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 continuity
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, Skids and the legendary Delta Magnus to contain the Decepticons. Parasites The 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 He went on to oversee the process of cleansing Grimlock's systems of Trypticon's corrupted energon. Primacy #1
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 other 'bots—the first being Suture, with later successors including Datum, Ramp and Blockus—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. Each wearer was a "loadbearer", a kind of Point One Percenter possessing a spark with an animating force strong enough to integrate the Magnus armor. 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 wearing 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 One Magnus would fall victim to the Spark affliction known as a zero point, Zero Point and 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. He had many adventures in his duties as enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, including the arrests of both a Decepticon peddling miniaturization technology who infected him with Nanocons, You, Me, and Other Revelations and wannabe Sparkeater Blip. The Chaos of Warm Things When Jhiaxus's renegade creation Arcee cut a swathe of destruction across the galaxy, Magnus hunted her down, using a combination of holographic trickery and shock grenades to subdue her so she could be sent to the Garrus-9 penitentiary. Spotlight: Arcee
Tracking down Decepticon wheeler-dealer Swindle on the planet Zull, Magnus was convinced to let the criminal go in exchange for information on the current whereabouts of an even greater offender: Scorponok, against whom Magnus bore a personal grudge. 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 The cycle repeated years later when Magnus caught up to Swindle again, arresting him for yet another violation, only to wind up once again letting him go in return for a fresh lead on Scorponok's new location. Escalation #1 Spotlight: Optimus Prime
While en route to help deal with the fallout of a break-in at Garrus-9, Magnus changed course in response to a distress call from Hound's crew, who were under attack by Cyclonus. After Magnus drove Cyclonus off, he teamed with Hound's crew to track him to Corata-Vaz and stage an ambush, only to be beaten back when he unleashed Thunderwing on them. Spotlight: Cyclonus After obtaining further intel on the plot being orchestrated by Cyclonus and his fellow Dead Universe Transformers, Spotlight: Doubledealer Magnus co-ordinated a simultaneous strike against their various Nega-Core installations. Spotlight: Sideswipe
Sometime after the foiling of the Dead Universe Expansion, Ultra Magnus received a signal from a battered Hot Rod, requesting some backup for Sunstreaker, who was in the process of confronting Scorponok on Earth. Determined to put an end to his old quarry once and for all, Magnus headed for Earth. Maximum Dinobots #4 Scorponok had already been defeated by the Dynobots by the time Magnus arrived, though he made it in time to stop them from killing him, intent on seeing Scorponok punished by the law. After stripping Scorponok's Machination facility of Cybertronian tech and providing Optimus Prime with a report on the events, Magnus departed for Garrus-9 with Scorponok, Shockwave and Grimlock, who had surrendered to Magnus in exchange for his rescinding the warrants on the other Dynobots. Maximum Dinobots #5
Magnus was soon to discover that he had picked up a stowaway when he left Earth: human runaway Verity Carlo. Surprisingly, Magnus warmed to Verity in his own way and allowed her to stay with him; she, in return, affectionately dubbed him "Uncle Magnus". After about four years of adventuring together, Magnus and Verity were called upon by Prowl to transport the Autobot commando squad known as the Wreckers to Garrus-9, which had been overrun by Decepticons during a galaxy-wide uprising a few years before. En route, the group picked up former Wreckers leader and Garrus-9 escapee Impactor, Last Stand of the Wreckers #1 who Magnus encouraged the recalcitrant Springer to take on the mission with them. Magnus proceeded to brief the Wreckers and sent them on their way, but refrained from participating in the mission himself, both to turn a blind eye to the Wreckers' often-brutal methods, and because Prowl had requested his presence back on Earth to investigate the murder of Ironhide. Last Stand of the Wreckers #2 The mission was a disaster at best, with many Wreckers dying at the hands of Overlord; Magnus would go on to carry great guilt over his non-participation. Under Cold Blue Stars Further, on the return trip, Magnus discovered that Verity had also left him, having stolen away with the Wreckers on their mission; In Word and Deed despite appearances, he would dearly miss her. Cybertronian Homesick Blues
Arriving on Earth, New Arrivals, Old Encounters Magnus discovered the Autobots in disarray, Ironhide's death having caused Optimus Prime to surrender to human agency Skywatch, leaving Bumblebee in charge. Magnus called for the Autobots' full cooperation, but after performing an autopsy of Ironhide's body and learning that the 'bot who had led the mission on which he died, Hot Rod, had broken away from Bumblebee's group, he elected to search Hot Rod out for questioning. A Rude Awakening Discovering that Hot Rod—now calling himself "Rodimus Prime"—had begun to construct a rocket to leave Earth, and had allied himself with Decepticons in order to do so, including Magnus's old stoolie Swindle, Magnus attempted to arrest Rodimus under charges of treason. Prowl stood up for Rodimus, and, unable to arrest everyone, the furious Magnus returned to Bumblebee's cave. Seasons in Flight In short order, he forcibly recruited a team of Autobots to arrest Rodimus and his followers, but when they returned to Rodimus's launch site, they were confronted by Swindle's secret weapon: the Stunticon combiner Menasor, who was ordered to kill Magnus first. Enemies of the System Magnus fared poorly in the battle, but was saved from death at Menasor's hands by Optimus Prime, who had brokered an alliance with Skywatch. Repaired after the battle, Magnus was furious to find Swindle had slipped through his fingers again, and took out his frustrations on Rodimus. When Bumblebee tried 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. However, as this was going on, Rodimus took off in Ultra Magnus' shuttle, leaving him stuck on Earth with the other Autobots. Earthworks
Temporarily provided with a ship by Skywatch, The Land Ironclads Magnus recovered the surviving Wreckers from Garrus-9, and delivered the fruit of their mission to Prowl: a data slug containing complete records of Autobot war crimes from the Aequitas computer. Knowing that it would be disastrous if the data got out, Magnus maintained his plausible deniability and left it in Prowl's hands. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
Some time later, when Bumblebee was the victim of an attempted assassination, Magnus lost patience with Brawn's raging and threatened to have him restrained. 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, the Decepticons launched an attack on the base. Ultra Magnus was incapacitated by Frenzy's sonic powers, allowing the Decepticons to free their captive comrades and escape. The Demolished Man In the aftermath of the attack, Magnus took command and relocated everyone to Omega Supreme's location, but not before leaving Brawn with a mission to find and recruit the aid of the disenfranchised Decepticon Thundercracker. Altered Carbon On the way to Omega, the Autobots were attacked by humans who didn't want them on their planet, and Pennington had to talk Ultra Magnus out of retaliating. Unfortunately, things got worse 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 The injured Magnus was held hostage by Megatron and Soundwave and used 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 to investigate charges brought against Spike Witwicky for the supposed murder of Scrapper. 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
Magnus 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 Around this time, Ultra Magnus was on hand to witness Bumblebee bring all five Stunticons into custody to everyone's surprise. The Question Then, after learning the whereabouts of Ben Simpson from Sandra, Bumblebee and Magnus agreed to circumvent the slow human legal system and rolled out with Skywatch to confront Simpson, discovering 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
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 and had many, many reservations about those who had signed up for the quest. 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 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 peacetime had led to a full-blown nervous breakdown for Magnus that saw him try 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. Passing out once more, his unconscious 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 Garrus-9 fiasco. He managed to briefly beat Overlord into submission until the Decepticon stabbed him through the spark with Drift's Great Sword. While the rest of the crew dealt with dispatching Overlord, First Aid tended to Magnus's injuries, only to discover that he would be unable to prevent the collapse of his spark. Under Cold Blue Stars The comatose Magnus was given only ten days to live, 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 As it turned out, the body was another outer shell — the actual Ambus had survived, and was able to shoot Tyrest in the back as the Chief Justice unleashed the power of the kill switch. This Calamitous Life Following Tyrest's defeat, Ambus once again donned the Magnus Armor. The Sound of Breaking Glass When he learned that Cyclonus had saved Tailgate's life, he formally welcomed Cyclonus on board. This Calamitous Life
Prevenge
- Voice actor: Jack Angel (English)
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]
- Optimus Prime's unnamed Senator friend wandered around the "Shadowplay" 3-parter in not only a Magnus-style design, but in Ultra Magnus' colours. This was deliberate, making us believe that this was going to be the origin of Ultra Magnus rather than the origin of Shockwave.[2]
- Ultra Magnus being a small robot inside a big robot is a feature of the original toy. Dreamwave had put this into fiction before but IDW's take was a great expansion of the idea.
- 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 exactly the 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.
- ↑ Forum post by Alex Milne
