Spike Witwicky (G1)
| This article is about the human that is friends with a whole mess of giant robots from Generation 1. For the human who is deeply frightened by giant robots from Transformers Animated, see Spike Witwicky (Animated). |
- Spike Witwicky is an Autobot-allied human from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Spike Witwicky is the oldest (and sometimes only) son of Sparkplug Witwicky.
Spike, like most Witwickys, has a tendency to form close bonds to the Autobots and become one of their main human allies. 'Cause let's face it, there are advantages when your best friend is a car.
- Malay-English dub name: Sparkle
- Hungarian The Movie dub name: Csuka ("Pike"), in other media, Spike.
Fiction
American cartoon continuity
Generation 1 cartoon
- Voice actor: Corey Burton (English), Show Hayami → Masashi Ebara (Japanese), Wolfgang Mascher (German; Generation 1), Dirk Meyer (German; Generation 2), Crock Krumbiegel (German; The Movie)
In 1984, Spike was a 14-year-old adolescent working with his father Sparkplug on an oil rig when the Decepticons attacked. After the Autobots rescued them, they volunteered to become their native guides to planet Earth. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1
More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 More than Meets the Eye, Part 3
Spike had many adventures with the Autobots, taking part in just about everything they did on Earth for at least the next few years. He became especially close friends with the little Autobot Bumblebee.
Transport to Oblivion Roll for It Divide and Conquer Fire in the Sky S.O.S. Dinobots Fire on the Mountain War of the Dinobots The Ultimate Doom, Part 1 The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 The Ultimate Doom, Part 3 A Plague of Insecticons Heavy Metal War
At one point, however, Spike was injured in a Decepticon attack, and his mind was transferred to the unstable Autobot X. The process began to play havoc with Spike's mind, allowing Megatron to manipulate him into attacking Optimus Prime and the Autobots. Only after nearly killing his father did Spike realize that he was being duped. His mind was subsequently transferred back into his body. Autobot Spike
City of Steel Attack of the Autobots
In the course of his adventures with the Autobots, he met Carly, an impetuous prodigy and MIT graduate. Despite being (much) smarter and hotter than him, Carly displayed a noticeable affection for the somewhat-dim Spike. The Immobilizer They would eventually mate and produce offspring.
The Autobot Run Atlantis, Arise! Day of the Machines Enter the Nightbird A Prime Problem The Insecticon Syndrome Dinobot Island, Part 1 Dinobot Island, Part 2 The Master Builders Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1 Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2 Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1 Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2 Blaster Blues A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court Child's Play Quest for Survival Triple Takeover The Girl Who Loved Powerglide Hoist Goes Hollywood Cosmic Rust The Revenge of Bruticus Masquerade
As an adult in the distant year 2005, Spike was stationed with Bumblebee on one of the Autobots' secret moonbases. He had a bit of a potty-mouth about being eaten by the monster-planet Unicron, but that would make anyone pissed. He was saved from the belly of Unicron by his aforementioned offspring. The Transformers: The Movie Later, when the Autobots had regained control of the planet, he became Earth's ambassador...or something. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1
As an adult, Spike was also a lot less helpless. He once held a Quintesson hostage. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3 Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Dark Awakening Surprise Party Madman's Paradise Nightmare Planet Ghost in the Machine The Quintesson Journal The Ultimate Weapon
Marooned on the distant planet Nebulos he became a Headmaster partner to Cerebros and singlehandedly rebuilt an ancient city into a giant transformer. The Rebirth, Part 1 The Rebirth, Part 2 The Rebirth, Part 3
He polished up good.
Madman The Transformers comic
In the year 2001, Spike Witwicky was overseeing the construction of Autobot City when his friend Hot Rod complained about the fact he was stuck on guard duty while the rest of the Autobots forces were fighting a rearguard action during the evacuation of Cybertron. Spike tries to cheer him up, assuring the young Autobot that his time is coming, and for now, just to enjoy the view of the future Autobot City. While Hot Rod rambled on about Optimus Prime bravely fighting off Decepticons single-handedly, Spike spotted Soundwave and his minions up to no-good on the dig site, and Hot Rod sprang into action. The young Autobot prevented the Decepticons from stealing the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, and during the struggle, the Autobot artifact spoke to him with Spike's own words of encouragement. The Transformers (Madman)
Japanese cartoon continuity
Scramble City OVA
Spike can be seen working with Carly, his father and Chip on Autobot City. Scramble City
The Headmasters cartoon
- Voice actor:
The Headmasters comic
Marvel Comics continuity
Generation 1
Spike Witwicky was away at college for the first few years of the Autobot/Decepticon war on Earth until he returned home to find his younger brother Buster kidnapped by the Decepticons. Spike soon became the binary-bond partner to the Headmaster Fortress Maximus, after Fortress Maximus' first partner, Galen, was killed in a battle with the Decepticon Scorponok. Trial by Fire!
Thereafter he struggled with balancing his responsibilities to his family with those to the Autobots. Once Buster was rescued, and with Optimus Prime returned to life to take his place as Autobot leader, Spike went into retirement, mothballing poor Max. This retirement wouldn't last however as it was interrupted, first by a pair of Decepticon Pretenders, The Man in the Machine! then by the crash of the Ark and a raving Galvatron. The Last Autobot? Through the course of these conflicts Spike learned that the binary bonding he had undergone with Maximus was far deeper and more permanent than he'd believed. Fortress Maximus was always there with him in his head, always a part of him. After his battle with Galvatron he seemed to have made peace with his connection to Fortress Maximus and his role as (perhaps) the last Autobot protector of Earth.
In an alternate timeline in the year 2009, Decepticons had built a machine to destroy Earth while a space-time anomaly was eating entire planets. After Rodimus Prime orchestrated a plan to travel twenty years back in time to the source of the anomaly, Spike Witwicky and his son Daniel accused Rodimus of shirking his responsibilities towards Earth and guilted Rodimus into allotting more troops to help destroy the Decepticons' machine. Time Wars
In another alternate timeline in the year 2009, Spike Witwicky was part of a very small Autobot/human resistance movement in a world where Galvatron II's Decepticons controlled North America. The handful of Autobots who remained alive despaired and were on the cusp of giving up, but Spike and Lisa (who shared growing feelings for each other) guilted them into one last suicidal attack on Decepticon headquarters in New York before the rest of the world could unleash a nuclear holocaust onto America at midnight. Though there were several casualties, Spike managed to hoist an American flag on the Decepticon stronghold on live television, a symbolic measure which prompted the end of the planned nuclear strike. Before Galvatron II could respond, the Decepticon despot was abducted by Hook, Line, and Sinker into another timeline. Rhythms of Darkness!
Generation 2
Spike followed up on the now Megatron-controlled Ark, which he'd apparently stuffed Fortress Maximus aboard and then abandoned after his battle with Galvatron (great job protecting Earth there, "Last Autobot").
He reunited with Max and together they . . . um, sort of stopped Megatron (well, delayed him a little . . . maybe) by throwing themselves into the ship's antimatter core.
He blowed up real good. All or Nothing!
Dreamwave comics continuity
It's to be assumed that Spike and his father, Sparkplug, met the Autobots early on in their time on Earth (in a similar fashion as Spike and Sparkplug did in the cartoon, or Buster and Sparkplug did in the Marvel Comics). Spike definitely had a younger brother named Buster (like in the Marvel comics), yet it was Spike who formed a close friendship with Bumblebee (like in the cartoon, rather than missing out on the first few years of the Witwicky family's interaction with the Transformers while engaging in drinking orgies at college, like he did in the Marvel comics). The exact details of the Witwickys' early years as the Autobots' human associates are therefore not known.
Somewhere in the time after 1984, Spike married Carly, who then gave birth to Spike's son, Daniel. After the explosion of the Ark II in 1999, which caused the death of Spike's father Sparkplug, Spike tried to leave his involvement with the Transformers behind and settled down with his wife and son in Cleveland, Ohio, trying to live a new life as a normal family. The newfound peace wouldn't last for long, though, as Spike was soon recruited by a shady military official named General Hallo seeking his help in reviving Optimus Prime, whose body his men had recently found in the Arctic. Spike, who had been entrusted by Prime with a fragment of the Matrix, used that fragment to bring Prime back to life. Prime Directive # 1 Prime Directive #2
Prime subsequently used the Matrix to revive and assemble a group of his Autobots, which he would then lead against Megatron's Decepticons. Meanwhile, Spike was imprisoned by General Hallo, who had double motives behind reviving the Autobots and even tried to kill them by bombing them. With the help of Larry, the World's Most Resourceful Janitor, Spike was able to escape his cell and uncover Hallo's sinister schemes, but not in time to stop him from launching a nuclear strike against the Autobots which was ultimately averted when Superion sacrificed his life in order to make it detonate before it could reach its target. Prime Directive #5 Prime Directive #6
Following these events, Spike once again returned to his family and tried to leave his past with the Transformers behind. A few months later, though, his old friend Bumblebee, who had just decided to quit the Autobot army following a fierce battle against Sunstorm, showed up by his house. Spike, frustrated that the Autobots refused to leave him alone, hurled a few nasty insults against his old buddy before changing his mind and joining him on a men's night out in the city, where they stopped a mugging. Lost and Found The follow-up scene of Carly shouting at Spike singing drinking songs with Bumblebee was never published due to the untimely faltering of Dreamwave. It also means we will never know if Spike and Bumblebee formed a crime fighting duo.
G.I. Joe vs the Transformers
In response to the forming of the terrorist organization Cobra and its commandeered Transformers, the United States government assembled a strike team dubbed G.I. Joe. Spike Witwicky (codename Spike) was listed on the roster, but was never seen. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #2
IDW comics continuity
In the wake of the Decepticons' devastating attack on Earth, Commander Spike Witwicky met his dad, Colonel "Sparkplug" Witwicky, inside a secret bunker where the remnants of the United States military had gathered to mount a desperate counteroffensive. Regrettably, Sparkplug had selected Spike for a mission to assassinate the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, even though he feared his son would not make it back. It was a suicide mission, but Spike was the most qualified. Spike accepted, despite the consequences, but ignored his father's pleas for him to call his worried mother first.
During the night, he and a team snuck into New York City by boat, but they were discovered by Ratbat. With one dive, the boat and its occupants were dashed to bits under the water, and Spike's signal was destroyed. Learning his son was dead, Sparkplug, in shock, believed it was he who had not only sent his son to die, but had inspired Spike to join the military in the first place. But unknown to Sparkplug, his son surfaced on the shore of New York, perfectly alive... All Hail Megatron issue 5
Stealing new pants from an abandoned Gloomindales, Spike ran into the leaders of the underground human resistance movement, who were looking for supplies. Spike took Bridge and Sarah into an abandoned office building to discuss gathering the resistance and assassinating Megatron. But first, Spike took them into a disguised military facility where he retrieved a weapon created from studying Shockwave's gun arm. Their quick escape was cut short, since Rumble was causing a ruckus outside. Telling the others to run for cover, Spike ducked into a building and then reappeared when he drove a motorcycle through an upstairs window, firing a small pistol. This distracted Rumble long enough for Charles to shoot him right in the face. Rumble's defeat was followed by a overcoming sonic screech, and as Soundwave arrived to sadly take Rumble's body away, it seemed the city's electronic blackout was over. Phones were working again, and so Spike called his father. He learned that not only that his father thought he was dead, but that there was nothing they could do to prevent other nations from unleashing a nuclear onslaught across North America. All Hail Megatron issue 9
Toys
Generation 1
- Fortress Maximus with Spike (Headmaster, 1987)
- Spike was a Headmaster figure who came with Fortress Maximus. Gray and blue, he transformed into Cerebros' head, who then in turn became Fortress Maximus' head. Although the on-package bio referred to 'the Nebulan leader, Spike', most assume it was supposed to represent the character from TV, making this the first Transformers toy of an Earth human.
- This toy was repurposed as Galen, and redecoed as Gran, Robots in Disguise Cerebros and Robot Masters Master.
Merchandise
Super Collection Figure
- Bumble and Spike (Act 3, 2001)
- Japanese ID Number: 5 (painted) 6 (clear)
- Spike and Bumblebee were sold together as a single PVC in Act 3 of Takara's Super Collection Figure series. They were blindpacked, with painted and clear variations sold in equal quantities. In Hasbro's markets, they were sold together on a blister card as the "Autobot Espionage Team". (At this point, Hasbro did not have the trademark rights to Bumblebee's name.) In both Japan and the West, the two came packaged with HOC Fortress Maximus' right leg.
Notes
- Spike and Buster were both derived from the same "young male human friend" character in early backstory material. For more on the name variation see Butch Witwicky.
- Cameos of the Witwicky family appear in the pilot movie of Transformers Animated. In "Garbage In, Garbage Out", he and Carly refer to each other by name, and she is about to have another baby. Ratchet rushes them both around Detroit, trying to find a "Hoss-spit-all", but they are quickly abandoned by the plot before the outcome of the childbirth can be resolved.
External links
- Fortress Maximus (with Spike) at TFU.info
- Fortress Maximus's Universe profile (with Spike) at NFTA.net
