Sunstreaker (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
The story of how Sunstreaker became a Headmaster, a gestalt limb, and got a pet.
"Oh, c'mon! Bad enough I gotta share my upholstery with a species that sheds skin on a regular basis, but now I gotta super-size the experience?"Ironhide and Sunstreaker, Escalation #1
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Long ago, before the war, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were law enforcers working under the Senate, and were involved with the arrest of Impactor. The Chaos of Warm Things He himself was Sideswipe's brother, Once Upon a Time on Earth Megatron Origin #3 P-3 Training Officer, and strike partner, and spent the whole time looking down on him as a subpar rookie. Spotlight: Sideswipe Sunstreaker was also a patron of illegal underground death matches in the Forge, where he cheered on Megatron in his first victory there. He returned several times more, including to watch Megatron's 54th battle in the arena, this time apparently alongside Sideswipe. Megatron Origin #2
When Megatron, rising in power and influence, put on a recruitment call to all-comers, Sunstreaker happily answered his call. Sideswipe tried to talk him out of joining the fights, to no avail. Sunstreaker apparently thought the call was for participation in the illegal gladiatorial games, but it was actually the first recruitment call for the Decepticon army. How they took Megatron's announcement, the apparent murder of a Senator, and how they fared when security forces raided the meeting is unknown. Megatron Origin #3 Neither he, nor any of the other Autobots-to-be that were present at the "rally", were seen again in prison or upon the Decepticons' escape and ravaging of Kaon. Megatron Origin #4
At some point during the war that followed Megatron's Decepticon rebellion, Sunstreaker was one of many Autobots trained by Kup. Spotlight: Kup During Trypticon's rampage in Harmonex, Sunstreaker helped lure the monster into a trap as part of Blurr's harassment team. The Illusion of Control Early in the war, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were present during the battle for Sherma Bridge, where they witnessed the first duel between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Chaos Theory #1
Sunstreaker would later lead a unit in a battle against Deadlock on Dabola in which he was forced to order a retreat. Drift #1
On Earth
In the modern era, Sunstreaker was a unit commander who helped drive the Decepticons from an unidentified planet. Replay Immediately afterward, he was assigned to a detachment of Autobots that had operated covertly on Earth for at least four years, attempting to foil a Decepticon insurgency. Being stationed on Earth did little to alter Sunstreaker's arrogance, with him dismissing the three humans which Ratchet saved as "noisy creatures". Infiltration #2 Infiltration #3 Later, Sunstreaker and the other Autobots observed Megatron's brutal disciplining of the treacherous Starscream. Despite 'Streaker's high opinion of himself and his own skills, he was visibly relieved when Prowl decided to leave the Decepticons alone. After returning to the Ark-19, he complained about the humans running around loose in their headquarters. Infiltration #6
To keep the noisy creatures occupied, he created a video game starring himself. Soon afterward, Sunstreaker, along with Ironhide, were assigned the task of escorting the humans back to the big wild world, Tulsa, Oklahoma. On a road in the vicinity of Lebanon, Missouri, Sunstreaker and company were ambushed by the Machination. He and Hunter became separated from Ironhide and were seemingly destroyed. Escalation #1 However, it was soon revealed that it was not the case; the debris recovered by Optimus Prime was revealed by Ratchet to be an elaborate fake. Escalation #2 Sunstreaker was painfully dismantled and treated barbarically by the employees. Replay After re-awakening in a Machination stronghold, Hunter was horrified to find an unidentified being, possibly Cybertronian, had been creating a series of Sunstreaker clones. Escalation #6
Having been able to dupe the Machination into believing that he was catatonic, Hunter went exploring in their headquarters. Eventually, he discovered Sunstreaker's own decapitated head, which was still functioning. Tortured, Sunstreaker begged the human to kill him. Meanwhile, Hot Rod and Wheeljack ran afoul of the Sunstreaker clones... piloted by Headmasters — humans who could transform into the robots' heads. Devastation #2 It turned out all of the Headmasters were mentally connected to the original Sunstreaker and leeched knowledge from him, a process that was extremely painful. However, this had its disadvantage — Sunstreaker doesn't read Autobot memos so the Machination had less inside knowledge than they thought; Hot Rod and Wheeljack escaped by using a weapon that Sunstreaker didn't know about. Hunter, rather than kill the Autobot, asked for his help to become a Headmaster himself so he could pilot one of the Machination's spare clones. Devastation #3Devastation #4 After downloading the necessary information from Sunstreaker, Hunter headed to the body shop, where more clone bodies were being stored. Devastation #5 Just as a freshly-restored Scorponok, head of the Machination, broke through a wall to kill him, Hunter was able to transform into Sunstreaker's head and linked to the real Sunstreaker's mind. Speaking as Sunstreaker, Hunter attached himself to a clone body, but commented that everything felt slow (as a result of Machination scientists cutting all connections to the real Sunstreaker, with devastating effects for the Headmasters). Hunter transformed to vehicle mode, blasted a hole in the wall and escaped. Devastation #6
After that, the new Sunstreaker began raiding Machination front organizations across America, looking for his original head. He wanted Hunter out of his head and gone forever so he didn't have to talk to the human—not that he meant any offense by that, oh no. On one raid, he became aware that the Machination had plans involving the Dynobots and sped off to Dallas to get involved Maximum Dinobots #1 The Dynobots were actually sent to Fallon but Sunstreaker carried on to Dallas anyway, reasoning that getting his old head back would offline all the Headmasters—and that whatever the Dynobots were up to was merely collateral damage. (Nice chap...) Maximum Dinobots #2 When they arrived in Dallas, seeing that the facility was far bigger than anything they had come across before, Hunter realized they needed a plan and forced Sunstreaker to sit it out while they watched and waited, citing that he was the more level-headed of the pair and that it was nice to just be Hunter O'Nion every now and then. Maximum Dinobots #3 When the time came, Sunstreaker reconnected with Hunter and barged into the Machination, having a short talk with Hot Rod as he blasted two of his clones. He found his original head, but Scorponok was waiting and shot a hole through his chest. Hunter escaped and, reluctantly and remorsefully, deactivated Sunstreaker's original head. This succeeded in shutting down all of the clones, at the cost of doing the same to Sunstreaker. Maximum Dinobots #4
Hunter, however, stayed conscious and survived the rest of the battle. He accompanied Sunstreaker aboard the Ark-32, where the comatose Autobot was put into a CR chamber for heavy repairs. Sunstreaker's original head was reattached, and his battered body was rebuilt into a slightly different form. Ratchet claimed that "though physically separated, Sunstreaker's spark sustained him." Ratchet was able to minimize the mental link between Sunstreaker and Hunter, but he was afraid to try removing Hunter's implants, and the human was left feeling like half of himself was missing. Maximum Dinobots #5
Eventually Ratchet did successfully sever their link, but the Headmaster experience had left deep wounds on Sunstreaker's psyche. He turned his back on Hunter and never wanted to speak of the incident again. All Hail Megatron #7 His pain turned into a hatred for Earth and its inhabitants; he wanted nothing more than to leave the planet forever. Starscream took advantage of this, meeting in secret with Sunstreaker to strike a deal. Starscream wanted Sunstreaker's help to both kill Megatron and ensure the Autobots' departure from Earth. Starscream claimed that after taking control of the Decepticons, he would be satisfied to confine his own empire to the one planet, so really Sunstreaker would get what he wanted on both counts. Sunstreaker agreed "on one condition": That Starscream would use his dominion to kill every single human being. All Hail Megatron #8
Starscream and Sunstreaker arranged false intelligence that led the Autobots into an ambush. But, whether due to Starscream's treachery or to a simple failure in the plan, only half of their goals were accomplished: The Autobots were beaten and exiled to Cybertron via the newly created space bridge, but Megatron survived the battle happily. Optimus Prime attacked and destroyed the space bridge as he went through it, but doing so left him in a critical state of shutdown. All Hail Megatron #1 All Hail Megatron #7
Frustrated at being stranded on Cybertron, he listened to Tracks's story about how awesome and cool Jazz is to pass the time. Spotlight: Jazz
If Sunstreaker had been brooding and sullen already, this outcome only intensified his angst. The other Autobots knew that they must have been betrayed, but they had no idea by whom. All Hail Megatron #4 Mirage, as the scout who had delivered the bad intelligence, was a natural suspect, and Ironhide became his chief accuser. Sunstreaker gravitated to Ironhide, encouraging the finger pointed away from himself. When Sideswipe confronted Sunstreaker about the dissension he was fostering in the ranks, Sunstreaker tried to get him to leave him alone. Sideswipe attempted sympathy, telling his brother that he could only imagine what the Headmaster experience had been like, but even that turned into an accusation for abandoning Hunter. Sunstreaker yelled back that that was in the past and was completely irrelevant, and everyone knew he never wanted to talk about it again. He stormed off, but doing so caught Ironhide's attention. When Sunstreaker told Ironhide that Sideswipe thought they were taking their accusations against Mirage too far, Ironhide decided they hadn't taken things far enough, so he promptly dragged Mirage into a corner and beat him half to death. Sunstreaker's only protest was that others might see. All Hail Megatron #5 All Hail Megatron #6 All Hail Megatron #7
But his guilt gnawed away at him until one day he found a chance for the redemption of martyrdom. The Autobots had decided to move to a different headquarters to defend themselves from the Insecticon swarm. The new base's strength was its inaccessibility: It could only be accessed by a single bridge, and the Autobots had planted explosives on it to take it down after everyone had made it across. The Autobots did outrun the swarm, but in the process their sharpshooter was incapacitated, and the bombs needed to be detonated via weapons-fire. While the others debated who would be capable of the task, Sunstreaker slipped away onto the bridge to do it himself. Ironhide went out after him and tried to talk him back, but Sunstreaker spilled his guts about the entire betrayal. Ironhide was dumbfounded, and just as Sunstreaker began to apologize, the swarm attacked. Drift raced in and pulled Ironhide out of the crush, and as they sped away, Sunstreaker fired at the bomb. The bridge was destroyed in a massive fireball, and Sunstreaker apparently went with it. All Hail Megatron #8
Later, Bombshell taunted Sideswipe in battle, claiming to have toyed with Sunstreaker's mind and played with his fears using information gleaned from dissecting Hunter. After the battle, Sideswipe found Hunter's tortured form strung up in Bombshell's lab, horrifically intertwined with all sorts of machinery. Sideswipe turned the life-support system off, letting Hunter — and any potential surviving piece of Sunstreaker — expire. All Hail Megatron #12
However, Sunstreaker had survived, and the events of the past few years (though badly skewed to a certain perspective) seemed to be repeating in his badly damaged head, amongst the bodies of the swarm. Replay
Over the next three years, Sunstreaker lay where he fell, his brain stuck in a recursive loop of the horrors the Machination inflicted upon him and his regret over betraying his friends. The mysterious Alpha Trion had long known of Sunstreaker's survival, but didn't attempt to rescue him, as the Autobot was not part of his plans for Cybertron's rebirth. This changed when the resurrected Ironhide went down to the ravine to rescue his fallen comrade. Sunstreaker attempted to apologise for what he did and admitted his cowardice for not speaking up when Ironhide falsely accused Mirage of betraying the Autobots. However, as Ironhide had no memory of the past four million years, he didn't know what Sunstreaker was talking about. Safely inside Alpha Trion's base, Sunstreaker freaked out when he saw the legendary Autobot, fearing that his Judgement had finally come for betraying the Autobots and selling out humanity. Trion mercifully used his powers to take Sunstreaker temporarily offline when he begged for his "dreams" to stop. Ironing Out the Details
Alpha Trion was able to bring Sunstreaker's sanity back and repair most of his body except for his legs, temporarily leaving him in a hoverchair. Interested in his "unique experiences" with the humans, Trion intended to take Sunstreaker with him on his journey, but he refused. Dead set on trying to make up for his past crimes, Sunstreaker instead chose to stay on Cybertron with Ironhide to help eliminate the swarm. Alpha Trion accepted this and left the two Autobots on the abandoned planet, where Sunstreaker would have a lot of time to fill Ironhide in on what happened in the past few million years. Any Old Iron By the time Rodimus, Wheelie and Garnak arrived on Cybertron, Sunstreaker had adopted a docile Insecticon that he named Bob. He explained Ironhide's memory loss to Rodimus, and they all returned to Earth with him to warn the Autobots of Galvatron and his legion poised to take Cybertron. Out of the Silent Planet
On Earth, Sunstreaker made up with Mirage and the others before returning to Cybertron on Omega Supreme's rocket form. Of course, Bob accompanied him. Orphans of the Helix He was among the Autobots who tried to listen in on Optimus Prime's questioning of a captive Megatron. Chaos Theory Part 1 His legs were later restored by Ratchet, partly thanks to the power of the Matrix of Leadership which the medic had been temporarily entrusted with. Chaos Theory #2 On the flight to Cybertron, he attempted to make small talk with his fellow Autobots and chat with them about his encounter with Alpha Trion, but the other Autobots ignored him, apparently still distrusting and disliking him for his betrayal. Bob still loved him though, and purred happily while Sunstreaker petted him. Lamentations
As the Autobots landed on Cybertron and prepared to fight Galvatron's army, Sunstreaker was in charge of setting up a base of operations. He watched Garnak repair Trailbreaker and noticed too late that Megatron was escaping. Numbers When he heard that Megatron had summoned Devastator to his side, Sunstreaker took all the explosives he could find and strapped them to his hoverchair. Pretending to be crippled, he confronted Devastator, who also had a bad leg. When the giant tried to stomp on him, Sunstreaker transformed and drove away, causing the chair to explode and cripple Devastator's other leg as well. Kings
Post-War
After Galvatron was defeated, Sunstreaker joined Rodimus and 200 other Autobots as they left Cybertron on the Lost Light to find the Knights of Cybertron. Hangers On He enjoyed a drink at Swerve's new bar with Bob at his feet. Life After the Big Bang After attending an award ceremony for Chromedome, Brainstorm and Highbrow, The Reluctant Specialist Sunstreaker volunteered to pilot a shuttle to Deimus to scavenge for resources, only to be distracted by his own reflection in the radar screen and crash-land. Stranded alongside Bob, Swerve, Perceptor and Hoist, he spent his time getting frustrated by Swerve's ceaseless chattering and the fact that he had apologize, something that reminded him of his many past mistakes. On finding that D.J.D. leader Tarn was on the planet with them, Sunstreaker went with Hoist to commandeer his ship, but was ambushed and defeated by the Decepticon. Hoist soon figured out that Tarn was merely a solid illusion caused by a phobia shield, allowing him to save the others and return to the Lost Light. The Waiting Game Sunstreaker was in the vicinity when a deranged Fortress Maximus gunned Boss down. Interiors
When Rewind decided to gather a group of Autobots to help awaken Rung from his coma with a storytelling session, Sunstreaker was one of the first he approached. Sunstreaker was forced to shield Bob's ears from Siren's piercing voice. An Intimate Beheading He later participated in a battle with a rogue group of Decepticons discovered on Temptoria, Before & After as well as the battle with Overlord on board the Lost Light itself. Under Cold Blue Stars When the ship was attacked by Ammonites while searching for Metroplex, Sunstreaker was among the crew members who defended it. Into the Abyss The Dead Are Not Enough
The Lost Light was eventually able to return to Cybertron, where Sunstreaker was happily reunited with Sideswipe and Mirage, the three putting their previous conflicts behind them. The Becoming He went on to attend the trial of Megatron at Raskol Arena. Towards Peace
As the Combiner Wars began, Sunstreaker gave Mirage directions to find Optimus in Metroplex's tower. Mistakes and Mayhem Later, he overheard Ironhide and Mirage talking about visions and (as well as having an awkward convo about that whole "betrayal" thing) interjected: what if, rather than seeing a "vision", Mirage and Ironhide were somehow sharing "mindspace" like he had with Hunter O'Nion as a Headmaster, seeing into someone else's mind and witnessing their intentions for the future. The trio decided to take this news to Prime. That meant they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and found themselves forcibly turned into a combiner by Prowl! You, Me, and the Universe The Optimus combiner then traveled through Metroplex's space bridge to try to help Superion and Defensor take down the rampaging Menasor and Devastator but was immobilized by the discord between his components. One by one, though, Optimus, Ironhide, Mirage, and Sunstreaker managed to make Prowl understand their way of thinking of people as people and not just statistics, and the stabilized combiner declared himself to be Optimus Maximus! Optimus Maximus then proceeded to do his part in forcing Menasor and Devastator back through the space bridge to Cybertron. Knowing that he could not act above the law, Optimus Maximus separated into his compnents to surrender Prowl into Starscream's custody. A saddened Superion mused that Optimus Maximus might never form again. All That Remains
Sunstreaker was enjoying a drink in Maccadam's Old Oil House when Slug suddenly went berserk. Along with several other patrons, Sunstreaker tried to get the Dinobot to calm down, but was soon swung away. Redemption When the Decepticons tried to seize Metroplex's space bridge, Sunstreaker and Bob both helped in trying to stop them. The pair was also among those who went with Optimus to Earth to stop Galvatron and his troops from conquering the planet. Perihelion
Return to Earth
Although the Autobots managed to defeat the Decepticons in Shanghai, they were subsequently attacked by the People's Liberation Army Mecha Force. Sunstreaker objected when Optimus and Wheeljack made plans to retreat back through the space bridge, wanting to rescue his brother from the wreckage of the Ark-7. When Sideswipe was found, Sunstreaker was horrified by the state his brother was left in by the Decepticons, and helped him get onboard the Skyroller before the Autobots made their escape on it. Sunstreaker then confronted the Earth Defense Command leaders alongside Optimus and Pyra Magna when they stopped at the organization's base to pick up some missing comrades. Once Upon a Time on Earth
Hail and Farewell
Two years after meeting the Autobots and becoming a Headmaster, Hunter went back to his house with Sunstreaker. As Hunter gathered a few effects, he reminisced on how much had changed and how much had happened. He had been to other planets, even another dimension. He'd fought Scorponok, allied with the Dinobots, and faced a planetary Decepticon invasion. And now he wasn't just Hunter; he had become one with Sunstreaker in both mind and body. As he converted back to Sunstreaker's head, he mused that it was true what they said about never being able to go home again. Hail and Farewell
Notes
- Simon Furman's reason for making Sunstreaker a Headmaster at IDW? Because he's the one character who'd least want to be a Headmaster.[1]
