| “ | Mercy is not dispensed here fools, only death! | „ |
| ~ Straxus, The Smelting Pool |
Straxus was the Decepticon dictator of Cybertron, and an antagonist of Marvel's the Transformers in both the US and UK runs, where he eventually would become a clone of Megatron.
History[]
Events exclusive to the UK comics are in italics.
Backstory[]
As revealed in Cybertron:The Middle Years, after Decepticon warlord Trannis was killed by the Wreckers, Straxus assumed his position as Decepticon leader on Cybertron.
Ruler of Cybertron[]
Straxus would oversee a brutal reign, having his men hunt down neutrals, Autobots, and the destitute so they could be melted down in smelting pools and their metal reused by the Decepticons. He was abusive to his fellow Decepticons weren't safe, with him battering Executive Officer Shrapnel.
In The Smelting Pool, a Decepticon transmission beamed from Earth, 1985 reached Cybertron, Straxus immediately arranged for the capture of the scientist Spanner to created a space bridge to Earth to aid the Earthbound Decepticons. The Autobot spy Scrounge learned of this, but was captured by Shrapnel and brought before Straxus, who destroyed his recording-device arm, and ordered his execution by smelting pool. Blaster searched for Scrounge, and was captured and brought before Straxus, and sentenced to the pools. There Blaster was given the information from the dying Scrounge, and escaped with the aid of the Autobots who had come looking for him.
The space bridge was subsequently completed by the time of The Bridge to Nowhere, but its earliest tests infuriated Straxus when a malfunction killed Crosscut, and he sent another to death to figure out what went wrong. In an act of pettiness, he threatened Shrapnel to sort the problem, or he would be next. As the tests went on, an Autobot raiding party planted explosives within Darkmount, destroying it, and the enraged Straxus went after them. With the bridge unattended, Blaster intended to destroy it, but was confronted by Straxus in a one-on-one duel. Crippling Blaster with his axe, Straxus was duped into accidentally severing the bridge's fuel line, destabilising its teleporting arch, through which Blaster then kicked Straxus, destroying him.
Survival[]
As revealed in The Harder They Die, while Straxus's body was disintegrated, his head was salvaged and placed in a life-support pod that allowed him to continue as leader. In Under Fire, when Megatron arrived on Cybertron, Straxus schemed to restore himself, initially obeying Megatron in hunting down Optimus Prime, who had arrived on the planet with him. After Prime successful raided the fuel store alongside the Wreckers, in Resurrection, Megatron began to grow more unstable, and Straxus became increasingly impatient. Despite the risks, Straxus activated a device that would exchange his and Megatron's minds, giving him a body once more. However, Megatron resisted the transfer, destroying Straxus's head, and the two minds within Megatron's body fought for dominance. After the maddened Megatron prepared to unleash his unstable antimatter powers on the Autobots, Ratbat activated the space bridge, teleporting them back to Earth, with Straxus's mind presumed destroyed.
Project Re-Birth[]
As revealed in Two Megatrons, having failed to gain control of Megatron, Straxus activated a contingency plan, "Project Re-Birth," and his consciousness fled into a duplicate of Megatron created from one of his troops, complete with a copy of his brain patterns, beneath which Straxus's personality lay dormant.
In Salvage, after Megatron II had been sent to Earth, after the original's seeming death, Shockwave recovered it, believing it to be genuine. Shockwave subjected the clone to the psycho-probe, intending to force Megatron to face his fears. This released Straxus, who intended to take control of the body. Megatron II, fully believing himself to be the original, fought back, ripping the mental image of Straxus to pieces and taking over their shared mind.
However, as revealed in Two Megatrons, this had only delayed Straxus, and he waited in Megatron II's mind until the right time. When the original Megatron returned, and revealed the truth to his doppleganger, Straxus made one last attempt to gain control of Megatron II, which was thwarted when the clone shot himself with his own fusion cannon, killing him and Straxus for good.
Gallery[]
