Shockwave

From IDWVerse Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
230px
Shockwave
Biographical Information
Homeworld Cybertron
Creation date Circa 6,000,000 BC
Physical Description
Species Cybertronian
Gender Male
Eye color Yellow
Armor color Purple
Black
Yellow
Status
Occupation Prime
Citizenship Cybertronian
Marital Status Single
Known relatives None
Political Information
Affiliation Cybertronian Senate (Formerly)
Decepticons
Maximals (Formerly)

Biography[edit | edit source]

Student of a Madman[edit | edit source]

A Cybertronian male, Shockwave was forged on Cybertron with a "Point One Percenter" spark around 6,000,000 BC, or during Cybertron's Golden Age under Nova Prime. A scientist, he fell under the tutelage of Jhiaxus, Nova's chief scientist. After centuries of studying, Shockwave eventually became Jhaixus' top student. Alarmed by Nova's imperial policies, he recognized Cybertron would eventually undergo an energy crisis and began to experiment on alternative energy sources. Shockwave soon planted a seed of his works within Crystal City. As he completed his work, Jhiaxus approached him and asked if he would watch his greatest achievement: the newly-created combiner Monstructor in a battle against the last of the Omega Sentinels, Omega Supreme.

Shockwave was appalled at what he saw and realized his once noble teacher was capable of wrong when Monstructor fell underneath Omega's combat prowess. In the carnage, Crystal City was in ruins along with his ore. Jhiaxus, along with Nova Prime and his closest followers, soon left Cybertron aboard Ark-1, leaving Shockwave to take his master's role.

A Politician With A Cause[edit | edit source]

Revolutionary Ideas[edit | edit source]

After the Ark-1's disappearance into the Benzuli Expanse, the Cybertronian Senate formed to lead Cybertron, with Nominus Prime at its head. Shockwave became a senator, proposing a new science academy, the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology, on his first day to overwhelming applause. Dai Atlas approached him afterward, saying that while he was wary of any student of Jhiaxus, he agreed with the new senator's spark. Senator Proteus also congratulated him, but Shockwave was appalled by the senior senator's functionist beliefs, saying all were equal under Primus.

Dai Atlas approached him once more at a spaceport, where Shockwave told him of his beliefs in a coming energy shortage. Dai Atlas agreed with him but warned the young senator of not becoming the cruel scientist his former master was.

Shockwave soon became famous for being extremely outgoing personality as a senator, a trait which led him to change his color scheme on a regular basis and even saw him suspended from the Senate on numerous occasions for "emotional outbursts." Using Jhiaxus' teachings, he began to push for Cybertronian innovation, pushing for Nova Prime's spark-splicing program to be restarted. Also, he began to secretly recruit outliers, Cybertronians with powers unrelated to their alternate mode, to hide them from an increasingly functionist Cybertron and hone their powers. Among these charges were Damus, or Glitch, who could manipulate machinery; Skids, who had an enhanced capacity for learning; Skywarp, a flier who could teleport; Soundwave, who was a telepath; Thundercracker, another flier who could manipulate the air to form sonic booms; Trailbreaker; who could create forcefields, and Windcharger, a magneto-kinetic. Among his standard students, such as Mesothulas and Scoop, Shockwave taught the Dark Cybertron prophecy from the ages of the Thirteen. He also put billions of shanix into off-world projects, including meeting with the Omega Guardians, whom he believed held an artifact, the Magnificence, that was a Knight of Cybertron. Another of his efforts was sending multiple expeditions on a hunt to find both the Ark-1 and Luna 1, Cybertron's missing moon.

Discovering Orion Pax[edit | edit source]

Shockwave eventually realized that Nominus Prime and Proteus would not change their perspective, so he took matters into his own hands. He began to meet with various Cybertronians who he believed would make better leaders than Nominus and had them outfitted with a Matrix-chamber within their chests. One of his candidates was Zeta, a young 'bot from Sistex.

In 4th Cycle 499, Nominus Prime was found heavily injured in an assassination attempt, and Shockwave discovered it to be a ploy for the Senate to get access to the Matrix. During a Senate meeting within the Grand Imperium, Shockwave attended as the senators discussed the fallout of Nominus' assassination attempt, with the consensus being a "Clampdown" instituted, with curfews and martial law. Suddenly, a battered police officer, Orion Pax, barged in, demanding that the Senate change its ways of corruption for the betterment of Cybertron. Before he could continue, Sentinel, the Senate's security director, and his men removed him from the chamber.

Before being incarcerated, Shockwave had Orion repaired and modified to hold the Matrix. After his release, Orion met Shockwave at the Ark-1 memorial, where the senator warned the officer of a coming war and the Senate's true intentions. The two parted ways, but not before Shockwave said he would keep in touch.

Assassination of Nominus[edit | edit source]

By 4th Cycle 501, news of Nominus Prime's death went public under the cover story of rust infection. Orion Pax, along with his friend Ratchet, traveled to Iacon to meet Shockwave, who confirmed the falsehood of the media and that the true reason of the Prime's death was Sentinel realizing his Matrix was fake. He also told the police officer that Sentinel was planning a scheme involving the Decepticons, an underground anti-functionist group, having sent Megatron, the starter of the movement, off-world in an attempt to silence him.

Later, Orion received news from the ex-Senate enforcer Whirl of a plot to kill Shockwave, and he sent Roller and Ratchet to retrieve him from the Academy to the Rodion police station for safekeeping. While there, they were met my Pax and two other officers, Prowl and Tumbler, who told them of the Institute, a Senate-sponsored mind-altering facility. Shockwave recognized most of the patients as being registered Decepticons. Together, the group discovered the Senate's plan: the false Matrix within Nominus' body would detonate within the Primal Basilica, allowing the Senate to blame the Decepticons and lobotomize them within the Institute. The senator sent three of his students, Glitch, Windcharger, and Skids, along with Pax to the Basilica while Tumbler and Roller stayed behind as guards.

Shockwave believed he was too high-profile for Sentinel to come after, but he was proved wrong when four Senate enforcers, Kroma, Macabre, and the Heavies attacked the station. After completing his mission, Orion returned in an attempt to rescue his friend, but the senator went willingly with the enforcers rather than allow innocents to die, asking only to be remembered as he was. He was taken to an Institute, where he was subjected to "Shadowplay," or a personality change which turned the energetic politician into an emotionless scientist. To add insult to the injury, Proteus and Sentinel had empurata performed on Shockwave, replacing his hands and face with claws and a single optic as a symbol of shame. His body was also rebuilt into a less impressive form, as well as his usually flamboyant color scheme altered to a dull purple.

Joining the Decepticons[edit | edit source]

Meeting Megatron[edit | edit source]

While Proteus and Sentinel believed they had finally eliminated their opponent, in truth, they allowed Shockwave to liberate himself. No longer bound by emotions, he allowed logic to dictate his actions to save Cybertron from the energy crisis. During a Senate hearing around 4,200,000 BC, Dai Atlas called upon him in hopes of support on his energon crisis platform, but Shockwave lied, saying Atlas made up the crisis in pursuit of power, effectively allowing him to continue his efforts alone and undisturbed.

As he left the chamber, Shockwave was approached by a senator from Vos, Starscream. Impressed by his lying, Starscream invited him to meet Megatron, the Decepticon leader, in Kaon. After traveling across Cybertron, Megatron recognized that Shockwave was only using Proteus for his ends. He offered the senator resources for his projects in exchange for a combiner, except only controllable, unlike Monstructor. Realizing the deal was in his favor, Shockwave agreed.

Serving a New Master[edit | edit source]

Being provided with a laboratory, Shockwave immediately began his research on alternate energy sources. He began to abduct lower-class Cybertronians, pump them full of different forms of synthetic energon, and hang them on the ceiling once his concoction inevitably reacted violently. One day, as he walked the streets, Orion Pax came to him and asked what happened to him, but Shockwave stated their friendship was over, saying he was not the same senator who had befriended the young cop.

Meanwhile, Megatron began to plan an assault on the Autobot Security Services in Kaon. He grew impatient in his wish for a combiner and called for Shockwave to offer him hands to speed up the process. As Shockwave was about to accept, Megatron announced his intentions to murder the Senate. Realizing the war he had once believed was upon them, Shockwave accepted only one hand and instead took a multi-phase fusion accelerator in place of his left arm. Shockwave traveled to Iacon to Dai Atlas' office where his friend greeted him with open arms. In one last act of emotion, the Decepticon scientist blasted Atlas' legs off to keep him from sharing the Senate's fate the following day.

The Decepticon attack occurred as planned, with Kaon being captured by Megatron and his army. After a Decepticon assassination team murdered the Senate, Soundwave, one of Megatron's top lieutenants, was attempting to take revenge against Senator Ratbat by removing his spark and brain module and place it into a cassette. Shockwave came across him and asked if Ratbat would serve him, unlike Soundwave's other cassettes which were considered equal. The outlier responded that some were more equal than others, and Shockwave, satisfied by his answer, offered to assist him by placing Ratbat into a flying form.

Megatron killed Sentinel Prime during the uprising, leading Zeta, Shockwave's former student, to take the role of Prime. Shockwave began to become famous among the Decepticons for being "obsessed with combiners." The former senator also modified his alternate mode into that of a mobile artillery gun. He, along with Ferak, developed the nightmare transmitter that enhanced Soundwave's outlier abilities to allow him to control other Cybertronians. Their target was Bumblebee, who they used to destroy the Tygun Factory. Bumblebee went to the Autobots, now a police force under Orion Pax, who traced the signal back to the Decepticon bolthole. Their hideout was broken into by Orion, Prowl, and Bumblebee but the Decepticons escaped.

Second Cybertronian Civil War[edit | edit source]

Initial Conflicts[edit | edit source]

Zeta's extremism forced Orion Pax to split from the Prime and ally his unit to Megatron. When he fell in battle, Shockwave repaired him in Kolkular. He also witnessed the official alliance between Pax and Megatron. The two decided an attack against Zeta's Citadel was the best way to eliminate their enemy. After Zeta was killed by the hand of Megatron himself, Shockwave was called in to take out the last of the Omega Destructors, the Prime's guardians, in one shot. However, Megatron betrayed the Autobots and declared war against, effectively taking control of Cybertron. However, Orion Pax, now Optimus Prime, led a counter-attack which was spear-headed by a Titan, Metroplex. At Trion Square, Autobot forces crushed the Decepticon war machine, and Shockwave ordered a retreat.

The Decepticons returned to Kolkular, where Scorponok announced that he was now Decepticon leader following his banishment of Megatron for failing to hold Cybertron under his fist. Due to the energy crisis, Shockwave had predicted millennia earlier and the ongoing war, millions of Cybertronians boarded starships away from Cybertron in a mass "Exodus." Shockwave, along with a task force, was deployed to the Starsreach Spaceport in Iacon to cause general havoc, a move the former senator judged to be illogical. While they received little resistance from the Autobots, the Dynobot Grimlock tore into the Decepticons, forcing Shockwave to call a retreat once again. He, along with the survivors, was then rerouted to the Toraxxis Crater, where they witnessed Scorponok raising the corrupted Titan known as Trypticon. This act proved to be the last straw for the Decepticons, for when the Terrocons returned to Cybertron with Megatron in tow, they welcomed him with open arms. Shockwave bore witness as Megatron dispatched his usurper, and patched his true leader's wounds that he had sustained while in exile.

War Without End[edit | edit source]

The Autobots defeated Trypticon in Harmonex but were forced to retreat by the presence of the renewed Decepticon army. Here, Shockwave watched as Megatron revived the Titan and was among those who boarded him on a quest to regain the Decepticons who had left due to Scorponok's ineffective leadership. Once they were made whole again, the Decepticons lead an assault on Iacon. Shockwave served as a member of Megatron's command entourage away from the battle. Following the failed bombing run, Shockwave found himself facing the Autobots directly. The battle ended with Megatron captured, leading the Decepticons to, once more, retreat.

Shockwave led a group of survivors to Junkion, where Prowl and an Autobot strike force eventually met him. The two armies met in battle, a battle which ended in the destruction of the world's gravimetric core and eventual shattering of the planet.

Over the course of the war, Shockwave cemented himself as a critical lieutenant of Megatron. He served as Megatron's confident during the ratifying of the Tyrest Accord, a law system governing the Second Cybertronian Civil War. Around 3,000,000 BC, he, along with Rossum, perfected the process to create members of the Warriors Elite, a unit filled with Decepticons who were either modified or naturally extremely powerful. Shockwave supervised the part of the program that included killswitches to shut down the warriors in case of open rebellion. These Warriors Elite included Black Shadow, Heretech, Killmaster, Overlord, and Sixshot. Shockwave also commanded a Worldsweeper during the imperial phase of the Decepticon war machine.

Regenesis[edit | edit source]

Traveling the Galaxy[edit | edit source]

Around 650,000 BC, Shockwave began a new project involving alternative energy called Regenesis. He created thirteen different ores distilled from real energon, each with a different property. Shockwave launched them from Cybertron aboard rockets aimed at thirteen different planets, one for each ore. The Decepticon scientist had two goals: the thirteen ores would create thirteen different kinds of energon that could be used to alleviate the energy crisis. Also, the ores would serve as a way to unroot the thirteen original Primes and the Enigma of Combination from their hiding places.

150,000 years later, in 500,000 BC, Shockwave embarked on a starship in an attempt to view the fruits of his labor, seemingly deserting the Decepticon cause in the process. To his surprise, each ore had taken on additional properties besides their intended purpose. His first ore, Ore-1, had arrived on Lenocinium Velnero-117. The energon there had caused the planet to become detached from the timestream and seemingly appear at random at different points in history. On Gorlam Prime within the Benzuli Expanse, Ore-2 had turned into a "death ore," killing any who touched it. The energon had liquified into an underground pool which served as a portal into an alternate universe known as the Dead Universe. On Prion, a lost Cybertronian colony world, Ore-3, while not taking root, granted the ability to mass-shift. Ore-4 landed on Caminus, another Cybertronian colony, and allowed the power of gravitic control. Shockwave traveled to Devisiun, a planet in a binary star system where Ore-5 had taken root and gave the power of combination. On Arduria, the energon variety known as Ore-6 had drained the planet of all heat, causing it to freeze and shatter into pieces over the millennia since the missile carrying the ore had arrived. The next energon derivative Shockwave discovered was Ore-7 on the dead world of Antilla, which gave the ability to repair something to its original state, no matter how damaged. He next traveled to the desert world of Tsiehshi, where Ore-8 had changed into a crystal system spanning the planet, with each crystal emitting radiation capable of altering one's mind. On the tidally-locked planet of Velocitron, home to yet another lost colony of Cybertronians, Ore-9 gave the power of teleportation. Shockwave soon discovered Ore-10 on Carcer, a mode-locked Titan, which allowed the ability to reprogram minds. Ore-11, on the world of Eukaris, evolved beings to a higher form. The penultimate ore, Ore-12, had been sent to the planet of Elonia, where it had settled into a pool in the Blue Mountains. The energon could form a sort of crystalline armor which developed around the user. As he discovered the ores, Shockwave began to plan a way to end Cybertron's energy struggles forever.

At some point during his travels, the Dynobots stole some energon from him, but the Decepticon scientist decided if he could not have the energon, neither could the Autobots. Shockwave detonated the energon, heavily damaging his would-be-assailants.

Earth[edit | edit source]

By 10,000 BC, Shockwave had arrived at the thirteenth world, Earth, which was in the final stages of an ice age. He discovered the ore had caused the planet's atmosphere to be overwhelming abundant with energon, necessitating the use of dampeners. As he entered the planet's orbit, a different Cybertronian ship, the Axalon, appeared with a goal of refueling, having detected the Ore-13 on the planet's surface. Using his craft's communications array, the Decepticon bounced a signal from Optimus Prime and Bumblebee attempting to contact the Ark-19 in an attempt to confuse them before shooting them down. The ship crashed in modern-day Eastern Europe, where Shockwave went to investigate the wreckage. He discovered the inhabitants to be Cybertronians with beast modes and that the cargo the ship carried was a device called the Talisman, which wiped the crew's memories as he went aboard. One of the crew awoke and saw the bounced transmission and, seeing the similarity in his chassis, wondered if he was Bumblebee.

This statement gave the Decepticon a plan for a new experiment. He repainted most of the crew to resemble warriors on both sides of the war and gave them new memories of going along with their new identity. The mad scientist even created an analog of himself. Shockwave then released his warriors into a mock "war" which allowed the Decepticon to study tactics. For one hundred years, the colonists fought as their creator studied the warriors and the Talisman, which had made its drones from the Axalon's wreckage. However, the "Autobots" and "Decepticons"' energon reserves ran out, and, unwilling to share his reserves, Shockwave allowed them to go into stasis lock as he returned to his real mission.

Imprisonment[edit | edit source]

Rejoining the Fold[edit | edit source]

Final Preparations[edit | edit source]

Dark Cybertron[edit | edit source]

A New Beginning[edit | edit source]

Unifying Cybertron[edit | edit source]

First Cybertronian Civil War[edit | edit source]

Continuing Machinations[edit | edit source]

Return to Cybertron[edit | edit source]

Personality and traits[edit | edit source]

Powers and abilities[edit | edit source]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Translations[edit | edit source]

  • In Czech, Shockwave is called Razič.
  • In French, Shockwave is called Onde de Choc, translated as "Shock wave".
  • In Hebrew, Shockwave is called גל הלם or Gal Hellem, which is translated as "Shock wave".
  • In Hungarian, Shockwave is called Sokkoló, which is translated as "Shocker".
  • In Italian, Shockwave is called Brutal.
  • In Japanese, Shockwave is called either レーザーウェーブ or Rēzāwēbu, which literally translated as "laser wave", or ショックウェーブ or Shokkuwēbu, which translates to "Shockwave".
  • In Mandarin Chinese, Shockwave is called 震荡波 or Zhèndàngbō, which translates to "Shockwave".
  • In Portuguese, Shockwave is called Onda-Choque, which translates to "Shock-Wave".
  • In Russian, Shockwave is called Взрывала or Vzryvala, which translates to "Blaster".
  • In Taiwanese Mandarin, Shockwave is called 震波 or Chèn-phō, which translates to "Shockwave".
  • In Ukrainian, Shockwave is called Шокун or Shokun, which translates to "Shocker".

Appearances[edit | edit source]

Sources[edit | edit source]

Notes and references[edit | edit source]