobots had arrived, {{storylink|Escalation issue 3|Escalation #3}} Megatron at last engaged Optimus directly, {{storylink|Escalation issue 4|Escalation #4}} and although Prime was able to destroy his fusion cannon, the extra strength afforded Megatron by Ore-13 allowed him to physically beat Prime into submission, punching directly into his chest and crushing his [[spark]]. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Optimus Prime}} [[File:Escalation5 prime vs megs.jpg|upright=1.4|left|thumb|''I got me a shovel I'm digging a ditch...'']] The horrified Autobots moved into a full but ineffective counterattack, their only edge being that Megatron had no long-range guns left. It turned out that Prime's apparent death was a desperate ruse when the Autobot leader countered with a surprise attack on Megatron, able to exploit Ore-13's weakness—the more it's used, the faster it burns itself out. Megatron almost collapsed from power loss and was forced to have Skywarp take him to safety before the Autobots could kill him. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}}

Furious over the embarrassing defeat, Megatron threw protocol out the window and ordered that Sixshot be summoned to the planet. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}} He took out some of his anger on Ramjet, who he discovered had been busy cooking up a plot to overthrow him; without saying a word, he beat the attempted traitor to death before tearing him apart and keeping his head as a trophy. {{storylink|Spotlight: Ramjet}}
[[File:Devastation5 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|''And I'm gonna fight for this four square feet of land Like a mean old son of a bitch'']]
Upon Sixshot's arrival, Megatron ordered him to utterly destroy the Autobots, and although the [[Phase Sixer]] questioned his early deployment, he was happy to go along with the abandonment of the phase structure. The other Decepticons, on the other hand, were worried that Megatron was losing his grip—and since they were too scared to tell him that, they decided to revive Starscream to do it for them. {{storylink|Devastation issue 1|Devastation #1}} {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 1|Maximum Dinobots #1}} Megatron monitored Sixshot's attack on the Autobots' [[Ark-19]], ordering him to pursue the escape pod that broke away from the crashing craft, {{storylink|Devastation issue 2|Devastation #2}} but before he could obliterate the Autobots, Megatron was forced to recall him to deal with a new threat assaulting the Decepticon base—the alien [[Reaper]]s. {{storylink|Devastation issue 4|Devastation #4}} Unfortunately, the Reapers convinced Sixshot to side with them, and when an Ore-13 powered Starscream entered the fray to take Sixshot down, Megatron realized his troops had been conspiring against him. He decided not to punish them '''yet''', due to greater threat posed by the Reapers, {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} and entered battle alongside them all, even allowing Starscream to wield him in pistol mode against the aliens. After the invaders were dead, however, he turned on his men, starting with Blitzwing—but was forced to realize that they needed to remain united when it became apparent that their battle with the Reapers had made humanity inescapably aware of their existence {{storylink|Devastation issue 6|Devastation #6}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}
{{-}}

===All Hail Megatron===
[[File:AHM7 megs rips out matrix.jpg||left|thumb|[[The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|"I don't think I'd have made a good medic. No patience."]]]]
While the Decepticons were occupied fighting the Reapers, the Autobots had left Earth to deal with the greater threat of an incursion by the [[Dead Universe]]. Exploiting their enemies' absence, Megatron and his men went to ground; when Autobots returned, they could find no trace of the Decepticons, who kept one step ahead of them for months. Secretly abducting [[Hunter O'Nion]], former [[Headmaster (technology)|Headmaster]] partner to the Autobot [[Sunstreaker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sunstreaker]], Megatron and his men returned to Cybertron, where Megatron had [[Deluge (G2)|Deluge]] conduct experiments that bred a [[Insecticon swarm|swarm]] of monstrous [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]]. The experiments culminated in the creation of [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]], who Megatron employed in a series of key tasks in his plan: the Insecticon obtained from Hunter's mind various Autobot secrets and codes, completed Shockwave's long-gestating combiner process, granting the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] the ability to combine into [[Devastator (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Devastator]], and created a working [[space bridge]] {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} based on designs sold to them by Sixshot in exchange for his freedom. {{storylink|Spotlight: Metroplex}}

Returning to Earth, the Decepticons staged a phony schism within their ranks, allowing the Autobots to believe that they had "disappeared" as a result of a power struggle that had split their ranks into two camps, one led by Megatron and one by Starscream. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}} Starscream then approached Sunstreaker, whose experience as a Headmaster had left him bitter and jaded, with the proposition that the Autobots join with his forces against Megatron, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 8|All Hail Megatron #8}} but when the Autobots arrived at the designated time and place, they were instead confronted by the united Decepticon army and quickly defeated by Devastator. After personally tearing the [[Matrix of Leadership]] from Optimus Prime's chest, Megatron marched the captive Autobots through the space bridge back to Cybertron, where the Insecticon swarm waited for them. Prime, however, was able to damage the bridge, causing it to deposit the Autobots a safe distance from the swarm, but in the process, fried his own circuits and left himself comatose. Though the Autobots had escaped the fate he had intended for them, Megatron had successfully exiled his enemies to their dead homeworld; moreover, using information and codes gained from Sunstreaker and Hunter, he concurrently orchestrated the event that would later be known as [[Surge (event)|The Surge]], as Decepticons stormed Autobot installations all across the galaxy, achieving total victory. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 7|All Hail Megatron #7}}

[[File:AHM1 decepticons attack.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's urban renewal program was off to a flying start.]]
With galaxy-wide domination accomplished, one year after the Decepticons' battle with the Reapers, Megatron chose Earth to become the new Decepticon homeworld. Together with his men, Megatron stormed [[New York City]], humiliating Starscream with a display of his greater capacity for destruction. When the US Air Force retaliated, Megatron shrugged off their fire and ordered the other Decepticons to engage them; when one damaged jet threw itself toward him in a suicide run, Megatron, outraged at the [[DJ (G1)|pilot]]'s temerity, destroyed it and its occupant with a furious swipe of his hand. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 1|All Hail Megatron #1}} When US Army forces arrived, Megatron ordered [[Frenzy (G1)|Frenzy]] dispatched to deal with them, then sent Devastator to destroy the subway tunnels leading out of the city. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 2|All Hail Megatron #2}} With New York secured, Megatron directed the Constructicons to begin building a new space bridge in the city's heart, and had a candid talk with Starscream, revealing his belief that the [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]]'s attitude and actions marked him as the embodiment of the Decepticon cause, even if he was blind to seeing it himself. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 3|All Hail Megatron #3}} After a series of further attacks on major American cities saw the country firmly crushed under the Decepticons' collective heel, Megatron made a propaganda speech to his men in the ruins of New York. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 4|All Hail Megatron #4}} As night fell upon the city, Megatron withdrew to privately gloat over the Matrix. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 5|All Hail Megatron #5}}

[[File:AHM6MegatronVsIsrael.jpg|left|upright=1.66|thumb|Starscream just told Megatron that ''All Hail Megatron'' is going to go on for another six issues. He's taking it pretty well, all things considered.]]
As the Decepticons began attacking other countries around the globe, Megatron was questioned by Starscream on what the next step in his plan was. A recalcitrant Megatron merely informed him that it was merely time to savor their victory, but Starscream accused him of not ''having'' any plans post-victory, and was merely allowing his men to run wild to distract them from any notion of taking power for themselves. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}} What Starscream did not realize was that Megatron did indeed have a plan: to defeat the Autobots, he had created an army of killers and monsters, but in order to create his perfect rule, that army would have to be destroyed, the dissenting, distasteful elements obliterated before Megatron's peace could dawn. Megatron was not distracting his warriors... he was ''waiting'' to see which of them would question and turn on him. Silently sorrowful to already know that such dissent would begin with Starscream, an otherwise-model Decepticon, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} Megatron withdrew to [[Israel]] for some silent reflection amid wholesale devastation. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 6|All Hail Megatron #6}}

[[File:AHM10 megs vs devastator.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|Megatron's negotiations regarding the Constructicons' Work Union going unusually SMOOTHLY this time around.]]
Some time later, Megatron surveyed the space bridge Bombshell and the Constructicons had built in New York. He congratulated Bombshell on his work, but revealed that he had always foreseen Bombshell's intellect as a danger—had always known he and his fellow Insecticons would side with Starscream when the time came. His gambit exposed, Starscream made his move and attacked, but the Insecticons proved no match for Megatron's might. The Decepticon leader had failed to anticipate one thing, however: he did not foresee the Constructicons siding with Starscream, and found himself having to fight the mighty Devastator. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 10|All Hail Megatron #10}} The in-fighting was halted by a last-ditch attack by the mustered might of what remained of the human resistance, forcing Megatron and Starscream to put their differences aside momentarily and organize a defense. This attack came as no surprise to Megatron, but the same could not be said for the next entrants onto the battlefield: the Autobots had returned.

After assuring Starscream that he would be leader in the future, when his time was done, Megatron confronted Optimus Prime, surprised not so much that his old foe had survived, but that he had bothered to return to Earth. Both leaders had always maintained a policy of acceptable losses through their millennia-long war, so Megatron assumed Prime had come back for selfish reasons, to reclaim the Matrix, but Prime insisted that he had changed, and would no longer allow their cold war to endanger innocent lives on this scale. [[File:AHM12 prime vs megs.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.66|Like Homer Simpson putting on his pants, the struggle between Optimus Prime and Megatron remains eternal. [[...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|Almost.]]]] Megatron scoffed at the notion, reavling that Prime's supposedly "innocent" humans were planning to [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]] New York, killing millions of their own just to get rid of the Decepticons, {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 11|All Hail Megatron #11}} but Prime retorted that it wasn't ''just'' about the humans, but also about the difference between Autobots and Decepticons. The two came to blows, but Megatron triumphed in short order and commanded the Decepticons to depart, leaving the Autobots to be killed by the humans' nuke... but just before they withdrew, he was shot in the face by human soldier [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Spike Witwicky]], wielding a powerful weapon reverse-engineered from Cybertronian technology. Injured and disoriented by the blast, Megatron was finished off when Prime smashed his face in with his own fusion cannon. As he wanted to ''take'' leadership rather than just have it fall in his hands, Starscream picked up his damaged leader and ordered the Decepticons to retreat. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 12|All Hail Megatron #12}}

[[File:AllHisEngines-Megatron.jpg|thumb|Pretty sure when you float in a bacta tank you're supposed to be wearing a diaper.]]
The Decepticons departed Earth aboard Astrotrain, where the gravely wounded Megatron was put on life support and tended to by Soundwave and his cassettes. With Megatron's life signs only at ten percent capacity, Starscream attempted to appeal to Soundwave's sense of logic and have him shut down so that leadership could be his, but Soundwave refused. Starscream was soon able to take command, however, when he recovered the Matrix of Leadership and professed to have been chosen by it. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 13|Uneasy Lies the Head}}

===New body, new powers===
The Decepticons eventually settled on a desolate asteroid, where Megatron was installed in a [[CR chamber|CR tank]]. Retaining some level of awareness of the events occurring around him during his convalescence, he was forced to watch as his army languished in inactivity, their energy slowly ebbing away until they were reduced to cannibalism. {{storylink|All His Engines}} After a year of trying to free his leader from this living death, Soundwave was finally forced to conclude that Megatron's body was beyond repair, and recruited the recently returned Shockwave, whom Starscream had provided with the majority of the Decepticons' resources to create a space bridge, to help build a new body for Megatron's consciousness to inhabit. The operation succeeded and Megatron was reborn in a deadly new body, powered by Ore-13, armed with a devastatingly powerful rail gun, and even equipped with space bridge nodes stolen from Metroplex, which gave him the ability to open space bridge portals on his own. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing15 megatrons new body.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"Uh, it's like...did anyone ever see the movie ''Tron''?"]]
Back in action, Megatron devised a plan to destabilize the relationship between the humans and Autobots on Earth. Together with Soundwave and Shockwave, he chopped up his old body and used it to create human-scaled replicas of his former gun mode, containing small pieces of his own consciousness. When Starscream caught them in the act, Megatron elected to table his plan for the moment, as he considered it folly to go against Starscream's wishes for the moment since the Seeker was still in possession of the Matrix of Leadership. Megatron had never truly understood what the talisman ''did'', but it served as a threat merely by being an unknown variable. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} Fortunately, for Megatron this variable was soon removed from the equation when Hot Rod, estranged from the Earthbound Autobots, infiltrated the Decepticons' asteroid base and recovered the Matrix from Starscream. Megatron seized his chance, intercepting the Autobot and blasting him and the Matrix out into the void of space. {{storylink|Heart Like a Wheel}}

[[File:SLMegatron stealth bomber mode.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Behold... the ''Bomberang!'']]
With Starscream's trump card now gone, Megatron had the Decepticons gathered so he could address them. Distrustful of Shockwave's motives for preparing his new body, wary of Soundwave's constant surveillance, and repulsed by the state of his once fearsome Decepticon war machine, Megatron decided that he needed to unequivocally reestablish dominance over the now Matrix-less Starscream. He intended to beat Starscream near to death as a means of letting them both work out their frustrations with Starscream's inability to lead effectively during Megatron's absence, but Starscream did not want to fight—spiritually broken by his failures, he simply wanted Megatron to kill him. Rather than accept this, Megatron instead goaded Starscream into opening fire upon him. This began a running battle between the two, with Megatron pursuing the fleeing Seeker in his new stealth bomber alternate mode, continuing to bait Starscream every time he appeared willing to give up the fight. Incensed by Starscream's accusation that he did not know what it felt like to see everything he had worked for fall apart, when that was exactly what Starscream's pitiful leadership had done to the empire he had created, Megatron pummeled him to within an inch of his life, then paused to explain why he kept a schemer like Starscream around: as a constant reminder to watch his back. The brutal display galvanized the languid Decepticons, and Megatron was ready to begin his scheme. {{storylink|Spotlight: Megatron}}

[[File:IDWongoing14 megatron guns.jpg|upright=1.66|left|thumb|Megatron doesn't support the NRA. He IS the NRA.]]
Roughly two years after the Decepticons' defeat on Earth, Megatron used his space bridge powers to dispatch a container full of the guns made from his old body to Earth, where they were found by South American gun-runners and illegally disseminated amongst an increasingly paranoid public seeking ways to protect themselves against Transformers. This allowed Megatron's consciousness to spread across North America, until it was focused enough to contact one particular owner of a Megatron gun: [[Joe Gladki]]. He deceived and manipulated the paranoid human, and eventually convinced him to perform an assassination attempt on [[Bumblebee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Bumblebee]], the new Autobot leader. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|Altered Carbon}} In their ignorance, the Autobots then mistook Gladki's gun for Megatron himself and held it captive. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man|The Demolished Man}}

[[File:IDWongoing16 megatron vs autobots.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|Not the [[Realignments|first time]] he's traded his [[fusion cannon]] for a [[rail gun]].]]
With the Autobots in chaos, Megatron started the next phase of his plan and returned to Earth personally, where he used his new stealth bomber mode to shoot down a plane carrying Optimus Prime and several other Autobots. He then hunted down the remaining Autobots, effortlessly defeating them and their new temporary leader Ultra Magnus with his powerful new body, and killing some of their [[Skywatch]] allies. Magnus tried to draw Megatron's attention from the humans, claiming the Autobots were the ones he really wanted, but Megatron assured him that humanity was his real target. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 3: Woken Furies|Woken Furies}} Taking the defeated Autobots captive, Megatron dumped them in a city and directed three of his mind-controlled human puppets to kill them. Contacting Prime directly, Megatron summoned him to the city's outskirts and revealed his plan: crush Prime's spirit and destroy the Autobots' alliance with humanity by forcing them to choose between fighting the humans or allowing them to kill them. Prime found the hole in Megatron's plan, however, when he realized that Soundwave was maintaining the connection between Megatron and his guns, and shot him in the head. His connection to his pawns severed, Megatron scooped up Soundwave and withdrew. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 4: Burning Chrome|Burning Chrome}} Thanks to a tracker Ultra Magnus had slipped on Soundwave, though, Prime was able to follow the Decepticons to their bolthole and called Megatron out for a full and proper confrontation. In actuality, Prime had lured Megatron outside so Skywatch could drop a [[kinetic harpoon]] on him, but even a weapon dropped from orbit barely proved able to put a scratch in Megatron's mighty new exostructure. Megatron proceeded to beat Prime senseless, but then returned him to the Autobots, and to their great shock, surrendered to their custody. After recovering, Optimus demanded to know why he had surrendered, but Megatron merely taunted him by revealing that Spike Witwicky had murdered a Decepticon in cold blood. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: Enemy Mine|Enemy Mine}} Prime immediately had Prowl begin investigating Spike and Skywatch, and Prowl interrogated the Decepticon leader for information, which he provided after a little verbal sparring. {{storylink|Police Action: Prologue}}

[[File:ChaosTheory1 megatron imprisoned.jpg|upright=1.5|left|thumb|Megatron and Optimus Prime can't agree on a safe word.]]
When Rodimus returned to Earth and warned the Autobots that [[Galvatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Galvatron]] had taken control of Cybertron, Optimus decided to lead the Autobots in reclaiming their homeworld. In the name of Earth's safety, he elected to bring Megatron and the confiscated guns made from his old body with them. {{storylink|Space Opera—Final Tableaux: Orphans of the Helix|Orphans of the Helix}} On the way to Cybertron aboard [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]], Prime again attempted to discern why Megatron had surrendered, even releasing his old foe from his bonds and having a civil conversation with him about their past together and their dueling ideologies. Optimus tried to reach out to Megatron, offering him the chance to end the war once and for all with a handshake; Megatron appeared to consider it for a moment but ultimately remained silent. With Megatron returned to the confines of the [[variable voltage harness]], the other Autobots pressured Optimus for a decision on his fate: execution or imprisonment. Trying to come to a conclusion, Prime asked Megatron if he regretted any of his actions, but the Decepticon leader remarked that he only regretted not killing ''more'' Autobots. He taunted Prime with the notion that even he was thankful for the war, as it had raised him from a nobody to the greatest Autobot in history, and a furious Prime activated the harness, electrocuting Megatron. The jolt would have killed Megatron if Omega Supreme had not cut the power in time and Megatron, struggling to stay conscious, offered Prime his thanks for saving his life all those years ago in Rodion. Shocked by his actions, Prime realized that Megatron wanted to die and wanted Prime to be the one to kill him. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 1|Chaos Theory #1}} Eventually, Prime decided to let Megatron choose his own fate, and Megatron calmly replied that he chose death. {{storylink|Chaos Theory Part 2|Chaos Theory #2}}

[[File:Chaos2 armored megatron.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|...Again...?]]
As Omega drew close to Cybertron, Megatron demanded to know who or what was threatening their homeworld, but Optimus Prime refused to provide him with any information. {{storylink| Chaos Part One: Lamentations|Lamentations}} The Autobots subsequently engaged Galvatron's forces in battle, and while they were occupied, Megatron put into motion the ace he had up his sleeve: taking remote control of the numerous "Megatron guns" aboard Omega, Megatron summoned them to him and combined with them into a new armored mode. Breaking free from his restraints, he headed out to confront Galvatron, intent that nobody would take his world from him. {{storylink|Chaos Part Two: Numbers|Numbers}} As he tore through the Sweeps, Megatron also revealed the reason for his surrender: now that he was back on Cybertron, he could open a space bridge that would allow the massed forces of the Decepticons on Earth to return to their home planet as well. Unfortunately, not long after the Decepticons arrived on the battlefield, Galvatron's secret puppet master, the Dead Universe entity known as the [[D-Void]], seized control of their minds and those of the Sweeps, merging them into a gigantic, monstrous avatar. With Prime occupied pursuing Galvatron into Cybertron's depths, Megatron was left to face this "[[Deceptigod]]" alone. {{storylink|Chaos Part Three: Kings|Kings}} Fighting against the D-Void's attempts to ensnare his own mind and make him part of the collective, Megatron was gravely wounded and even lost an arm to the beast, but succeeded into destroying it, blasting it apart with one massive beam from his weapons. {{storylink|Chaos Part Four: Genesis|Genesis}}

===The long game===
Even as the Deceptigod disintegrated back into its component Decepticons, Megatron could see the potential the creature embodied—the D-Void had, in essence, created the perfect combiner by means of utterly obliterating free will. With Cybertron reverting into a primordial wasteland around him—a result of Optimus Prime purifying [[Vector Sigma]] with the Matrix to stop Galvatron and the D-Void—Megatron chose to withdraw to experiment with the possibilities this presented. He informed Shockwave, the sole Decepticon who had not been made part of the Deceptigod, of his plans, and Shockwave in turn revealed them to Soundwave and Bombshell. {{storylink|Shockpoint}} While Megatron hid in the wilderness, his Decepticons were left to live as second-class citizens in the new [[Iacon (polity)|Iacon]] that the Autobots built; Optimus Prime left Cybertron two weeks after the D-Void's defeat to calm tensions with "NAILs"—other unaffiliated Cybertronians—who had returned to their homeworld, but even as he did so, he mused that Megatron must still be out there somewhere. {{storylink|Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime|The Death of Optimus Prime}}

[[File:RID11 megatron in wilderness.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|Megatron can't find anyone who wants to join his nudist colony to save his skin.]]
In the months of study and experimentation that followed, Megatron discerned that the combination of Ore-13 and space bridge technology in his body somehow gave him the ability to manipulate the natural energy of Cybertron that the D-Void had used to merge the Decepticons into the Deceptigod. After experiments on [[turbofox]]es created larger, more ferocious beasts, Megatron stepped up trials when the [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbots]] seceded from the shaky government Bumblebee, [[Metalhawk (G1)|Metalhawk]] and Starscream were building in Iacon and ventured into the wilderness. The signal Megatron had created from the combination energy first drove the Aerialbots mad, before uniting them in body and mind, spontaneously merging them into the gestalt [[Superion (G1)|Superion]], but this newborn Autobot combiner was considered hopelessly insane by Megatron and left to die in the wilderness. The madness aspect of the signal afforded him the chance to revive some of the principles of the infiltration protocol, however, as he blanketed the wastelands in it, forcing the Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs to stay in Iacon, causing natural conflict among them to snowball, providing a useful cover for his actions. To gain a pawn within Autobot high command, Megatron even provided Bombshell with the energy to use in conjunction with his own mind-controlling [[cerebro-shell]]s, ensnaring the mind of Prowl. With the resources and cover control of Prowl provided, Shockwave, Soundwave and Bombshell were able to use Megatron's findings to perfect the combination process, rebuilding the Constructicons with new modular designs that would allow them to merge into a perfect Devastator. The endgame was for Megatron himself to form the head of the combiner, but before risking his own mind and body, Megatron decided that Prowl would be used first as a test subject. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}}

[[File:RID12 kill him.jpg|upright=1.95|thumb|"Your armor. Give it to me now."]]
The appearance of [[Metrotitan (G1)|Metrotitan]] on Cybertron who declared that Starscream was the "Chosen One" threatened Megatron's ability to easily re-take leadership of his Decepticons, forcing him to step up his schedule. Through Prowl, he had his inner circle gathered together in the secret "[[Black Room]]", then boldly strode into Iacon for all to see. {{storylink|The End of the Beginning of the World}} His body shattered and skeletal, he professed to come in peace, but Bumblebee did not accept his surrender and ordered his Autobots to kill him. Indeed, Megatron could possibly have died there and then had Iacon's Decepticons not stepped in, insisting that Megatron's defense of Cybertron during the D-Void's attack marked him a hero and that he be taken into custody instead. {{storylink|City on Fire}} After [[Wheeljack (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Wheeljack]] got through examining him to prove his body concealed no weapons, Starscream approached the imprisoned Megatron and attempted to explain that he was not far away from taking complete power in the government, ensuring a Decepticon victory of a different kind. Megatron merely smiled silently at the notion, terrifying his ex-lieutenant with his grin. Presently, the Decepticons rose up in an angry mob and marched on Autobot high command to insist on Megatron's release; the situation quickly devolved into a riot, during which a squad led by [[Needlenose (G1)|Needlenose]] stormed the prison and freed Megatron. {{storylink|The Verge}}

[[File:RID14 new body redux.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.55|New body or not, Megatron may want to think twice about standing [[:File:Devastator-ROTFenemyscrotum.jpg|underneath Devastator's legs.]]]]
Megatron brought Starscream and the captured Bumblebee and Metalhawk to the Black Room, where he explained his plans and had himself transferred into a pre-prepared new body that could combine with the Constructicons' new forms. At his command, the Constructicons and Prowl combined into the new Devastator, who immediately set about razing Iacon. {{storylink|Before the Dawn}} Even the return of Superion seemed unable to stop the powerful new combiner, until help came from an unexpected quarter—Prowl's secret assassin [[Arcee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Arcee]] killed Bombshell, taking out Prowl's controller and causing Devastator to shut down. This was no real impediment to Megatron, however, as the successful function of the new combiner process had been proven, and he set out to take ''his'' place as Devastator's head. Before Megatron could reach the fallen gestalt, though, Devastator awoke, possessed of his own unique, united consciousness for the first time, and resumed tearing into Iacon. {{storylink|Plan for Everything}}

[[File:RID20 megatron in forcefield.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|You know you can't catch a break when you find yourself trapped inside a novelty plasma lamp from Spencer's.]]
Still Megatron remained unfazed, calmly fending off Autobot attacks and waiting for the inevitable moment when the heroes would take Devastator down. When [[Ironhide (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ironhide]] succeeded in doing so by managing to reach Prowl, Devastator separated, and Megatron immediately stepped in, re-initiating the combination with himself in control. Seconds before uniting with the Constructicons, though, his plan was foiled by Bumblebee, Ironhide and Prowl's activation of a secret failsafe: Wheeljack had integrated a forcefield generator into Megatron's spark casing during his examination of him, and when it was triggered, he was completely paralyzed in mid-transformation. {{storylink|Heavy Is the Head}}

In the fallout of the battle, Starscream killed Metalhawk, took control of Iacon and banished the Autobots and Decepticons from the city. He took custody of the immobilized Megatron, and silently gloated over the victory he had accomplished by using guile and politics, rather than Megatron's ways of brute force and firepower. {{storylink|Three Monologues}}

===A new approach===
Megatron would not remain incapacitated for long. That night, as the result of millennia-long secret machinations by Shockwave, an [[Quintessa (IDW)|undead Metrotitan]] appeared on Cybertron and opened a portal to the Dead Universe in the planet's skies. Through the portal, Shockwave made contact with Galvatron and his master, the exiled Cybertron despot [[Nova Prime]], but was unable to bring them through to Cybertron thanks to the unexpected disappearance of the Titan's space bridge system. Intending to use the space bridge within Megatron as a replacement, {{storylink|Black Metal: Dark Cybertron Chapter 2|Black Metal}} Shockwave reanimated the deceased Metalhawk with a wave of necrotic energy from the Titan and had him liberate Megatron and bring him to his secret lab in [[Crystal City]]. {{storylink|Winners & Losers: Dark Cybertron Chapter 3|Winners & Losers}}

[[File:RID24 i remember you.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Somewhere in the multiverse, [[Override (G1)|Override]] and [[Jazz (Movie)|Jazz]] are smiling.]]
Shockwave hoped that Megatron would comply with his plans willingly, but the Decepticon leader refused and Shockwave forcibly activated the space bridge technology in Megatron's body. {{storylink|Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4|Into the Abyss}} The opening of the bridge in his chest caused Megatron agony, but his screams were heard by Soundwave, who led the united forces of the exiled Autobots and Decepticons to Shockwave's lab to free his leader. Nova Prime and Galvatron attempted to squeeze their way through the space bridge despite this interference, but Ironhide was able to punch Nova back through into the Dead Universe. Just then, Shockwave's "Necrotitan" came crashing into the subterranean city, and in the chaos, Megatron was freed from the restraints holding him. No sooner had Megatron carried Ironhide to the safe hands of the other Autobots, however, than he was ripped in half from behind by Galvatron, who had successfully emerged through the portal {{storylink|Finest Hour: Dark Cybertron Chapter 5|Finest Hour}}—a briefer battle, no doubt, than the one Shockwave had foreseen between the pair in a vision at the outset of his scheme. {{storylink|Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1|Dark Dawn}}

[[File:MTMTE26 megs and bee.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|I smell a sitcom!]]
After the battle was over, Galvatron and [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] lugged Megatron's bisected remains back into Crystal City, only to find their way barred by the unlikely form of Bumblebee, who demanded they hand Megatron over. Galvatron attacked the Autobot, at which point Megatron revealed that he was fine, as he took down Waspinator and knocked Galvatron out with a barrage of fusion cannon fire. {{storylink|The Dead Are Not Enough: Dark Cybertron Chapter 7|The Dead Are Not Enough}} Bumblebee lugged Megatron back to Iacon, currently being razed by the Necrotitan, where the Decepticon leader announced to the assembled Autobots, Decepticons and NAILs his plan to withdraw to [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]], summon the Decepticon Justice Division and other scattered troops, and strike back. Bumblebee rejected Megatron's notion of retreating, and struck a nerve within him by questioning his entire philosophy: Megatron had ''long'' ago abandoned any notion of fighting for freedom and equality, Bumblebee attested, and merely used the claim to ideology as an excuse for his actions. {{storylink|Burning Bright: Dark Cybertron Chapter 8|Burning Bright}} Fortunately, fighting back suddenly got a lot easier when Metroplex and the ''[[Lost Light]]'' space-bridged to Cybertron. During the battle between the Titans, Megatron observed Metroplex reaching for the ''Lost Light''; when the ship's crew explained that they had Metroplex's severed thumb aboard, Megatron had Bumblebee carry him to it, whereupon he realized that the thumb contained one of Shockwave's [[Regenesis]] ores. Megatron used his internal space bridge to teleport the thumb back to Metroplex, and the ore provided the giant with the power boost to defeat the Necrotitan. {{storylink|Finis Temporis: Dark Cybertron Chapter 9|Finis Temporis}}

[[File:DCFinale megatron the autobot.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|ಠ_ಠ]]
At Bumblebee's order and under protest, [[Ratchet (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ratchet]] repaired Megatron's injuries and reattached his legs, reminding Megatron of his desire in youth to be a medic. His recent string of failures, the success of ''Starscream'', of all 'bots, and Bumblebee's stinging words had turned the Decepticon leader introspective, and he realized he had forgotten something very important that had driven his writings in his early years: winning meant turning people to your way of thinking, not dominating them. {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} Subsequently, when Shockwave initiated his millennia-long plan to collapse all reality into a universal black hole, Megatron placed himself and the Decepticons under Bumblebee's command to co-ordinate a counter-strike, and journeyed with his uneasy new "friend" into Shockwave's [[Crystal City]] base to confront their shared enemy. There, they found the weakened Galvatron, who Megatron prepared to destroy for past indignities, until Bumblebee talked him down, convincing him that blood did not have to be repaid with blood. At that moment, Shockwave struck, slaying Bumblebee with a blast, and driving Megatron into a rage. {{storylink|Black Planet: Dark Cybertron Chapter 11|Black Planet}} Empowered by his various ores and the energy of the Dead Universe, Shockwave was a formidable opponent and it was all Megatron could do to hold his own against him until Optimus Prime arrived to join the fight. Prime attempted to reason with Shockwave and remind him of the kindly senator he had once been, but his words had little effect, so Megatron opted for a more object lesson: removing the fallen Bumblebee's insignia, he placed it upon his chest and declared himself an Autobot. The stunned Shockwave lost control of the time machine powering his plot, causing his old pre-[[Shadowplay]] memories to emerge. Horrified at what he had become, he allowed Megatron and Prime to kill him, which caused the time machine to collapse into a singularity. Megatron and Prime made what seemed to be a futile dash for freedom, but were saved from the singularity's pull at the last moment by the timely arrival of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}}

===Crimes against the Species===
{{quote|I don't want to be acquitted. I want to '''make amends'''|Megatron on his new goal in life|"[[World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide]]"}}
[[File:DCFinale this is not a trick.jpg|thumb|upright=1.95|Optimus apparently decided a sincere Megatron was a cue for mood lighting.]]
In a private meeting between Optimus Prime and Megatron a short time after Shockwave's defeat, Megatron affirmed that his change of heart was genuine, and Optimus assured him that he could see past his wartime deeds and remember the well-intentioned 'bot he had started out as. {{storylink|...And the Damage Done: Dark Cybertron Finale|...And the Damage Done}} The rest of Cybertron, however, demanded a trial; Autobot High Command agreed, realizing that the Decepticon leader's fate had to be decided in public. Before the trial, Megatron was approached by Optimus, [[Chromedome (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Chromedome]] and Rodimus in an attempt to extract some of the Decepticon's memories as evidence in hopes of expediting the proceedings, but a horrified Megatron refused, considering the sanctity of his mind all he had left. After Optimus departed, Rodimus remained to taunt Megatron with the certainty of his execution; in return, the impassive Decepticon simply asked Rodimus to deliver a [[communicube]] to Optimus, {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} containing a request to have the trial moved to the [[Raskol Arena]] on Luna 2, in order, he alleged, to accommodate the huge number of spectators that would inevitably attend. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron pleads guilty.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.95|I agreed to this trial on the condition of meeting Matlock.]]
Megatron's trial lasted five months. At the outset of the proceedings, Megatron pled guilty to "Crimes against the Species", {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} but things changed when Starscream took the stand and gave a testimony that presented Megatron as an incapable leader who was unable to control the Decepticon forces under his command, a powerful brute lacking in the qualities of true leadership who led his followers down an ultimately self-destructive path. His treacherous lieutenant's words struck home, and Megatron stunned the assembled crowd by changing his plea to "not guilty". {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} Just as his defender, Ultra Magnus, was reading a statement declaring this, the trial was dramatically interrupted by a small army of Decepticons led by [[Snaptrap (G1)|Snap Trap]] and [[Hun-Gurrr (G1)|Hun-Grr]], who had escaped from the brig on the ''Lost Light''. The invading force attempted to teleport Megatron away to safety, but he refused to escape and the uprising was quickly quelled. During the recess that followed, Optimus confronted Megatron over his true motives: he had requested that the trial be held on Luna 2 in order to exploit the moon's different legal system in the event that he felt the trial was unjust. Caused by Starscream's speech to realize that, were he to submit to execution now, his legacy would be one only of pain and death, Megatron invoked one of the moon's forgotten laws: an individual who had committed sufficiently heinous crimes could request he be judged by the long-lost [[Knights of Cybertron]]. Megatron requested that he be allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' in their search for the Knights and their homeworld of [[Cyberutopia]], thus ensuring that ''that'' would be his legacy, after which he would submit to whatever punishment was deemed necessary. Optimus agreed on the condition that Megatron read a prepared speech denouncing the Decepticon cause and asking all active Decepticons to stand down. Megatron did so, at great personal pain. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Hurt and angry over this perceived abandonment, Soundwave used Megatron's change of faction as evidence to forge a new allegiance of his own, decamping to Earth and working with the [[Earth Defense Command]] to create a new home for Decepticons there. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 2: Detonation Boulevard|Detonation Boulevard}}
[[File:MTMTE30 cocaptains.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|O captain, my co-captain.]]
Megatron was assigned co-captaincy of the ''Lost Light'' alongside Rodimus, who immediately hated the idea and everything about it, leading to a particularly antagonistic relationship between the two. Megatron was permitted only to fuel himself with "[[Fool's Energon]]", which left him substantially weakened. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}} Shockwave's machinations had left his internal organs a tortured Gordian knot of space bridge wormholes from which it was impossible to extract his spark; his outward appearance changed between the end of his trial and his co-captaincy, suggesting that his armor was rebuilt around him, or his entire internal structure was transplanted into a new body. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Megatron would later lament that his body did not graft to his spark like past chassis, which he considered a sign of his waning age. {{storylink|slaughterhouse}} Optimus would see Megatron off on his voyage before he himself headed off to Earth, a meeting Prowl found deeply disturbing. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 1: Hello Cruel World|Hello Cruel World}}

===Towards Peace===
[[File:MTMTE28 megatron head examined.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.5|"So Megatron, tell me about your mother". "She was hot".]]
The ''Lost Light'' warped back out to the Galactic Rim and set off on the trail of [[Thunder Clash|Thunderclash]], who they considered their best lead on the location of the Knights. A month into the journey, Megatron agreed to a therapy session with ship's psychoanalyst Rung, during which he espoused his current thinking on personal history, and one's ability to selectively edit or abandon entirely previously held truths. Following the session, Megatron discovered that the door to his quarters had been graffitied, and was almost immediately attacked by the culprit, Whirl. During the fight—which Whirl deemed "inevitable"—the ex-Wrecker punched Megatron in the stomach, only to find his hand teleported away by the space bridge tangle inside his body. This took the fight out of Whirl, and Megatron offered to forget the incident if the graffiti was removed from his wall. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace|Towards Peace}} Through his internal space bridge, Megatron could sense that Whirl's arm had been teleported into the vicinity of a black hole, and—ever the forward planner, preparing even for the unlikely eventuality that he might change his mind about what he wanted—Megatron was inspired to revive his wartime plan to remotely channel antimatter.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

Megatron subsequently oversaw the bringing onboard of a mysterious coffin the ''Lost Light'' found floating in space. A short time later, a drunken dare gone awry resulted in [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailcutter]] accidentally cracking the coffin open with his forcefield. Megatron reprimanded him by permanently engaging his fuel intake moderation chip, and assigned him the role of Security Director in order to focus his mind. The pair then turned their attention to the opened coffin, which was revealed to contain the body of another Rodimus! {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 2: Words Hang in the Air|Words Hang in the Air}} A brief analysis suggested that the body was of Rodimus from the future, but before the matter could be settled, the crew of the ''Lost Light'' were forced to abandon the ship as it suddenly began disappearing around them. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide|Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE32 i came to hate the person id become.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Lolcat is watching you deprecate.]]

Megatron found himself on the [[Rodpod]] with a score of other 'bots, but when ''they'' then began to vanish too, [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] accused Megatron of being responsible. A tense standoff ensued, which was brought to a surprising end when [[Ravage (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ravage]] was discovered to have been hiding on the pod, having secreted himself on the ''Lost Light'' in order to spy on Megatron for Soundwave. {{storylink|Twenty Plus One}} The weirdness continued as the remaining crew of the Rodpod—Megatron, Ravage, Nightbeat, [[Skids (G1)|Skids]], [[Nautica (G1)|Nautica]], [[Riptide (G1)|Riptide]], and [[Getaway]]—discovered the wreckage of a second ''Lost Light'', point of origin for the mystery second Rodimus, orbiting the planet [[Ofsted XVII]]. Still believing that the duplicate ship hailed from the future, Skids accused Megatron of being responsible for the devastation, and, realizing that the recent huge changes he had made in his life left him devoid of any surety in his future actions, Megatron allowed himself and Ravage to be imprisoned until the truth could be determined. Locked in a supply closet with Ravage, Megatron had a heart-to-heart with his angry ex-subordinate, justifying his decisions and unable to offer Ravage any consolation. When power returned to the ship, the pair discovered the dead bodies of Ratchet, [[Drift (G1)|Drift]] and [[Hound (G1)|Hound]] in the closet with them, sporting injuries that allowed Megatron to realize that the Decepticon Justice Division were responsible for the slaughter. The team prepared to immediately withdraw until an even stranger discovery was made: Autobot archivist [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]], who had died months beforehand... still alive, the only survivor of the D.J.D.'s attack! {{storylink|slaughterhouse}}

[[File:MTMTE33 megatron skids right there.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"...But you're not the [[Skyfall (G1)|worst]] [[Zeta Prime (G1)|guy]] [[Star Saber (G1)#2005 IDW continuity|to]] [[Getaway|wear]] the badge. So keep trying."]]
Nautica and Nightbeat were able to deduce that the duplicate ''Lost Light'' and its crew, including the second Rodimus, were actually quantum duplicates created in the explosion of the [[quantum generator|quantum engines]] during the ship's original launch two years prior. To make matters worse, the [[quantum foam]] leaking from the engines was threatening to destroy Ofsted XVII, but Megatron had no compunctions about getting to safety and leaving the planet to its fate until Skids called him out, forcing him to face up to the fact that choosing to be an Autobot meant reflecting it in one's actions. Megatron used his old mass-displacement ability to shrink his robot form down, enabling him to safely make it through the foam and deactivate the engines, saving Ofsted XVII, "cancelling out" the duplicate ''Lost Light'', and reinstating their own. As they made their way back to the returned ''Lost Light'', Megatron invited Ravage to remain at his side. {{storylink|slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken|The Road Not Taken}}

[[File:MTMTE38 send me back.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|"AND I WANT YOUR LUNCH MONEY TOO NERD!"]]
Back aboard "their" ''Lost Light'', Megatron discovered the DJD had killed Trailcutter. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Though depressed by his death, Megatron was not above removing Trailcutter's forcefield generators from his body in another instance of forward planning. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Subsequently, the realization that Brainstorm had used his mysterious [[Time case|briefcase]] to travel back in time caused Megatron to have a mini-breakdown over how ''ridiculous'' the whole situation was, but he soon got ahold of himself, and theorized that Brainstorm was attempting to change history by killing Orion Pax. {{storylink|The Custom-Made Now - An Elegant Chaos Prologue|The Custom-Made Now}} Rodimus led a squad back in time in pursuit, which led to Megatron having a cross-time conversation with the young Orion Pax via Rodimus's "[[time phone]]" communicator. Pretending to be his own younger self during the call, Megatron found the young 'bot's optimism for the future a mixed source of both affirmation and tragic amusement. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays|All Our Parlous Yesterdays}} After Rodimus's team made several further jumps, Megatron deduced that the dates they were travelling to were not important moments in Pax's life, but Megatron's own. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 2: Stet|Stet}} Realizing that Brainstorm intended to kill ''him'' at the moment of his creation, he flew into a panicked rage, attacking [[Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Perceptor]] and demanding the scientist send him back in time to save himself, until Ultra Magnus restrained him and the pair talked him down. As events in the past played out, Megatron was visibly shaken to hear that Rewind had been the one to pull the trigger that destroyed the original spark in his body, and that the universe would truly be a better place had he never existed. Although Whirl subsequently set the timeline to rights, Megatron did not join in the celebrations when everyone returned from the past, retiring to his quarters. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: An Expert's Guide|Predestination: An Expert's Guide}}

[[File:MTMTE43 the old man.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|"Oh my Primus! WHAT IS THAT?! SOME ONE GET RATC-?!?! ... Oh, wait. Nevermind. False alarm. It's my hand. Almost had me there guys." *tries to look relaxed, and nails it*]]

In silent isolation, Megatron reached out with his mind, trying to make contact with Whirl's arm through his space bridge. If he could teleport the arm ''back'', it would mean he would finally having a working two-way connection to a black hole. After days of trying, however, he still failed to succeed, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} and established another contingency plan by having Ravage recover one of Brainstorm's time-machine briefcases for him before they were all destroyed, thinking he might use it to escape his fate by traveling back in time. Megatron also dedicated some of his spare time to writing poetry, but his works remained largely unappreciated- a single poetry reading at [[Mirage (G1)|Mirage]]'s bar, [["Visages"]], was enough to empty the bar of its patrons. {{storylink|Our Steps Will Always Rhyme}} He, Rodimus, and Magnus answered a call from Optimus Prime inviting the ''Lost Light'' back to Cybertron for first contact with the colony world of [[Caminus (planet)|Caminus]], but they declined. {{storylink|First Contact (IDW)|First Contact}}

While the rest of the crew attended a party aboard the ''[[Vis Vitalis]]'', Rodimus and Megatron refrained from going. {{storylink|The Sensuous Frame}} The pair soon received an S.O.S. alerting them to an infestation of emotion-eating [[personality tick]]s on the ship; they headed over to help, and their combined charisma proved strong enough to "overdose" and kill the ticks as soon as they stepped into the room. {{storylink|The Frail Gaze}} Soon after, when [[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]]'s dying mind created a holomatter duplicate of Earth, Megatron took part in the voyage to the artificial planet to help save the metallurgist. The journey required him to project a holomatter avatar for the first time, which led him to note the fragility—but not weakness—of humans when his avatar was cut by broken glass. {{storylink|The One Where They Go to Earth}}

[[File:MTMTE44-MegatronLookAtTheFlowers.jpg|upright=2|right|thumb|"I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sound; the sound of billions of people calling your name." 
"My followers?" 
"Your victims."]]

When it was discovered that Swerve's life-threatening injuries had been caused by a bullet lodged in his body by the Autobot deep-cover spy [[Dominus Ambus|Agent 113]], Megatron and Magnus studied the bullet together, and discovered that it contained a map to [[Necroworld]], base of operations of the supposedly-mythical [[Mortilus|Necrobot]]. Rodimus proceeded to barge into the room to announce that he had unconsciously drawn a complete map to Cyberuptopia on his desk, and Megatron, unsettled to realize that this meant his day of judgement was now actually on the horizon, announced that, before following said map, they would first detour to investigate Necroworld. Megatron privately confided in Ravage that he wished to stave off his day of reckoning as long as possible... but found that such thoughts rudely pushed from his mind when he bore witness to the massive field of [[Cybertronian remembrance flower|flowers]] the Necrobot had planted in his honor, representing the countless lives he had taken. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}} With the weight of his history laid out before him so beautifully and terribly, Megatron realized that the future could not be avoided, and that any attempt to hide in the past was pointless. He buried the time-case Ravage had stolen for him amid the flowers. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

[[File:SpeakMemory2 MegatronRenouncesViolence.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|I have no enemies.]]
Megatron's fear of mnemosurgery would once again plague him when he awoke to find little Tailgate trying to perform mnemosurgery on him—part of a plot from [[Getaway]] to provoke Megatron into killing the little guy, in order to have Megatron either executed or imprisoned. The panicked Megatron almost fulfilled Getaway's plan for him, until [[Cyclonus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Cyclonus]] interceded by running Megatron through with his [[Great Sword]]. {{storylink|The Lopsided Triangle}} Once Getaway's plot had been foiled, Megatron was patched up and made amends with Cyclonus. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}} The whole experience proved to be the last straw; determined to break from his old ways, Megatron renounced all violence and became a pacifist. He chose a poor time to do it, unfortunately, as the halls of the ''Lost Light'' were soon stalked by the serial killer [[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]]. Megatron's attempts to talk the murderer into surrendering met with failure, and he had to be saved by Tailgate, whose recent traumatic experiences had induced a mutation in his spark that gave him super strength. {{storylink|Speak, Memory! (Part 2)}} Intrigued, Megatron wondered if ''pain'' was the factor that would give his spark the power to complete his black hole quest. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When the ''Lost Light'' was preparing to sneak through Mauler-inhabited space, Megatron and Ultra Magnus set about preparing the ship and the crew for the crossing. When a [[Scraplet]]-controlled [[Magnus Armor]] came shambling towards him, Megatron panicked, believing Magnus had come for a hug, before Swerve, Nautica and Whirl arrived to save him. {{storylink|Silent Light}} Not long after, Megatron joined the crew in a brief excursion into the past via "time windows" left over from Brainstorm's time-trip, which they used to honor the fallen crew members of the ''Lost Light''. {{storylink|No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases}} In the days that followed, unable to think of a reason ''not'' to go, Megatron reluctantly accepted Whirl's invitation to "movie night", which turned out to be a screening of a documentary about his defeat of Sentinel Prime. Megatron disliked the whole production, especially the allegation that he had desecrated Sentinel's remains by ordering the theft of his head. {{storylink|The Last Autobot}}

===Do Not Go Gentle===
[[File:MTMTE50 megatron class dismissed.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|This is why we don't let you stay up all night listening to "''Instruments of Destruction''", Megs.]]
Megatron oversaw the ''Lost Light''{{'}}s campaign to liberate [[Miliarium]] from [[Rust Giant]]s, though he refrained from setting foot on the planet itself in order to maintain his vow of non-violence. He was irked to learn that the crew had withheld the information the inhabitants of the planet were organic, but he softened when he was given the chance to finally use the "[[roll out]]" command. Subsequently, during one of a series of classes Megatron had begun holding on the subject of the Knights of Cybertron, the ''Lost Light'' was attacked by a kind of "psychic weapon" that made multiple crew members experience terrible visions. Megatron heard the sound of every organic he had ever killed screaming, and momentarily driven mad, he lashed out at Minimus Ambus, who had come to his aid, and was horrified a moment later when he realized he'd reflexively forgotten his pacifism. Megatron and Rodimus led a team aboard the Rodpod to track the signal back to its source; it turned out to have actually been bait in a trap luring them back to Necroworld, where they were attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division, out to claim revenge on Megatron for renouncing Decepticonism. The Autobots took refuge in the Necrobot's fortress and re-established contact with the ''Lost Light'', only to learn that Getaway had staged a mutiny and taken control of the ship in their absence, and had alerted the [[Galactic Council]] to their location. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light: (1) How Bright Their Frail Deeds|How Bright Their Frail Deeds}}

[[File:TheSunInFlight MegatronTarn.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|"Look how old you've become." "Something far worse has happened to you."]]
Searching for weapons to fight the D.J.D., the Autobots found a teleport chamber and a room full of helpless organics in stasis pods. Brainstorm advocated using the chamber to escape, but Megatron—now truly realizing how alike organic and mechanical life was thanks to the trauma of the psychic attack—delivered a stirring speech that convinced everyone to stay to defend the pods. At Ravage's suggestion, Megatron went out to meet with Tarn one-on-one, and offered to surrender on the condition none of the others would be harmed. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 2: The Sun in Flight|The Sun in Flight}} As the two talked, Megatron expressed regret for "corrupting" who Tarn had been, and even for the fact Brainstorm's attempt to kill him hadn't succeeded. Disgusted to see his hero having "fallen" thus, Tarn began viciously beating Megatron, but Megatron refused to fight back; he even laughed at the irony of how Fool's Energon might have been changing his nature, and he didn't even care. Before Tarn could finish Megatron off, however, Overlord arrived, allied with the Galactic Council in pursuit of his own chance to kill Megatron. Tarn and Overlord fought, giving Megatron a chance to escape. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears|Your Fierce Tears}}

[[File:RageRage-Megatronappears.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.67|You can practically hear "Instruments of Destruction" playing.]]

Though patched up, Megatron still refused to take part in the Autobots' battle with the D.J.D, rejecting the gift of a new fusion cannon Brainstorm had built from the teleport chapter for him, and urging the group to cherish what time they had left rather than waste it in battle. Megatron declared himself too weak and afraid to fight, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day|At Close of Day}} fearful that if he gave into violence, he would lose control and be unable to stop himself from once again becoming the monster he had been in the past. As the others went out to fight, Ratchet attempted to allay Megatron's fears by disclosing that Fool's Energon was only ever a placebo—Megatron had, in fact, been in control of himself all along. This revelation, coupled with the sight of Ravage being torn in half by Tarn out on the battlefield, spurred Megatron to action. Pain was, indeed, the trigger he had sought; in that moment, he successfully managed to draw Whirl's arm back through his space bridge, forging a functioning link with the black hole. Donning his new fusion cannon, he stormed out onto the battlefield and took on the D.J.D. single-handed while the other Autobots took Ravage back to the safety of the fortress. The fire in Megatron's belly seemed short lived, however, when a well-placed shot from Tarn destroyed his cannon, and he dropped to his knees in the middle of the battlefield, {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 5: Rage, Rage|Rage, Rage}} but this quickly proved to be nothing more than a feint to draw the D.J.D. in, to trap them within a forcefield created by the generators Megatron had taken from Trailbreaker's body. [[File:mtmte 55 antimatter.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|"I'll light our [[Darkest hour]] the only way I know how! With more darkness!"]] Dropping his charade, Megatron unleashed the full power of the black hole's antimatter on the D.J.D., slaughtering each and every one of them. Before ending Tarn, he snatched his Decepticon-insignia facemask and slapped it onto his own chest; he would allow the antimatter to destroy him, and he would die as a Decepticon. Fate had a different path planned for Megatron, however; using the time-case Megatron had buried on the planet, which had been recovered by the Necrobot, Rodimus teleported into the forcefield and whisked Megatron away to safety before the antimatter detonated.

Reappearing in the fortress, Megatron was able to be by Ravage's bedside as he died from his injuries, with a final entreaty to Megatron that he "not change back". Megatron flew into a rage and almost turned his cannon on the Autobots before regaining control of himself. Realizing what he had done, Megatron tried to leave, only for [[Terminus (G1)|Terminus]] to suddenly appear to bar his way—one of the occupants of the pods, who were ''not'' organics, but causalities of conflict rescued from throughout time by the Necrobot using the case. Pulled back from the brink at the last moment, Megatron dropped his cannon and embraced his old friend. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

When [[Scarlett]] and [[Joe Colton (Dire Wraith)|Joe Colton]] discussed the Cybertronian influence on [[Earth]], Megatron's infiltration unit as well as his devastating invasion of Earth were key points. In light of Optimus Prime's recent actions, Colton seemed to have his doubts on whether or not Megatron had truly been the 'evil' one. {{storylink|Secret Raiders: A Revolution Prelude|Secret Raiders}}
{{-}}

===A New World===
[[File:SomeOtherCybertron MegatronTerminus.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Terminus' reappearance was down to the Necrobot time-travelling to rescue 'missing in action' robots, and the "organics" in the basement had in fact been those robots in disguise.{{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} Megatron tried to fill in his old friend about the war, much as he doubted his objectivity. This was a disrupted by a minor quake which shook the whole planet. Deciding to finish his story later, Megatron paid his last respects to Ravage before [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] and [[Rung (G1)|Rung]] burst free from the ground. The two explained the quake as a [[geobomb]] sent by the [[Galactic Council]] but had seemingly burnt itself out. Megatron joined the group to return to Cybertron and collect a new ship, mainly to see Starscream's face when he revealed he was still alive. When Terminus said that Iacon was beautiful, Megatron began to correct him before he saw a bustling metropolis. Before the crew could process what happened, [[Twelve-of-Twelve]] showed up to arrest them. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron|Some Other Cybertron}}

[[File:anomie jabbing megs.jpeg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|Hey. Put it away before I take it away.]]

Rewind quickly managed to deduce that the crew had been sent into [[Functionist Universe|another universe]], one where Megatron had never come online and the Functionists still ruled. After trading wits with the councillor, Megatron ordered the crew to surrender in the hope of reasoning with the Council. As the crew was marched through Iacon, the rebel [[Anti-Vocationist League]] tried to save them and got their arses kicked by [[Functionary|Functionaries]] in short order. Rodimus talked Megatron into action who, with a weary sigh, casually broke out of his stasis cuffs and directed the battle without even lifting a finger, much to Terminus' pride and amazement. The moment was ruined when [[Six-of-Twelve]] appeared on every TV on Cybertron, telling everyone they would see what the "Useless One", Rung, was actually ''for''. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 2: Anomie|Anomie}} The crew was brought to [[Kalis|Adaptica]] where [[Clicker]] explained why the Council had to grant the refugees safe haven before they were greeted by the sympathetic [[Nine-of-Twelve]]. Megatron abstained from the following meeting to meet with those who had removed their optics in protest of the Council using them as spies. Megatron approved. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|A World Misplaced}}

[[File:BadMoonRising MegatronTirade.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.6]]
Even when [[Moonbase Two|Luna 2]] suddenly returned, Megatron continued to watch Six-of-Twelve's broadcast and began fearing for the future when it was announced the Council was going to try and get to [[Vector Sigma]]. Megatron went to collect everyone so as to rescue both Rung and Vector Sigma. Before that discussion could continue, Luna 2 grew new craters and began sucking up people with its [[tractor beam]]s. Megatron quickly demanded details from Nine-of-Twelve (lest they decide he was complicit in this) who quickly offered them. Rodimus however was more interested in the moon's teleporter which Megatron called him out on for being more interested in chasing down the ''[[Lost Light]]'' than saving people. Rodimus in turn accused Megatron of wanting to stay in the Functionist timeline so as to not be judged by the [[Knights of Cybertron]] and laughing that Megatron wanted to do good after killing so many. Minimus Ambus halted their argument and Rodimus agreed to Megatron's plan to rescue Rung but on the condition that they would leave once they'd saved the day. Megatron told Nine-of-Twelve to rally the troops only for the councillor to inform him they had no troops. When he asked about offensive capabilities, Megatron learnt that most of the more powerful weapons hadn't been invented in the current timeline. He made due with putting what few weapons he had in the best positions before ordering Nine-of-Twelve to lead the evacuations. Megatron managed a small smile when he learnt that Ambus didn't share Rodimus' belief that Megatron was running from his trial. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 4: Bad Moon Rising|Bad Moon Rising}}

[[File:ModesOfProduction MegsConscience.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2]]
With Megatron's tactics, the beleaguered defenders were able to distract Luna 2 long enough for the refugees to escape. As Megatron and [[Roller (IDW)|Roller]] discussed the conspicuous absence of the native Orion Pax, the tractor beams increased in intensity prompting Terminus to call the two to evacuate. After Roller made his way out, Terminus attempted to convince Megatron to stay in the Functionist Universe, an idea Megatron admitted to entertaining, but ultimately refused to do, citing his need to make amends back home and that his friends aboard the ''Lost Light'' were the conscience he had to answer to. At the point, the statue they were in was sucked up by the tractor beams. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 5: Modes of Production|Modes of Production}}

[[File:LostLight6MegatronEnding.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.4|A brand new autobiography. Same title. Different words.]]
Though the beams began ripping Megatron apart, Terminus managed to free himself and saved his protege by firing at the tractor beam emitters, though accidentally shooting down the commandeered [[Cog (facility)|Cog]] in the process. As the native Rung super-sized himself to attack the moon, Megatron assured [[Clicker]] that Rung's own choices were open defiances of Functionism. At that moment, Rodimus came with the news that they could head home and save this Cybertron. Terminus revealed his intent to stay behind with Megatron requesting a moment to say goodbye to his mentor, his serious demeanour convincing Rodimus to grant it. As Megatron and Terminus said their final words, Terminus got a call and quickly ushered Megatron to a [[matter transporter]] only to find it abandoned. As Megatron ran back out to tell Terminus, Luna 2 teleported away to Megatron's shock and horror. Deciding to make the most of his new situation, he went on a "speaking tour", visiting the [[Anti-Vocationist League]]'s scattered cells, all over the planet, uniting them via his rhetoric and his new slogan of "Peace Through Empathy". After speaking at his old stomping ground of [[Nova Point]], Megatron went outside to contemplate the night sky before being interrupted by the chime of his communicator... having been contacted by the native Orion Pax. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 6: This Machine Kills Fascists|This Machine Kills Fascists}}

===Legacy===
Among [[Agonizer]]'s rare knick-knacks was an unfinished poem by Megatron. {{storylink|An Axe to Break the Ice}} When questioned by Bumblebee on why he insisted on remaining alone in the world, Starscream brought up the many beatings he'd received at Megatron's hand as a life lesson to remain alone and constantly on guard. {{storylink|The Price of You}} Such was Starscream's fear of his former leader that the Seeker seized up with fear when [[Vigilem]] assumed Megatron's form as he was when leading the Decepticons. Using the image of Megatron, Vigilem came within a hair's breath of destroying Starscream's mind, all the while the Seeker being too terrified to fight back. {{storylink|Your First Mistake}} Despite Megatron's defection, [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] still considered him a wise man and quoted his writings to incite a [[Sharkticon (species)|Sharkticon]] rebellion. {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 5: Future Glories Lost|Future Glories Lost}}

When [[Jazz (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Jazz]] was interviewed by the human news, he remembered Megatron's invasion of Earth. {{storylink|What It's Really Like}} [[Sideswipe (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Sideswipe]] also remembered Megatron making a deal with Sunstreaker that preceded the invasion. {{storylink|The Life of Sideswipe}}

When Earth was properly inducted into the [[Council of Worlds]], [[Scarlett]] remembered the devastation Megatron had brought to Earth and wondered whether or not Earth was out of its weight class against Cybertronians as well as if Earth was truly ready to join the Council. {{storylink|First Strike issue 1|First Strike #1}} While in jail on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], Scarlett confessed to Optimus Prime that she had primarily come to Cybertron to save [[Joe Colton]] from himself, something which Optimus sympathized with, having gone through similar experiences with Megatron. {{storylink|First Strike issue 4|First Strike #4}} When justifying his genocidal campaign to Scarlett, Joe Colton claimed Earth was "one more Megatron" away from complete extinction. {{storylink|First Strike issue 6|First Strike #6}}

In [[Thundercracker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thundercracker]]'s [[Starscream: The Movie (film)|biopic]] of Starscream, Megatron was portrayed by [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]]. Thundercracker admitted he'd taken some creative liberties with Megatron's bodily appearance but felt those changes would help an unfamiliar audience more readily recognize the characters. {{storylink|Starscream: The Movie (comic)|Starscream: The Movie}}

After receiving a life sentence, Starscream defended his reign to Bumblebee by stating that, unlike Megatron, he hadn't plunged Cybertron into four million years of war. {{storylink|The Falling, Chapter 1: Surfeit of Primes|Surfeit of Primes}}

After seemingly dying and being sent to the [[Transformer afterlife|Afterspark]] had sent Rodimus into a mild depression, [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] rhetorically asked "What Would Megatron Do?", threatening Rodimus's fragile ego enough to rally him into action. {{storylink|The Everlasting Voices (1): Metastasis|Metastasis}}

===The Great Return===
[[File:LL21 Megatron Returns.jpg|thumb|left||"Did'ja miss me?"]]
Megatron subsequently became leader of the AVL, drawing both Orion and [[Impactor (G1)|Impactor]] into the fold, while also taking time to fulfill his original ambition of becoming a medic. Megatron also found the discarded ''Unitrex-1'' and claimed it as the flagship of the AVL, dubbing it the ''[[Last Light (ship)|Last Light]]''. When the Functionist Council built a set of [[planetary engine]]s onto Cybertron to compensate for Luna 2's loss, the AVL followed them through the [[Warren]], warning many alien populations of the Functionists' genocidal intentions and allowing them to evacuate in time. The Functionists responded to this by engineering Cybertron with a robot mode cast in the likeness of [[Primus]]. Megatron's heroism eventually drew the attention of the Functionists who took great pride in killing his closest allies before eventually believing to have slain the ex-tyrant at [[Perseppalae]]. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

[[File:ReturnOfTheKing MegatronTreatsDrift.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2.0|''Instruments of re-construct-iooooon, tools of first aiiiiid!'']]
In truth, both Megatron and the ''Last Light'' had survived and continued to follow the Functionist recon ships. When the [[Adaptus|Grand Architect]]'s [[God Gun]] opened a portal back into Megatron's native universe, the ''Last Light'' was caught up in the rush, emerging ahead of the enemy fleet. Detecting his friends' spark signatures, Megatron immediately called Rodimus. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 3): Farsickness|Farsickness}} Though the Autobot initially believed that Megatron was the one staging the invasion, Megatron was quick to correct him, drawing their attention to the planet-sized Primus effigy, before requesting their coordinates for rescue. Once the ''Last Light'' shook off the recon ships, Megatron ordered his friends freed, recovering most of them from the Architect's clutches ([[Scavengers (G1)|and a few Decepticons too]]) before he caught them all up on what had transpired since they'd parted ways. He also demonstrated his new skills as a medic by treating the wounded Drift for a [[zero point]] affliction. When the [[Epistemus|Magnificence]] proposed blowing up "Primus", Megatron immediately shot down the idea, noting the billions of innocent Cybertronians still trapped on their homeworld. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 4): The Return of the King|The Return of the King}}

After Rodimus had freed himself and reclaimed his ship, the two ships set down to compare notes with everyone transferring over to the ''Lost Light''. Despite the Magnificence's boasts of intelligence, Megatron still refused to blow up "Primus". His devotion to saving the citizenry proved the catalyst for a group brainstorm to come up with a plan to simultaneously open ''twelve'' [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrices of Leadership]], one on each of the planet's [[hot spot (phenomenon)|hot spot]]s, to overload Vector Sigma and kill the Functionists merged with the computer. At this, the Magnificence spoke in the unholy voice of the [[Omega Guardian]]s, revealed to have been manipulating events and needing "Primus" to explode, who swore to return and "eat everything". Megatron made an impassioned speech to the aliens, swearing to stop them, and distracting them long enough for [[Nickel]] to simply crush the Magnificence. The distraction however meant that the ''Last Light'' was left unattended when the Functionists finally turned their attention to the last Cybertron, violently dying with the planet. When the ''Lost Light'' took off, Megatron ordered the ship turned around so they could save the universe. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 5): The Unremembering|The Unremebering}}

[[File:LL24 Megatron GNNN!.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|left|Megatron is forced to admit that he'll never truly have [[The Touch]].]]
After [[Fortress Maximus (G1)|Fortress Maximus]] showed up and slammed [[Moonbase One|Luna 1]] into the gargantuan robot's [[neural cluster]] to convert it back into planet mode, Megatron coordinated with [[Flame (Marvel)|Flame]] to properly ally with the Grand Architect's remaining troops. With Rodimus, Megatron made his way to the [[Nova Point]] hot spot where they were beset upon by legions of [[Functionary|Functionaries]]. To complicate matters, the Matrices refused to open, prompting Megatron to rally Rodimus into giving a final speech to the crew and reaffirm their morality. Though the speech had the desired effect, it left Rodimus open to having his left arm blown off before he could open his own Matrix. Megatron took over and tried to open the talisman himself, but his lingering doubts and guilt meant it refused to open for him. The weakened Rodimus then requested the artifact, managing to open it by substituting his missing limb with his teeth, the energies of all twelve destroying the Functionists and reigniting Luna 1's dormant hot spot. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 6): A Spark Among Embers|A Spark Among Embers}}

[[File:MegatronGoodbye.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|"One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."]]
As the crew took stock, [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] arrived to inspect "New Cybertron" before declaring that, since the [[Knights of Cybertron]] didn't exist, Megatron would once again have to stand trial, this time with the [[Galactic Council]] presiding. Over Rodimus's protests, Megatron agreed to go quietly but was nonetheless allowed to join the ''Lost Light'' for one last "victory lap" cruise. As the crew prepared to quantum jump home, the science team proposed the risky gamble of recreating the malfunctioning launch, thereby quantum duplicating themselves before then shunting the duplicates into a parallel universe to ensure that the ''Lost Light''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s adventures would never truly end. When the time to jump came, the crew simply wound up back on Cybertron.

As they all settled into ''Swerve's'' for a last drink, Magnus recited his favorite poem, which Megatron revealed he had written under a pseudonym. Adding that it was Impactor's favorite too, Megatron lamented that he'd wasted his life. Not wanting to leave it at that, Magnus gave a toast to all the friendships and bonds they'd forged... before construction cranes killed the moment and began disassembling the ship.

With Ultra Magnus once again acting as his defense orator, Megatron stood trial, Rodimus even falsely testifying that Megatron had been the one to open the duplicate Matrix. As the jury debated between infinite imprisonment and outright execution, Rodimus and Megatron had one last discussion, with Megatron revealing he'd always held onto his [[Rodimus Star]], before Magnus led him away. On their way to the sentencing chamber, Magnus revealed he was going to follow Megatron's advice and destroy the [[Magnus Armor]].

Years later, when Ratchet had passed, Rodimus placed Megatron's withered Rodimus Star on his tomb.

And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate ''Lost Light'' materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. {{storylink|How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2}}

===Pax Cybertronia===
In a vision of the future seen by Ironhide and Alpha Trion during the reformatting of Cybertron, fifteen million years hence, Ironhide still believed Megatron to be alive and promised a young Autobot they would defeat him again if he ever returned. {{storylink|Pax Cybertronia (issue)|Pax Cybertronia}} {{storylink|A Better Tomorrow}}
{{-}}

==''Spotlight: Mirage''==
[[File:SLMirage all in good time.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5]]
Somewhere, in an unknown time or place, the self-serving mercenary Mirage dreamed of Megatron and his Decepticons launching a massive attack on the Autobots. But Mirage knew that to only be a dream; in reality, the Autobots were almost eradicated, and Megatron had hired him to hunt down the last of their number. Megatron was outraged by the mercenary's demand for a majority share in all energon mining operations as payment, but it proved to be fuel well spent, as he soon succeeded in locating Optimus Prime and forcing him to surrender. Megatron demanded the prisoners be executed despite Mirage's promise to spare Autobot lives. Seeing Mirage's hesitation, Megatron appealed to his greed. {{storylink|Spotlight: Mirage}}
{{--}}

==Ask Vector Prime==
[[File:AHM 1cvrEXCL.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.85|I think this is a killing joke!]]
In [[Primax 708.10-R Lambda]], Megatron cracked the codes to an Autobot forward listening outpost. He walked in, shot [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]], and then laughed and took a photo of what he had done. {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/06}}
{{-}}

==Notes==
[[File:MegatronOrigin2 Megs hair.jpg|thumb|upright=0.55]]
*In [[Megatron Origin issue 2|''Megatron Origin'' #2]], we see that Megatron's helmet is, in fact, a helmet and not part of his head (at least in his original body). Upon removing his helmet, Megatron then briefly unfurls a crest. The significance of this moment is not explained, but it is briefly revisited in [[Remembrance Day|''More than Meets the Eye'' #14]] when a helmetless Megatron spars with [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]].
[[File:MTMTE Megatron Alt.jpg|thumb|left|Megatron shakes his dreads.]]
*Apparently, the [[:File:DonFigStealthMegatronPitchedDesign.jpg|stealth bomber Megatron design]] debuted in [[Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon|''The Transformers'' vol. 1 #15]] and used by IDW for a while was created by artist [[Don Figueroa]]. However, Figueroa created the design as part of a story pitch to editor [[Andy Schmidt]]; a pitch the editor rejected. Schmidt proceeded to use the design for this comic, but without compensation or credit to Figueroa; something the artist was highly displeased about.<ref>[http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/don-figueroa-designed-idw-s-stealth-bomber-megatron-but-wasn-t-compensated--t96022s0.php archive of Figueroa's post on the subject at Seibertron forum]</ref>
*Megatron's post-"[[Dark Cybertron (IDW)|Dark Cybertron]]" body was never seen transformed into its alt mode, although [[Alex Milne]] tweeted concept art during the run of ''Lost Light'' that showed Megatron transformed into a heavy tank.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Because you asked for it and because I found the old sketch which I recently cleaned up. Here is MTMTE Megatron's alt mode (Fusion canon included) I recently found all the design scribbles which I will clean up to share soonish. Enjoy #transformers #MTMTE #megatron https://t.co/Dth3GnOXQ8|link=https://twitter.com/markerguru/status/951902998141087744|name=Alex Milne|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=01|day=12|(defunct=)}}</ref> As this tank design would have required Megatron's signature Fusion Cannon, which had been discarded prior, it would have been left largely unhelpful anyway. By contrast, [[Nelson Dániel]]'s [[:File:LL3 cvrRI.jpg|retailer incentive cover]] for [[Dissolution Part 3: A World Misplaced|''Lost Light'' #3]] showcases a different tank design using a different cannon.
*[[James Roberts]] clarified on Twitter that any members of the [[Functionist Council]] who survived into the Great War era were assassinated by [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]] at Megatron's command.<ref>{{citesocial|quote=Megs' choice|link=https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/1055107548318220288|name=James Roberts|site=Twitter|year=2018|month=10|day=24|(defunct=)}}</ref>
*In [[How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2|''Lost Light'' #25]], it is revealed that Megatron (under a pseudonym) wrote Ultra Magnus's, and Impactor's, favorite poem, "[[Afterlight]]". ''"You flare, you flicker, you fade. And in the end, all your tomorrows become yesterdays."''
*Megatron's serial number, "071-980", is an apparent reference to July 1980, the month in which [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]]'s ''{{w|Shogun Warriors (toys)|Shogun Warriors}}'' #18 was published, in which the name "Megatron" was first used by the company.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Anti-Vocationist League]]
[[Category:Combiners]]
[[Category:Decepticon leaders]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Autobots]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) Decepticons]]
[[Category:Gladiators]]
[[Category:Lost Light crew]]
[[Category:Point One Percenters]]
[[Category:Rulers of Cybertron]]
[[Category:Turncoats]]

Mnemosurgery

2025-12-06T19:25:23Z

MetalMuncher11: /* 2005 IDW continuity */

[[File:Chromedome mnemosurgery ChaosOfWarmThings.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|"Ooh! Ooh! Do me next!"]]
'''Mnemosurgery''' is a technique by which one [[Transformer]] can enter the mind of another, viewing the subject's memories and giving the mnemosurgeon the ability to "edit" said memories, even to the point where the subject's personality is completely rewritten. The procedure is accomplished via spikes extending from the mnemosurgeon's fingers, which are typically inserted into the subject's neck. The surgical scars fortunately only show up under ultraviolet light. Mnemosurgery can sometimes lead to surgeons experiencing flashbacks—reliving inherited memories from the minds they've worked on.

{{quote|It is the fate of every mnemosurgeon to '''die on the job'''—a victim of their addiction. We '''know''' when death is near: we can '''feel''' it creeping closer—but never close enough to make us '''stop'''. The fatal injection is always the '''next''' injection—until one day it '''isn't'''.|[[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]]|[[Speak, Memory! (Part 2)]]}}

==Fiction==
===2005 IDW continuity===
[[File:Chromedome notices hands Patternism.jpg|thumb|left|They use the same syringe gloves as the Scarecrow. It only gets worse from here.]]
Mnemosurgery was an inherently dangerous profession with a high mortality rate—most mnemosurgeons died young. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Entering traumatic memories could be traumatic in turn for the surgeon, and those who performed too many operations ran the risk of inheriting memories from their subjects and suffering painful flashbacks. {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}} {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} In particular, doing a "deep reading" on a living subject could kill an incautious mnemosurgeon. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Trainee mnemosurgeons practiced with finger-drills before they got the signature finger-needles. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Mnemosurgery was used by the [[Institute]] as a component of [[Shadowplay]]—altering the minds of enemies of the corrupt [[Senate]]. {{storylink|Shadowplay (Conclusion): An Intimate Beheading|An Intimate Beheading}} When [[Zeta Prime (G1)|Zeta Prime]] later set up the "New Institute", Tumbler was recruited to study under the mnemosurgeon [[Trepan]] and eventually adopted the name [[Chromedome (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Chromedome]]. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Chromedome would go on to use the technique on himself, to erase the memories of those he had lost during the war. {{storylink|The Gloaming}}

[[File:Trepan megatron births deaths and interventions.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8]]
[[Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Megatron]]'s early anti-[[Functionism|Functionist]] writings concerned the Senate enough to order his Shadowplay, dispatching Trepan to carry it out. [[Rung (G1)|Rung]]'s interruption halted the operation only moments after it began, but the experience left Megatron with a lasting fear of mnemosurgery. {{storylink|Births, Deaths, and Interventions}}

At some point during the war, [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]] attacked the New Institute, abducting Trepan so he could learn the basics of mnemosurgery, intending to undo [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Shockwave’s]] [[Achilles virus]] and the [[Phase Sixer]] killswitch. Megatron caught wind of this, and had Trepan killed. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Chromedome would continue to use mnemosurgery, despite his [[Conjunx Endura]] [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]] not approving. He utilized it during the autopsy of [[Skyfall (G1)|Skyfall]], reliving Skyfall's suicide by [[Gideon's Glue]]. {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} When [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] attempted to blackmail Chromedome, the latter simply used mnemosurgery to wipe the unwanted knowledge from Prowl's mind as well as any memory of the blackmail attempt. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

While on the ''[[Lost Light]]'', Chromedome interfaced with [[Shock (G1)|Shock]] to extract the deceased [[Autobot]]'s last memories of the [[Sparkeater (creature)|Sparkeater]]. {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}} Though he was increasingly experiencing false memory recall, he would go on to interface with a [[Titan (group)|Titan]] beneath [[Crystal City]], {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} and at [[Skids (G1)|Skids]]'s request, Chromedome unsuccessfully attempted to use mnemosurgery to unlock Skids's lost memories. {{storylink|Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?|Who's Afraid of the DJD?}}

[[File:RemembranceDay-Chromedome.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.8|Watch your [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|head.]] ]]
Chromedome used his mnemosurgery skills on Overlord, whom had been smuggled on board the ''Lost Light'' for precisely that purpose. Chromedome succeeded in learning the secret of creating [[Phase Sixer]]s, however Overlord's own mnemosurgery knowledge allowed the Decepticon to turn the tables, taking control of the procedure so he could learn the code to open the [[slow cell]] in which he'd been imprisoned. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Chromedome had, however, left a present in Overlord's mind, embedding a mnemonic through a process known as "[[Trepan's Trigger]]", that caused Overlord to panic when he heard the phrase "[['Til all are one]]". The trigger allowed the Autobots to defeat Overlord. {{storylink|Under Cold Blue Stars}}

Chromedome subsequently intended to erase his own memories of Rewind, who had been one of the casualties of Overlord's rampage, however a final message from Rewind caused him to change his mind (or not change his mind, technically). {{storylink|The Gloaming}} In keeping with his love's last request, Chromedome vowed to never use his mnemosurgery skills again. {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} His vow lasted all of a few weeks, until Optimus suggested Chromedome use his skills on a restrained Megatron to corroborate his trial testimony. Megatron adamantly refused. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace}}

Six months later Rodimus "persuaded" Chromedome to perform surgery again on what appeared to be a duplicate of the ''Lost Light'' captain's body, unconcerned for Chromedome's worries that performing the surgery on a corpse would potentially kill him. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}

[[File:AllOurParlousYesterdays MnemoHandshake.jpg|upright=1.0|thumb|right]]
As a precaution to avoid changing the timeline after traveling into the past, Chromedome modified his mnemosurgery equipment to work through a simple handshake. The handshake would carry out a simple operation to wipe the other person's short-term memories. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays|All Our Parlous Yesterdays}}

[[Getaway]] got his hands on a set of clip-on mnemosurgery needles and gifted them to [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] as part of their [[Conjunx Endura|Conjunx Ritus]]. These needles were fakes, intended only to trigger violence from the mnemophobic Megatron. {{storylink|The Lopsided Triangle}} After the incident that resulted, Rodimus had Chromedome inject ''again'' to determine just what the heck had happened. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}}

When "Team Rodimus" was stranded on [[Necroworld]] and laid siege to by the D.J.D., they wound up taking "the Pet", the killing crew's supposed domesticated turbofox, captive. Chromedome volunteered to probe the creature's memories so they could find the D.J.D.'s spaceship and escape. As he did, he found a horrific truth: The Pet was no such thing, but rather a lobotomized [[Dominus Ambus]], Rewind's former lover. He began using his skills to reverse what had been done to Dominus, despite the risk to his own life and Rewind's horrified objections, feeling he was worth less to the archivist than Dominus. Rewind, feeling the call wasn't Chromedome's to make, then sliced off his lover's arm with one of Drift's swords, severing the connection and saving Chromedome at the cost of Dominus' life. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day}}

The art of mnemosurgery survived on the colony world of [[Jungle Planet (colony)|Eukaris]], with the [[Fateweaver]] [[Airachnid (G1)|Airachnid]] using it to attack members of the other tribes in her scientific attempts to expand her group's power. As a result of her deeds, she was banished from her homeworld. {{storylink|The Price of You}} When Eukaris made contact with Cybertron, Airachnid fell into [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]]'s employ, using her talents to try and glean the location of [[Swindle (G1)|Swindle]]'s body. {{storylink|07:00:00}}

When Swindle turned up as part of [[Bruticus (G1)|Bruticus]], Airachnid seized on the opportunity to alter the memories of all five [[Combaticon (G1)|Combaticons]] to make them loyal to Starscream. {{storylink|The Price of You}} She later used her talents to bridge the minds of Starscream and [[Windblade (G1)|Windblade]] so that the two jets could defeat [[Vigilem]]. {{storylink|Your First Mistake}} Starscream later confessed to the deeds he'd had Airachnid perform, resulting in her imprisonment. {{storylink|The Chosen One}}

====Remote mnemosurgery====
Remote mnemosurgery is the ability to perform mnemosurgery telepathically, without the spikes or indeed any kind of physical contact whatsoever. [[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]] is the only mnemosurgeon known to possess this particular skill, having developed it somehow after his arrest. It may, in fact, be unique to him. Though he was convinced that performing remote mnemosurgery required him to make visual contact with his victims, this was evidently a ruse on [[Froid]]'s part, who encouraged Sunder's delusion in order to keep him under control. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}}

When his reign over the ''Lost Light'' began to falter, Getaway hired Sunder to remotely alter the crew's memories of the mutiny against [[Team Rodimus (G1)|Team Rodimus]] and more readily bring them under his control. {{storylink|The Plotters' Club (Part 2): Filling in the Blanks|Filling in the Blanks}} {{storylink|The Plotters' Club (Part 3): Journey's End|Journey's End}} Following Froid and Sunder's recruitment by the [[Adaptus|Grand Architect]], [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] ordered the latter to use his powers to discover their master's identity. The attempt backfired, with the Architect managing to not only force Sunder out but strip him of all his mnemosurgeonic powers. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 3): Farsickness|Farsickness}}

===''Beast Wars: Uprising''===
A creepy mnemosurgeon called [[Vampire (BWU)|Vampire]] worked for the [[Predacon Secret Police]]. After [[Stiletto (BW)|Stiletto]] was left traumatized from killing her partner, the [[Maximal Command Security Force|MCSF]] packed her off to the Mandala to have her memories altered by him. {{storylink|Burning Bridges}}

After "recruiting" [[Cryotek (RID)|Cryotek]] and his [[Minion of Unicron (BWU)|Minions of Unicron]] into the [[Darksyder]]s, [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] had [[Psychobat (BWU)|Psychobat]] perform a little mnemosurgery on him to make sure he didn't get any "ideas". A short while later, [[Packrat]] noted Cryotek was acting a little off, but wasn't overly concerned. {{storylink|Not All Megatrons}}

===''Titans Return'' marketing material===
The [[Titan Master]] [[Stylor]] granted whomever he partnered with the ability of mnemosurgery. {{storylink|Stylor#Generations|''Titans Return'' Stylor/Chromedome toy bio}}

==See also==
*[[Cortical psychic patch]]

[[Category:Beast Wars: Uprising technology]]
[[Category:Brainwashing technology]]
[[Category:Functions]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) technology]]
[[Category:Mnemosurgeons| ]]

Mnemosurgery

2025-12-06T19:22:23Z

MetalMuncher11: /* 2005 IDW continuity */

[[File:Chromedome mnemosurgery ChaosOfWarmThings.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|"Ooh! Ooh! Do me next!"]]
'''Mnemosurgery''' is a technique by which one [[Transformer]] can enter the mind of another, viewing the subject's memories and giving the mnemosurgeon the ability to "edit" said memories, even to the point where the subject's personality is completely rewritten. The procedure is accomplished via spikes extending from the mnemosurgeon's fingers, which are typically inserted into the subject's neck. The surgical scars fortunately only show up under ultraviolet light. Mnemosurgery can sometimes lead to surgeons experiencing flashbacks—reliving inherited memories from the minds they've worked on.

{{quote|It is the fate of every mnemosurgeon to '''die on the job'''—a victim of their addiction. We '''know''' when death is near: we can '''feel''' it creeping closer—but never close enough to make us '''stop'''. The fatal injection is always the '''next''' injection—until one day it '''isn't'''.|[[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]]|[[Speak, Memory! (Part 2)]]}}

==Fiction==
===2005 IDW continuity===
[[File:Chromedome notices hands Patternism.jpg|thumb|left|They use the same syringe gloves as the Scarecrow. It only gets worse from here.]]
Mnemosurgery was an inherently dangerous profession with a high mortality rate—most mnemosurgeons died young. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Entering traumatic memories could be traumatic in turn for the surgeon, and those who performed too many operations ran the risk of inheriting memories from their subjects and suffering painful flashbacks. {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}} {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} In particular, doing a "deep reading" on a living subject could kill an incautious mnemosurgeon. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Trainee mnemosurgeons practiced with finger-drills before they got the signature finger-needles. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Mnemosurgery was used by the [[Institute]] as a component of [[Shadowplay]]—altering the minds of enemies of the corrupt [[Senate]]. {{storylink|Shadowplay (Conclusion): An Intimate Beheading|An Intimate Beheading}} When [[Zeta Prime (G1)|Zeta Prime]] later set up the "New Institute", Tumbler was recruited to study under the mnemosurgeon [[Trepan]] and eventually adopted the name [[Chromedome (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Chromedome]]. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Chromedome would go on to use the technique on himself, to erase the memories of those he had lost during the war. {{storylink|The Gloaming}}

[[File:Trepan megatron births deaths and interventions.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8]]
[[Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Megatron]]'s early anti-[[Functionism|Functionist]] writings concerned the Senate enough to order his Shadowplay, dispatching Trepan to carry it out. [[Rung (G1)|Rung]]'s interruption halted the operation only moments after it began, but the experience left Megatron with a lasting fear of mnemosurgery. {{storylink|Births, Deaths, and Interventions}}

At some point during the war, [[Overlord (G1)|Overlord]] attacked the New Institute, abducting Trepan so he could learn the basics of mnemosurgery, intending to undo [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Shockwave’s]] [[Achilles virus]] and the [[Phase Sixer]] killswitch. Megatron caught wind of this, and had Trepan killed. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

Chromedome would continue to use mnemosurgery, despite his [[Conjunx Endura]] [[Rewind (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rewind]] not approving. He utilized it during the autopsy of [[Skyfall (G1)|Skyfall]], reliving Skyfall's suicide by [[Gideon's Glue]]. {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} When [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] attempted to blackmail Chromedome, the latter simply used mnemosurgery to wipe the unwanted knowledge from Prowl's mind as well as any memory of the blackmail attempt. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}}

While on the ''[[Lost Light]]'', Chromedome interfaced with [[Shock (G1)|Shock]] to extract the deceased [[Autobot]]'s last memories of the [[Sparkeater (creature)|Sparkeater]]. {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}} Though he was increasingly experiencing false memory recall, he would go on to interface with a [[Titan (group)|Titan]] beneath [[Crystal City]], {{storylink|Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations|You, Me, and Other Revelations}} and at [[Skids (G1)|Skids]]'s request, Chromedome unsuccessfully attempted to use mnemosurgery to unlock Skids's lost memories. {{storylink|Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?|Who's Afraid of the DJD?}}

[[File:RemembranceDay-Chromedome.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.8|Watch your head.]]
Chromedome used his mnemosurgery skills on Overlord, whom had been smuggled on board the ''Lost Light'' for precisely that purpose. Chromedome succeeded in learning the secret of creating [[Phase Sixer]]s, however Overlord's own mnemosurgery knowledge allowed the Decepticon to turn the tables, taking control of the procedure so he could learn the code to open the [[slow cell]] in which he'd been imprisoned. {{storylink|Remembrance Day}} Chromedome had, however, left a present in Overlord's mind, embedding a mnemonic through a process known as "[[Trepan's Trigger]]", that caused Overlord to panic when he heard the phrase "[['Til all are one]]". The trigger allowed the Autobots to defeat Overlord. {{storylink|Under Cold Blue Stars}}

Chromedome subsequently intended to erase his own memories of Rewind, who had been one of the casualties of Overlord's rampage, however a final message from Rewind caused him to change his mind (or not change his mind, technically). {{storylink|The Gloaming}} In keeping with his love's last request, Chromedome vowed to never use his mnemosurgery skills again. {{storylink|The Becoming: Dark Cybertron Chapter 10|The Becoming}} His vow lasted all of a few weeks, until Optimus suggested Chromedome use his skills on a restrained Megatron to corroborate his trial testimony. Megatron adamantly refused. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 1: Towards Peace}}

Six months later Rodimus "persuaded" Chromedome to perform surgery again on what appeared to be a duplicate of the ''Lost Light'' captain's body, unconcerned for Chromedome's worries that performing the surgery on a corpse would potentially kill him. {{storylink|World, Shut Your Mouth Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide}}

[[File:AllOurParlousYesterdays MnemoHandshake.jpg|upright=1.0|thumb|right]]
As a precaution to avoid changing the timeline after traveling into the past, Chromedome modified his mnemosurgery equipment to work through a simple handshake. The handshake would carry out a simple operation to wipe the other person's short-term memories. {{storylink|Elegant Chaos Part 1: All Our Parlous Yesterdays|All Our Parlous Yesterdays}}

[[Getaway]] got his hands on a set of clip-on mnemosurgery needles and gifted them to [[Tailgate (G1)|Tailgate]] as part of their [[Conjunx Endura|Conjunx Ritus]]. These needles were fakes, intended only to trigger violence from the mnemophobic Megatron. {{storylink|The Lopsided Triangle}} After the incident that resulted, Rodimus had Chromedome inject ''again'' to determine just what the heck had happened. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}}

When "Team Rodimus" was stranded on [[Necroworld]] and laid siege to by the D.J.D., they wound up taking "the Pet", the killing crew's supposed domesticated turbofox, captive. Chromedome volunteered to probe the creature's memories so they could find the D.J.D.'s spaceship and escape. As he did, he found a horrific truth: The Pet was no such thing, but rather a lobotomized [[Dominus Ambus]], Rewind's former lover. He began using his skills to reverse what had been done to Dominus, despite the risk to his own life and Rewind's horrified objections, feeling he was worth less to the archivist than Dominus. Rewind, feeling the call wasn't Chromedome's to make, then sliced off his lover's arm with one of Drift's swords, severing the connection and saving Chromedome at the cost of Dominus' life. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day}}

The art of mnemosurgery survived on the colony world of [[Jungle Planet (colony)|Eukaris]], with the [[Fateweaver]] [[Airachnid (G1)|Airachnid]] using it to attack members of the other tribes in her scientific attempts to expand her group's power. As a result of her deeds, she was banished from her homeworld. {{storylink|The Price of You}} When Eukaris made contact with Cybertron, Airachnid fell into [[Starscream (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Starscream]]'s employ, using her talents to try and glean the location of [[Swindle (G1)|Swindle]]'s body. {{storylink|07:00:00}}

When Swindle turned up as part of [[Bruticus (G1)|Bruticus]], Airachnid seized on the opportunity to alter the memories of all five [[Combaticon (G1)|Combaticons]] to make them loyal to Starscream. {{storylink|The Price of You}} She later used her talents to bridge the minds of Starscream and [[Windblade (G1)|Windblade]] so that the two jets could defeat [[Vigilem]]. {{storylink|Your First Mistake}} Starscream later confessed to the deeds he'd had Airachnid perform, resulting in her imprisonment. {{storylink|The Chosen One}}

====Remote mnemosurgery====
Remote mnemosurgery is the ability to perform mnemosurgery telepathically, without the spikes or indeed any kind of physical contact whatsoever. [[Sunder (G1)|Sunder]] is the only mnemosurgeon known to possess this particular skill, having developed it somehow after his arrest. It may, in fact, be unique to him. Though he was convinced that performing remote mnemosurgery required him to make visual contact with his victims, this was evidently a ruse on [[Froid]]'s part, who encouraged Sunder's delusion in order to keep him under control. {{storylink|Speak, Memory: Part 1}}

When his reign over the ''Lost Light'' began to falter, Getaway hired Sunder to remotely alter the crew's memories of the mutiny against [[Team Rodimus (G1)|Team Rodimus]] and more readily bring them under his control. {{storylink|The Plotters' Club (Part 2): Filling in the Blanks|Filling in the Blanks}} {{storylink|The Plotters' Club (Part 3): Journey's End|Journey's End}} Following Froid and Sunder's recruitment by the [[Adaptus|Grand Architect]], [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]] ordered the latter to use his powers to discover their master's identity. The attempt backfired, with the Architect managing to not only force Sunder out but strip him of all his mnemosurgeonic powers. {{storylink|Crucible (Part 3): Farsickness|Farsickness}}

===''Beast Wars: Uprising''===
A creepy mnemosurgeon called [[Vampire (BWU)|Vampire]] worked for the [[Predacon Secret Police]]. After [[Stiletto (BW)|Stiletto]] was left traumatized from killing her partner, the [[Maximal Command Security Force|MCSF]] packed her off to the Mandala to have her memories altered by him. {{storylink|Burning Bridges}}

After "recruiting" [[Cryotek (RID)|Cryotek]] and his [[Minion of Unicron (BWU)|Minions of Unicron]] into the [[Darksyder]]s, [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] had [[Psychobat (BWU)|Psychobat]] perform a little mnemosurgery on him to make sure he didn't get any "ideas". A short while later, [[Packrat]] noted Cryotek was acting a little off, but wasn't overly concerned. {{storylink|Not All Megatrons}}

===''Titans Return'' marketing material===
The [[Titan Master]] [[Stylor]] granted whomever he partnered with the ability of mnemosurgery. {{storylink|Stylor#Generations|''Titans Return'' Stylor/Chromedome toy bio}}

==See also==
*[[Cortical psychic patch]]

[[Category:Beast Wars: Uprising technology]]
[[Category:Brainwashing technology]]
[[Category:Functions]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) technology]]
[[Category:Mnemosurgeons| ]]

Wreckage (Movie)

2025-12-06T18:59:51Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{factions|decepticon|sector7}}
{{disambig3|Wreckage}}
:''Wreckage is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Transformers (2007 franchise)|Transformers]] portion of the [[movie continuity family]].''

[[File:Movie Wreckage DestinyAlliancecover.jpg|right|upright=1.55|thumb|You don’t wanna mess with a guy who punches metal for fun.]]

Quiet and distant among Decepticons, '''Wreckage''' is the stone-cold counterpart to the hot-wired [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]]. Deliberate and methodical in his attacks, he enjoys getting up close and personal to his targets and watching his foes squirm in agony as his twin swords cut deep below their armor. Circuits popping and vital processors sizzling to uselessness are the music he longs to make, and none of the Decepticons can argue with his taste for making Autobots suffer.<ref>''Transformers'' Deluxe Class Wreckage packaging bio</ref>

Even though he has been involved in some of the more successful Decepticon missions and is an avid supporter of [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]], he is ''not'' considered to be one of their more reliable or trustworthy soldiers. He has a bad habit of caving under pressure, which makes him a poor candidate for leading missions. And [[Planetfall (Movie)|all]] [[The Reign of Starscream issue 4|things]] [[Alliance issue 2|considered]], that's not going to clear up any time soon. But that doesn't stop him from thinking he deserves to be Megatron's right-hand man more than [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]].<ref>''[[Transformers: The Reign of Starscream|The Reign of Starscream]]'' trade paperback bonus material</ref>

{{quote|Time to die.|Wreckage has a problem with [[Starscream (Movie)|the boss]]|[[Alliance issue 2|''Alliance'' #2]]}}

==Fiction==
===IDW movie comics===
Many years ago, Wreckage was a member of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]'s [[Defense Force]], under the command of Protector [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. After the discovery of a [[The Fallen|mysterious relic]] and an [[Ejoornian|alien]] attack on Cybertron, {{storylink|Defiance issue 1|Defiance #1}} Megatron changed significantly, altering the military's mission from one of protection of their homeworld to the new aim of making war upon the hostile aliens and anybody who would stand in their way. Wreckage was present at Megatron's war rally in [[Trypticon (Movie)|Trypticon]], where the military leader demanded the control of all of Cybertron's forces in his vengeful attack on the [[Ejoornian|aliens]] from the [[Eshems Nebula]]. {{storylink|Defiance issue 2|Defiance #2}} Once Megatron's troops returned victorious, Megatron decided to eliminate his rival for leadership, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus]]. On Megatron's orders, Wreckage told the [[Security Force]], who had to arrest Optimus and his followers, that the main road to Trypticon was under construction, but that another route through [[Metrotitan (ROTF)|Metrotitan]] had been cleared for them. This way, the group headed straight into an ambush. Wreckage was presumably at Megatron's rally where he unveiled his new "Decepticon" faction later that night. {{storylink|Defiance issue 3|Defiance #3}} {{storylink|Defiance issue 4|Defiance #4}}

[[File:Movie Wreckage Traitor.jpg|left|125px|thumb|Quit eviscerating yourself, quit eviscerating yourself!]]

During the subsequent civil war, Wreckage was one of several Decepticons under the command of [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] during the battle of [[Tyger Pax]]. He was finishing off an [[Autobot]] with his sword when [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] arrived with news that [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] knew where the [[AllSpark]] was located. After witnessing the successful Autobot launch of the AllSpark and Megatron's subsequent pursuit of it, Wreckage left [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] with Starscream's group in search of their leader.

[[File:Movie Wreckage EMPblast.jpg|right|thumb|Wreckage's name is unfortunately appropriate.]]
Arriving on [[Earth]] many years later in Afghanistan, Wreckage scanned and destroyed a human military carrier vehicle sent to investigate their planetfall. He was able to trace the location of the Bargam US airbase and jam their communications to prevent them from calling for help. Under Starscream's orders, Wreckage led the group to attack, initially confusing the soldiers with his [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]]. Whilst observing [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] slaughter human soldiers the latter had tricked, Wreckage was hit with a localized electromagnetic pulse and disabled. Barricade was ordered by Starscream to leave their comrade behind, because either he would recover eventually, or if not, then it didn't matter. {{storylink|Planetfall (Movie)|Planetfall}} {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 1|The Reign of Starscream #1}}

Starscream learned from [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]]'s datatrax that Wreckage's body had been claimed by [[Sector Seven]], {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 2|The Reign of Starscream #2}} and that Wreckage had made arrangements with Sector Seven, incurring the air commander's wrath. {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 4|The Reign of Starscream #4}}

Buried by his comrades, Wreckage was eventually discovered by agents of [[Sector Seven]] who unearthed and transported him to a secret base in [[Nevada]]. He was reactivated under the watch of Sector Seven operative [[Salazar]]. Trading information for his own survival, Wreckage was deactivated by Salazar after the battle at [[Mission City]] that claimed the life of Megatron, due to a growing danger he presented. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} Salazar was soon inadvertently killed when [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] escaped Earth, leaving Wreckage inert. [[Seymour Simmons]], however, planned to use [[William Lennox]]'s [[Autobot]] contacts to awaken him... {{storylink|Alliance issue 1|Alliance #1}}

[[File:Greenwreckagealliance2.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=1.65|"Maybe if people think I'm [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]], they'll let me star in the next movie!"]]
When Optimus Prime left the AllSpark sliver with Sector Seven, they brought it underground for safe keeping, despite [[Vine|Professor Vine]]'s insistence that they keep it as far from Wreckage as possible. Vine's fears were well founded: while passing Wreckage's platform to take it to an isolation vault, the sliver was drawn to Wreckage, awakening him. Wreckage broke free, demanding Megatron's whereabouts and that Salazar be given to him so that he could strip the flesh from his frame. As he escaped, he attempted to scan a green jeep as a new [[alternate mode]], but was attacked by Landmine units also activated by the AllSpark. This left him with a new green coloration. The Landmine units proved no match for Wreckage, but upon defeating them, he was suddenly confronted with an enraged Starscream, who accused him of treason. Wreckage himself was less than pleased with the [[Air Commander]], feeling Starscream had betrayed him by leaving him for dead. A fierce battle took place, damaging the Sector Seven base and killing several humans, but Wreckage eventually gained the upper hand. Just as he was about to kill Starscream, [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] arrived and shot off said hand, and Starscream thrust his claws into Wreckage's [[laser core|spark core]], killing him. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} {{storylink|Convergence chapter 4}}

===Titan movie comics===
[[File:Wreckage-ReturntoCybertronpart4.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3]]
In a [[Tyran 208.28 Gamma|divergent timeline]], the Decepticons succeeded at Mission City and conquered the United States. Wreckage aided Starscream in his take-over of the Autobots' headquarters in their absence. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 19|Return to Cybertron: Part 3}} Wreckage was then seen defending Decepticon borders when Starscream claimed a portion of the United States. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 20|Return to Cybertron: Part 4}} He later got to smash up part of Pittsburgh as part of a punitive campaign against relations with the Autobots. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 23|Revolution Part 1}} Later still, he got exiled on Cybertron. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 25|Revolution Part 3}}
{{--}}

==Games==
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
Under [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]'s command, Wreckage fought the Autobots with his energy swords, autocannons, wreckrockets and monstergun. If all that firepower failed to take his enemies down, he was also known to resort to suplexing or ramming them. Wreckage may also have participated in the seemingly inter-dimensional "Energon Wars" conflict, during which the Decepticons were led by [[Megatron (BW)|Predacon Megatron]] against [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]]'s Autobots. {{storylink|3D Battle-Card Game}}

===''Flight of the Bumblebee''===
[[File:Wreckage movie.jpg|upright=0.85|thumb|Wreckage appeared in several online games. Not the most impressive resume, but it's a living.]]
Wreckage was one of a group of Decepticons who trapped Bumblebee in a canyon. He stood around on a rocky butte, walking back and forth and waiting for Bumblebee to drive up to him. When the impudent Autobot dropped in (nearly landing on poor Wreckage's head), Wreckage immediately opened fire, blasting Bumblebee over and over and over and over and over. Unfortunately, Bumblebee had the idea to shoot back, blasting Wreckage right out of the picture with just one shot. Or he kept shooting until Bumblebee fell and then he gathered around with his buddies to celebrate Bee's pitiful defeat. {{storylink|Flight of the Bumblebee}}

===''Allspark Highway''===
Wreckage and the Decepticons fought hard to keep the Allspark from reaching [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]. There were lots of him. {{storylink|Allspark Highway}}

===''Transformers Video Mash-Up''===
{{note|Various short clips featuring Wreckage were available for users to custom-create their own short film about the Transformers.}} {{storylink|Transformers Video Mash-Up}}
{{--}}

===''Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark'' (3DS)===
{{Note|Wreckage appears in the [[Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark]] game for Nintendo 3DS as a support unit. Equipping him allows all Earth Mercenaries to have their Strength states increased by 1.}}
{{storylink|Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark}}
{{--}}

==Toys==
===''Transformers'' (2007)===
[[File:Wreckage movietoy.jpg|right|upright=1.67|thumb|Wreckage and Rule.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (Deluxe Class, [[2007]])}}</ul>
:*''TakaraTomy ID number'': '''MD-10'''
:*''Accessories'': Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{toydesigner|[[Aaron Archer]] (Hasbro), [[Alex Kubalsky]] (TakaraTomy)}}

: Wreckage transforms into an {{w|Stryker|M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle}} in urban or arctic camo, armed with a M2 .50 cal machine gun and two other machine guns mounted extending out of the troop compartment. Unusually for a Transformer with a military vehicle [[alternate mode]], Wreckage does not feature ''significant'' embellishments to his design, even though he is not a licensed toy. However, his white plastic obscures much of his sculpted detailing.

: His [[Automorph Technology|Automorphing]] feature is activated during transformation by swinging his machine gun down, pushing it against a translucent red panel, which simultaneously raises his shoulders, lowers his torso, raises his head and extends his stomach-mounted cannon.

: The smaller machine gun weapons feature flip-out energy blades that can be held in his hands, mounted under his forearms or on any of the wheels. They can also connect together to form an undocumented but certainly intended double-bladed weapon; mounting this on his forearm wheels gives him an awesome spinning blade weapon.

: There is a minor issue with this mold wherein moving his arms down or towards his back at the shoulder will activate his Automorphing feature and begin to fold the torso back into its vehicle mode position. The best way to avoid this is to hold the machine gun plugging into his back in position while moving his arms.

: This toy doubles as the ''[[Beast Wars: Uprising]]'' character [[Reckage]].

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2007/Decepticon/Wreckage/wreckage.htm More information on Wreckage at TFU.info]''
{{-}}

===''Revenge of the Fallen''===
[[File:RotF Bludgeon Master of Metallikato vs pack toy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|Hey look! It's a stolen Wreckage repaint! Let's use it in the comic! Oh wait, it's Bludgeon? Crap!]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-a1d1|'''Master of Metallikato''' (Multi-pack, [[2009]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories:'' Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{note|Wreckage was [[repurposing|repurposed]] from [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]] in [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]'s ''[[Transformers: Alliance|Alliance]]'' comics.}}

: Bludgeon is a [[redeco]] of the Deluxe-Class Wreckage toy. This figure was only available in the [[Toys"R"Us]]-[[exclusive]] "Master of Metallikato" battle pack with [[Whirl (ROTF)#Revenge of the Fallen|Whirl]], and was repurposed by [[IDW Publishing]] as an upgraded form for Wreckage after samples of the toy were leaked online and before the identity of the toy was known.

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2009/Decepticon/Bludgeon/bludgeon.htm More information on Bludgeon at TFU.info]''
{{--}}

==Merchandise==
{{anchor|3DBattleCardGameMerch}}
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
[[File:3DBattleCard Wreckage.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (3D Battle Card, 2007)}}</ul>
:*''Card number:''

: A 35-point "Uncommon" card, Wreckage is assembled from punch-out parts of two cards, which can be fit together to make either a robot or a tank. Since he uses the same parts layout as [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]], his central cannon is considerably oversized when compared to his toy. This layout was also used for [[Warpath (G1)|Warpath]] and [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] in the "Energon Wars" expansion.
{{--}}

==Notes==
[[File:Movie Wreckage Stykerconcept1.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|Tall, dark, and bloodthirsty.]]
* As revealed at [[BotCon 2007]]'s [[Hasbro]] tour, Wreckage is the toy company's elaboration of a design for a Transformer abandoned early in the Movie's development. It had no name and was thus labeled "Stryker", the name of its [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]].
* It was also revealed at [[BotCon 2008]]'s Designer panel that the reason Wreckage's head doesn't match Stryker's concept art was because [[TakaraTomy|Takara]] couldn't make out the detail from the design sketches that were sent to them. [[Aaron Archer]] drew a new head in five minutes, before catching a plane to Tokyo.
* This "Stryker" concept art was later used as a Decepticon piece in the ''[[Risk|Transformers Risk]]'' game.
* Years later, [[Ask Vector Prime]] would nod to the IDW comics and say that [[Sergeant Cahnay]] EMPed Wreckage at Bargam.

===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Wreckage''' (レッケージ ''Rekkēji'')

==References==
<references />
[[Category:3D Battle-Cards]]
[[Category:Sector Seven]]
[[Category:Movie Decepticons]]
[[Category:Repurposed toys]]
[[Category:Revenge of the Fallen Decepticons]]

Wreckage (Movie)

2025-12-06T18:59:01Z

MetalMuncher11: Undo revision 1878283 by MetalMuncher11 (talk)

{{factions|decepticon|sector7}}
{{disambig3|Wreckage}}
:''Wreckage is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Transformers (2007 franchise)|Transformers]] portion of the [[movie continuity family]].''

[[File:Movie Wreckage DestinyAlliancecover.jpg|right|upright=1.55|thumb|Bite my segmented transformable ass.]]

Quiet and distant among Decepticons, '''Wreckage''' is the stone-cold counterpart to the hot-wired [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]]. Deliberate and methodical in his attacks, he enjoys getting up close and personal to his targets and watching his foes squirm in agony as his twin swords cut deep below their armor. Circuits popping and vital processors sizzling to uselessness are the music he longs to make, and none of the Decepticons can argue with his taste for making Autobots suffer.<ref>''Transformers'' Deluxe Class Wreckage packaging bio</ref>

Even though he has been involved in some of the more successful Decepticon missions and is an avid supporter of [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]], he is ''not'' considered to be one of their more reliable or trustworthy soldiers. He has a bad habit of caving under pressure, which makes him a poor candidate for leading missions. And [[Planetfall (Movie)|all]] [[The Reign of Starscream issue 4|things]] [[Alliance issue 2|considered]], that's not going to clear up any time soon. But that doesn't stop him from thinking he deserves to be Megatron's right-hand man more than [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]].<ref>''[[Transformers: The Reign of Starscream|The Reign of Starscream]]'' trade paperback bonus material</ref>

{{quote|Time to die.|Wreckage has a problem with [[Starscream (Movie)|the boss]]|[[Alliance issue 2|''Alliance'' #2]]}}

==Fiction==
===IDW movie comics===
Many years ago, Wreckage was a member of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]'s [[Defense Force]], under the command of Protector [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. After the discovery of a [[The Fallen|mysterious relic]] and an [[Ejoornian|alien]] attack on Cybertron, {{storylink|Defiance issue 1|Defiance #1}} Megatron changed significantly, altering the military's mission from one of protection of their homeworld to the new aim of making war upon the hostile aliens and anybody who would stand in their way. Wreckage was present at Megatron's war rally in [[Trypticon (Movie)|Trypticon]], where the military leader demanded the control of all of Cybertron's forces in his vengeful attack on the [[Ejoornian|aliens]] from the [[Eshems Nebula]]. {{storylink|Defiance issue 2|Defiance #2}} Once Megatron's troops returned victorious, Megatron decided to eliminate his rival for leadership, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus]]. On Megatron's orders, Wreckage told the [[Security Force]], who had to arrest Optimus and his followers, that the main road to Trypticon was under construction, but that another route through [[Metrotitan (ROTF)|Metrotitan]] had been cleared for them. This way, the group headed straight into an ambush. Wreckage was presumably at Megatron's rally where he unveiled his new "Decepticon" faction later that night. {{storylink|Defiance issue 3|Defiance #3}} {{storylink|Defiance issue 4|Defiance #4}}

[[File:Movie Wreckage Traitor.jpg|left|125px|thumb|Quit eviscerating yourself, quit eviscerating yourself!]]

During the subsequent civil war, Wreckage was one of several Decepticons under the command of [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] during the battle of [[Tyger Pax]]. He was finishing off an [[Autobot]] with his sword when [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] arrived with news that [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] knew where the [[AllSpark]] was located. After witnessing the successful Autobot launch of the AllSpark and Megatron's subsequent pursuit of it, Wreckage left [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] with Starscream's group in search of their leader.

[[File:Movie Wreckage EMPblast.jpg|right|thumb|Wreckage's name is unfortunately appropriate.]]
Arriving on [[Earth]] many years later in Afghanistan, Wreckage scanned and destroyed a human military carrier vehicle sent to investigate their planetfall. He was able to trace the location of the Bargam US airbase and jam their communications to prevent them from calling for help. Under Starscream's orders, Wreckage led the group to attack, initially confusing the soldiers with his [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]]. Whilst observing [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] slaughter human soldiers the latter had tricked, Wreckage was hit with a localized electromagnetic pulse and disabled. Barricade was ordered by Starscream to leave their comrade behind, because either he would recover eventually, or if not, then it didn't matter. {{storylink|Planetfall (Movie)|Planetfall}} {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 1|The Reign of Starscream #1}}

Starscream learned from [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]]'s datatrax that Wreckage's body had been claimed by [[Sector Seven]], {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 2|The Reign of Starscream #2}} and that Wreckage had made arrangements with Sector Seven, incurring the air commander's wrath. {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 4|The Reign of Starscream #4}}

Buried by his comrades, Wreckage was eventually discovered by agents of [[Sector Seven]] who unearthed and transported him to a secret base in [[Nevada]]. He was reactivated under the watch of Sector Seven operative [[Salazar]]. Trading information for his own survival, Wreckage was deactivated by Salazar after the battle at [[Mission City]] that claimed the life of Megatron, due to a growing danger he presented. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} Salazar was soon inadvertently killed when [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] escaped Earth, leaving Wreckage inert. [[Seymour Simmons]], however, planned to use [[William Lennox]]'s [[Autobot]] contacts to awaken him... {{storylink|Alliance issue 1|Alliance #1}}

[[File:Greenwreckagealliance2.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=1.65|"Maybe if people think I'm [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]], they'll let me star in the next movie!"]]
When Optimus Prime left the AllSpark sliver with Sector Seven, they brought it underground for safe keeping, despite [[Vine|Professor Vine]]'s insistence that they keep it as far from Wreckage as possible. Vine's fears were well founded: while passing Wreckage's platform to take it to an isolation vault, the sliver was drawn to Wreckage, awakening him. Wreckage broke free, demanding Megatron's whereabouts and that Salazar be given to him so that he could strip the flesh from his frame. As he escaped, he attempted to scan a green jeep as a new [[alternate mode]], but was attacked by Landmine units also activated by the AllSpark. This left him with a new green coloration. The Landmine units proved no match for Wreckage, but upon defeating them, he was suddenly confronted with an enraged Starscream, who accused him of treason. Wreckage himself was less than pleased with the [[Air Commander]], feeling Starscream had betrayed him by leaving him for dead. A fierce battle took place, damaging the Sector Seven base and killing several humans, but Wreckage eventually gained the upper hand. Just as he was about to kill Starscream, [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] arrived and shot off said hand, and Starscream thrust his claws into Wreckage's [[laser core|spark core]], killing him. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} {{storylink|Convergence chapter 4}}

===Titan movie comics===
[[File:Wreckage-ReturntoCybertronpart4.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3]]
In a [[Tyran 208.28 Gamma|divergent timeline]], the Decepticons succeeded at Mission City and conquered the United States. Wreckage aided Starscream in his take-over of the Autobots' headquarters in their absence. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 19|Return to Cybertron: Part 3}} Wreckage was then seen defending Decepticon borders when Starscream claimed a portion of the United States. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 20|Return to Cybertron: Part 4}} He later got to smash up part of Pittsburgh as part of a punitive campaign against relations with the Autobots. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 23|Revolution Part 1}} Later still, he got exiled on Cybertron. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 25|Revolution Part 3}}
{{--}}

==Games==
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
Under [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]'s command, Wreckage fought the Autobots with his energy swords, autocannons, wreckrockets and monstergun. If all that firepower failed to take his enemies down, he was also known to resort to suplexing or ramming them. Wreckage may also have participated in the seemingly inter-dimensional "Energon Wars" conflict, during which the Decepticons were led by [[Megatron (BW)|Predacon Megatron]] against [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]]'s Autobots. {{storylink|3D Battle-Card Game}}

===''Flight of the Bumblebee''===
[[File:Wreckage movie.jpg|upright=0.85|thumb|Wreckage appeared in several online games. Not the most impressive resume, but it's a living.]]
Wreckage was one of a group of Decepticons who trapped Bumblebee in a canyon. He stood around on a rocky butte, walking back and forth and waiting for Bumblebee to drive up to him. When the impudent Autobot dropped in (nearly landing on poor Wreckage's head), Wreckage immediately opened fire, blasting Bumblebee over and over and over and over and over. Unfortunately, Bumblebee had the idea to shoot back, blasting Wreckage right out of the picture with just one shot. Or he kept shooting until Bumblebee fell and then he gathered around with his buddies to celebrate Bee's pitiful defeat. {{storylink|Flight of the Bumblebee}}

===''Allspark Highway''===
Wreckage and the Decepticons fought hard to keep the Allspark from reaching [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]. There were lots of him. {{storylink|Allspark Highway}}

===''Transformers Video Mash-Up''===
{{note|Various short clips featuring Wreckage were available for users to custom-create their own short film about the Transformers.}} {{storylink|Transformers Video Mash-Up}}
{{--}}

===''Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark'' (3DS)===
{{Note|Wreckage appears in the [[Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark]] game for Nintendo 3DS as a support unit. Equipping him allows all Earth Mercenaries to have their Strength states increased by 1.}}
{{storylink|Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark}}
{{--}}

==Toys==
===''Transformers'' (2007)===
[[File:Wreckage movietoy.jpg|right|upright=1.67|thumb|Wreckage and Rule.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (Deluxe Class, [[2007]])}}</ul>
:*''TakaraTomy ID number'': '''MD-10'''
:*''Accessories'': Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{toydesigner|[[Aaron Archer]] (Hasbro), [[Alex Kubalsky]] (TakaraTomy)}}

: Wreckage transforms into an {{w|Stryker|M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle}} in urban or arctic camo, armed with a M2 .50 cal machine gun and two other machine guns mounted extending out of the troop compartment. Unusually for a Transformer with a military vehicle [[alternate mode]], Wreckage does not feature ''significant'' embellishments to his design, even though he is not a licensed toy. However, his white plastic obscures much of his sculpted detailing.

: His [[Automorph Technology|Automorphing]] feature is activated during transformation by swinging his machine gun down, pushing it against a translucent red panel, which simultaneously raises his shoulders, lowers his torso, raises his head and extends his stomach-mounted cannon.

: The smaller machine gun weapons feature flip-out energy blades that can be held in his hands, mounted under his forearms or on any of the wheels. They can also connect together to form an undocumented but certainly intended double-bladed weapon; mounting this on his forearm wheels gives him an awesome spinning blade weapon.

: There is a minor issue with this mold wherein moving his arms down or towards his back at the shoulder will activate his Automorphing feature and begin to fold the torso back into its vehicle mode position. The best way to avoid this is to hold the machine gun plugging into his back in position while moving his arms.

: This toy doubles as the ''[[Beast Wars: Uprising]]'' character [[Reckage]].

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2007/Decepticon/Wreckage/wreckage.htm More information on Wreckage at TFU.info]''
{{-}}

===''Revenge of the Fallen''===
[[File:RotF Bludgeon Master of Metallikato vs pack toy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|Hey look! It's a stolen Wreckage repaint! Let's use it in the comic! Oh wait, it's Bludgeon? Crap!]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-a1d1|'''Master of Metallikato''' (Multi-pack, [[2009]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories:'' Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{note|Wreckage was [[repurposing|repurposed]] from [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]] in [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]'s ''[[Transformers: Alliance|Alliance]]'' comics.}}

: Bludgeon is a [[redeco]] of the Deluxe-Class Wreckage toy. This figure was only available in the [[Toys"R"Us]]-[[exclusive]] "Master of Metallikato" battle pack with [[Whirl (ROTF)#Revenge of the Fallen|Whirl]], and was repurposed by [[IDW Publishing]] as an upgraded form for Wreckage after samples of the toy were leaked online and before the identity of the toy was known.

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2009/Decepticon/Bludgeon/bludgeon.htm More information on Bludgeon at TFU.info]''
{{--}}

==Merchandise==
{{anchor|3DBattleCardGameMerch}}
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
[[File:3DBattleCard Wreckage.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (3D Battle Card, 2007)}}</ul>
:*''Card number:''

: A 35-point "Uncommon" card, Wreckage is assembled from punch-out parts of two cards, which can be fit together to make either a robot or a tank. Since he uses the same parts layout as [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]], his central cannon is considerably oversized when compared to his toy. This layout was also used for [[Warpath (G1)|Warpath]] and [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] in the "Energon Wars" expansion.
{{--}}

==Notes==
[[File:Movie Wreckage Stykerconcept1.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|Tall, dark, and bloodthirsty.]]
* As revealed at [[BotCon 2007]]'s [[Hasbro]] tour, Wreckage is the toy company's elaboration of a design for a Transformer abandoned early in the Movie's development. It had no name and was thus labeled "Stryker", the name of its [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]].
* It was also revealed at [[BotCon 2008]]'s Designer panel that the reason Wreckage's head doesn't match Stryker's concept art was because [[TakaraTomy|Takara]] couldn't make out the detail from the design sketches that were sent to them. [[Aaron Archer]] drew a new head in five minutes, before catching a plane to Tokyo.
* This "Stryker" concept art was later used as a Decepticon piece in the ''[[Risk|Transformers Risk]]'' game.
* Years later, [[Ask Vector Prime]] would nod to the IDW comics and say that [[Sergeant Cahnay]] EMPed Wreckage at Bargam.

===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Wreckage''' (レッケージ ''Rekkēji'')

==References==
<references />
[[Category:3D Battle-Cards]]
[[Category:Sector Seven]]
[[Category:Movie Decepticons]]
[[Category:Repurposed toys]]
[[Category:Revenge of the Fallen Decepticons]]

Wreckage (Movie)

2025-12-06T18:57:52Z

MetalMuncher11:

{{factions|decepticon|sector7}}
{{disambig3|Wreckage}}
:''Wreckage is a [[Decepticon]] from the [[Transformers (2007 franchise)|Transformers]] portion of the [[movie continuity family]].''

[[File:Movie Wreckage DestinyAlliancecover.jpg|right|upright=1.55|You don’t wanna mess with a guy who punches metal for fun.]]

Quiet and distant among Decepticons, '''Wreckage''' is the stone-cold counterpart to the hot-wired [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]]. Deliberate and methodical in his attacks, he enjoys getting up close and personal to his targets and watching his foes squirm in agony as his twin swords cut deep below their armor. Circuits popping and vital processors sizzling to uselessness are the music he longs to make, and none of the Decepticons can argue with his taste for making Autobots suffer.<ref>''Transformers'' Deluxe Class Wreckage packaging bio</ref>

Even though he has been involved in some of the more successful Decepticon missions and is an avid supporter of [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]], he is ''not'' considered to be one of their more reliable or trustworthy soldiers. He has a bad habit of caving under pressure, which makes him a poor candidate for leading missions. And [[Planetfall (Movie)|all]] [[The Reign of Starscream issue 4|things]] [[Alliance issue 2|considered]], that's not going to clear up any time soon. But that doesn't stop him from thinking he deserves to be Megatron's right-hand man more than [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]].<ref>''[[Transformers: The Reign of Starscream|The Reign of Starscream]]'' trade paperback bonus material</ref>

{{quote|Time to die.|Wreckage has a problem with [[Starscream (Movie)|the boss]]|[[Alliance issue 2|''Alliance'' #2]]}}

==Fiction==
===IDW movie comics===
Many years ago, Wreckage was a member of [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]'s [[Defense Force]], under the command of Protector [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]. After the discovery of a [[The Fallen|mysterious relic]] and an [[Ejoornian|alien]] attack on Cybertron, {{storylink|Defiance issue 1|Defiance #1}} Megatron changed significantly, altering the military's mission from one of protection of their homeworld to the new aim of making war upon the hostile aliens and anybody who would stand in their way. Wreckage was present at Megatron's war rally in [[Trypticon (Movie)|Trypticon]], where the military leader demanded the control of all of Cybertron's forces in his vengeful attack on the [[Ejoornian|aliens]] from the [[Eshems Nebula]]. {{storylink|Defiance issue 2|Defiance #2}} Once Megatron's troops returned victorious, Megatron decided to eliminate his rival for leadership, [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus]]. On Megatron's orders, Wreckage told the [[Security Force]], who had to arrest Optimus and his followers, that the main road to Trypticon was under construction, but that another route through [[Metrotitan (ROTF)|Metrotitan]] had been cleared for them. This way, the group headed straight into an ambush. Wreckage was presumably at Megatron's rally where he unveiled his new "Decepticon" faction later that night. {{storylink|Defiance issue 3|Defiance #3}} {{storylink|Defiance issue 4|Defiance #4}}

[[File:Movie Wreckage Traitor.jpg|left|125px|thumb|Quit eviscerating yourself, quit eviscerating yourself!]]

During the subsequent civil war, Wreckage was one of several Decepticons under the command of [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] during the battle of [[Tyger Pax]]. He was finishing off an [[Autobot]] with his sword when [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]] arrived with news that [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]] knew where the [[AllSpark]] was located. After witnessing the successful Autobot launch of the AllSpark and Megatron's subsequent pursuit of it, Wreckage left [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] with Starscream's group in search of their leader.

[[File:Movie Wreckage EMPblast.jpg|right|thumb|Wreckage's name is unfortunately appropriate.]]
Arriving on [[Earth]] many years later in Afghanistan, Wreckage scanned and destroyed a human military carrier vehicle sent to investigate their planetfall. He was able to trace the location of the Bargam US airbase and jam their communications to prevent them from calling for help. Under Starscream's orders, Wreckage led the group to attack, initially confusing the soldiers with his [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]]. Whilst observing [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] slaughter human soldiers the latter had tricked, Wreckage was hit with a localized electromagnetic pulse and disabled. Barricade was ordered by Starscream to leave their comrade behind, because either he would recover eventually, or if not, then it didn't matter. {{storylink|Planetfall (Movie)|Planetfall}} {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 1|The Reign of Starscream #1}}

Starscream learned from [[Frenzy (Movie)|Frenzy]]'s datatrax that Wreckage's body had been claimed by [[Sector Seven]], {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 2|The Reign of Starscream #2}} and that Wreckage had made arrangements with Sector Seven, incurring the air commander's wrath. {{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 4|The Reign of Starscream #4}}

Buried by his comrades, Wreckage was eventually discovered by agents of [[Sector Seven]] who unearthed and transported him to a secret base in [[Nevada]]. He was reactivated under the watch of Sector Seven operative [[Salazar]]. Trading information for his own survival, Wreckage was deactivated by Salazar after the battle at [[Mission City]] that claimed the life of Megatron, due to a growing danger he presented. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} Salazar was soon inadvertently killed when [[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] escaped Earth, leaving Wreckage inert. [[Seymour Simmons]], however, planned to use [[William Lennox]]'s [[Autobot]] contacts to awaken him... {{storylink|Alliance issue 1|Alliance #1}}

[[File:Greenwreckagealliance2.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=1.65|"Maybe if people think I'm [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]], they'll let me star in the next movie!"]]
When Optimus Prime left the AllSpark sliver with Sector Seven, they brought it underground for safe keeping, despite [[Vine|Professor Vine]]'s insistence that they keep it as far from Wreckage as possible. Vine's fears were well founded: while passing Wreckage's platform to take it to an isolation vault, the sliver was drawn to Wreckage, awakening him. Wreckage broke free, demanding Megatron's whereabouts and that Salazar be given to him so that he could strip the flesh from his frame. As he escaped, he attempted to scan a green jeep as a new [[alternate mode]], but was attacked by Landmine units also activated by the AllSpark. This left him with a new green coloration. The Landmine units proved no match for Wreckage, but upon defeating them, he was suddenly confronted with an enraged Starscream, who accused him of treason. Wreckage himself was less than pleased with the [[Air Commander]], feeling Starscream had betrayed him by leaving him for dead. A fierce battle took place, damaging the Sector Seven base and killing several humans, but Wreckage eventually gained the upper hand. Just as he was about to kill Starscream, [[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] arrived and shot off said hand, and Starscream thrust his claws into Wreckage's [[laser core|spark core]], killing him. {{storylink|Alliance issue 2|Alliance #2}} {{storylink|Convergence chapter 4}}

===Titan movie comics===
[[File:Wreckage-ReturntoCybertronpart4.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3]]
In a [[Tyran 208.28 Gamma|divergent timeline]], the Decepticons succeeded at Mission City and conquered the United States. Wreckage aided Starscream in his take-over of the Autobots' headquarters in their absence. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 19|Return to Cybertron: Part 3}} Wreckage was then seen defending Decepticon borders when Starscream claimed a portion of the United States. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 20|Return to Cybertron: Part 4}} He later got to smash up part of Pittsburgh as part of a punitive campaign against relations with the Autobots. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 23|Revolution Part 1}} Later still, he got exiled on Cybertron. {{storylink|Transformers Comic issue 25|Revolution Part 3}}
{{--}}

==Games==
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
Under [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]]'s command, Wreckage fought the Autobots with his energy swords, autocannons, wreckrockets and monstergun. If all that firepower failed to take his enemies down, he was also known to resort to suplexing or ramming them. Wreckage may also have participated in the seemingly inter-dimensional "Energon Wars" conflict, during which the Decepticons were led by [[Megatron (BW)|Predacon Megatron]] against [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]]'s Autobots. {{storylink|3D Battle-Card Game}}

===''Flight of the Bumblebee''===
[[File:Wreckage movie.jpg|upright=0.85|thumb|Wreckage appeared in several online games. Not the most impressive resume, but it's a living.]]
Wreckage was one of a group of Decepticons who trapped Bumblebee in a canyon. He stood around on a rocky butte, walking back and forth and waiting for Bumblebee to drive up to him. When the impudent Autobot dropped in (nearly landing on poor Wreckage's head), Wreckage immediately opened fire, blasting Bumblebee over and over and over and over and over. Unfortunately, Bumblebee had the idea to shoot back, blasting Wreckage right out of the picture with just one shot. Or he kept shooting until Bumblebee fell and then he gathered around with his buddies to celebrate Bee's pitiful defeat. {{storylink|Flight of the Bumblebee}}

===''Allspark Highway''===
Wreckage and the Decepticons fought hard to keep the Allspark from reaching [[Optimus Prime (Movie)|Optimus Prime]]. There were lots of him. {{storylink|Allspark Highway}}

===''Transformers Video Mash-Up''===
{{note|Various short clips featuring Wreckage were available for users to custom-create their own short film about the Transformers.}} {{storylink|Transformers Video Mash-Up}}
{{--}}

===''Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark'' (3DS)===
{{Note|Wreckage appears in the [[Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark]] game for Nintendo 3DS as a support unit. Equipping him allows all Earth Mercenaries to have their Strength states increased by 1.}}
{{storylink|Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS)|Rise of the Dark Spark}}
{{--}}

==Toys==
===''Transformers'' (2007)===
[[File:Wreckage movietoy.jpg|right|upright=1.67|thumb|Wreckage and Rule.]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (Deluxe Class, [[2007]])}}</ul>
:*''TakaraTomy ID number'': '''MD-10'''
:*''Accessories'': Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{toydesigner|[[Aaron Archer]] (Hasbro), [[Alex Kubalsky]] (TakaraTomy)}}

: Wreckage transforms into an {{w|Stryker|M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle}} in urban or arctic camo, armed with a M2 .50 cal machine gun and two other machine guns mounted extending out of the troop compartment. Unusually for a Transformer with a military vehicle [[alternate mode]], Wreckage does not feature ''significant'' embellishments to his design, even though he is not a licensed toy. However, his white plastic obscures much of his sculpted detailing.

: His [[Automorph Technology|Automorphing]] feature is activated during transformation by swinging his machine gun down, pushing it against a translucent red panel, which simultaneously raises his shoulders, lowers his torso, raises his head and extends his stomach-mounted cannon.

: The smaller machine gun weapons feature flip-out energy blades that can be held in his hands, mounted under his forearms or on any of the wheels. They can also connect together to form an undocumented but certainly intended double-bladed weapon; mounting this on his forearm wheels gives him an awesome spinning blade weapon.

: There is a minor issue with this mold wherein moving his arms down or towards his back at the shoulder will activate his Automorphing feature and begin to fold the torso back into its vehicle mode position. The best way to avoid this is to hold the machine gun plugging into his back in position while moving his arms.

: This toy doubles as the ''[[Beast Wars: Uprising]]'' character [[Reckage]].

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2007/Decepticon/Wreckage/wreckage.htm More information on Wreckage at TFU.info]''
{{-}}

===''Revenge of the Fallen''===
[[File:RotF Bludgeon Master of Metallikato vs pack toy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.67|Hey look! It's a stolen Wreckage repaint! Let's use it in the comic! Oh wait, it's Bludgeon? Crap!]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-a1d1|'''Master of Metallikato''' (Multi-pack, [[2009]])}}</ul>
:*''Accessories:'' Two spring-loaded machine-guns/blades
{{note|Wreckage was [[repurposing|repurposed]] from [[Bludgeon (ROTF)|Bludgeon]] in [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]'s ''[[Transformers: Alliance|Alliance]]'' comics.}}

: Bludgeon is a [[redeco]] of the Deluxe-Class Wreckage toy. This figure was only available in the [[Toys"R"Us]]-[[exclusive]] "Master of Metallikato" battle pack with [[Whirl (ROTF)#Revenge of the Fallen|Whirl]], and was repurposed by [[IDW Publishing]] as an upgraded form for Wreckage after samples of the toy were leaked online and before the identity of the toy was known.

::*''[http://www.tfu.info/2009/Decepticon/Bludgeon/bludgeon.htm More information on Bludgeon at TFU.info]''
{{--}}

==Merchandise==
{{anchor|3DBattleCardGameMerch}}
===''3D Battle-Card Game''===
[[File:3DBattleCard Wreckage.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.66]]
<ul class="iconlist">{{Bp-d1|'''Wreckage''' (3D Battle Card, 2007)}}</ul>
:*''Card number:''

: A 35-point "Uncommon" card, Wreckage is assembled from punch-out parts of two cards, which can be fit together to make either a robot or a tank. Since he uses the same parts layout as [[Brawl (Movie)|Brawl]], his central cannon is considerably oversized when compared to his toy. This layout was also used for [[Warpath (G1)|Warpath]] and [[Blitzwing (G1)|Blitzwing]] in the "Energon Wars" expansion.
{{--}}

==Notes==
[[File:Movie Wreckage Stykerconcept1.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|Tall, dark, and bloodthirsty.]]
* As revealed at [[BotCon 2007]]'s [[Hasbro]] tour, Wreckage is the toy company's elaboration of a design for a Transformer abandoned early in the Movie's development. It had no name and was thus labeled "Stryker", the name of its [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]].
* It was also revealed at [[BotCon 2008]]'s Designer panel that the reason Wreckage's head doesn't match Stryker's concept art was because [[TakaraTomy|Takara]] couldn't make out the detail from the design sketches that were sent to them. [[Aaron Archer]] drew a new head in five minutes, before catching a plane to Tokyo.
* This "Stryker" concept art was later used as a Decepticon piece in the ''[[Risk|Transformers Risk]]'' game.
* Years later, [[Ask Vector Prime]] would nod to the IDW comics and say that [[Sergeant Cahnay]] EMPed Wreckage at Bargam.

===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Wreckage''' (レッケージ ''Rekkēji'')

==References==
<references />
[[Category:3D Battle-Cards]]
[[Category:Sector Seven]]
[[Category:Movie Decepticons]]
[[Category:Repurposed toys]]
[[Category:Revenge of the Fallen Decepticons]]