Talisman (G1)
| This article is about the IDW MacGuffin. For The Last Knight MacGuffin, see Talisman (TLK). |
- The Talisman is an object from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
The artifact designated "the Talisman" is a maddeningly mysterious object. The Talisman has unexplained ties to ancient Cybertron, Eukaris, Microspace, and the Dire Wraiths. Among its many mysterious functions is the ability to alter the physiologies of sentient organisms, living or dead, at will, the capacity to erase the memories of Cybertronians, create metallic drones from scrap it can control from afar, and fly with assistance from a being small enough to fit inside the cockpit it possesses.
And to top it all off, a globe-spanning cabal of supercriminals desires it for their plans.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Several thousand years ago, the Talisman belonged to Onyx Prime, The Iron Klaw though it also had connections to the parallel dimension of Microspace. Enter The Shadow Onyx placed the artifact into the care of Domitius Major of Eukaris; it was subsequently loaded aboard the starship Axalon when Domitius and his crew left Eukaris.
The Talisman inadvertently found its way to Earth during the Ice Age when Shockwave shot down their vessel. Though the Axalon and its crew survived the crash, the Talisman was somehow activated in the impact and wiped the memories of the Axalon's crew. Shockwave briefly studied the object during his experiments on the amnesiac Eukarians, noting with interest how it created a set of drones from the ship's wreckage, but it and its drones were abandoned and frozen over after Shockwave disappeared. Strange Visitors
Several thousand years later, the Talisman had somehow been buried inside the Tomb of Altomec in Dashur, Egypt. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Several of the marooned Eukarians had tried to search for it over the years, though by all accounts none of them succeeded. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1
During World War II, Sgt. Savage and Garrison Kreiger encountered Centurion, the last survivor of the Axalon, from whom they learned about the Talisman. On discovering the Axalon's frozen ruins in Brasnya, the trio were confronted by legions of Talisman drones and the corpse of Domitius Major, which was being controlled by the Talisman itself. In the ensuing battle, the Axalon and Sgt. Savage were both teleported away. Kreiger – his intrigue spurred by encountering the Talisman's drones before and hoping to sieze the Talisman for himself – forged an alliance with Centurion to retrieve the ancient artifact. Strange Visitors
Kreiger began searching for the Talisman across the world, eventually finding it in the Tomb of Altomec during the 1980s. He was followed shortly after by his associates in the Adventure Team, and Soundwave, who had been tracking the control signal for the drones. During the confrontation, Mike Power reached out to the Talisman, which transformed his artificial limbs and granted them the power to generate forcefields. Soundwave departed, since the Talisman was not his target, allowing Kreiger to finally take the artifact for himself. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Using his technological connections, Krieger was able to build replicas of the device. The Iron Klaw Power and Glory
The Sentient Time Chamber regarded the Talisman as one of the many paths to Microspace. Micronauts #9
One way or another, the real Talisman was stored and eventually forgotten in a bunker underneath Verenya in the small Eastern European nation of Schleteva, courtesy of the British Special Intelligence Service. Power and Glory
Shortly after being placed in the bunker, Kreiger and Power discussed the artifact, Mike having developed a connection to it. With some "help" from Kreiger, Power was bonded further to the device, eventually coming to declare himself the Talisman "made flesh". Power and Glory
In 2017, Garrison Blackrock discovered the artifact's existence while searching for clues about his Cybertronian heritage. His carelessness created a series of energy pulses that mutated nearby humans into Dire Wraith hybrids, attracting the attention of G.I. Joe, Rom, Action Man, and the Oktober Guard, the latter having been sent by a cabal of villains intending to take the artifact for themselves. They succeeded, and sent the Talisman to an abandoned Cobra moonbase. Crisis Intervention
The villains placed the Talisman amidst a sample of Ore-13, but in short order the moonbase was lied siege to by a gathering of heroes, including the Microspacer crew of the Heliopolis. One of the Heliopolis crew, Larissa, managed to find a small cockpit and "enerchange" with the device, using it to fly out of the villain base before it blew up. Enter The Shadow Afterward, the device was taken to a classified facility for study. Power and Glory
