Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
Even in war, there are laws. Ultra Magnus, Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, is the thin blue line that enforces those laws. Whether Autobot or Decepticon, break them and you can do things his way... or the hard way.
He's so popular that people just love to cosplay as him!
IDW Generation 1 comics
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for Remain_in_Light_4_of_5:_Arm_the_Lonely follow. |
The legend of the immortal lawman known as Ultra Magnus began with the first 'bot to bear the name: a stern, no-nonsense Autobot who, during the early years of the war, fought alongside Orion Pax and the legendary Delta Magnus to contain the Decepticons. ParasitesThe Divided Self When Orion sided with Megatron to overthrow Zeta Prime's corrupt government, Magnus and his security forces stood with them, Overthrown but when Zeta was deposed, Megatron betrayed Orion and took over the planet, sending Magnus, Ironhide, and Bumblebee into hiding. They were captured when their safehouse was raided by the Decepticons, Transformation but were soon liberated by Hot Rod and met back up with Orion, who had been transformed into Optimus Prime and awoken the dormant Metroplex. Rise Alongside the entire Autobot army, Ultra Magnus then marched on the Citadel to fight Megatron for the control of Cybertron. Broadcast After the Decepticons had been chased out of Iacon, Magnus aided Optimus Prime in inspecting the remains of Zeta Prime's cache of outlawed weaponry. Endgame
Shortly after Optimus Prime's rise to leadership, Ultra Magnus was part of a unit sent to defend the Toraxxis mega-refinery from Scorponok's Decepticons. Rage During the Autobots' attempts at stopping a rampaging Trypticon, Magnus was responsible for bringing out the strongest weapons in the Autobot arsenal The Illusion of Control and subsequently fought at Prime's side during the battle with the beast in Harmonex. Annihilation Following the defeat of Trypticon at the hands of Megatron and Grimlock, Ultra Magnus saw the calm as a chance to arrest Megatron, but was discouraged from doing so when the rest of the Decepticon army arrived. Belly of the Beast
But all beings have a fixed lifespan, and Ultra Magnus was no different. When he passed away (under currently unrevealed circumstances), the legend he left in his wake inspired Chief Justice Tyrest to ensure that he lived on. Circulating a rumor that Magnus had merely faked his death, Tyrest fashioned a suit of armor cast in Magnus's image and bestowed it upon a succession of 'bots—the first being Suture—who took on Magnus's name and reputation, and served Tyrest as a Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, upholding the Code of Interplanetary Conflict, a treaty between Autobots, Decepticons and other alien races. Upon the passing of each wearer, a trigger in the armor would return it to Tyrest wherever he was in the galaxy, so that it could be passed on to his next chosen wearer. The Cybertronian public only ever believed that there was a solitary Ultra Magnus who flouted death at every turn; The Divided Self the "freak recoveries" he made only enhanced Magnus's reputation, and he would later be cited by First Aid as an example of a larger sized bot whose Spark could recover from the kind of damage suffered by Rewind. Before & After
As such, it becomes hard to know exactly which Magnus was involved in which of his recorded appearances, such as his battle against Black Shadow as part of the 113th Battalion. Rules of Disengagement One bearer of the Magnus Armor perished on Simanzi, 1st Cycle 3718, when he was caught offguard by a Cybernaught while heading toward the Crucible with Rotorstorm. Later, during the 2nd Cycle, another Magnus fell when he took a direct hit from the K-Class Decepticon Torque while giving orders during a battle on Clemency over the Nightmare Engine. In the 3rd Cycle, the statistician Datum was waring the Magnus Armor and took part in the Battle for Hell's Point, during which he blocked the exhaust vent of the ship in question with his body, trusting that the Warriors Elite wouldn't risk destroying it by blasting him off without Megatron's permission. Heretech simply raised Megatron in gun mode and blasted him off. The Gloaming Legend held that the smirk Magnus had given the warriors was the only time he ever smiled in his life. Hangers On Still another Magnus would fall victim to the Spark affliction known as a zero point, Zero Point another to the Fast-Folding Sun. The Divided Self
The Magnus of the "current" era was Minimus Ambus, spark brother to noted Autobot philanthropist Dominus Ambus, who aspired to be the kind of lawman the original Ultra Magnus was. In his duties as enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, he hunted down the Autobot Arcee, who was pursuing a paranoid vendetta against Jhiaxus, the scientist who allegedly transformed her into her current state against her will. When he caught up with Arcee, it took a combination of holographic trickery and shock grenades to put her down. Magnus shipped her off to Fortress Maximus's care at the Garrus-9 penitentiary. Spotlight: Arcee At some point he arrested a Decepticon peddling miniaturization technology and was infected with Nanocons. You, Me, and Other Revelations
On another mission, Ultra Magnus tracked the Decepticon Swindle to the planet Zull. After arresting the criminal, Magnus reluctantly released Swindle in exchange for the current whereabouts of an even greater offender: Scorponok. Magnus had a personal grudge against Scorponok, who was the Autobot's polar opposite; while Magnus set great stock in rules, Scorponok flouted them. Ultra Magnus followed Swindle's lead to the planet Nebulos, and although he disrupted Scorponok's operations, the Decepticon was able to escape. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus
Years later, Magnus arrested Swindle for yet another violation, and once again, Swindle offered a deal, leaving Magnus to wonder whether it's necessary to break the rules to catch those who've been caught breaking them. Escalation #1 Exactly what Magnus did with Swindle is unclear, but he soon made another report to Optimus Prime, claiming to have picked up a new "lead" on Scorponok, suggesting that yet another deal had been made with Swindle. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
After the break-in on Garrus-9, Ultra Magnus told Optimus Prime that he was heading there to follow up on the escaped prisoners, but received a distress call from Hound and changes course to assist their crew. Magnus arrived in time to help drive off Cyclonus and together, they tracked him to Corata-Vaz. After Cyclonus activated the Nega-Core, he hesitated activating the guardian, Thunderwing, due to the destruction he caused on Cybertron. Cyclonus walked out of the cave and was ambushed by Hound's crew and Magnus. After a skirmish, Cyclonus was brought down by Warpath and Magnus held a gun to his head. As a last resort, Cyclonus detached his hand, which rocketed to the cave and activated Thunderwing. Using the distraction, Cyclonus escaped but Magnus sent another tracker after him. Spotlight: Cyclonus
Ultra Magnus would later receive intel on the Dead Universe's plot. Spotlight: Doubledealer With Optimus otherwise engaged, Ultra Magnus informed the various Autobot teams of the situation, helped direct their strategy, and came up with the idea of sending Arcee to deal with Jhiaxus. Man can deal with a lot. Spotlight: Sideswipe
Sometime after the Expansion, Ultra Magnus received a signal from a battered Hot Rod, requesting some backup for Sunstreaker, who had gone into Scorponok's Machination headquarters building to reclaim his head. Ultra Magnus decided to put an end to Scorponok, once and for all. Maximum Dinobots #4 By the time Ultra Magnus arrived at Machination HQ, the long missing Dynobots had already defeated Scorponok, but Ultra Magnus stopped them from killing him, saying that he would be punished under Intergalactic law, and ordered the Machination stripped of all Cybertronian technology. After rendezvousing with Optimus Prime's crew, Ultra Magnus relayed the events to Optimus, who felt they were well and truly compromised on Earth. Once business was concluded, Ultra Magnus left with Grimlock, Scorponok, and Shockwave as his prisoners, telling Grimlock that his assistance would help reduce his sentence and that the warrants on the other Dynobots had been rescinded. Maximum Dinobots #5
Several years later, after the fall of many Autobot strongholds and the subsequent defeat of Megatron on Earth, Ultra Magnus and his human stowaway Verity Carlo transported the Wreckers to Garrus-9, the Autobot penal colony which had been overrun by the Decepticons. En route, they encountered a battered Decepticon dropship emitting a distress signal that failed to acknowledge any hailing frequencies, which then subsequently exploded. Magnus was shocked to discover that a survivor had successfully escaped the ship's destruction, and even more shocked that it was the notorious former commander of the Wreckers, Impactor. Last Stand of the Wreckers #1 Magnus watched as Perceptor tinkered with Impactor's head, noting that the former Wrecker probably had an explosive deterrence chip embedded in his cranium from his imprisonment at Garrus-9. When Impactor told the story of his escape and what had occurred at the prison, even the usually taciturn Ultra Magnus was disturbed by the revelation that the powerful phase-six Decepticon Overlord was now in charge of G-9, and suggested that perhaps they should delay the mission. After Springer and Impactor got into an argument over who was in charge and what the latter did that got him sent to G-9 in the first place, Ultra Magnus managed to convince Springer that Impactor had been through an awful lot, and that he was a valuable asset that was needed for this mission. However, Magnus declined to personally involve himself with the mission, so he could to turn a blind eye to the Wreckers' often-brutal methods, and because Prowl had requested his presence back on Earth. Also, Prowl gave him a name, something that would be of importance to both Springer and Magnus: Aequitas. During the mission briefing, Magnus revealed to the other Wreckers it wasn't Skyquake that was up against them, but the infamous Overlord, prompting Kup to tell Verity of the time he faced Overlord on Caldoon 4 and barely survived. With the younger Wreckers clearly rattled by the tale, Ultra Magnus reminded Kup that they had talked about the elder Autobot's perchant for "talking up the enemy". Twenty minutes before launch, Magnus discussed Ironfist's strange blackouts with Springer, though the Wrecker was inclined to give his subordinate the benefit of doubt. As the Wreckers (and unbeknownst to them, Verity) launched their drop pods to Garrus-9, Ultra Magnus wished them luck and intoned an old Cybertonian proverb: "May your wires never cross and your luster never dull". Last Stand of the Wreckers #2 He would later wonder what would have happened if he'd fought alongside the Wreckers Under Cold Blue Stars and would greatly miss Verity. Cybertronian Homesick Blues
Arriving on Earth, Ultra Magnus reiterated his position as an enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, and demanded to know which of the local Autobots was in charge. New Arrivals, Old Encounters With the remaining Autobots left at the caves before him, Ultra Magnus tried to allay their concerns by attempting to use the local Earth slang and idioms related to criminal investigations, with only served to cause confusion. However, with a case as serious as Ironhide's death and Optimus Prime's surrender to Skywatch, he asked for help from the Autobots and failing that, demanded full cooperation. Unfortunately, Magnus was unusually obstinate and obtuse in his investigation, questioning Bumblebee's authority as leader (after being told that Hot Rod had left Bumblebee's group), and refusing to help the Earth-based Autobots deal with their problems. After witnessing Hoist lead away yet another group of Autobots, Magnus left the caves to search for Hot Rod. A Rude Awakening
After tracking the Autobot splinter group down, Ultra Magnus laid out a series of legal quibbles that would make it impossible for the self-styled "Rodimus Prime" to leave Earth and demanded the dismantling of the rocket they were building. The situation turned ugly when Magnus spotted Swindle among the Decepticons in Rodimus' group, and attempted to arrest him. Citing Rodimus' violations of the law and collusion with the Decepticons, Magnus threatened to arrest him under charges of treason if he failed to cooperate. However, Magnus was disappointed when Prowl defended Rodimus' decisions and wondered why Prowl had summoned him to Earth in the first place if he was going to break the law himself. Sticking to the rigid letter of the law got Magnus nowhere, as Rodimus correctly pointed out that he couldn't arrest them all. Furious, Ultra Magnus returned to Bumblebee's cave. Seasons in Flight
Sometime after Bumblebee had been rebuilt into a new, more powerful body, Ultra Magnus ordered several of the Autobots to form a team to arrest Rodimus' group. He seriously got the Autobots offside by demanding Blurr's participation despite his recent trauma at the hands of Skywatch and overrode Bumblebee's command authority. Returning to the launch site, Magnus officially declared his intent to arrest Rodimus under order 00101001 of the Tyrest Accord, which majorly honked off Rodimus as he felt there were no factions any longer, the war was over and that "his" group only wanted to get off Earth. However, Magnus' distrust of the Decepticons was proven correct when Swindle interrupted the argument to unveil his new creation: the Stunticon combiner Menasor, who was ordered to kill Magnus first. Enemies of the System During the battle, Ultra Magnus exhausted his arsenal of firepower and was about to be killed by the titanic Decepticon when Optimus Prime arrived on the scene courtesy of Skywatch. The Autobots rallied and defeated the Decepticons, forcing Swindle and the Constructicons to retreat. Shortly after being repaired, Magnus was furious to learn that Swindle had escaped his grasp once again, and took out his frustrations on Rodimus, charging him with treason for all of his actions. When Bumblebee stepped in to diffuse the situation, Magnus attempted to cite his greater authority of his legal jurisdiction, but was put in his place when the younger Autobot pointed out that on Earth, he was in charge, and that no Autobot would be arrested, regardless of their mistakes. However, as this was going on, Rodimus took off in Ultra Magnus' shuttle. Earthworks
Evidently after regaining his sense of perspective, Ultra Magnus used a ship provided (somehow) by Skywatch The Land Ironclads to rescue the surviving Wreckers from Garrus-9. In his debriefing to Prowl, Magnus discussed the reasons for even sanctioning the mission given what it cost the Wreckers, and despite his disgust at the horrific crimes perpetrated by some of the Autobots who faced the infallible Aequitas, he argued the need for revealing the contents of the supercomputer's data to the Autobot rank-and-file. After handing over a data slug containing the Aequitas data, Magnus stated that he hoped Prowl was true to his word and would hand it over to Bumblebee, because he knew Prowl would have hoped the data in the slug was corrupted so he could maintain the cover up. As he left, he said that perhaps he should have checked the data for corruption after all, but considered it would be a disservice to the both of them for not trusting Prowl and going behind his back. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
With his ship stolen, Ultra Magnus was stranded on Earth alongside the other Autobots, and was none too happy about it. He had little patience for Brawn raging about an attempted assassination of Bumblebee, and threatened to have the angry little guy restrained if he didn't shut up. He was interrupted by the news that the plane carrying Optimus Prime's team back from North Korea had been blown out of the sky, but before he and Pennington could get any real information about the attack, an explosion rocked the Autobot-Skywatch base. The Decepticons had returned to Earth to rescue their captured comrades, and Ultra Magnus found himself incapacitated by Frenzy's mind-scramblingly loud battle cry. The Demolished Man
The attacking Decepticons quickly left with the freed captives, leaving Ultra Magnus to wonder why they neglected to finish him and the other Autobots off. There were more important things to worry about, though: the base was in ruins, Bumblebee and Pennington were both in critical condition, and Optimus Prime and his team were still missing in action. Ultra Magnus took command and had the base evacuated, moving the personnel to Omega Supreme's location, but not before leaving Brawn with a mission to find a special somebody. Altered Carbon As the Autobot convoy moved towards Omega, they found themselves under attack from humans who didn't want them on their planet. Ultra Magnus was initially prepared to defend himself, but Pennington convinced him that killing humans would only make things worse for them, and the convoy continued. Unfortunately, things got worse for them anyway when Megatron himself showed up and easily dispatched Ultra Magnus and his troops. Assuming that he was out to destroy the Autobots as usual, Magnus tried to distract Megatron from killing the Skywatch soldiers, but the Decepticon made it clear that the humans were just as important targets for his revenge. Woken Furies
Injured, Ultra Magnus was held hostage by Megatron and Soundwave, who used him as leverage to get Optimus Prime to meet with them. This meeting ended with Megatron retreating with a stasis locked Soundwave, and Ultra Magnus was brought to safety. Burning Chrome As he awaited repairs, Magnus told Prime that he had managed to place a tracking chip on Soundwave, allowing the Autobots to find Megatron's hideout. Enemy Mine
Six weeks later, Ultra Magnus watched as Rodimus returned to Earth with the Matrix of Leadership and several lost Autobots in tow. He brought news that Galvatron had built an army and taken control of Cybertron, prompting Optimus Prime to lead his Autobots back to their home planet. On Bumblebee's orders, Ultra Magnus remained on Earth with him, Prowl and a few others. Orphans of the Helix He still participated in talks of what would be done with Megatron, who had surrendered himself and been taken into space with Prime's Autobots. When Xaaron explained that they needed a neutral third party to judge the Decepticon leader for his crimes, Magnus suggested Chief Justice Tyrest, and opined that they should aim for a death sentence. Chaos Theory Part 1
Ultra Magnus was involved with the investigation on Spike Witwicky's supposed murder of Scrapper. He chewed out Prowl and Streetwise after the latter had broken protocol and transformed into robot mode during a mission to spy on Witwicky. Prowl brought up his suspicions of anti-Transformer pundit Ben Simpson and of a deeper Decepticon conspiracy, but Magnus ordered him to stick to the case at hand. Police Action #1 The Autobots then brought in Sandra, a former Skywatch agent who abandoned Spike's unit once it started breaking too many rules. Ultra Magnus commended her for sticking to military protocol before questioning her on Spike's past. Only Forward
Learning the whereabouts of Ben Simpson from Sandra, Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus agreed that they couldn't rely on the slow human legal system when he was causing so much damage to human-Autobot relations. After ordering Jazz to remain at base, Magnus rolled out with Skywatch, who confronted Simpson and revealed him to be a facsimile construct controlled by none other than Swindle. The Decepticon tried to escape again, but Ultra Magnus dismembered him and dragged him back to base, where he admitted under interrogation that he had been supplying Spike Witwicky and Skywatch with Cybertronian technology from the start. This revelation caused the Autobots to sever their ties with Skywatch. A Second Chance at Eden At one point during their time on Earth, Ultra Magnus witnessed Bumblebee bring all five Stunticons into custody to everyone's surprise. The Question
The Autobots on Earth returned to Cybertron once Optimus Prime's team had defeated Galvatron, D-Void and the Decepticons. Feeling that the Autobots were no longer wanted on post-war Cybertron, Ultra Magnus decided to accompany Rodimus and Drift on their quest to find the Knights of Cybertron. The Death of Optimus Prime He joined the crew of the Lost Light as Rodimus's second-in-command, but soon started to become increasingly petty about minor infractions. Magnus's troubles on the Lost Light started when an accident at launch caused the ship to quantum jump to a random point in space. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It A ruptured hull led to a portion of the crew being sucked out into space, so Rodimus and Ultra Magnus set the Lost Light down on a nearby planet and went out searching for them. Hangers On The ship was soon repaired and took off again, only for a Sparkeater to be discovered on board, reminding Ultra Magnus of the time he arrested the Decepticon Blip. Magnus heavily disapproved of Rodimus using Rung as bait to lure the creature in to be killed, and told Rodimus that he had to call him out on that because nobody else would, but Rodimus brushed off the lecture, stating that he was in charge now. The Chaos of Warm Things
As time went on, Magnus became increasingly anal about everything, especially minor, pointless things like dirt How Ratchet Got His Hands Back, Autobrands at angles, lighting problems, and so on—an inability to cope with the rules of peacetime had lead to a full-blown nervous breakdown for Magnus that saw him to append as much weight to the everyday rules of life as he had to the rules of war. Parasites The Divided Self He made life hell for just about everyone of the ship with his obsessive-compulsive tendencies and relentless attempts to enforce petty, pointless standards of conduct that the entire crew did their best to defy, Rodimus most of all, who simply started ignoring his many, many memos. He started to question why he'd joined the quest and tried to leave several times, but Rodimus would keep talking him into staying. Cybertronian Homesick Blues
Discovering that the naive Tailgate, who had been offline for the duration of the war, wanted to be a Decepticon Magnus reported him to Rodimus. A history lesson courtesy of Rewind quickly disabused Tailgate of this notion, and he decided to be an Autobot instead Life After the Big Bang so Magnus began educating him in the Autobot Code—a long tortuous process that saw Magnus pore over the unabridged version and go over it in excruciating detail. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back
After attending a ceremony honoring Highbrow, Chromedome and Brainstorm, Ultra Magnus was among the crew members temporarily frozen in place by one of Brainstorm's backfiring weapons. The Reluctant Specialist Learning of the bar that Swerve had set up, he promptly arrested the big-mouthed 'bot, and sent him to join Rewind replacing rivets on the ship's hull. When Fortress Maximus took Rung and Whirl hostage, Magnus listened in on his threats. Interiors
The infestation of Nanocons, long thought eradicated, became active within Ultra Magnus, so a team of hardy Autobots were miniaturized and implanted inside him to try to fight the creatures. The Nanocons eventually ended up at Magnus's mouth pistons, and he was forced to destroy them by smiling—not without great effort, as those mechanisms had become rusted with disuse. Though he was greatly embarrassed by it and the crew consequently mocked him for it, Rodimus assured him that it meant they were beginning to accept him. When the Lost Light encountered the Galactic Council ship The Benign Intervention, Magnus was able to use his bureaucratic skills to talk Captain K'gard into allowing a delegation of Autobots to visit Crystal City. He himself was beamed aboard the Council ship, where K'gard told him that he was trusted by the Council and tried unsuccessfully to talk him into joining them—he even smiled at the idea the other Autobots might influence him to be less strict in his outlook. When the Council ship came under apparent attack from the surface, Magnus was beamed back aboard the Lost Light before K'gard began the process of destroying the Autobot ship with an incineration shell. Fortunately the ship had a last-minute save, courtesy of a freed Metrotitan. You, Me, and Other Revelations
Following a reconnaissance mission to Temptoria, Before & After Magnus returned to the Lost Light to find Cyclonus had been blamed for an attack on Red Alert, and was forced to restrain Cyclonus after Drift's attempted interrogation turned violent. Patternism When it turned out Red Alert's decapitation was self-inflicted, Magnus suggested putting him into cold storage, something Rodimus reluctantly agreed with. An Intimate Beheading This matter dealt with, the Autobots were able to follow up on Magnus's information from Temptoria, which pointed to the missing Circle of Light possibly being held there by Decepticons. Magnus joined a task force of Autobots in an attack on the Decepticon base on the planet, his prowess in the subsequent battle particularly impressing Tailgate. Though they liberated Temptoria's capital, they failed to find the Circle of Light. Before & After
Having been ordered by Rodimus to go on shore leave to Hedonia, Magnus joined Swerve's social group and debuted his holomatter avatar: a copy of Verity. Slipped a nucleon mickey by Whirl, Magnus fell unconscious, awakening just long enough to break down in front of Swerve, admitting that he hated the quest, was upset that nobody liked him, and believed everything had gone wrong when he'd accepted Tyrest's offer: the offer to be Magnus had been everything Minimus Ambus had ever wanted and he'd been a fool to take it. (Swerve, of course, had no idea what he was referring to.) Passing out once more, his unconsious body was hauled out into the street by Swerve and friends, where they jumped up and down on him until he reflexively transformed, allowing them to drive him back to the shuttle. Cybertronian Homesick Blues Afterwards, he tried to socialise with Rung and even tried jokes, to toe-curlingly embarrassing failure. Despite that, they got on quite well. Signal to Noise
When Overlord was set free aboard the Lost Light, Magnus was the first one to charge against the loose Decepticon, still carrying the guilt after the incident of Garrus-9. He managed to briefly beat him into submission, until Overlord realized with some amusement that Magnus had not been holding back in his attack, while he himself had. Overlord stabbed Magnus through the spark with Drift's Great Sword before being set upon by the rest of the crew. First Aid rushed to Magnus's aid, but regrettably stated that, while he may have been able to slow down the shrinking of his spark, he wouldn't be able to save him. Under Cold Blue Stars The comatose Magnus was given only ten days until his spark collapsed, but before that happened, within the Magnus Armor, Ambus reflexively tripped the recall switch. Under its own power, the armor levitated from the med-slab, carrying Ambus within it, appropriating a shuttle that would take him to Tyrest, who currently dwelt on Cybertron's lost moon, Luna 1. The Gloaming Upon arrival, Magnus's body was recovered by Tyrest and taken to Pharma, who was able to use Tyrest's collection of bleeding-edge tech to save his life. While the doctor worked, however, Tyrest reviewed Magnus's journals, and was appalled to see how he had become reduced to an officious, bureaucratic joke. He angrily deactivated the Magnus Armor, stripping Minimus Ambus of the role he had played for years and made his very life. The Divided Self
Presently, a contingent of Lost Lighters arrived on Luna 1, having tracked Magnus there, and were promptly captured by Tyrest's forces. The Fecund Moon Learning from Tyrest that they were to be put to death for harboring a criminal—amnesiac crewmember Skids—Ambus requested to be placed in a cell alongside them. The Divided Self As the other 'bots had no knowledge of his dual identity, Ambus pretended to be an energon trader and got them to tell him about their recent escapades, hoping to prove to Tyrest that they, like he, had no knowledge of Skids's criminal past. House of Ambus The Divided Self That went wrong when Rung was able to recognize the personal tics of Magnus in Ambus, and he forced Ambus to come clean about his identity and explain his life story to Rodimus and the others. Rodimus's story also had its share of surprises for Ambus, as he learned that Tyrest was working with the Decepticon Titan Hunters and had amassed a graveyard of Metrotitan remains. Determined to find out what was going on, and why the Lost Lighters were being charged with "crimes against creation", he confronted Tyrest for answers. The revelations were shocking: Tyrest believed that all Transformers "constructed cold" were abominations and he intended to exterminate them all with a universal killswitch. Ambus refused to allow him to go through with his plans, so Tyrest initiated the newest amendment to his accord—pre-emptive execution—and had one of his Legislator robots crush Ambus's head. The Divided Self
Back in the cell, Getaway, Skids' partner in "crime" was brought up to date on Minimus Ambus' dual identity. Getaway told a startled Rodimus that Ambus/Ultra Magnus had lured Rodimus, and presumably his crew, to Luna 1 and Tyrest's cell. They were exactly where Ultra Magnus wanted them to be. Later, when an escaped Skids and Rodimus looked upon the empty Magnus Armour, Skids said cryptically that he didn't believe Minimus was hiding inside "that thing" the entire time.
Rodimus finally saw what had become of Minimus when the crew barged upon Tyrest in his control room. A headless body, turned into what Tyrest cruelly described as a tripping hazard. Arm the Lonely
Notes
- Simon Furman spent some time teasing an Ultra Magnus/Galvatron fight in homage to the Marvel UK Transformers comic, but had abandoned it by the time he wrote Revelation.[1]
- James Roberts had carefully seeded some clues of Ultra Magnus's true identities in issues of More Than Meets The Eye:
- In "Interiors", Skids mentions that Magnus used to do wisecracks.
- In the 2012 annual, he prescriptively describes himself using the third person. Twice.
- Magnus refers to Tyrest giving him everything he wanted in "Cybertronian Homesick Blues".
- The fatal damage done to Magnus in "Under Cold Blue Stars", the damage First Aid says can't be fixed? It's the exact same type of damage First Aid says Magnus survived once before in "Before & After".
- "The Gloaming" flashbacks showed Ultra Magnus dirty, with a crooked badge, and wise-cracking, all things his present self could never do, and each flashback ended with damage that Magnus would be really lucky to survive.
References
- ↑ IT’S Q&A TIME AGAIN! | simon furman 20. You previously mentioned that we’d see Ultra Magnus vs Galvatron. Is this still going to happen? SF) This was where my plans for Revelation/Expansion really did change, and not just because of the shift in format. Originally, I really wanted to have an Ultra Magnus/Galvatron smackdown in the tradition of the one from Target: 2006, but once I’d arranged all the players in Revelation I realised it just wasn’t going to work.
