| “ | That's because everything I touch is food for my hunger. My hunger for power! | „ |
| ~ Megatron, More Than Meets the Eye |
Megatron is the main antagonist of the Transformers franchise. He is the founder, leader, and boss, of the Decepticons and is an antagonist of the Transformers The Headmasters.
History[]
Backstory[]
Megatron was responsible for bringing Cybertron out of its Golden Age when he restarted the Autobot/Decepticon civil war nine million years ago. Among his first actions, as seen in War Dawn, was the fatal wounding of a young dock worker named Orion Pax, who was rebuilt to become Megatron's mortal enemy, Optimus Prime.
Season 1[]
Megatron's forces boarded the Autobots' spacecraft when it was on a mission to search for new sources of energy on other planets, and was knocked offline like all the other Transformers when the craft crashed on prehistoric Earth.
When both factions reawakened in 1984, Megatron made it his mission to pillage all of Earth's natural resources and enslave its populace, with the goal of revitalising Cybertron and dominating the entire universe. His plans were by turns cunning, wicked, outrageous, and often, utterly, utterly ludicrous.
Season 2[]
During a raid on an Air Force rocket base in Autobot Spike, Megatron covered the Decepticons' retreat by opening fire on Bumblebee and Spike, badly wounding the young human. While his body was being operated upon, Spike's mind was transferred into the body of "Autobot X", and Megatron manipulated him into turning against the Autobots. Unfortunately for Megatron, Spike got a hold of himself and turned Megatron's gun on the other Decepticons.
In Attack of the Autobots, Megatron used invisibility spray to sneak into Autobot Headquarters and plant a personality destabilizer device, which turned the Autobots into rampaging brutes, and Megatron led the Decepticons in hijacking a solar satellite, only to be foiled when the Autobots were restored to their right minds. In Enter the Nightbird, Megatron stole the human-made robot ninja Nightbird and unleashing it upon the Autobots. Megatron was full of praise for Nightbird and considered replacing Starscream with her. Threatened by this prospect, Starscream helped the Autobots defeat Nightbird.
In A Prime Problem, Megatron created a clone of Optimus Prime that he controlled personally via a special helmet. Despite Megatron's mistakes, Prime's comrades failed to tell the difference between the clone and the genuine article. It was only when Megatron dismissed the safety of Spike that the clone was destroyed. In Microbots, venturing into the jungles of South America, Megatron and the Decepticons uncovered the ruins of the space cruiser that had brought them to Earth, and Megatron had its power core, the Heart of Cybertron, installed within his body. Now bestowed with incredible energy-blasting powers, Megatron would have destroyed the Autobots, had Bumblebee, Brawn and Perceptor not shrunk themselves to microscopic size and ventured inside his body to disconnect the Heart of Cybertron.
In Megatron's Master Plan, Megatron entered into a allience with the politician Shawn Berger, promising him control of Central City if he would help Megatron "expose" the Autobots as villains. Megatron tricked Berger into believing the Autobots had ransacked an oil field by disguising the Decepticons with costumes, and the tape "proving" the Autobots' evil deeds was unveiled to the public. The Autobots were exiled from Earth, and Megatron secretly reprogrammed their ship's navigation computer to send them into the Sun. Megatron played along for a while, but during a television interview, he revealed his deception and announced his intention to conquer the planet. Central City immediately fell under his control and was turned into a huge work camp, but soon, the Autobots returned to Earth to clear their names and stop Megatron.
In Desertion of the Dinobots, the Decepticons' attempt to steal Professor Greene's Ultra Plane was foiled by lack of cybertonium, which robbed Megatron of his ability to fly and shoot straight. Megatron was not pleased to hear that Shockwave's attempts to transport some fresh cybertonium from Cybertron were stymied by Spike and his girlfriend Carly. Once he was functional again in Blaster Blues, Megatron stole the Voltronic Galaxer and used it to disrupt communications signals all across Earth from a base on the Moon. Holding the world to ransom for energy in exchange for clear lines of communication, Megatron was ultimately defeated in a battle with Optimus on the Moon's surface.
While conducting an experiment, in Kremzeek, Megatron inadvertently wound up creating the demented energy imp known as Kremzeek. Megatron released Kremzeek into the Autobot base so that he could cause havoc, keeping the Autobots occupied while he tested the Decepticons' new energy magnet off the coast of Japan. However, Megatron had not anticipated that Kremzeek would follow him to Japan and wind up destroying their operation there. In Triple Takeover, Megatron was betrayed by Starscream, Astrotrain and Blitzwing, and was frozen solid in a subterranean chamber. However, the chaos caused by the trio's attempts to take control of the Decepticons caused a flash flood that destroyed the chamber and freed Megatron, and he retook his leadership position.
After another failed coup, in Starscream's Brigade, Megatron finally dismissed Starscream from the Decepticons. When news then came in from Shockwave that the personality components of the "Renegade Decepticons" had been freed from imprisonment, Megatron suspected the Autobots were responsible, but he soon learned that Starscream had done the deed and used the components to create the Combaticons. Megatron could not stand up to the power of the Combaticons' combined form of Bruticus, and he was forced to hand power over to Starscream, before Menasor saved Megatron. Megatron exiled Starscream and the Combaticons to an asteroid in space. However, in The Revenge of Bruticus, this made things worse, as the Combaticons towed the asteroid to Cybertron and took over the planet. While supervising an Insecticon rampage on Earth, Megatron received a communication from Starscream informing him that the Combaticons had rewired the space bridge and were using it to hurl the Earth into the Sun. Megatron and Optimus Prime were forced to join forces to stop the Combaticons, but first, both leaders had to donate some of their own parts to repair the damaged space bridge control panel. After a pitched battle on Cybertron, Bruticus was defeated, and Optimus believed he witnessed Megatron destroying Bruticus. In truth, the whole scene had been a holographic illusion masterminded by Starscream, who gave Megatron the defeated Bruticus's body. Planning to reprogram the Combaticons to be loyal to him, Megatron welcomed Starscream back into the Decepticon ranks as reward for his efforts.
The Movie[]
In 2005, having conquered Cybertron in the course of the twenty years, Megatron learned of the Autobots' plan to stage a major strike against him, and he responded by hijacking an Autobot shuttle, killing all aboard. Announcing his intention to wipe out Autobot City, he killed the wounded Ironhide personally. When the shuttle began its approach to Autobot City, the young Autobot Hot Rod was able to spot the Decepticons aboard and opened fire, exposing the villains. Megatron, undeterred, initiated a massive siege of the fortress.
Megatron faced off with Optimus Prime in a final battle, and Optimus prevailed, bringing Megatron to his knees and was poised to shoot him. Spotting a discarded pistol lying nearby, Megatron stalled for time by begging for mercy, until Hot Rod spotted what he was doing and jumped him. Megatron seized the youth, using him as a shield while he grabbed the gun and opened fire on Prime. Prime was felled by the shots, and Megatron tossed Hot Rod aside, striding up to the fallen Prime and preparing to kill him. With his last ounce of strength, however, Prime caught Megatron off-guard and sent the Decepticon leader toppling over the edge. Crippled by the fall, Megatron was carried to the Astrotrain by Soundwave as the tide of battle turned and the Decepticons retreated.
On the journey back to Cybertron, it became necessary for the Decepticons to jettison excess mass. The wounded Decepticons were set adrift in space, with Starscream personally jettisoning Megatron, despite Megatron's protestations. However, Megatron's drifting body was found by Unicron who offered to rebuild him if he would destroy the Matrix of Leadership. Megatron inquired what he would receive, and Unicron offered to recreate his wounded body and give him new troops. Megatron demanded more but was denied, as Unicron declared that Megatron now belonged to him. Megatron refused to be anyone's servant, so Unicron began to consume him. Megatron accepted the chaos-bringer's offer and was recreated as Galvatron.
| “ | They shall learn the way of conflict… the way of war… the way of Megatron. | „ |
Megatron was one of the main antagonists of the Marvel's the Transformers comics.
History[]
Backstory[]
Four million years ago as revealed in State Games, Megatron was a sports hero in the dictator-run city-state of Tarn, as a gladiator in the Games. Unknown to anyone, he had wider ambitions: he wanted to establish a empire in space, with Cybertron as a mobile battle-station. He was also a marksman in the IntraFormers Sharpshooting Competition. In both instances, he competed against Iacon's Optimus Prime.
Megatron became famous in the arena for his brutality, deliberately working the crowd to gain support. Megatron would have killed Sunstreaker if not for Optimus's intervention. When the Vos-Tarn war broke out, Megatron decided to head for Iacon to further his ambitions and worked with Optimus, who was escorting the Overlord to safety. En route, he picked up a fusion cannon from a dead soldier. When Optimus left Megatron to guard the figurehead, Megatron abandoned him, and the Overlord's bodyguard Ravage joined him, seeing him as a future leader.
Once in Iacon, he formed the Decepticons out of the survivors: he knew they needed someone to blame and pointed them at Iacon. His Decepticons included Shockwave and Starscream, Tarn and Vos's former leaders respectively.
As seen in The Transformers Megatron and the Decepticons developed the ability of transformation, using it to begin the war against the Autobots. The Autobots eventually managed to fight back by mimicking the Decepticons' transformation technology. Megatron revealed his intent for Cybertron, but, as revealed in Legion of the Lost, he only managed to build engines beneath the planet's surface.
As seen in The Flames of Boltax, Megatron wanted to plunder what the neutral High Circuitmaster Boltax was working on, but he was protected by a treaty. When he saw Optimus heading there, violating the agreement, he stormed the Temple of Knowledge. Boltax and all his disciples were killed and the planet's superdatabase, the Underbase, almost taken. In order to keep the Underbase out of Megatron's hands, Optimus Prime destroyed the temple and launched the Underbase into space.
After the death of Sentinel Prime, Megatron's troops besiged Iacon in And There Shall Come... A Leader. Emirate Xaaron chose Optimus Prime as leader of the Autobots. Optimus Prime and Megatron's armies then met in battle, and Megatron's forces were defeated when the Autobots detonated a bridge underneath their feet. This failed to keep Megatron down for long, however.
Transformers 84[]
In time, in The Transformers, the war grew so fierce that Cybertron was shaken from its orbit. A thousand years after the war had begun, the planet was headed for an asteroid field. As revealed in Transformers 84, Optimus enacted Project: Ark, knowing that Megatron would be unable to resist attacking a ship filled with so many of the most elite Autobot warriors, Optimus planned for Megatron to board the ship whereupon he would crash it on some alien world and keep Decepticon High Command isolated from Cybertron. Though such an act was a betrayal of his most loyal troops' trust, Optimus reasoned that, without Megatron on Cybertron, the Autobot army would have a fighting chance.
Shortly after he'd conquered Stanix, Megatron was approached by the spy Counterpunch who informed him of the Ark. With the findings corroborated by Ravage's earlier spying, Megatron praised his spy and declared that they would strike once the Autobots had cleared a path through the oncoming asteroid field. When the Decepticons boarded the Ark, Optimus crashed the warship, sending all aboard into stasis lock. Both Autobots and Decepticons began looking for the lost ship, a group from both factions nearly uncovering the vessel in 1017 only for Counterpunch to sabotage the efforts, determined to prevent Megatron from ever returning to Cybertron.
Marvel's the Transformers[]
Early battles on Earth[]
After reawakening on Earth in 1984,in The Transformers, Megatron immediately set about trying to locate a source of fuel for the Decepticons. After having his troops construct a fortress out of a nuclear power plant, in Power Play, Megatron found that they were unable to withdraw usable fuel from it. Overhearing the Autobots' plan to have new ally Sparkplug Witwicky develop usable fuel out of Earth gasoline, Megatron's forces engaged the Autobots in a battle which ended in kidnapping the human. Back at their fortress in Prisoner of War, Megatron forced him to develop a conversion process. Megatron soon found his Decepticons and his base under siege by the Autobot Gears and the super-powered Spider-Man. Despite Spider-Man's webbing having no effect on him, the pair escaped with Sparkplug. The mechanic had already managed to convert Earth fuel into usable energy, and given them the means to implement this process.
After an argument with Megatron, in The Enemy Within, Starscream left their headquarters and planned to prove his superiority. Ravage, spying in Starscream as per Megatron's orders, was discovered, and Starscream tried to kill him. The enraged Megatron punished him with a Trial by Combat against the Autobot Brawn. In Raiders of the Last Ark, Megatron and the Decepticons laid siege to the Ark, but his attack was stopped by the Ark's faulty computer system, Auntie. Captured with Optimus Prime in a stasis field, Auntie's willingness to kill both sides led to the desperate Megatron to absorb antimatter from a black hole. After Ravage and Windcharger saved them, Megatron moved to use his cosmic power on Prime, until Windcharger magnetically launched him out of the Ark, with Megatron vowing to return.
As seen in Decepticon Dam-Busters, Soundwave devised a plan to create energy by overloading Sherman Dam with a tidal wave. The Autobots arrived to thwart the Decepticons and Megatron faced Optimus Prime in a one-on-one duel on top of the dam. When Prime was distracted by Hound, Megatron knocked him into the river below, then transformed into gun mode and destroyed the dam itself.
Fully fueled with the fuel developed by Sparkplug, in The Last Stand, Megatron was able to laugh off a full-scale assault by the US Army. Starscream, however, continually attempted to undermine his leadership, and Megatron non fatally blasted him. With the Autobots lacking fuel and the Decepticons at full strength, Megatron led a assault on the Ark. The empowered Decepticons soon overcame the Ark's five remaining defenders; Megatron himself took down Optimus Prime, but collapsed, due to Sparkplug's fuel being poisoned.
Rivalry with Shockwave[]
After Shockwave defeated the Autobots, Megatron was put within a repair harness by him in The New Order. Megatron discovered that Shockwave had nominated himself to be the Decepticon leader, to his fury. In The Worse of Two Evils, Megatron broke free of his harness before repairs were completed, and duelled Shockwave. Megatron eventually lost the duel, and Shockwave refused him an honourable death. Megatron was eventually repaired, and in Warrior School, was assigned guard duty within the Ark, where he encountered Ratchet. Megatron's first impulse was to simply kill him, but Ratchet convinced him he had the means to rid him of Shockwave, thus Megatron allied with the medic.
In Repeat Performance, Ratchet located and reactivated the Dinobots, who had defeated Shockwave in the past. Shown videos of the Dinobots bringing down and defeating Shockwave, Megatron headed out to a rendezvous with Ratchet, but betrayed him. As soon as he announced his intention to kill Ratchet, the Autobot loosed the Dinobots on Megatron. Megatron quickly defeated them all, and challenged Ratchet to fight. To his surprise, Ratchet was willing to sacrifice himself to knock Megatron off a cliff. Ratchet's efforts caused the cliff to collapse, taking Megatron with it. He transformed to his smaller pistol mode in an attempt to survive the fall, and vanished.
Return[]
Megatron was eventually found trapped in gun mode, with his higher brain functions damaged, by wannabe gangster Joey Slick in Shooting Star. Megatron let Slick use him as a weapon, with Slick gaining infamy as a crook, until he was restored after being thrown at the ground, the impact reconnecting his circuitry. Although willing to kill Slick for using him, Joey bravely accepted his fate, impressing Megatron, who let him live. By the time of I, Robot-Master, Megatron was desperately low on fuel and attacked a coal mine, finding coal to be unusable. He eventually ran out and shut down. He was located by Soundwave, who brought him back online, and they allied with the human Donny Finkleberg, who, under the alias "Robot-Master", conned humanity into thinking the Transformers worked for him.
Compromising with Shockwave[]
In Second Generation, Megatron temporarily went into hiding, using Soundwave to spy on Shockwave as the Decepticons eavesdropped on Optimus Prime and Buster's Matrix vision of the Special Teams. Subsequently, he decided that it was time to retake command of the Decepticons and challenged Shockwave to a battle at the Wyoming base. When it became apparent that both combatants were too evenly matched, Soundwave interrupted them and they were convinced to put aside their differences for the time being.
In The Bridge to Nowhere, an argument between Megatron and Shockwave threatened to escalate into a stand off, untill Straxus contacted them from Cybertron. This convinced them to share the position of leadership. During this period of joint leadership, in To a Power Unknown, the Decepticons rampaged through a human town when they were struck by a burst of energy. This temporarily reversed their personalities, making them compassionate. While the other Decepticons repaired the damage they caused, Megatron and Shockwave both insisted the other was more qualified to be the leader. Once the blast's effects wore off, the Decepticons tracked its origin to England. They headed overseas to retaliate for what they assumed to be an Autobot trick. Though Starscream found the device responsible, a human invention called the "PARD," it was destroyed before he could take off with it.
In Command Performances, Megatron led a team of Decepticons, expecting to meet a group of reinforcements through the space bridge, but found that they had been supplanted by an Autobot resistance cell instead. Preparing to attack them, Megatron was informed that Optimus Prime's Autobots were assaulting the Wyoming base, leaving the Ark undefended. Unable to resist the temptation to take it for himself, Megatron directed his troops there, only to be defeated by Omega Supreme. However, since Shockwave had allowed the Autobots to capture the secrets of Devastator, Megatron was able to spin the situation and reclaim his leadership.
Full command of the Decepticons[]
to be added
Hunting Optimus []
to be added
Losing his mind[]
Megatron and Shockwave's power struggle continued for some time, with leadership changing hands multiple times, until the events of Afterdeath, where Optimus Prime killed himself in a video game duel. Refusing to believe his nemesis was truly dead, in Gone but Not Forgotten, the increasingly-erratic Megatron seemingly committed accidental suicide by blowing himself up on a space bridge in a fit of insane rage. However, as revealed in The Resurrection Gambit, the explosion had merely deposited him in the Dead End region of Cybertron, where he wandered as an empty, with no recollection of who he was.
Return from death[]
After regaining his memories, in Back from the Dead, Megatron captured Ratchet and forced him to revive the recently destroyed Starscream, in a scheme to wrest control of the Decepticons back. In Skin Deep, the ploy failed due to Ratchet's sabotage, and Megatron's attempt to escape the soon-to-explode lab via trans-time dimensional portal was foiled when Ratchet tackled him. The two were thought destroyed, however in The Price of Life, it was revealed they were actually fused together in the explosion and left adrift in "unspace". Pulled from the void by Nightbeat, Fixit was able to separate their bodies, and kept them both in stasis aboard the Ark. They re-awoke when Galvatron, a version of Megatron from another timeline, attempted to hijack the ship, which had already been hijacked by Shockwave and Starscream. Megatron and Galvatron fought bitterly at first, but upon realising who they both were, plotted to join forces but then Ratchet crashed the ship into Earth once again, seemingly destroying everyone on board.
Original future (UK)[]
Originally, the UK comics depicted the events of the Movie as the definitive future of the comics storyline, however the events of Time Wars would rewrite the timeline. It is also possible that these events would have happened to the clone, given how Galvatron can remember things from his perspective.
At some point as mentioned in Judgement Day, Ultra Magnus and Kup managed to evade Megatron while the latter was pursuing them through space near Beta Four by triggering a domino effect within an asteroid field, sending the space rocks hurling at one another until their fragments jammed the Decepticons' sensors.
Aspects of Evil[]
In 1990 seen in Aspects of Evil, Megatron was in control of Decepticon forces on Cybertron, including Bludgeon, Stranglehold, Octopunch, and Warmonger. After they captured a trio of Autobots, the heroes somehow managed to escape custody. They were recaptured, but Megatron realised there must be a traitor in his midst. Accusing Bludgeon of the crime, he attempted to beat the Pretender into confessing. Instead, Bludgeon demanded Trial by Combat. Megatron agreed, and sent him out into the wreckage surrounding the base, with his three fellow Decepticons chasing after him. Octopunch and Stranglehold both tried and failed to destroy Bludgeon, but Warmonger managed to get the drop on him. When Warmonger hesitated to kill a helpless foe, however, Megatron executed him as the real traitor. He then revealed this was his plan all along, to draw out the traitor by trusting in the Autobot Code to make the spy reveal himself. Megatron also made it clear he would have had no regrets if Bludgeon had died in the "testing" process.
The Movie[]
Megatron's forces succeeded in conquering all of Cybertron by the year 2005, relegating the Autobots to its two moons. In The Planet Eater, when Laserbeak returned from a spying mission on Moonbase One, with information pertaining to an Energon run being made to Earth, Megatron led a boarding party to attack the Autobot shuttle partway to its destination. Forcing his way into the ship, he had Starscream wield him in gun mode to slay all aboard. Then, taking the shuttle to Autobot City on Earth, the Decepticons launched a surprise attack on the outpost. Megatron's forces were detected before they could infiltrate the city, provoking him into ordering the Constructicons to form Devastator and break in.
Optimus then arrived, barreling through Megatron's soldiers in order to go toe-to-toe with his nemesis. Megatron struck a fatal blow by feigning defeat during the fight, only to pull out a pistol and blast the unsuspecting Autobot. Optimus severely injured Megatron, forcing his forces to pull back in defeat. Starscream took the opportunity to cast Megatron out into space upon their journey back to Cybertron. In the void, Megatron encountered Unicron, and the ancient and terrible god offered Megatron an ultimatum; to become his herald, or to die. Megatron refused at first, but Unicron persuaded him into changing his mind by unleashing some of his corrosive mist upon him. Megatron was coerced into becoming Unicron's servant, and was reformatted into Galvatron.
Earthforce[]
Earthforce occurs in a slightly different version of the Marvel UK comics.
Another Time and Place[]
Another Time and Place is depicted as a future of the comic.
Generation 2[]
In one timeline, Megatron was rebuilt by the human terrorist organization Cobra, and he ultimately allied with Optimus against Jhiaxus, his Cybertronian Empire, and the Swarm.
Regeneration One[]
In one timeline, Megatron woke up in 1994, and proceeded to lay waste to the Earth, awaiting the day Optimus Prime would return.
Gallery[]
Beast Wars[]
Given that Beast Wars references both the Sunbow cartoon and the Marvel comic, it can be seen as a continuation of both the cartoon and comic.
During the Autobot/Decepticon war on Earth, Megatron hunted down the Voyager spacecraft as it travelled through the Solar System and encoded a message on its disc. Should his efforts fail, he left detailed instructions to any Decepticon descendants who recovered the disc, instructions which condoned use of transwarp technology to alter history in his favour by locating the Ark before it was reactivated, with access codes to the Ark stored in the disk, and killing Optimus Prime before the Autobots and Decepticons awakening.
The disk (dubbed the Golden Disk) eventually fell into Cybertronian hands and was stolen by a Predacon who shared Megatron's name. This new Megatron, later stranded in Earth's past, was able to use a recording of the original Megatron to sway one of the original Megatron's most loyal troops, Ravage, to his cause.
The original Megatron himself was stranded in Earth's past on board the Ark, offline. Before long, Predacon Megatron was able to approach the comatose body of his namesake and steal his spark, integrating it into his own system, granting him a new body that could now transform into a fire-breathing dragon. Eventually, the original Megatron's spark was presumably returned to his body.