Cliff Dietz

This article is about the "outed" friend of Spike Witwicky. For the used car employee, see Clifford{{#switch:{{#sub:Clifford|-1}}

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Cliff Dietz is a human from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Clifford loves purple.

Clifford "Cliff" Dietz is like any other college student. As he's wading through early adulthood, he's been surging with strange new feelings, some of which he's not particularly fond of. But with some soul searching, he can come to terms with the man he's becoming.

Cliff is a resident of San Francisco, a reluctant glasses-wearer, and an out-of-control klutz. He may not be as good at noticing girls as his friend Spike Witwicky, but underneath that awkward exterior is an amazing, fully-realized person just waiting to be set free.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Following a college semester during which his friend Spike had disappeared, Cliff reconnected with Spike and the two planned a ski trip within California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. As Cliff drove them to their destination, he inquired as to the reason for Spike's absence, but Spike was reluctant to give many details. Instead, Spike turned the question back at Cliff, asking him how his semester went. As Cliff began to tell the story of his life, Spike dozed off, Cliff none the wiser.

"Ah, yes, a woman. Those are the ones we like, right?"

Spike violently awoke from his sleep, startling Cliff. And that night, while they slept in a hotel, Spike kept on having terrible dreams. Cliff was concerned, but Spike continued to brush him off.

After arriving at the ski resort and setting off down the hill, Cliff and Spike were attacked by giant bestial monsters. As the pair fled, Spike was forced to share his secret with Cliff. Spike quickly explained that he was binary bonded to the Autobot Fortress Maximus, and that the monsters were the Pretenders Carnivac and Snarler, who had been ordered by Decepticon leader Scorponok to assassinate Spike. Though Cliff began to help Spike feel more comfortable with his own identity, Spike believed he had to return to his dream to confront whatever it was that was troubling him. Cliff was very uncomfortable with this, but thankfully, Spike awoke from his slumber with the answers he needed just as the Pretenders had returned. As the two raced down the snowy hills away from the Pretenders who were tracking them, Cliff proved he was more than a klutz by being able to retrieve Spike's headmaster helmet from Snarler with an impressive joust with his ski pole.

Spike was able to contact Fortress Maximus, combine with him, and send the Pretenders running. Their adventure over, the pair soon began their trip home, and Cliff demanded all the real details of his whereabouts from Spike. The Man in the Machine!

Notes

• As of 1989, Clifford lived in San Francisco, California. If he hadn't moved by 1994, he probably died with everyone else in the area when Jhiaxus nuked the place in "Dark Shadows!"