Centurion (IDW)
| This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Centurion (disambiguation), Bumblebee (disambiguation). |
- Centurion is a Eukarian Autobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Centurion is lost in more than one sense of the word. His memories gone in the crash that stranded him on an alien planet, Centurion and his Eukarian shipmates found themselves pressganged into a battle that was not theirs—a battle that would stretch into the 19th century and beyond. His original identity lost to history, Centurion became "Bumblebee" for a time, convinced that he was the yellow Autobot until a moment of self-realization broke the mask and revealed the 'bot beneath the conditioning.
Nowadays, whatever remains of Centurion's chipper "Bumblebee" persona have been lost beneath Centurion's grim, world-weary attitude. Having seen—and shaped—so much of human history, Centurion's sense of purposelessness grew into a distaste for his own kind, considering Transformers to be nothing more than destructive abominations to be hunted down and dispatched by his own hand. It's this pragmatism that caught the attention of Garrison Kreiger, and in spite of his implanted Autobot sensibilities Centurion found a kindred spirit in the ruthless villain.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Twenty thousand years ago, Centurion was one of a number of Eukarians under the command of Domitius Major aboard the starship Axalon. Sent on a deep-space mission by Onyx Prime to locate the Enigma of Combination, Strange Visitors Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 Domitius's crew were drawn off-course by the need to replenish their energon supply. They discovered prehistoric Earth, still locked in the Ice Age. As they approached the planet, they were confused by a bounced broadcast of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. The bounced transmission belonged to Shockwave's ship; the Decepticon had had come to Earth to investigate his Regenesis project. The Decepticon scientist shot down their vessel, and, in the crash, the Talisman aboard the Axalon scrambled the memories of the crew.
Centurion was the first of them to awaken, and, disoriented, briefly glimpsed the transmission of Optimus he had seen earlier. His brief confusion over his identity led him to wonder aloud if he was Bumblebee... which inspired the nearby Shockwave to use the amnesiac explorers in a twisted experiment. By replacing the lost memories of the Axalon crew with data on the Cybertronian Autobots and Decepticons, Shockwave convinced the stranded beast-bots that they were warriors in the Great War and pitted them against one another in a series of simulated wargames in order to study their tactics for his own use. After Shockwave was entombed in lava by the Dynobots, "Bumblebee" and the other Eukarians fought on amongst each other until they finally ran low on Energon and went into stasis underground. Strange Visitors
"Bumblebee" awoke in the 19th century to the sound of human workers building a railroad line over their cave. Shedding his original beast mode, he disguised himself as a small steam locomotive with no control cab and a built in steam-hammer for driving spikes. Hearts of Steel #1 Initially, Bumblebee directly competed with steel-driving legend John Henry. After Bumblebee revealed himself in robot form to Henry, Henry set aside his mistrust of automation after realizing that Bumblebee was a living being (not just a machine) who wanted to put in a fair day's work. Hearts of Steel #2
"Bumblebee" reactivated several other "Autobots", and after learning that the "Decepticons" had already awoken, adopted steam-powered alternate modes to stop their enemies from reaching New York City. Hearts of Steel #3 With the help of John Henry, Tobias Muldoon, Mark Twain, and Kitty Merriweather, the "Autobots" succeeded in preventing them from doing so. With the Decepticons defeated, "Bumblebee" and the other "Autobots" returned to stasis. Hearts of Steel #4
Several years later, "Bumblebee" had adopted a streetcar alternate mode and was one of a handful of Eukarians who awoke to warn his ally Tobias Muldoon about the threat of an Elder God. This menace required more firepower; as a result, the "Autobots", with the help of Nikola Tesla, awoke Domitius Major—Centurion's old commander, now conditioned into believing he was Optimus Prime. Infestation 2: The Transformers #1 "Optimus" succeeded in driving off the eldritch horror, but pledged that his forces would remain alert should its like resurface. Infestation 2: The Transformers #2
By the time of World War I, the surviving Axalon crew members were beginning to die off, and several were beginning to shake off Shockwave's conditioning. Centurion was present when Domitius Major, still believing himself to be Prime, died. Coming to the conclusion that his kind were destructive abominations, Centurion dedicated the rest of his life to tracking down the surviving Eukarians on Earth, battling IRON Soldiers created from the Talisman as he went. When World War II swept the world, only Centurion, now sporting an automobile form, and "Shockwave" remained. The last two survivors battled one another in France, where their combat was observed by Sgt. Savage and the Screaming Eagles. Centurion killed the false Shockwave and took his cannon arm as a trophy. As the last surviving member of the Axalon crew, Centurion requested the help of Savage and his men in finding the wreckage of his ship so that he could return to his ship to die in peace.
The strange alliance located the Axalon's remains in Brasnya, where they battled more IRON Soldiers, but discovered that the Talisman had been removed from its old housing. Before Centurion could tell his comrades about the device, they were attacked by more of the drones—now animating Domitius's corpse to attack. Garrison Kreiger watched, fascinated by the battle, until the Talisman's energy made the entire Axalon disappear—with Savage inside it. Centurion managed to defeat Domitius's animated corpse, but was upset at losing what he hoped to be his final resting place. Confused, angry, and psychologically vulnerable, Kreiger offered to help him, not telling the erstwhile Autobot that he was planning to take the Talisman for himself. Strange Visitors
Over the next fifty years, Centurion became one of Kreiger's closest and most trusted confidants and bodyguards as the ambitious human acquired the Talisman and worked to unlock its mysteries. The Iron Klaw In 1994, Centurion was present in Kreiger's Brasnyan base during Kreiger's experiments on Mike Power, the "Atomic Man." Through this experimentation, Power managed to interface with the Talisman, somehow summoning the lost Axalon... and with it, Sergeant Savage. Second later, Joe Colton's Adventure Force stormed the base, though Kreiger ordered his Cybertronian asset to avoid attacking the intruders in the ensuing standoff.
In the early 2000s, Kreiger and Centurion joined Joe Colton Skywatch in their efforts to renovate an abandoned Decepticon bunker located inside Mount St. Helens. Using the Talisman's energy, Kreiger was able to bring Bugly back online, but the Decepticon managed to escape the perimeter. Centurion was dispatched to bring the rogue Decepticon back into Skywatch custody, where he briefly encountered Sgt. Savage and several members of the newly founded G.I. Joe. Dragging the struggling Decepticon behind him, Centurion chained Bugly to the Talisman as part of an experiment in weaponizing the device. When Savage objected to Centurion's ruthlessness, the Eukarian simply tossed him into the path of the Talisman's beam as it blew Bugly apart—Colton's goal had always been to lure Savage, saturated with Talisman energy, into the base to use him as a test subject. When Eagles Scream
A decade later, Centurion and Kreiger were among the characters recruited by Joe Colton (as "Baron Ironblood") and Doctor X to gather resources and weaponry required for a full-scale invasion of Cybertron. First Strike #0 Seeking to recover the recently-stolen Talisman, Centurion joined the villains as they visited Tomax Paoli, urging him to take up the mantle of Cobra Commander. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Together, Tomax and Centurion undertook a mission to San Francisco to retrieve the "Project: Ice Man Protocols." The Iron Klaw Centurion had chauffeured Tomax to the I.R.O.N. building in San Francisco to meet with Krieger when Mayday, Kup, Garrison Blackrock, and Action Man stormed the building. Centurion initially chose to remain undercover until Kup revealed himself. Mistaking the elderly Autobot for a Eukarian straggler, Centurion fought Kup. Shortly afterwards, however, Blackrock accessed Kreiger's files and learned the truth about Centurion's history. Admitting that he was also a lost servant of Onyx Prime, Blackrock and Kup explained that Centurion was not the last of his kind as he had thought, and that there were many other Cybertronians out in the cosmos. This revelation was enough to move Centurion to stand down, and he requested that he meet the real Optimus Prime. Strange Visitors
Following the team's capture of Garrison Kreiger and reunion with a time-displaced Sgt. Savage, Kup had taken it upon himself to teach the amnesiac Transformer about Cybertron. Unfortunately for Kup, Centurion was still loyal to Kreiger, and remotely hacked the Onyx facility's defense systems to fire on an incoming G.I. Joe air unit as a distraction. Deploying an arsenal of hidden weaponry, Centurion opened fire on Kup and took the elderly Autobot out of the fight. When Eagles Scream
Notes
- Centurion is the end result of two seperate Barber pitches made at different times: a story about a Transformer "ghost" left behind from an earlier era, and a Cybertronian who was raised in isolation from their species. Hence a remnant from the ancient past unaware of his kind! The reason for using the Hearts of Steel backstory was editor David Hedgecock had suggested it and while John Barber initially balked at the idea, realizing that it was fundamentally irreconcilable with the modern IDW universe, he came around after seeing the story potential and possible connection to current big-bad Onyx Prime. [1]
- Centurion's profile in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook identifies him as an alternate reality version of the human-built robot of the same name from the Marvel Generation 1 comic. This wiki opts to give the IDW incarnation of Centurion his own article given the stark difference in characterization.
- Though we never see Centurion's original beast mode on-panel, the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook notes that he used to transform into a "dinosaur-like space monster."
- In his Revolutionaries appearances, Centurion is seen sporting a cowcatcher-like mouthplate that does not appear in the original Hearts of Steel comics. Perhaps he added it to physically differentiate himself from Bumblebee?
- Centurion is apparently a fan of the British game show Mastermind.
References
- ↑ John Barber Q&A at TFCon 2017
