Editing Porter C. Powell

:''Porter C. Powell is a [[Human|human]] from the [[Animated]] [[Continuity family|continuity family]].''
[[Image:PorterCPowellModel.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Like an evil, mulleted [[wikipedia:Harland_Sanders|Colonel Sanders]]. But I repeat myself.]]
'''Porter C. Powell''' is Chairman of the Board of [[Sumdac Systems]], CEO of [[Powell Motorworks]]... and, peculiarly, a major financier of the experiments and business ventures of one of Sumdac's chief rivals, [[Prometheus Black]]. A capitalist of the sleazy, profit-at-any-price type, Powell is not above working with the villainous or demented to make big bucks. 

Basically, he's a rich jerk. His mullet, however, is ''truly inspirational''.

{{quote|There's no room for sentiment in business.|—Porter C. Powell, "[[The Elite Guard]]"}}

==Fiction==
===''Animated'' cartoon===

:''Voice actor:'' [[Bumper Robinson]] (English), [[Klaus Lochthove]] (German)

After the highly public failure of Black's test subject, [[Colossus Rhodes]], Porter C. Powell spoke to Black via the video link in his lab.  When Black tried to sell Powell on his latest innovation (a super-corrosive derived from [[Autobot]] [[Mech fluid|mech fluid]] and Black's own steroids) and the necessity of a new human test subject, Powell informed him that Black's investors were unwilling to sink any more money into his mad science—and furthermore, that even the prison system wouldn't provide Black with a new guinea pig.  Regretfully, Powell ended both the call and his business relationship with Black.  {{storylink|Total Meltdown}}

[[Image:Portercpowell.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Dull surprise|DULL SURPRISE]].]]
Powell was among the crowd who watched [[Isaac Sumdac]] unveil his new improved [[Dinobot (Animated)|Dinobots]] at [[Dino Drive]].   {{storylink|Blast from the Past}}

After Isaac Sumdac was abducted by [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]], [[Sari Sumdac|Sari]] took over leadership of the company. Powell disapproved of having a mere child responsible for the business, especially since she was diverting corporate funds to the search for her father. Powell wouldn't have to deal with her for very long, however: He was unable to discover any legal documents referring to a "Sari Sumdac"—no will, birth certificate, adoption papers, Social Security Number, anything. Not only was there no proof she was Sumdac's daughter, from a bureaucratic standpoint, there was no proof she existed. Powell was installed as new CEO of Sumdac Systems, and one of his early decisions was to lock Sari out of Isaac's lab and offices. He then rather smugly informed Sari of her "lack of existence". What a nice guy.  {{storylink|The Elite Guard}}

[[Image:No_Sari_Sumdac.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Porter C. Powell, class act. If there's karma in ''Animated'', [[Lugnut]] will step on him.]]
Totally unsympathetic to Sari's circumstances, Powell evicted her from Sumdac Tower, confiscated [[Tutor Bot]] and [[Sparkplug (Animated)|Sparkplug]], and gave her bedroom to [[Headmaster (Animated)|Henry Masterson]].  Powell had invested considerable effort in clearing up that whole [[Headmaster (episode)|attempted nuclear terrorism thing]] and wanted to use Masterson's skills to gain access to lucrative [[United States Military|military]] contracts that had previously been ruled out by Isaac Sumdac's silly, unprofitable conscience.  As part of his new research and development, Masterson body-jacked [[Sentinel Prime (Animated)|Sentinel Prime]], and Powell helped him out, preventing [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] from searching the tower for evidence and trying to conceal Masterson from detection.  But when Powell phoned Masterson to warn him the Autobots were looking for him, an eavesdropping Optimus traced the call and was able to apprehend the nerdy ne'er-do-well.  But Powell wasn't about to let a corporate asset go to jail; even as [[Captain Fanzone]] was slapping the cuffs on Masterson, Powell drove up in his limo to announce that no real crimes had been committed (the damaged property belonged to Sumdac Systems, and the alien robots had no legal rights), and further that the alleged crime had occurred in international waters and thus outside Fanzone's jurisdiction.   {{storylink|The Return of the Headmaster}}

[[Image:Powellandsari.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Screw PR backlash, I'm kickin' this girl out of her home.]]
Powell continued his ruthless streak by holding out on having the company service the city's malfunctioning trashbots until the [[Mayor Edsel|mayor]] would agree to a renegotiated and more lucrative contract. During these delays, his research team showed him that they'd retooled the nanomachines that used to produce rampaging giant insects,  {{storylink|Transform and Roll Out!}} and that now they were more useful for eating garbage. As a bonus, they cost a fraction of what the materials for the trashbots went for. Powell realized that this, combined with charging the city more, meant he was soon to be even more fabulously wealthy.

[[Image:Powell.JPG|thumb|right|200px|"Compadres, it is imperative that we crush the freedom fighters before the start of the rainy season. And remember; a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me [[Megatron (Animated)|the head of Colonel Montoya]]."]]
Unfortunately this was all derailed when the armored car containing the sample was cracked open by the ever-affable [[Wreck-Gar (Animated)|Wreck-Gar]]. Powell hurried to tell Edsel that the demonstration had to be called off, only to be cut off by the sighting of a garbage scow with a rapidly decreasing load. Smugly claiming credit, he was about to nail that new contract when it was further revealed that the garbage scow ''itself'' was rapidly decreasing as the nanobots devoured it. After [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] managed to avert disaster, the mayor steadfastly refused to renew the contract—until the curmudgeonly Autobot picked up both parties and gave them a good shake and a yell, accompanied with the threat of tossing them in the water. Negotiations proceeded in good faith from there on.  {{storylink|Garbage In, Garbage Out}}
Powell went so far as to rename Sumdac Tower into Powell Tower.  Offended, Sari reprogrammed the Reception Bot into saying the original name again, as well as informing visitors that Powell was a booger-head.   {{storylink|S.U.V.: Society of Ultimate Villainy}}

As it turns out, one of Powell's main concerns in "Powell Tower" was keeping tabs on his former business partner, Prometheus "Meltdown" Black, in prison. Thus, he was rather unnerved when, in response to Sari and Bumblebee asking him to provide information on anything that would incriminate Powell, Meltdown said that it would be useless, but if they freed him, he'd make all their problems "melt away". (Read: liquid Powell.) Although Sari and Bumblebee clearly thought that was taking things too far, Powell still considered this bad news, so much so that when the [[Dinobots (Animated)|Dinobots]] broke Meltdown out, he showed the tape to Fanzone, trying to implicate Bumblebee. Between the fact that Powell had illegally hacked into the prison's security cameras and his earlier arrogance while freeing Headmaster, Fanzone wasn't inclined to take Powell seriously.

[[Image:Animated_Black_Friday_Grimlock_Prime_Powell.jpg|thumb|left|175px|He's not Lugnut, but he'll do for now.]]

Powell's frustrations rose even further when Optimus and [[Grimlock (Animated)|Grimlock]] charged into Powell Tower to learn the whereabouts of Meltdown's [[Genetic modifier|genetic modifier]]. When Powell refused to divulge the whereabouts of his private property, he found himself swallowed by Grimlock. (Step one in his karmic debt payment, ''many'' more to go.) Terrified, he agreed to lead the Autobots there and was duly spit back out, covered in the Dinobot equivalent of saliva...nasty, purple saliva. (Step two performed, ''still'' many more to go.) After Optimus took away the modifier (and an accident named Grimlock happened to several of Meltdown's leftover experiments), Powell contacted Fanzone about the "robbery". However, Optimus returned the modifier in the end...ruined by contact with Meltdown. Enraged, Powell demanded that Fanzone arrest Optimus for destroying private property. Fanzone retaliated by saying he was more inclined to arrest ''Powell'' for being a public nuisance. Fanzone and the Autobots then left Powell to stew in his own pompous indignation.  {{storylink|Black Friday (episode)|Black Friday}}

{{spoiler|TransWarped|3/21/09}}
Pompous indignation turned to terror when Sari Sumdac returned to Powell Tower with the only person who could threaten Powell's authority: Isaac Sumdac himself. Realizing his position was threatened, Powell tried to smooth things over by saying how happy he was that Isaac was alive. Masterson, however, had just been robbed of his Headmaster unit by the Decepticons, and made several threats to the Autobots, while Powell stated that there was little difference between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Powell was quickly reminded of those differences when Optimus Prime picked up Masterson and asked for clarification on his threats. Furious over his actions while running the company, Isaac immediately terminated Porter C. Powell and Henry Masterson's employment at Sumdac Systems. Masterson made a cocky comment about refusing to do what "some old man and his little daughter" told them, and Powell expressed further doubts about Sari's parentage. At which point a furious Sari somehow blasted the two into an elevator, and out of Sumdac Tower. {{storylink|TransWarped}}
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==Notes==
[[Image:GarbagePowellLimo.jpg|thumb|right|250px|C'mooooon ''Animated'' Renegades!]]
* According to the DVD audio commentary for "[[Garbage In, Garbage Out]]", Powell was originally meant to be a one-shot incidental character. However, the strength of his design prompted the other ''Animated'' staff members to bug [[Marty Isenberg]] into using him again, delving further into his identity and place in the ''Animated'' universe. 
*The audio commentary, furthermore, describes Powell as being "very '70s game show-esque". [[Derrick Wyatt]] is in fact a big fan of the <a target="_top" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Show_Network" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Game_Show_Network">Game Show Network</a>, particularly vintage episodes of ''<a target="_top" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_Game" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Match_Game">Match Game</a>''.
* At [[BotCon 2008]], it was revealed by one of the [[Cartoon Network]] guests that Powell's limo was based on the Renegade [[GoBot (Tonka)|GoBot]] [http://tfu.info/Gobots/Renegades/Tux/tux.htm Tux] because another member of the production staff still owned one from childhood. This was more-or-less confirmed by the audio commentary of "Garbage In, Garbage Out", where it was noted that Powell's limo was designed by [[Byron Penaranda]], and [[Eric Siebenaler]] brought up that "there was a character from another transformingrobot show that was based on that vehicle", with Derrick Wyatt pointing out that it "had a little top hat". As it stands, the limo is not an ''exact'' match for Tux, being more futuristic... of course, the show ''does'' take place in the future.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Porter C}}
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