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 ancient artifact code designated "Talisman" is a maddeningly mysterious object. A fusion of several different alien technologies – incorporating Cybertronian science, control hardware scaled to Microspacial standards, and Dire Wraith biomatter – the Talisman also possesses ties to Onyx Prime and the Cybertronian colony of Eukaris.
Befitting its amalgamated origins, the Talisman has displayed a gigantic range of capabilities, the limits of which are not known to human science or otherwise. With the right operators, it can fly with the assistance of a Microspace pilot, interact with the minds and physiologies of Cybertronian life-forms, and spontaneously upgrade technology on contact. It even possesses a degree of control over time itself; under the correct circumstances, it is able to send people and objects "outside" the chronological flow of the universe. Some have compared the artifact’s extraordinarily advanced technology to magic, and for good reason.
The Talisman seems to have a degree of sentience and agency over its abilities; if threatened, it has been known to construct drones from scrap metal, which are instinctually drawn to defend the artifact responsible for their creation. With the right knowledge, the Talisman and the energies it commands can be weaponized against Transformers — which is probably why a globe-spanning cabal of supervillains desire it for their own ends.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The origins of the Talisman are presently a mystery. At the earliest identified point in its history, it belonged to the ancient Cybertronian Onyx Prime, who possessed it during the initial unification of the Thirteen some twelve million years ago. Origin Myths
After Onyx had fled Cybertron, The Crucible he sent it out into the galaxy aboard the Eukarian starship Axalon for unknown purposes. Whatever Onyx had originally intended for it, fate would bring the Talisman to Earth around twenty thousand years ago, when the ship's crew—captained by Domitius Major—diverted to the planet to refuel, only to be shot down by Shockwave. Though the Axalon and its crew survived the crash, the Talisman was somehow activated in the impact and wiped the memories of all aboard. 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 other matters soon demanded Shockwave's attention, and both the Talisman and its drones were left unattended. Strange Visitors
Despite the efforts of several of the marooned Eukarians to locate it, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 the Talisman disappeared into history. But traces of its presence remained, like the robot drones it created, which were encountered by Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles during World War II. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Soon after, Kreiger and Savage crossed paths with the last survivor of the Axalon, Centurion, and agreed to help him find the resting place of his ship. Together, they located the wreck of the Axalon in Brasnya, within which Kreiger observed the empty recess in which the Talisman had once resided and deduced the existence of the mysterious obelisk, christening it with the code-name it would come to be known by. The group was then attacked by the corpse of Domitius Major, puppeteered by a phalanx of the Talisman's drones. Kreiger stepped out of the ship to watch as Centurion battled his former commander—which meant that he was spared when, suddenly, the energy of the Talisman enveloped the Axalon, and it and Sgt. Savage vanished into thin air. Fascinated by the potential of the Talisman, Kreiger made hunting down the relic his life's work, and forged an alliance with Centurion to accomplish this goal. Strange Visitors
Kreiger spent decades hunting for the Talisman, even using whatever scraps of tech he could find to attempt recreating it, leading to the construction of multiple lesser duplicates of the device. The Iron Klaw Power and Glory In the 1980s, however, Kreiger finally discovered that the true Talisman had somehow come to be buried beneath the pyramid of the Tomb of Amtoltec in Dashur, Egypt. Venturing deep into the tomb, Kreiger finally laid his hands upon the mysterious device and immediately began experimenting with its power, creating more of the "Iron Trooper" drones he had encountered in the past. His activities drew the attention of both Joe Colton's Adventure Team and the Decepticon Soundwave, and during the ensuing confrontation, Adventure Team member Mike Power made contact with the Talisman. Power's artificial limbs had been reverse-engineered from a piece of an Iron Trooper years beforehand, and direct contact with the Talisman mutated them, increasing their power, which brought the fighting to an end. Soundwave departed, and the Talisman was taken into government custody. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Kreiger was sanctioned by the government to study the Talisman, which he began doing in the "Project: Ice Man" facility constructed in the Brasnyan crater where the Axalon had once rested. When Eagles Scream There, he was approached by Mike Power, whose experience with the Talisman led him to hope it could help him in his constant drive to improve himself. Kreiger used the Talisman to rebuild Power's body, bonding him to it, so that he became it "made flesh," Power and Glory and even progressively replaced parts of his own body with Talisman-tech prostheses, extending his lifespan. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 In 1994, Kreiger had Power and the Talisman brought into contact once again, which had the unexpected result of pulling Sgt. Savage and the Axalon through time from their disappearance during the war to the present day. A moment later, Colton's "Adventure Force" burst into the lab, having been sent in to shut Kreiger's operation down. When Eagles Scream
Requisitioned by the government, the Talisman was relocated once more, and by the mid-2000s, had been transferred to the "Project: Hot House" facility housed within Mount St. Helens near Oregon. There, Kreiger—now working under Colton himself—increased the range of his experiments with the Talisman using Ore-13, seeking to find a way to employ it as a weapon against the Cybertronians who were appearing on Earth at an increasing rate. To reactivate the Talisman, Kreiger and Colton lured Sgt. Savage to the base and forced him into contact with it. His body saturated with its power thanks to his trip through time, Savage's touch brought the Talisman back to life; its energies hurled Savage further into the future once more, and killed Kreiger and Colton's Decepticon guinea pig Bugly outright, proving that it was the weapon they needed to fight the Cybertronian threat. When Eagles Scream
Over the following years, Cybertronian activity on Earth increased to the point that Autobot leader Optimus Prime wound up annexing the planet into the Cybertronian empire for its own safety. Colton did not see it that way; cognizant of the danger the mere presence of Cybertronians on Earth posed, he ruled that it was time to employ the Talisman to kill them all. Attempting to go through official channels, however, he discovered the Earth's governments had been insurmountably infiltrated by a different alien threat: the shape-changing Dire Wraiths. First Strike #2 Realizing he would now have to act outside the law, he went to Garrison Kreiger for aid. Kreiger was one step ahead of him, having already been working with Miles Mayhem to continue testing the Talisman's effects on Mayhem's Decepticon prisoner Blitzwing. Colton took on the new identity of "Baron Ironblood" and set about gathering a crack squad of supervillains to help him in his plan to use the Talisman to destroy Cybertron itself. First Strike #0
One of Colton's first recruits was European super-criminal Doctor X and her Red Shadows ninja, who Colton enticed to his side by using the Talisman to enhance their bodies, granting them bio-morphic, cybernetic abilities not unlike Dire Wraiths. Redcliffe Club Enter The Shadow Additionally, Doctor X used her contacts within the British intelligence apparatus to have the Talisman relocated to safety of a subterranean SIS bunker beneath Verenya, capital city of the small Eastern European nation of Schleteva. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 There, it was discovered by Garrison Blackrock while he was searching for clues about his Cybertronian heritage. His carelessness in tampering with the device resulted in it releasing a series of energy pulses that mutated the city's population into Dire Wraith hybrids, attracting the attention of G.I. Joe, Rom, and Action Man. This group of heroes wound up in battle with the mercenary Oktober Guard, who had been sent in by Colton's villainous cabal to recover the Talisman. The Guard succeeded, teleporting the Talisman to the villains' moonbase, Crisis Intervention but the heroes followed, now joined by the Micronauts of Microspace, whose connection to the Talisman Blackrock hoped could turn the situation in their favor. One of the Micronauts, Larissa, managed to find a small cockpit on the Talisman and "enerchanged" with it, reconfiguring it into a flying form that she used to get it to safety before the villains' base blew up. Enter The Shadow
The Talisman was taken to Blackrock's Onyx facility in Buenos Aires, where it was studied in the hope a cure for the Wraith mutation could be found. When Eagles Scream This did not stop the villains in their plans; Kreiger still had his facsimile Talismans The Iron Klaw and Mike Power, whom he used to reanimate the bodies of Domitius Major and the Eukarian Shockwave just as the Talisman had done in the past. Power and Glory But the heroes were able to thwart them at every turn, and succeeded in capturing Kreiger, whereupon they called in G.I. Joe to take custody of both him and the Talisman. In concert with the Joes' arrival at the Onyx facility, however, Baron Ironblood launched an all-out assault to rescue Kreiger and recover the Talisman. When Eagles Scream
On the day of Earth's induction into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds, Ironblood's alliance invaded Cybertron. With the aid of their newest member, Microspace minister of war Shazraella, they intended to "enerchange" the Talisman with the core of Cybertron, thereby poisoning all energon on the planet. After Shazraella had enerchanged with and taken over Antagony's body, she strapped the Talisman to her back and led the trek underground to Cybertron's core. First Strike #2
External links
- Talisman at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
