Marissa Faireborn
This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.
- Marissa is a human from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Captain Marissa Faireborn is an officer in the Earth Defense Command. Tough and headstrong, she performs her duties with strict military professionalism. She may be small and squishy, but she sure knows how to use a knife. Even the Decepticons respect her as a proper adversary.
Also, she's great at surfboarding.
- Japanese name: Melissa Faireborn
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
Generation 1 cartoon
- Voice actor: Susan Blu (English), Kazue Komiya (Japanese)
After the destruction of Unicron in 2005, the peace that followed in the next year was soon interrupted by the return of Galvatron. In the midst of this Decepticon uprising, Blurr and Wheelie were stranded on Jupiter's moon Io while safeguarding Metroplex's transformation cog. Marissa Faireborn was sent to retrieve the two and their cargo, but alien lipoles native to Io destroyed her spacecraft, stranding her as well. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 Sky Lynx eventually arrived to rescue them and fend off an attack by the monstrous combiner Predaking. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Tricked by a holographic representation of her father, Marissa was kidnapped by a spacefaring Quintesson scientist. Also captured were Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, and Wreck-Gar. She and the other prisoners rebelled, but not before their vessel hurtled through a black hole and into a negative universe. This made them all different colors, but despite this setback, they were able to return home unharmed. The Killing Jar
Another Quintesson experiment, one intended to alter the past to benefit themselves, sent unstable chronal energy across the universe. This caused Marissa to temporarily age-regress into an infant.
Marissa had a short affair with smuggler Dirk Manus, who was attempting to transport a highly-experimental molecular recreator to the Quintessons. Though their feelings were mutual, he was merely using her trust to help pull off a heist. Marissa discovered his scheme, and with the Technobots' help (and some double-crossing by Manus) foiled the Quintessons' plans. Though Manus got away from the authorities, she had switched his booty with mimic dust. Despite losing a fortune, Dirk was amused and impressed at Marissa's doublecross. Money Is Everything
Later, Marissa attempted to console a depressed Rodimus Prime during a visit to Japan, when they were suddenly attacked by Dead End and Wildrider. Rodimus was run off the road, and before Marissa could come to his aid, the Decepticons had escaped with the Matrix of Leadership. The Burden Hardest to Bear
Japanese cartoon continuity
Kiss Players
- Voice actor: Lyrian (Japanese)
As a child in the 1990s, Marissa lived in New York, where she met and became friends with Shaoshao Li, who developed an extremely strong attachment to her. The young Marissa resented her military father, so when one of his missions went awry and she and her father had to be rescued by Optimus Prime, she quickly came to view the Autobot leader as a surrogate father figure... and perhaps a little bit more. Kiss Players radio drama #34 Shaoshao didn't take Marissa's friendship with Prime very well, resenting the Autobot for, in her eyes, stealing Marissa away from her, and Shaoshao was forced to move back to Japan with her family before reaching an understanding with her friend. Kiss Players radio drama #23
Shortly after Optimus Prime's death in 2005, the body of the new Decepticon leader Galvatron crash-landed on Earth, decimating Tokyo and utterly shattering Transformer-Human relations. A governmental organization known as the Earth Defense Command, headed up by the rabid anti-Transformer fanatic Hitoshizuku Amaō, was quickly established to force the Transformers off Earth, but support for the movement was not universal, and Marissa was amongst its opponents. Alas, these voices went unheard, and by 2006, Earth was Transformer-free, and the embittered Marissa decided that rather than try to fight the EDC with peaceful protests, she'd have a go at fighting them with big, pointy knives, as part of a female commando resistance group.
When Earth Defense Command brought Optimus Prime's corpse to Japan, Marissa secretly observed the arrival of the cargo plane carrying the Autobot leader's body. Kiss Players #1 She and her commando unit were quick to attack the convoy transporting the body, only to discover that the cadaver was a decoy concealing an EDC Autrooper that slaughtered them all, save for Marissa herself. Recognizing an unassuming trailer amongst the other vehicles in the convoy, Marissa sliced it open with her knife, revealing that it contained the remains of the real Optimus Prime. The exposure of Prime's body, however, had a bizarre effect on the Autrooper, which ejected its Kiss Player partner and begin to fuse with the Autobot's corpse.
As if to bid farewell to her friend, Marissa kissed Prime, but with this action, she discovered that she was a "Kiss Player"—a human being who had been infused with the scattered cells of Galvatron, giving them the ability to fuse with other beings. Her Kiss Player powers unleashed, Marissa fused with Prime, triggering a transformation that restored him to life and converted his body into a new Dodge SRT-10 form. Kiss Players #2
Marissa and Prime promptly made themselves scarce, and began travelling together, battling the monstrous creatures known as Legion that Galvatron's dispersed cells had also produced, while also eluding the EDC. Marissa thought of Prime as her boyfriend, Kiss Players radio drama #1 and Prime himself certainly cared for the girl, unwilling as he was to put her in harm's way, despite the prodigious knife-wielding skills that she could share with him via their kiss-fusion. Kiss Players radio drama #4
Knife skills were not Marissa's only attribute, however: she was also a talented surfer, and wondered if she could share that ability with Prime via their fusion. As it turned out, Prime was actually already quite skilled in that area. Kiss Players radio drama #7 Prime soon found a better use for Marissa's surfboard when he used his new powers to transform it into a knife so he could make use of the skills Marissa's fusion gave with him. Marissa was not very happy, Kiss Players radio drama #10 but took it in stride, and dubbed the new weapon the "Surfblade". In response, Prime named her shirt "The Three Skulll Brothers," after the image on it. Kiss Players radio drama #16
Prime and Marissa had a close relationship, as the girl washed Prime in "intimate" spots like his gas tank, Kiss Players radio drama #19 and they would go on "dates" together, at one point visiting the seaside, only to wind up in battle with a Legion created from the fusion of an octopus and a shipwreck. Prime regretted that these activites had to be carried out under the cover of night, and vowed that he and Marissa would visit the beach under the light of the sun. Someday, Under the Sun
Marissa later crossed paths with a girl named Atari Hitotonari, and quickly became friends with her. Sadly, Marissa soon discovered that Atari was actually a member of the EDC, and realized regretfully that this would likely mean they would have to fight. Kiss Players radio drama #13 Nevertheless, when Atari found herself in danger, Marissa and Prime rescued her on several occasions. Kiss Players radio drama #9
Soon, Optimus Prime found himself suffering from a recurring nightmare filled with visions of his old enemy, Megatron. In the grip of one of these hallucinations, Prime lost control of himself and almost crushed Marissa in his fist, but was thankfully able to regain his senses before he hurt her. Marissa and Prime subsequently fused, and were able to corral a legion of Legion for an attack upon the EDC headquarters. They found their way barred by a pair of most unexpected opponents: Hot Rod had returned to Earth and become Kiss Player partners with Marissa's old friend, Shaoshao. Hot Rod believed Prime to be an impostor, and Shaoshao wished to see him dead so that she might "reclaim" Marissa as her friend, and so Prime and Hot Rod began battling. The tide shifted when Atari entered the battle, the attack was broken off, and Prime and Marissa now found they had to elude Hot Rod and Shaoshao as well as the EDC's force. Kiss Players #3 Marissa could likely never have predicted that Hot Rod would steal her underwear for Shaoshao, though. Kiss Players radio drama #28 & 29
Marissa spent a lot of time reflecting on things after that, thinking back on the summer she had spent with Prime, Kiss Players radio drama #22 on Prime's own past, Kiss Players radio drama #25 and his current nightmares. Kiss Players radio drama #31 After viewing a seaside fireworks display for their "last date", Kiss Players radio drama #34 Marissa and Prime again launched a Legion-backed attack upon the EDC. This time, however, Marissa, Shaoshao, Atari, Prime and Hot Rod all decided to set their differences aside in order to discover the true, dark secret lurking within the EDC. Kiss Players radio drama #37 Venturing into the mysterious Genital System facility hidden beneath the EDC headquarters, the team discovered a mad plot by EDC Comander Hitoshizuku Amaō to resurrect her daughter, who had died in Galvatron's impact. Thanks to the efforts of Marissa and her friends, the plan was foiled, the anti-electron field keeping Transformers off Earth was deactivated, and Galvatron's cells were extracted from the Legions and Kiss Players and reconstituted within his body, which was launched off into space. As a result, Marissa lost her Kiss Player powers, and Prime slipped back into death once more. You, I and the Spinning Earth
Kiss Players Position
Following the deactivation of the anti-electron field, the Autobots returned to Earth in early 2007, but Transformer-human relations were still in tatters. Ultra Magnus came up with the idea of a Transformer-human singing group to try and repair relations and spread goodwill between the two races, and to that end, Marissa joined with Shaoshao, Atari and cassette Transformers Glit, Sundor and Rosanna to form this group, the "Kiss Players".
While on their world goodwill tour, the Kiss Players arrived in North America to perform at Fortress Maximus but just before the concert began, three mysterious glowing orbs appeared before the Kiss Players, and telepathically spoke to them. Introducing themselves as the Sparkbots, Star Dust, Angela and Zangetsu, they instructed the three girls to kiss them. When they did so, the girls and Fortress Maximus were suddenly whisked off through time, rematerializing at Sherman Dam in the year 1985, where they witnessed Optimus Prime's historic battle with Megatron atop the structure. Kiss Players radio drama #39
At Angela's behest, Marissa kissed the Sparkbot to transform her and rode the flying lion to Prime's side, where, unseen by the combatants, she was instructed to kiss the Autobot leader. Marissa complied, and a fragment of what the Sparkbots called the "Allspark" emerged from his chest. This, the Sparkbots explained, was the Kiss Players' mission—to recover all the fragments of the Allspark, scattered throughout space and time. Marissa regretted that she could not stay and try to avert Prime's deadly fate-to-come, but continued voyaging through the timestream with the rest of her friends to accomplish this task. Kiss Players radio drama #40
The Kiss Players traveled from past to future, collecting Allspark fragments along the way. Their adventures soon led them to the year 2011, where they fell into the clutches of the Quintessons. Even the power of Moe, despite transforming Marissa into a sailor-suited bunny girl, was not enough to spare them from the Quintesson judge's verdict of "not guilty." Fortunately, Optimus Prime and Goldbug came to their accidental rescue, and the Kiss Players' voyage continued. Tokyo Toy Festival live performance
On her next mission, Marissa witnessed a robot she believed to be Optimus Prime being brutally beaten in combat in a desert by the Decepticon warrior Overlord. Marissa hastily kissed what she thought was her longtime robotic beau, but as the Allspark fragment emerged, Angela explained that this was not Prime, but Ginrai, a human man who had bonded with a Transtector intended for Prime's use. Marissa was horrified that she had kissed someone other than Prime, and made Angela promise not to tell anyone. Kiss Players radio drama #43
Things were proceeding smoothly until the Kiss Players began obtaining Allspark framgnets from Transformers participating in the Beast Wars. At the point of the Allspark fragments' emergence, a giant golden hand would appear and steal the fragments away, starting with the fragment Atari recovered from Optimus Primal, and carrying on with those Marissa recovered from Lio Convoy and Big Convoy. Kiss Players radio drama #46 The Kiss Players gave chase across the timestream, but Fortress Maximus wound up crashing into the "Wall of Time", Kiss Players radio drama #47 and the team was scattered across the multiverse. Kiss Players radio drama #48
"Shut up, you cow!"
Marissa found herself transported to the parallel reality of the "Unicron Trilogy", during the height of the Transformers' war for energon. There, she met a native Mini-Con that had encountered Atari ten years in the past, which was where she had wound up after the crash. As the Transformers battled in space overhead, the golden hand suddenly appeared to seize Marissa and drag her off through time and space, Kiss Players radio drama #49 bringing her to prehistoric Earth in her home universe, where she was reunited with the other girls. It transpired that the hand belonged Primus, god of the Transformers, and that the Sparkbots were in fact, servants of his nemesis, Unicron. The "Allspark" that the Kiss Players had been gathering was, in fact, Unicron's shattered lifeforce, and the Sparkbots were attempting to resurrect their deceased master. Thankfully, Primus was able to trap Unicron's lifeforce within the Earth, but he would not answer the Kiss Players questions on what their own future would be. As his last act before he transformed into a golden sphere, Primus returned the Kiss Players to the present day 2007, mere moments after they had left on their adventure. Realizing that her future was not defined by Primus or any god, Marissa vowed to make her own future, and enlisted in the reformed, restructed EDC. Kiss Players radio drama #51
The Headmasters cartoon
Marissa was briefly mentioned by Daniel Witwicky as a human candidate for the mission to stop Metamorpho, but he was informed by Wheelie that the Earth Defense Command couldn't get involved in the situation. Approach of the Demon Meteorite
Dreamwave comics continuity
Marissa was the grand-daughter of Nathaniel Faireborn, founder of the Earth Defense Command.
As Bumper and Warpath attempted to haul the deactivated bodies of Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Windcharger, and Wheeljack out of an Oregon lake, they were arrested by Commander Marissa Faireborn and a legion of EDC troops. The Omega Effect After taking them into custody, Faireborn recruited Jazz, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Bumper to accompany her and the EDC Night Force to San Desto.
A sweep of the town uncovered no sign of its inhabitants. Marissa established a good rapport with Jazz, and instructed her troops to follow his orders as they would hers. Soon enough, they were attacked by an army of Insecticon clones, who decimated the EDC troops and captured Bumper. Jazz and Marissa managed to escape to a garage, where they found a veritable abattoir of human and bovine remains. The Insecticons tracked them down, forcing them to flee into a subterranean egg chamber, which Jazz promptly torched. This prompted an attack from an enraged Shrapnel, but Sideswipe and Sunstreaker managed to cover Jazz and Marissa's escape back to the surface. Once there, they were confronted with more Insecticon clones and the cerebro-shell-controlled human citizens of San Desto. While the Autobots were unwilling to risk killing the helpless thralls, Marissa waded into the army with fists flying. Further bloodshed was prevented, however, when Bumper took out Bombshell, neutralizing both clones and slaves. Infestation Extermination Back at EDC headquarters, Marissa saw Jazz and the rest of the Autobots off. Lost and Found
As a result of Marissa and Jazz's shared battle experience, their strong mutual respect may have blossomed into a romantic attraction. This was outwardly obvious enough to inspire Sideswipe to refer to Marissa as Jazz's girlfriend.
Sometime later, Faireborne was chewed out by her superior over the loss of Night Force. Despite her objections, he ordered her to reactivate Project: Centurion. The Route of All Evil
Toys
Kiss Players
- Convoy x Melissa (Kiss Players, 2006)
- Accessories: Four arms, two pairs of legs, stand, "Surfblade"
- Available only as part of the headliner Kiss Players set, Marissa's first-ever toy is a soft-plastic PVC figurine with a permanent pucker, designed mainly to sit demurely on the robot-mode shoulder of her partner Convoy. Marissa comes with several interchangeable limbs; a pair of legs bent at the knee to allow her to perch on Prime's shoulder or sit in his driver's seat, a pair of straight legs to allow her stand upright (but only with the aid of the small stand included), a set of straight arms, and a set of arms bent at the elbow to allow her mime the act of placing her hands on Prime's steering wheel while she's sitting in him. She comes with a surfboard (that she really can't use) that becomes either Optimus Prime's "Surfblade" sword or a pair of long serrated knives. The set also comes with a CD containing the first 5 episodes of the Kiss Players radio drama and the exclusive 10-minute audio story, "Someday, Under the Sun".
- This set was originally intended for release in the Binaltech Asterisk line as "Black Convoy meets Marissa", but was cancelled due to low sales of the previous toys before it was even officially solicited. How much difference there is between the planned Asterisk version of Marissa and the final Kiss Players version is currently unknown. (Although it could be assumed she was likely originally wearing some pants.)
Trivia
- Although Marissa's father has long been accepted to be the G.I. Joe member Flint (aka Dashiell Faireborn), there were no statements as to the identity of her mother until recently. In an interview on the Sony BMG re-release of The Transformers: The Movie, former Transformers writer and story editor Flint Dille confirmed fellow G.I. Joe member Lady Jaye as Marissa's mother.
- Kiss Players designer/illustrator Yūki Ōshima based Marissa's black leather battle outfit on that of the Baroness. He originally wanted her to infiltrate Cobra, but had her join an anti-government resistance team when the idea was shot down.
- Early previews of Kiss Players implied Marissa to be a current or former EDC member, going so far as to feature an EDC logo on her shirt in early images. The idea was discarded, and the EDC logo was replaced with the set of three eyepatch-wearing skulls referenced above.
