Straxus (G1)

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

Straxus is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Mercy is not dispensed here, fools, only Pez.

A ruthless, fearmongering dictator, Lord High Governor Straxus is a threat to all under his rule—including his own inner circle. From his throne in Darkmount, there are none in Polyhex who do not feel his crushing influence. Straxus's word is law, unbound by reason or facts, and can and will change from thought to thought. Do not try to appeal to his sense of pity; he has none.

A brutal powerhouse, he is more than able to enforce his policies, usually with a deadly blow from his battle axe. So terrible is Straxus that even Megatron gives the dictator his space, allowing the small-minded tyrant to terrorize his corner of the globe. Megatron may have designs on the galaxy, but in Polyhex, Straxus rules.

He is sometimes known as Darkmount. After his conversion to Power Core Combiner technology, he took the code name Rollermaster. As a PCC he commands a Targetmaster partner with the familiar name of Spanner

Mercy is not dispensed here, fools... only death!Straxus, "The Smelting Pool!"

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel Generation 1 comics

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

He's got a metal palm tree and he's not afraid to use it!

Following the assassination of the Decepticon warlord Trannis by the Autobot commando unit, the Wreckers, Straxus assumed his position as Decepticon leader on Cybertron. Cybertron: The Middle Years!

Straxus would oversee a horrifically brutal reign, having his men hunt down neutrals, Autobots, and the destitute so they could be melted down in smelting pools and their metal reused by the Decepticons. Even other Decepticons weren't safe from his brutality, with him battering his own Executive Officer Shrapnel when he was in a mood.

When a Decepticon transmission beamed from the planet Earth circa the Earth year 1985 reached Cybertron, Straxus immediately arranged for the capture of the scientist Spanner so that a space bridge between the worlds could be constructed. Attempting to locate Spanner, the Autobot spy Scrounge learned of this plot, but was captured by Shrapnel and brought before Straxus, who maliciously destroyed his unique recording-device arm before consigning him to death in the smelting pools. In turn, Blaster came searching for Scrounge (against orders), was captured and brought before Straxus, and sentenced to the pools. There he discovered the dying Scrounge, was given the information he had acquired, and escaped with the aid of his Autobot friends who had come looking for him (against orders). The Smelting Pool!

Yeah, but where does the axe go?

The space bridge was subsequently completed, but its earliest tests reduced Straxus to rage when a malfunction caused the death of Crosscut, and he sent another unfortunate to instant death in an attempt to figure out what had gone wrong. In an act of petty brutality, he threatened Shrapnel that he better sort the problem out soon because he was going to be sent to clear the rubbish off the Bridge! As the tests went on, an Autobot raiding party planted explosives within Darkmount, destroying it, and sending an enraged Straxus after their heads. With the bridge unattended, Blaster intended to destroy it, but was confronted by Straxus in a one-on-one duel. Crippling Blaster with his axe, Straxus was duped into accidentally severing the bridge's fuel line, destabilizing its teleporting arch, through which Blaster then kicked Straxus, destroying him. The Bridge to Nowhere!

Teletraan I, Rita's escaped, recruit a team of teenagers with attitude...no, er wait...

However, while Straxus's body was reduced to ash, his head was salvaged and placed in a life-support pod that allowed him to continue on in his position as leader. ...The Harder They Die! Soon after, when Megatron arrived on Cybertron, Straxus immediately set in motion a scheme to restore himself to life, calmly following Megatron's directions to hunt down Optimus Prime, who had arrived on the planet with him. Under Fire! After Prime carried out several successful raids alongside the Wreckers, Megatron began to grow more and more unstable, and Straxus more and more impatient with his deranged houseguest. Despite the warnings of his technicians as to the "unpredictability" of the machinery involved, Straxus made the final step, activating a device that would exchange his and Megatron's minds, giving him a body once more. Megatron resisted the transfer, however, leaving the two minds within Megatron's body, fighting for dominance, each one in control at a different moment. The other Decepticons, in particular Ratbat, soon noticed their leader's problems and began to scheme about how to handle it. When in battle with Prime and Ultra Magnus, Megatron prepared to unleash his destructive antimatter powers; in order to save the Polyhex Decepticon stronghold, Ratbat activated the space bridge, teleporting the three Transformers back to Earth. Resurrection!

This story is full of awesome Megatron moments and Straxus retroactively stole them all. He is evil!

Before this could occur, having failed to oust Megatron's mind, Straxus activated his contingency plan, "Project Re-Birth," and his consciousness fled into a body he had specially prepared—a duplicate of Megatron created from a "hapless trooper", complete with a copy of his brain patterns, beneath which Straxus's personality lay dormant. Two Megatrons! Upon hearing of the true Megatron's seeming death aboard the space bridge a short time later, the project technicians activated the clone, sending it to the sewers beneath London where it came into conflict with a small group of Autobots, Action Force and Centurion. Straxus's mind had yet to take over the clone at this point, and it genuinely believed itself to be the true Megatron, but it was soon dealt with when an oil tank explosion sent it and Centurion tumbling into the Thames river. Ancient Relics!

Some time later, seeking a weapon to use against the deranged future Decepticon Galvatron, Shockwave recovered the Megatron clone, also believing it to be the genuine article, only to find that "Megatron"'s mind had retreated into itself. Shockwave subjected the clone to the psycho-probe, intending to force "Megatron" to face his fears—but instead, Straxus emerged, intending to fight Megatron's fears for him and finally take control of the body. Megatron fought back, however, ripping the mental image of Straxus to pieces and finally taking over their shared mind. Salvage!

This Megatron killed Cyclonus in a test run Dry Run! and then proceeded to battle Galvatron, but ceased his attack after hearing from the future Decepticon that: a) Stasrcream would throw him out a ship in 2006, and b) Galvatron would kill him. Amused and seeing the two had a lot in common, Megatron agreed to join him. Altered Image! He helped Galvatron battle Autobots of the present and future in the "Time Wars", massacring Wreckers and the Mayhem Attack Squad, but was soon put off by the growing madness and pointless destruction that his ally was causing. The Megatron clone opted instead to return to Cybertron. Time Wars

On Cybertron, he effortlessly dethroned the decadent ruling Triumverate and took control of the Decepticons on the planet once more... ruling confident in the knowledge he'd become Galvatron, and this time he'd do things right! The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire.

No, no! Aim away from the face!

Soon, however, he began to suffer from nightmarish visions of the lives lived by both the trooper whose body became his, and of Straxus, just as the true Megatron—having recovered his memories after a period of wandering amensia in the Dead End—attacked his base. Mind Games The two Megatrons battled, with the true one revealed the clone's nature to him, and all at once, everything made sense to the clone. Along with this revelation, another immediately arose—Straxus's mental defeat was a sham, and he had been dwelling within the clone's mind all along, steadily growing in power as the clone weakened. Straxus made one final attempt to seize control of their mind, and the clone committed suicide, blowing his own head off with his fusion cannon, rather than allow Straxus to win. Two Megatrons!

It is possible that in the original un-altered pre-Time Wars timeline, the Straxus-Megatron clone may have been the Megatron transformed into Galvatron, but the shifting nature of the timelines makes this open to debate at best.

All very simple, isn't it?

The true nature of the Megatron clone was not revealed until the story which depicted his death. This was because, for all of the clone's other stories, he was regarded by characters, readers and writer Simon Furman as actually being the real Megatron, having survived his supposed death in the US comics. The US comics, however, continued to treat Megatron as pushing up daisies, so when Simon Furman took over writing that title and penned Megatron's return, he needed an explanation that would reconcile Megatron's continual appearances in the UK title with his lack of activity in the US. Relegating the Megatron of the UK comics to a clone was that explanation, revealed in UK-exclusive strips which ran concurrently with the reprints of Megatron's US return.

Marvel UK future timelines

The Megatron clone would terrify a young Hot Rod in 1990 by willingly risking the lives of loyal Decepticons to flush out a double-agent, and then muse it would've been easier to just murder everyone. Later, he would wage a Decepticon Civil War against Shockwave and Scorponok Aspects of Evil! , where he no longer threw fits at his troops because he knew he could look forward to a future as the unbeatable Galvatron. Trigger-Happy!

He then become Galvatron by 2006 and, by not fleeing to Earth's past, conquered Cybertron! Well, it seems to be him, it's very confusing. If it was him, he then got stepped on by Unicron in 2010. Aspects of Evil!

Marvel Generation 2 comic

His weapon gets less threatening with each appearance.

Jhiaxus referred to Straxus as one of the petty, small-minded dictators he left in charge of Cybertron when he left to start the Cybertronian Empire. War Without End!

Universe Classic Series toy bios

During Straxus's rule over Polyhex, he put a lowly, unknown warrior through an excruciating rebuilding process, tortuously reforging him into the very image of Optimus Prime. Through forcible data uploads and brainwashing, the Decepticon was imbued with memories and skills culled from many sources, giving him much of Optimus Prime's knowledge and combat algorithms. However, Straxus perished before he could complete this "Nemesis Prime", and his creation was left without a framework with which to process the mental injections. Straxus's legacy was this mad wraith haunting the back alleys of Cybertron, hunting down Autobots and Decepticons alike.

IDW Generation 1 comics

Straxus (not a "Lord") was part of the crew of the first Ark, which left Cybertron long before Megatron's uprising. Spotlight: Cyclonus

I may or may not be here in subsequent panels, depending on how the artist feels today.

Later, at the beginning of the war, as the Decepticon movement was just beginning to reveal its true menace, Straxus returned to Cybertron for some reason to work security at the Kaon Security Headquarters. When the Decepticon Starscream was brought to trial before an emergency session of the Kaon Council, the accused started a prisoner revolt. Megatron Origin #4

Millions of years later, Straxus had apparently returned to the Dead Universe. When Nightbeat was abducted on Gorlam Prime, Straxus implanted a device in his brain that would make him a sleeper agent for the Dead Universe crew. Spotlight: Nightbeat

And yet, surprisingly few kitbashes from Cybertron Sideways...

After Cyclonus secured the Nega-Core and activated its guardian, Straxus initiated the Expansion with Nemesis Prime and the rest of the Dead Universe crew. Spotlight: Cyclonus

Later, Straxus attacked Earth with Grindcore. His job was to bombard the surface in his jet mode and then operate an energon drill while Grindcore set up a space bridge. Spotlight: Doubledealer

Straxus and Grindcore soon had to defend this site when an Autobot team led by Fortress Maximus stormed it, trying to prevent the Expansion. Sideswipe ended up holding off both of them at the same time while the other Autobots slipped by. The Benzuli Expanse anomaly was soon sealed off, and unable to survive without their connection to the Dead Universe, both Straxus and Grindcore simply... ceased functioning. Spotlight: Sideswipe

Wings Universe

Straxus was one of a number of Decepticon Warlords who fought for territory in the early days of the Great War. With the threat of the Cybertron Elite Guard, the Warlords formed a war council. During one meeting, they reviewed footage of the Elite Guard wiping out some of Megatron's men, and discussed ways of ridding themselves of the Elite Guard. At the next meeting of the council, Deathsaurus sent along his lieutenant, Falcon, with a box containing an important message. The message turned out to be a bomb, which killed the council members present. A Team Effort

United

...I was an unstoppable tyrannical warlord who answered to no one, once...

A nano-virus that afflicted most Autobots save the Targetmasters and the Headmasters required Ricochet to lead a team to Nebulos for an anti-virus. However, the nano-virus was merely a ploy by the Decepticons to draw out the Targetmasters and Headmasters to abduct their Nebulan partners, so when the Autobots arrived on Nebulos, Straxus was waiting for them with a considerable army! His army quickly fell into disarray, unfortunately, when Straxus was singled out and defeated. He returned to his master to beg forgiveness. The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos

Toys

Generations

You're welcome.

• Darkmount (Deluxe, 2010)
  • Accessories: Pick-axe/cannon, missile launcher, machine gun, smoke grenade launchers

Part of wave 2 of Generations, Darkmount ("Straxus" was unavailable) transforms into a half-tracked self-propelled artillery inspired by the South African G6 Rhino, as well as a tripod-mounted howitzer platform called a "battle station".

In vehicle mode, the turret can rotate and the barrel can raise. Initially it was planned to have him interact with Scout Class figures who could man his "fortress mode". The remainders of that idea are the otherwise pointless handlebars that end up on his knees in robot mode. In robot mode, the cannon barrel becomes his trademark pick-axe weapon, while his smaller weapons (featuring C joints) can clip onto various compatible rungs, bars and tubes sculpted onto the vehicle or robot. Despite his portly robot form, and his alternate half-track mode, his tech specs list his speed rank as 10.

"M17" is written on his vehicle mode, referencing "Marvel #17", the comic issue in which Straxus first appeared. His head is designed with a light-piping feature but it is not utilized.

The mold was redecoed into Shattered Glass Straxus and retooled into Generations Skullgrin.

• More information on Darkmount at TFU.info

United

TakaraTomy will collect the fee...personally!

• Straxus (Deluxe, 12-25-2010)
  • Japanese ID number: UN-10
  • Accessories: "Battle axe"/cannon, missile launcher, machine gun, smoke grenade launchers

Darkmount was redecoed for inclusion in the first wave of TakaraTomy's United toyline, and even released under his original name. He now sports a new color scheme that replaces much of his grey plastic and all of his red plastic with more dark blue and new light-blue pieces, apparently shooting to emulate Straxus as he was colored in his second Marvel appearance, drawing particular inspiration from the cover of the issue. And he's got his dead, black eyes!

Besides the black eyes, Straxus features additional paint on his face as well as his crotch plate and knee flaps.

Notes

Consistency is not dispensed here, fools, only GAFFES!

• For some reason, Straxus's colors changed drastically between the two issues he was in for the US comic. Also, sometimes between panels.
• With that in mind, Darkmount's color scheme (with its red biceps and gold chest) is based on an amalgam of his appearances. Specifically, a unique color arrangement that appeared on the cover of the fan-publication "The Obscure Omnibus" that super-fan Monzo gave the Transformers team for reference.
• Not only was Straxus's color scheme unstable, but so was his weapon design. In his first issue, it looked like a pick-axe, but when Straxus battled Blaster in his second issue, it had evolved into a scythe.
• According to Hasbro copy writer Forest Lee, Straxus was mentioned in Comic-Con 2008 Nemesis Prime's bio entirely to make David Willis happy. Incidentally, Willis colored the cover to the fan publication mentioned in the second note, so he's probably on Cloud Nine right now.
• Darkmount's instructions show Skullgrin's robot head. It's becoming a trend.
• Universe Nemesis Prime's backstory was certainly inspired by the Megatron-clone plot, but their relation to each other in-fiction is unclear. A straight reading would suggest that Straxus merely had more than one clone project in the works. However, if one assumes that the Classic Series bios are meant to follow the Classics comic, then Nemesis Prime would be Straxus's ONLY known clone project in his universe, since the UK comics are not part of that continuity. However, it wouldn't be the first time a UK-only plot thread managed to make it into a Classics-related product...
• It's likely that Eric Holmes didn't consult with Simon Furman when he had Straxus as a cameo in Megatron Origin. (Straxus must have been mentioned in the script, since he shows up in Marcelo Matere's version of the page.) Since he was never mentioned by name in Origin, and he has a different design in the later Spotlights, it can be easily retconned that the character in Megatron Origin was "Straxus's brother", since Straxus was supposedly in the Dead Universe at this time.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Straxus (ストラクサス Sutorakusasu)

External links

• Straxus at the Obscure Transformers Website.