Mayhem Attack Squad
This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.
| This article is about the roving band of stone-cold killers. For the team of mirrorverse meddling do-gooders, see Mayhem Suppression Squad. |
- The Mayhem Attack Squad is a Decepticon subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Mayhem Attack Squad (or sometimes simply Mayhem) is the Decepticon answer to the Wreckers. The team's lineup is ever-changing, and they recruit the most bloodthirsty and deadly Decepticons to swell their ranks when old members die (or desert).
They have a sweet ship and some of them can combine into the mighty Thunder Mayhem.
The team's known members have included:
| 1st known lineup | 2nd known lineup | 3rd known lineup | Classics lineup | Regeneration One lineup | Thunder Mayhem lineup | 2005 IDW Mayhem lineup | 2019 IDW Mayhem lineup |
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Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
With Galvatron and Megatron teamed up on Earth and a rift in time and space threatening to destroy all reality, the Decepticons on Cybertron were getting desperate. They teamed the Mayhem Attack Squad with the Autobots' Wreckers and sent them to Earth in a Decepticon ship to bring down Galvatron and Megatron. Secretly, the Mayhems were under orders to kill any surviving Wreckers once the threat of Galvatron and Megatron was over.
Once on Earth, the two teams joined with the Advance Surveillance Unit Broadside, Inferno, and Sandstorm and moved to attack Galvatron in his lair.
The battle could have gone... better than it did.
Galvatron embedded his hand in Battletrap's chest and cannon-blasted Venom, and by the time the first skirmish was over, only Carnivac, Flywheels and Catilla remained alive.
As the battle moved above ground, Carnivac had a change of heart about killing Springer when Springer saved his life.
The battle escalated as more and more Autobots and Decepticons joined. Ultimately, it was neither Wrecker nor Mayhem that would destroy Galvatron, but a rift in time and space. Time Wars
With the Time Wars over, the two surviving Mayhem Attack Squad members found themselves stranded on Earth when Megatron stole their ship to return to Cybertron.
The surviving Mayhems joined with the surviving Wreckers and the stray Autobots Inferno and Skids to form a new team called the Survivors.
Shortly after this, Carnivac teamed with Snarler (with Catilla observing) on a mission for Scorponok. The three were given Pretender shells as a reward. Snarler, however, was not impressed when the two former Mayhems refused to rejoin the Decepticons. Survivors!
Snarler returned to Cybertron and set about recruiting a new Mayhem Attack Squad to destroy Carnivac and Catilla through training sessions against solid light simulations of high-ranking Autobots in a fake Slaughter City. Despite his abject cowardice, Needlenose was admitted into its ranks alongside Bludgeon, Stranglehold, Octopunch and Spinister. The Hunting Party
The newly-formed Mayhems travelled to Earth where they released a Hellhound into the Texas area to flush out the Survivors. Instead, it drew the attention of the estranged Survivor Carnivac, one of their primary targets. Way of the Warrior They were about to execute the renegade Decepticon when an armoured detachment of the U.S. Army arrived to deal with the Hellhound and opened fire. Carnivac made good his escape while the Mayhems slaughtered the soldiers, so they split up and tracked him down in the town of Los Gravos. Although he managed to subdue Needlenose, Carnivac surrendered when Octopunch threatened the lives of some nearby humans. Octopunch prepared to deliver the killing blow Survival Run when one of the humans hit him in the back with a truck, incapacitating him. The rest of the squad quickly converged on the commotion and although Carnivac put up a good fight he once again put himself in danger to protect the humans and was left helpless at Spinister's feet. The arrival of Catilla and the other Survivors saved Carnivac's life but Catilla was killed by Bludgeon before the Mayhem Attack Squad retreated and Carnivac subsequently swore to hunt down and kill the Mayhems for murdering his friend. A Savage Place!
On Cybertron, the Mayhem Attack Squad—Bludgeon, Stranglehold, and Octopunch—got the assignment of assassinating the Autobot Pretenders Bumblebee, Jazz, and Grimlock. Yesterday's Heroes!
After initially failing to kill the Autobots, the Squad accidentally teleported deep inside Cybertron along with the Autobots. The two groups met inside a huge chamber containing a sleeping Primus and promptly set about trying to kill each other.
After the Squad had been utterly crushed, Octopunch made one final attack against a distracted Grimlock, which was deflected by Grimlock's armor and ended up hitting Primus in the face. Consequently, Primus awoke, drawing Unicron to his ancient enemy's location. Primal Scream
Earthforce
Rather than going out to hunt down Carnivac, the Mayhems decided to let the renegade come to them and so established a base on a tropical island. True to their predictions, Carnivac arrived and managed to dispatch Needlenose fairly easily. Cry Wolf! In response, the Mayhems managed to destroy Carnivac's Pretender shell Wolf in the Fold! but he recovered from the mental shock and murdered Snarler and Spinister. When the Autobot Survivors and Grimlock's Earthforce arrived, he saw to it that Bludgeon, Octopunch and Stranglehold were captured alive—because he knew that being taken alive and not having a warrior's death would be torment for them. Where Wolf?
They later managed to escape from Earthbase by being vewwy quiet. Shut Up!
Afterwards Bludgeon, Octopunch, and Stranglehold hooked up with Megatron and Shockwave, who had been deposed as leaders of their respective Decepticon factions, and took on a bounty to assassinate their betrayers, Starscream and Soundwave. External Forces! Though they outnumbered their prey they hadn't counted on the (admittedly highly unlikely) intervention of the Earthbound Autobots and Dinobots to save Starscream's life and the Mayhems were soundly defeated. The Lesser Evil!
Classics
Twenty years after the end of the war, Ruckus and Needlenose employed Octopunch and Stranglehold in attempt to reform the Mayhem Attack Squad. Despite going to elaborate lengths to get at Nightbeat, they were undone by Ruckus' naïveté as leader and eventually received a serious thrashing at the hands of the Autobots. Cheap Shots
Regeneration One
In preparation for the arrival of Bludgeon and his Warworld, Soundwave began seeding the undernet of Cybertron with subsonic transmissions to increase the population's aggression levels. After Blaster stumbled across his signal, Soundwave sent the Mayhen Attack Aquad—Carnivac, Snarler, and Roadblock—to eliminate the Autobot communications specialist before he spread word of his discovery. At the Garage they easily broke through troops from Ultra Magnus's civil defense corps, however Blaster and his fellow post-Nucleon patients were ready for them. Huffer, Silverbolt, and Inferno helped Blaster take down the Mayhems and the undernet signals were disabled. Destiny, Part Two
TransTech
One of the many criminal gangs and factions in the Offworlder Zone of Axiom Nexus was the Mayhem Attackers. Gone Too Far
2005 IDW continuity
Mayhem was a post-war anarchist outfit, out to bring down the 'ruling class' of both sides. They were led and presumably founded by Carnivac, a former agent of the Tyrest Accord. Their first known target, and certainly a big one, was the notorious Prowl: this was done at the behest of Tarantulas, who gave them advanced Earth beast mode disguises that would disguise their spark signatures. Poor Tidal Wave found himself not just a whale but a whale with a mobile HQ in his guts! Sins of the Wreckers #2 Sins of the Wreckers #3
Agents of Mayhem not only helped capture Prowl, they tried Sins of the Wreckers #1 and eventually succeeded at covertly snatching the Aequitas data from Verity Carlo. This brought them into open conflict with the Wreckers and while Carnivac hoped they'd see sense and join, the Wreckers managed to account for Mayhem members Polar Claw Sins of the Wreckers #2 and Claw Jaw. Sins of the Wreckers #3 Mayhem aided Tarantulas by defending his base in the Noisemaze from the Wreckers, Sins of the Wreckers #4 but Tarantulas was ultimately defeated and the Noisemaze collapsed. The surviving Mayhem members were able to escape and were joined by the Wrecker Impactor, who ended up agreeing with their mission statement. Sins of the Wreckers #5
Two years later, most of Mayhem had adopted vehicular alt-modes and added Smolder and Steamhammer to their ranks. They captured Springer and under their control he attacked politician Megan Guiglione in a plot to disrupt the weak Autobot/human peace. However, to their surprise, Guiglione ended up being the human alt-mode of Overlord! The Mayhems attempted to attack Overlord but were destroyed in seconds, leaving only Carnivac and Impactor. Impactor was later killed while battling Overlord but Carnivac was able to use his power to separate Overlord into his two components, which Springer disposed of in opposite points of time with Tarantulas' Timemaze. Requiem of the Wreckers
Beast Wars: Uprising
During the Great War, the Mayhem Attack Squad was a famous Decepticon group, led by or associated with Carnivac.
On the Builder controlled Cybertron, their legacy endured in a Predacon supremacist group which took their name. A far cry from their ancestors, the Mayhems were little more than another gang in Iacon's underworld, and a particularly pathetic one at that, regarded by the Maximal Command Security Force as nuisances. Meanwhile, Predacon Secret Police officer Tarantulas saw them as useful foot-soldiers, stringing them along with promises of power in the "new world order".
When the Builder Twirl was murdered, MCSF officer Wolfang's investigations brought him into conflict with the Mayhemist Fennec, working for Tarantulas, who had discovered Twirl was a Targetmaster. In his attempt to find Twirl's murderer, Wolfang and Resistance member Blackarachnia fought and incapacitated the Mayhemists, with the survivors being taken into custody by the MCSF. Trigger Warnings
Of Masters and Mayhem
The Mayhem Attack Squad was selected by Shockwave to form the ultimate combiner, Thunder Mayhem. Their power amplified and the combiner's personality solidified by the Matrix of Malice, the Mayhem Attack Squad's destructive ability proved uncontrollable. The Squad captured Optimus Prime and restrained him within their ship, forcing him to watch as Thunder Mayhem went on an apocalyptic rampage across Cybertron, nearly driving the Cybertronian race to extinction. Deadly Aim Lively Pursuit Pandora's Gift
With their homeworld in ruins, the Mayhem Attack Squad turned their combined form on other planets, styling themselves as "the Slaughterers of Worlds", before they were called to Earth by Ramjet who requested their aid in destroying the universe. History Agreeing, the Mayhem Attack Squad turned Thunder Mayhem on Merida, only to be confronted by the Autobot Pretenders and Optimus Prime himself. Pandora's Gift
Though Thunder Mayhem handled this resistance at first, it was met by Wreckage who distracted it long enough for Elizabeth to fire a beam of energy that wounded its chest, allowing Wreckage to expose the Matrix of Malice. Together, all parties managed to destroy the Matrix, causing the Squad to de-combine and killing Thunder Mayhem. In the aftermath, the Wreckers took the Mayhem Attack Squad into custody when they left the planet. Finale
2019 IDW Continuity
Toys
Combiner Wars
- Bludgeon (TFSS 4.0, 2016)
- Needlenose (TFSS 4.0, 2016)
- Grabuge (TFSS 4.0, 2016)
- Spinister (TFSS 4.0, 2016)
- Windsweeper (TFSS 4.0, 2016)
- The Mayhem Attack Squad was the theme of 2016's Combiner Wars-themed Transformers Figure Subscription Service, with five of its toys redecoed as established and new members of the team. Ruckus was renamed to his French Canadian name for trademark reasons. The five combine into Thunder Mayhem.
Notes
- Flywheels and Battletrap are the only team members to have appeared prior to the Mayhem Attack Squad's debut in "Time Wars". It is unknown whether they were part of the team at this earlier time. City of Fear!
- Flywheels is not seen to die in "Time Wars", but if you look very hard you can see his corpse among the general carnage.
- However, Battletrap, who had the dubious honor of being the first casualty of the battle, reappears later in both the post-Unicron U.S. issues and in Generation 2, among Bludgeon's forces.
- Some believe that the Triggercons Windsweeper, Ruckus, and Crankcase were also part of the original Mayhem Attack Squad. Although this is implied by Windsweeper and Ruckus's proximity to Spinister et al. in the Matrix Quest, it is never explicitly stated that they are Mayhems within the text of those U.S. stories. Furthermore, Crankcase wasn't even present during the Matrix Quest, despite his appearance on the cover of #63. In 2008, Ruckus would be made the leader of a "new Mayhem Attack Squad" in the Timelines story "Cheap Shots", and in 2015, Windsweeper was made a member of the team that forms Thunder Mayhem. Still crossing our fingers for Crankcase.
- The fleshy look of the IDW Mayhems is taken from Jack Lawrence's old Beast Wars Transmasters UK fancomics (with permission from Lawrence).[1]
