Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

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File:Spotlight Shockwave b.jpg

IDW is mostly his fault.

Once a right-hearted member of a corrupt Senate, Shockwave is now an emotionless schemer of the Decepticon army.

IDW Generation 1 comics

Long before the war, Shockwave was the greatest student of Jhiaxus Spotlight: Doubledealer at the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology. Following the disappearance of Jhiaxus along with the crew of the Ark-1, Shockwave became a senator in the new regime that took charge on Cybertron. An extremely expressive individual, he was known for changing his colour scheme regularly, and often suspended from duty for "emotional outbursts unbecoming a senator". His master's teachings drove him in his work, as he focused on myriad ways of advancing the Transformer race: in addition to repeatedly voting to bring back Jhiaxus' spark-splicing programs, he took charge of the Academy of Advanced Technology and secretly turned it into a safe haven for outliers, Transformers with abnormal abilities and functions who were hated and feared by functionists because their abilities had nothing to do with their alt modes. He sank billions into various offworld projects, and came into contact with the enigmatic Omega Guardians. An Intimate Beheading

There's something different about Shockers here...

Among the experimental moves Shockwave took was the selection of certain promising young Cybertronians, who he befriend and modified so that they could carry the Matrix of Leadership, with the hope that one of them could take leadership of their race and steer Cybertron off the dark path the Senate had placed it upon. An Intimate Beheading When police captain Orion Pax stormed into the a Senate meeting with accusations of corruption amongst its ranks, Shockwave saw this potential in him. The damaged Pax was apprehended after his tirade, but the senator arranged for his release and repair, adding a Matrix chamber to his chest. After his release, Pax met his secret benefactor in front of the Ark-1 memorial, where Shockwave warned him that factions within the senate had arranged for an attack on current leader Nominus Prime, in an attempt to gain control of the Matrix's power. Chaos Theory Part 2

...something I can't quite put my finger on...

In time, word of Nominus's death was released to the public; although the Prime's passing was attributed to a rust infection, when Shockwave met with Orion and his friend Ratchet, he was able to confirm that the Senate had their security head Sentinel kill Nominus when the Matrix within him proved to be a fake. Post Hoc Soon after, Pax received a tip-off from revenge-seeking former Senate agent Whirl of a plot that was soon to claim Shockwave's life, so Pax had Ratchet and Roller visit the Academy of Advanced Technology and take him into protective custody. Along with Pax's other allies, Shockwave was able to provide enough evidence to help Orion figure out that the Senate had turned the fake Matrix in Nominus's body into a bomb that they would detonate as his body lay in state, which they could blame on the Decepticons. Patternism Shockwave gathered three of his outlier students, Skids, Glitch, and Windcharger, to help with the theft of the Matrix-bomb, but he himself was kept under guard in case things went wrong. Shockwave laughed that off, thinking he was too high profile for Sentinel to assassinate, but in the midst of the heist, he found out how wrong he was. News came in of a mysterious fire at the Academy, and Senate thugs broke into the safehouse: Sentinel had found out about the army of outliers and was very unhappy. While Orion Pax was willing to fight to save Shockwave, the senator willingly went with his captors rather than allow Roller to be killed in his name.

IDW sure loves their splash panels of Shockwave being assembled. And we sure love uploading them!

Senator Shockwave was taken to the Institute, his entire personality and mood rewritten to turn him from a fiery crusader into an emotionless husk. Insult to injury, empurata was performed on him, taking away his face and a hand, replacing them with a featureless mask and a gun, solely out of spite. An Intimate Beheading

Early in the war, Shockwave defected to the Decepticons (well can you blame him?) and became a scientist. He even repaired a wounded Orion Pax after Megatron saved him and witnessing Orion's unit form an alliance with the Decepticons. Choices Shockwave gained the satisfaction of destroying the last Omega Destructor when the two sides defeated Zeta Prime. He then witnessed Megatron's betrayal against Orion's unit. Overthrown Megatron's short-lived rule of Cybertron came to an end when the Autobots attacked the Citadel and defeated him, forcing Shockwave to call for a retreat. Endgame Sometime during the war, Shockwave commanded a Worldsweeper. Rules of Disengagement

Shpckwave loves taking the scenic route to work.

Six hundred thousand meta-cycles ago, Shockwave predicted the eventual destruction of Cybertron as a result of the Great War, driving the combatants out across the galaxy. Knowing that control of resources in this period would be crucial, Shockwave decided to create his own secret network of energon sources on scattered planets, a tool he could use to ensure his own domination. Calling the project "Regenesis", Shockwave covertly launched rockets from Cybertron to several worlds with specific geological properties. The rockets contained a distilled form of energon that would act as a catalyst in their target planets, sparking chain reactions that, if properly regulated, would create seams of an extremely potent energon ore. Spotlight: Shockwave 500,000 years ago, Shockwave checked his progress on one of the seeded planets, the gas giant Arduria, and found that it had frozen and broken apart. After putting some of the slowly dying native rocs out of their misery, he located his rocket and learned that it had caused Arduria's destruction by absorbing almost all of its heat energy. While not his intended result, Shockwave considered it a learning experience nonetheless. Syndromica (1)

Another targeted planet was Earth, and after hundreds of thousands of years, the energon reaction there reached a critical point. Shockwave needed to plant global dampers to prevent the reaction from spiraling out of control, so ten thousand years ago he traveled to Earth and found it at the end of its most recent ice age. As he went about his business, he was unaware of a threat that had shadowed him.

Before departing Cybertron, Shockwave had been dispatched to "tidy up" after an energon raid by the Dynobots, following the team of misfits back to Autobot territory and blowing up their stolen fuel. The Dynobots had vowed revenge, and after their explosion-inflicted injuries had been repaired, they tracked Shockwave to Earth. While Shockwave was busy on the planet, the Dynobots either destroyed or disabled his ship and then altered their own bodies to withstand the energon-rich atmosphere.

Shockwave began to have second thoughts over his choice of manicurists.

As Shockwave finished planting the dampers and was preparing to visit other Regenesis worlds, the Dynobots teleported upon him. The attack threw Shockwave off-kilter with both its ferocity and its unexpectedness, as he had anticipated a stab in the back from Megatron but had failed to consider the simple vengeance of the Dynobots. Mentally and physically confounded by the assault, Shockwave deactivated his higher reasoning and allowed a subroutine simulating rage to take over. This brutal, violent Shockwave decimated the Dynobots, burning off the organic coating shielding them from the planet's high energon fields and forcing them into stasis lock. As the battle concluded, Shockwave restored his full neural operations and logged the emotional experience for further study. But, as his logic center churned away once more, it again failed to anticipate his enemies' chaotic nature. Specifically, Grimlock had set a dead-man's switch on the Dynobots' ship, and before Shockwave could act upon his own victory, the ship shot an energy beam into a nearby volcano, causing it to erupt and consume all of the combatants.

Megatron became suspicious of Shockwave's absence and assigned Bludgeon to search through Shockwave's files. Spotlight: Shockwave Bludgeon discovered the Regenesis project but kept the information to himself and his close-knit team. Some time after the Thunderwing catastrophe but before Cybertron had been declared off-limits, Bludgeon's team set upon the goal of bringing Thunderwing back to life using Shockwave's seeded Ultra-Energon. To this end, they covertly restored Shockwave's old subterranean laboratory and recovered Thunderwing's body, staying on Cybertron long after the planet was officially evacuated and quarantined. After lengthy preparations, the group headed to Earth and became the first beneficiaries of Shockwave's labor, harvesting all the energon ore they needed in a base inside Mount St. Helens. They were briefly interrupted in the year 1984 by Soundwave, who had been spying on them all along and sought to both secure the ore for himself and prevent Thunderwing's return. But Bludgeon's swordsmanship made short work of Soundwave's cassettes Ravage and Laserbeak, and Iguanus took Soundwave down with a weapon from Shockwave's lab, an energy gun that forced Soundwave into his alt-mode and locked him in that form. As Bludgeon's group left with their bounty, they induced a volcanic eruption, burying their opponents. Spotlight: Soundwave A little over twenty years later, Bludgeon finally completed his task and resurrected Thunderwing. Stormbringer #2

Call him NBE-1.

Coindentally, around the same time (2006, to be precise), a human archaeological team uncovered Shockwave's body. Spotlight: Shockwave As the dig continued and the Dynobots also began to be unearthed, a government organization swept in and took the operation over. Escalation #5 This organization, Skywatch, had also recovered Ravage and Laserbeak back in 1985. Spotlight: Soundwave

Skywatch repaired and attempted to control their captives through neural inhibitors, but the results were consistently disastrous. As the Dynobots and cassettes wreaked havoc (due to the Machination's interference) or otherwise pursued unknown agendas (due to Soundwave's interference), Skywatch commander Joshua Red decided to use a less sophisticated method on their last remaining subject. Bringing Shockwave online in their Salt Lake City base, Red told him there was a bomb in his head set to detonate in 24 hours if Skywatch didn't transmit a reset code. Shockwave's task was to take down the rogue Transformers in that time. Shockwave casually asked if they knew how much damage he could do in 24 hours, then he made a beeline for Soundwave, who was active but still mode-locked in a Portland, Oregon child's possession. Maximum Dinobots #3

Hypothesis: Turnabout is fair play.

At the same time, Soundwave was using his broadcast abilities to block Skywatch's control over Ravage and Laserbeak, who retrieved Soundwave from his human captivity. The three returned to Mt. St. Helens, where Shockwave joined them and struck a deal. Maximum Dinobots #4 Deducing that his own weapon had mode-locked Soundwave, Shockwave offered to undo its effects, but only after they helped him thwart Skywatch's threat to himself. They agreed, and the first step of the plan was for the cassettes to help Shockwave feign obedience to Skywatch. Shockwave told Skywatch where to find the cassettes, and indeed Ravage and Laserbeak allowed themselves to be recaptured without a fight.

Meanwhile, Shockwave played out his own part by seeking the Dynobots. But he found them already engaged with Scorponok and the Machination, whom Shockwave decided to attack first so he could destroy the Dynobots himself. Observing the battle, Joshua Red ordered the explosives detonated only if Shockwave succeeded, since it would guarantee a "clean sweep" of all the combatants and their bodies. If Shockwave was still in battle when the 24 hours were up, Red wanted the reset code sent instead, presumably because he feared anyone but Shockwave walking away alive and unsubdued. It is unclear if Shockwave had deduced this, but his actions produced the effect he desired. By the time Shockwave beat Scorponok, only 12 minutes remained, and Grimlock proved to have more than 12 minutes' worth of fight left in him. On the 30-second mark, the two were still grappling in a Machination arms bunker, so Red ordered the reset code sent. The code was intercepted and decrypted by Soundwave, who transmitted the information to Shockwave, who in return sent him instructions to mentally disable the mode-lock. Soundwave transformed, his cassettes attacked their would-be captors, and Shockwave abruptly walked away from his fight, declaring an end to the "charade." But Grimlock would not be denied his revenge, so before Shockwave could leave, he detonated a grenade that blew the arms bunker sky-high. The two were soon recovered, still functioning, by Ultra Magnus, who took both Shockwave and Scorponok into custody. Maximum Dinobots #5

Later, Jetfire reflected on an event he called "Shockwave's resurgence." It is unclear exactly what this was or when this happened. Spotlight: Sideswipe

During Shockwave's time in Skywatch captivity, the researchers had gathered enough information about him to design a weapon based on his technology. According to Cmdr. Spike Witwicky, the first working prototypes were the size of a house, but with some unspecified "outside help," they were able to condense it to a size small enough for hand-held use by a human. It was stored in a secret New York City facility, and when the city was overrun by Megatron's forces, Spike was sent in with a military squad to retrieve it and use it to kill Megatron. All Hail Megatron #9 Though his team perished, Spike survived, got the weapon, and successfully shot Megatron in the head, ending the Decepticon occupation. All Hail Megatron #12

So do we blame Shockwave for letting Overlord off his leash, or Overlord for unleashing the one-eyed purple people eater again?

The Autobots imprisoned Shockwave at Garrus-9, separating his head from his body in the process. However, one year after Overlord's arrival in Garrus-9, he revived Shockwave. In exchange for his freedom and a hand-picked crew, Overlord wanted Shockwave to remove a virus Megatron had implanted in him prior to his rebellion. Shockwave agreed to the terms as they served his own purposes, however he was quick to comment that Overlord's actions on Garrus-9 were less about the former general's gratification and more about attracting Megatron's attention. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3

Shockwave eventually wound up on the same asteroid where many Decepticons had set up camp after escaping from Earth. He claimed to be working on rebuilding the space bridge. However, no one had bothered to observe his work, and even if they had, none of them had the knowledge to understand what he might be doing. All His Engines

In reality, Shockwave was assisting Soundwave in building a new body for Megatron after the shot to his head had left his old one beyond repair. Together they rebuilt their leader and used his old body to make tiny replicas of his gun form, with plans to distribute them amongst the population of Earth in order to create chaos amongst both the humans and Autobots. Starscream, who had taken up leadership after the fall of Megatron, was furious that Shockwave had squandered their resources on something like that rather than build a space bridge, only for Shockwave to reveal that he had integrated space bridge technology into Megatron's new body. He then carefully calculated that Quetzaltenango, Mexico was the most appropriate location to deposit the Megatron guns, and stood by Megatron as he sent the weapons through the space bridge to Earth. Revenge of the Decepticons Part 2: Altered Carbon

Four months later, the Decepticons themselves traveled to Earth, where Soundwave was heavily injured in a confrontation with Optimus Prime. When ordered to repair him, Shockwave protested that he no longer had the resources he had used to rebuild Megatron, but when pressed, affirmed that he could in fact save Soundwave's life. Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: Enemy Mine

Megatron would later use the space bridge technology built into in his new body to summon Shockwave and the rest of the Decepticons to him on Cybertron. At first they did battle with the Autobots, but were soon mind-controlled by Galvatron into combining with his Sweep army and forming a huge monster. Chaos Part Three: Kings Once Galvatron and the monstrosity were defeated, the weakened Decepticons were rounded up and captured by the Autobots. After a few weeks in imprisonment, they were released to deal with rioting "NAILs" who had returned to repopulate Cybertron, and did so with glee. The Death of Optimus Prime

Needlenose, fed up with working as an enforcer for the Autobots, accused Shockwave, Soundwave and Bombshell of just sitting around instead of doing something about the Decepticons' situation. The Autonomy Lesson Of course he was wrong: Shockwave is always doing something. In this case he, along with Soundwave, worked with Ratbat to take control of the inhibitor/deterrence chips implanted in them by the Autobots. He seemed uninterested in Ratbat's further plans to fight their captors, only saying "Events will play out as they will." when asked for his opinion. The World & Everything in It Following the failure of Ratbat's plan, Shockwave was approached by Swindle, who didn't believe that he was truly uninterested in the political situation on Cybertron and introduced him to Dirge, who professed to having witnessed Prowl murdering the Constructicons and needed help as he was now on the run from the Autobots. Shockwave was unsure what to do with this information. Dinobot Hunt

After an explosive assassination attempt on Omega Supreme, Starscream confronted Shockwave, assuming this was his doing. Though Starscream warned Shockwave to not interfere with his political ascension, Shockwave refused to humor him; Starscream had made his choice to live with the Autobots, while the remaining Decepticons under Shockwave's care rejected the growing new government architecture. Shockwave seemingly underestimated Starscream's cunning, however, and later he and his Decepticons were assaulted by Arcee. The Autobot assassin, under orders from both Prowl and Starscream, made it appear as if the Decepticons' own base had exploded and buried them, stealing Shockwave and Soundwave away to the Black Room with Prowl's other secret prisoners. The End of the Beginning of the World