When it all comes down to it, everything is about resources. Shockwave has always recognized this, and while those around him pursued power and politics and other petty concerns, the master scientist focused his superlative intellect on defeating entropy and securing the future of his species. A game-player and king-maker, Shockwave plans for everything, and while the shadowplay inflicted on him by the Senate may have robbed him of his emotions, it did nothing to curb his ambitions.

Although the dangerous logician sided with the Decepticons in the war that eventually gripped Cybertron, this is merely an alliance of convenience: Shockwave serves no cause but his own. Following eons of careful work, the scientist's influence is truly galaxy-spanning, and when his machinations reach fruition, the universe may never be the same again.

“	All life is equal. I merely assign it a quantifiable value—zero.	”
—Shockwave, "...And the Damage Done"

First appearance: Spotlight: Shockwave; Transformers Annual 2017 (as Onyx Prime)

Contents 1 Fiction 1.1 Student, Senator, Shadowplay 1.2 Joining the Decepticons 1.3 Regenesis 1.4 Machinations 1.5 Shockpoint 1.6 Dark Cybertron 1.7 Onyx Prime 1.8 The End of Everything 2 Notes 3 References

Fiction

Student, Senator, Shadowplay

“	I always did have a flair for the dramatic.	”
—Shockwave making the understatement of the century, "Post"

Six million years ago, long before the Great War, Shockwave was the greatest student of Jhiaxus. Spotlight: Doubledealer With the Cybertronian population growing exponentially under Nova Prime's program of expansion, the forward-looking Shockwave grew fearful of an energon shortage that he saw as inevitable. Inspired by Jhiaxus's talk of a prophecy known as "Dark Cybertron" that predated the rise of Nova Prime, he began experiments to develop a self-regenerating energy source. Distilling an ore from energon, Shockwave sought to test his creation by seeding it beneath Crystal City, but unfortunately, the city was ravaged in a battle between Omega Supreme and Jhiaxus's newest terrible creation, the combiner Monstructor. The city's ruins were subsequently sealed beneath the planet's surface, leaving Shockwave to believe his test was unlikely to complete itself. Moreover, Monstructor's defeat was the first time he saw his teacher and his works as fallible, and as Jhiaxus left Cybertron on the Ark-1, Shockwave took up his role, striving to study and better his master's works. Shockwaves In doing so, he began studying the secrets of ancient Cybertron, amassing a thorough knowledge of the rise of the Thirteen and the First Cybertronian Civil War that saw their alliance undone. The Crucible The First Who was Named

Becoming a senator in the new regime that formed on Cybertron, Shockwave marked his first day in the senate by announcing the founding of the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology, in memory of his departed teacher's good works. He immediately clashed with senator Proteus, whose short-sightedness and functionism sat ill with Shockwave, but found a friend in Senator Dai Atlas, who was initially wary of his continued study of Jhiaxus's sciences, but with whom he shared a dislike of Proteus. Shockwaves Shockwave quickly developed a reputation as an extremely expressive individual (known for changing his colour scheme regularly) that even saw him suspended from duty on occasion for "emotional outbursts unbecoming a senator". His master's teachings drove Shockwave in his work, as he focused on myriad ways of advancing the Transformer race: in addition to repeatedly voting to bring back Nova Prime's spark-splicing programs, he secretly used the Academy as a safe haven for outliers, Transformers with abnormal abilities and functions who were hated and feared by functionists because their abilities had nothing to do with their alt modes. An Intimate Beheading He taught his closest charges of the Dark Cybertron prophecy, The Becoming sank billions into various offworld projects, and came into contact with the enigmatic Omega Guardians. An Intimate Beheading His contact with the aliens would lead him to theorize that an artifact in their possession, the Magnificence, was actually one of the legendary Knights of Cybertron, one with such a powerful urge for knowledge that he had surrendered his body in the process. The Ties That Bind

Recognizing that Proteus and current planet leader Nominus Prime were resistant to change, Shockwave began befriending certain promising young Cybertronians and modifying them so that they could carry the Matrix of Leadership, with the hope that one of them could take leadership of their race and steer Cybertron off the dark path the Senate had placed it upon. An Intimate Beheading When police captain Orion Pax stormed into a Senate meeting with accusations of corruption amongst its ranks, Shockwave saw this potential in him. The damaged Pax was apprehended after his tirade, but Shockwave arranged for his release and repair, adding a Matrix chamber to his chest. After his release, Pax met his secret benefactor in front of the Ark-1 memorial, where Shockwave warned him that factions within the senate had arranged for a recent attack on Nominus Prime in an attempt to gain control of the Matrix's power. Chaos Theory #2

In time, word of Nominus's death was released to the public; although the Prime's passing was attributed to a rust infection, when Shockwave met with Orion and his friend Ratchet, he was able to confirm that the Senate had their head of security Sentinel kill Nominus when the Matrix within him proved to be a fake. Post Hoc Soon after, Pax received a tip-off from revenge-seeking former Senate agent Whirl of a plot that was soon to claim Shockwave's life, so Pax had Ratchet and Roller visit the Academy of Advanced Technology and take him into protective custody. Along with Pax's other allies, Shockwave was able to provide enough evidence to help Orion figure out that the Senate had turned the fake Matrix in Nominus's body into a bomb that they would detonate as his body lay in state, which they could blame on the trouble-making Decepticon movement, an underground organization advocating the dissolution of the functionist regime. Patternism Shockwave gathered three of his outlier students, Skids, Glitch, and Windcharger, to help with the theft of the Matrix-bomb, but he himself was kept under guard in case things went wrong. Shockwave laughed that off, thinking he was too high profile for Sentinel to assassinate, but in the midst of the heist, he found out how wrong he was when Senate thugs burned down the Academy and broke into the safehouse intending to capture him: Sentinel had found out about the army of outliers and was very unhappy. While Orion Pax was willing to fight to save Shockwave, the senator willingly went with his captors rather than allow Roller to be killed in his name.

The captive Shockwave was taken to the Institute and subjected to "Shadowplay", the emotion centers of his brain cut out by mnemosurgery to change his entire personality, turning him from a fiery crusader into an emotionless husk. To add insult to injury, Proteus and Sentinel had empurata performed on him, taking away his face and hands, replacing them with a featureless mask and claws solely out of spite. An Intimate Beheading

Joining the Decepticons

Proteus could not have predicted the monster his actions would unleash. Where he had considered the mutilation of Shockwave a punishment, Shockwave, freed of the bonds of morality by the removal of his emotions, felt liberated by the experience, now able to take the most logical path to saving Cybertron. Shortly after lying about his previous energon-shortage concerns during a hearing so he could continue to work toward a solution alone, Shockwave was approached by Starscream, who brought him before Megatron, leader and founder of the Decepticons, who had recently turned to increasingly excessive terrorist tactics. Realizing that Shockwave had a goal of his own, but with no interest in what it actually was, Megatron offered him a laboratory and the resources to continue his work that the senate could not provide, in return for Shockwave using Jhiaxus's technology to create a combiner for the Decepticons. Shockwave accepted, though he cautioned that the creation of the combiner could take a very long time. Shockwaves He did not know it at the time, but his mere presence had made him an object of distrust to Megatron's loyal lieuteant, Soundwave, because he could not read his Shadowplayed mind. Shockpoint

Severing his ties with Orion Pax, Shockwave used the resources Megatron had provided to secretly continue his alternate energy experiments, more sure than ever that the political strife raging across Cybertron would ultimately give way to a war not over ideals, but resources. He distilled a variety of different synthetic energons and tested them on an assortment of innocent Cybertronians, few of whom—if any—survived the myriad unusual effects the new fuels had. Seeking to speed Shockwave's science, Megatron offered him a pair of hands to replace his empurata-granted claws, but upon hearing of Megatron's plan to kill the Senate the following day and truly began a war on Cybertron, Shockwave chose to take only one hand, replacing the other with a gun he saw as being more useful for the coming conflict. In one last lingering moment of sentimentality, however, he visited Dai Atlas's quarters the night before the planned assassination and shot him, wounding him enough that he was unable to attend the Senate meeting, thus sparing him the other Senators' fates. Shockwaves Shockwave joined the Decepticons in their attack on Kaon the next day, and met with Soundwave to arrange the construction of a new body for captured senator Ratbat. Soundwaves

The deaths of the Senate and Sentinel Prime allowed Zeta, another of Shockwave's candidates, to ascend to the rank of Prime. By the time of Zeta's reign, Shockwave's sinister experiments had earned the scientist a reputation as "obsessed with combiners". Omega's Conundrum Together with Ferak, Shockwave invented a "nightmare transmitter" that used Soundwave's abilities to manipulate an average Transformer, Bumblebee, into supporting the Decepticons with terrorist acts. The experiment was ended after Orion Pax and Prowl tracked the signal and raided Shockwave's base. Ghost Stories Over time, Zeta's extremism forged strange bedfellows; when Orion turned on Zeta, he was badly injured by the Prime and had to be rescued by Megatron and the Decepticons. Shockwave repaired his old friend's wounds, and witnessed Orion's unit form an alliance with the Decepticons. Choices When the two sides launched an attack on Zeta, Shockwave gained the satisfaction of destroying the last Omega Destructor, then witnessed Megatron's betrayal of Orion's unit. Overthrown Megatron's short-lived rule of Cybertron came to an end when the Autobots attacked the Citadel and defeated him, forcing Shockwave to call for a retreat. Endgame

Not long thereafter, Shockwave was present at Kolkular when Scorponok announced that he had banished Megatron for his failure to hold Cybertron. Wreckage When the exodus began, Scorponok had the Decepticons assault Starsreach Spaceport, an attack that Shockwave saw as an inefficient use of resources. Massacre His forces met with resistance from a raging Grimlock who tore them to pieces and shrugged off Shockwave's firepower, forcing him to call for another retreat while picking shrapnel out of his arm. They rejoined Scorponok at the Toraxxis Plains, where to their shock and horror they found him in the process of reawakening Trypticon. Unleashed With Scorponok having accomplished nothing but bringing Cybertron further into ruin, the Decepticons rejected him as soon as Megatron returned from his exile. Once their true leader had dealt with the usurper, Shockwave repaired the injuries he had sustained during his absence. The Illusion of Control He was subsequently present as Megatron turned a defeated Trypticon into a Decepticon, Belly of the Beast and was among those who boarded the beast's starship mode and left Cybertron in search of the Decepticons who'd defected during Scorponok's reign. Primacy #1 Once the Decepticon army was reconsolidated, they returned home for an all-out assault on Iacon, Primacy #3 during which Shockwave oversaw a failed tactical strike on Omega Supreme. Primacy #4

Shockwave later led a squad back to Junkion to claim the world's gravimetric core for use as a weapon. His squad was met by Prowl and eventually one of them decided to detonate the core and destroy Junkion. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain

As the war progressed, Shockwave helped create the super-Decepticons known as the "Warriors Elite", programming them with killswitches and viruses that would prevent them from turning on Megatron. Remembrance Day He was also known to have commanded a Worldsweeper at some point during the conflict. Rules of Disengagement Shockwave also made the mistake of earning the enmity of the Dynobots after they stole a cache of energon from him; reaching the logical conclusion that if he could not have the energon, neither could they, Shockwave tracked them back to Autobot territory and destroyed the energon supply. Spotlight: Shockwave At some point he stood over Megatron's shoulder while the Decepticon leader and Tyrest tried to broker a peace accord. House of Ambus

Regenesis

Six hundred thousand meta-cycles ago, Shockwave's experiments with alternative energy sources reached a turning point with the program he called "Regenesis". He covertly launched thirteen rockets from Cybertron to thirteen other worlds with specific geological properties, each carrying with them a different kind of ore distilled from energon that would be seeded across the target planets. It was Shockwave's hope that the chain reactions which would ensure would potentially yield thirteen different kinds of energy sources that could abate the energy crisis that was now looming ever larger. Spotlight: Shockwave At the time, Shockwave selected the planets at random, simply seeking out specific geological profiles that would allow his ores to take root. Unknown to him, all the worlds he had selected had been touched in some way by the Thirteen Primes as arranged by his future self millennia beforehand. The Crucible

Around 100,000 years after launching the rockets, Shockwave left Cybertron aboard his own ship to examine the fruits of his labor, his whereabouts left unknown to those he had left behind on his homeworld. The results were far from what had been expected: the mutated ores had taken on a variety of esoteric qualities that went so far as to affect the fabric of space and time around them. For next the next half-million years, Shockwave travelled from world to world, observing the various powers of the ores; on the gas giant Arduria, he found that the Ore-6 sent there had developed the power to halt molecular motion, blanketing the planet it eternal cold. After putting some of the slowly dying native rocs out of their misery, he remarked that while not his intended result, it served as a learning experience nonetheless. Syndromica (1) Strange Visitors Other explorations discerned that about half of the ores had successfully taken root on their target worlds: Ore-1, on LV-117, had the ability to transcend time, offering Shockwave tantalizing glimpses of the future; Syndromica (2) Ore-2, on Gorlam Prime, drained the life from all around it; Homecoming Ore-7 had attained transmutative properties; The Becoming and Ore-8, on Tsiehshi, had taken the form of highly explosive, unstable crystals. Spotlight: Kup Though millennia away from being realized, Shockwave's mind began to piece together a scheme that would unite these different ores and their powers to achieve his dream.

10,000 years ago, Shockwave arrived on the thirteenth world: prehistoric Earth, at the end of its most recent ice age. The extremely powerful Ore-13 seeded on this world was catalysing so strongly that the reaction needed to be regulated with global dampers. Spotlight: Shockwave Spotlight: Grimlock

As he entered the orbit of the icy world, he discovered that a different Transformer ship had been drawn to Earth, attracted to his burgeoning supply of Ore-13: the Axalon, captained by Domitius Major and crewed by the Maximals. Shockwave bounced an intercepted transmission of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to the starship before shooting it down over what would one day become the nation of Brasnya. Investigating the wreckage of the ship and its bestial occupants, he discovered that the vessel was carrying a strange artifact, one that had activated and scrambled the memories of its crew during the crash-landing. When one of their number regained consciousness and—glimpsing the Autobot transmission—wondered aloud if he was Bumblebee, his confusion gave Shockwave an idea for one of his cruel experiments.

By replacing their lost memories with data of the Autobots and Decepticons of Cybertron, Shockwave convinced the amnesiac Maximals that they were all combatants in the Great War, remaking them into copies of key players in the conflict and even rebuilding one of their number into a copy of himself. After conditioning them, he pitted the "Autobots" and "Decepticons" against one another in a series of simulated wargames for his tactical benefit. As Shockwave watched their simulated battles, he studied the mysterious artifact that the Maximals had brought with them, watching as it created robotic drones from the wreckage. Strange Visitors

As Shockwave went about his business, he was unaware of a threat that had shadowed him: the Dynobots had tracked him down, and were seeking to settle their old score. Spotlight: Shockwave Shockwave's twisted games went on for a century; when the Maximals ran low on Energon, Shockwave abandoned them and their artifact to their fate and returned to his main objective on Earth. Strange Visitors

As Shockwave finished planting the dampers and was preparing to visit other Regenesis worlds, the Dynobots teleported upon him. The attack threw Shockwave off-kilter with both its ferocity and its unexpectedness, as he had anticipated a stab in the back from Megatron but had failed to consider the simple vengeance of the Dynobots. Mentally and physically confounded by the assault, Shockwave deactivated his higher reasoning and allowed a subroutine simulating rage to take over. This brutal, violent Shockwave decimated the Dynobots, burning off the organic coating shielding them from the planet's high energon fields and forcing them into stasis lock. As the battle concluded, Shockwave restored his full neural operations and logged the emotional experience for further study. But, as his logic center churned away once more, it again failed to anticipate his enemies' chaotic nature. Specifically, Grimlock had set a dead-man's switch on the Dynobots' ship, and before Shockwave could act upon his own victory, the ship shot an energy beam into a nearby volcano, causing it to erupt and consume all of the combatants, entombing them for millennia to come. Spotlight: Shockwave Spotlight: Grimlock In the meantime, his Maximal creations simply fought on amongst one another until they ran out of energon and entered stasis. Strange Visitors

Shockwave's long absence would eventually rouse Megatron's suspicions, and he assigned Bludgeon to search through Shockwave's files, Spotlight: Shockwave in turn tasking Soundwave with shadowing Bludgeon, Spotlight: Soundwave knowing that Shockwave had been working on something in secret and intending to use it for the Decepticon cause. Shockpoint

After spending centuries trapped in the Noisemaze, the unaligned scientist Mesothulas decided to investigate where Shockwave had trodden and refined Shockwave's old samples of Ore-13 to create the superfuel obtenteum. Sins of the Wreckers #3

Machinations

Shockwave's body was uncovered by a human archaeological team in 2005. Spotlight: Shockwave The discovery drew the attention of the government organization Skywatch, who soon swept in and took the operation over. Escalation #5 Skywatch proceeded to exhume both Shockwave and the Dynobots, and began experimenting with neural inhibitors to control their new discoveries. Results were consistently disastrous; both the Dynobots and their other captives Laserbeak and Ravage were soon running out of their control. Skywatch commander Joshua Red had Shockwave rebuilt and brought online in their Salt Lake City base Maximum Dinobots #2 and charged him with rounding up the rogue Transformers. Rather than a neural inhibitor, Shockwave was motivated with a decidedly less sophisticated method: a bomb placed in his head would detonate in 24 hours if Skywatch didn't transmit a reset code. Maximum Dinobots #3

Given the presence of Ravage and Laserbeak on Earth, Shockwave correctly deduced that their master, Soundwave, must also be on the planet; he had followed Bludgeon there in pursuit of Shockwave's Ore-13 and wound up trapped in his alternate mode, in the possession of a child in Portland, Oregon. Shockwave tracked him down shortly after Laserbeak and Ravage had retrieved him from his human captivity, and proposed a deal: Shockwave would undo the mode-lock, originally caused by a weapon of his design, in return for Soundwave intercepting the reset codes for the implanted bomb. Maximum Dinobots #4 Soundwave attempted to further bargain for information on the Regenesis program, but was rebuffed when Shockwave observed that said information would die with him if the bomb went off. Shockpoint

Relenting, Soundwave allowed his cassettes to be "captured" and handed over to Skywatch, to sell Shockwave's deception, whilst the scientist went in search of the Dynobots. Discovering them already engaged with Scorponok and the Machination, Shockwave decided to engage Scorponok's forces first, so he could destroy the Dynobots himself. By the time Shockwave beat Scorponok, only 12 minutes of his 24-hour countdown remained, and Grimlock proved to have more than 12 minutes' worth of fight left in him. On the 30-second mark, the two were still grappling in a Machination arms bunker, so Joshua Red ordered the reset code sent, wanting to ensure all other combatants were down before killing his pawn. The code was successfully intercepted and decrypted by Soundwave, who transmitted the information to Shockwave, who in return sent him instructions to mentally disable the mode-lock. Soundwave transformed, his cassettes attacked their would-be captors, and Shockwave abruptly walked away from his fight, declaring an end to the "charade". But Grimlock would not be denied his revenge, so before Shockwave could leave, he detonated a grenade that blew the arms bunker sky-high. The two were soon recovered, still functioning, by Ultra Magnus, who took Shockwave, Scorponok and Grimlock into custody. Maximum Dinobots #5

Shockwave was sent to the Garrus-9 penitentiary, where his spark was extracted for imprisonment. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3 At some point prior to his imprisonment, however, Shockwave had been able to make contact with Bludgeon and the Monstructor Six and recruit them as his personal agents, though they wound up simply fighting with the main Decepticon forces some time later, when the galaxy-wide Decepticon uprising known as the Surge took place. Shockpoint During the Surge, Overlord took control of Garrus-9, and after one year of holding the facility, he had Shockwave's spark reintegrated with his body to make him an offer: in exchange for his freedom and a hand-picked crew, Shockwave would remove the Achilles virus that had been implanted in Overlord during his conversion to a Warrior Elite. Shockwave agreed to the terms as they served his own purposes, but he was quick to comment that Overlord's actions on Garrus-9 were less about the former general's gratification and more about attracting Megatron's attention. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3

Knowing he was on The List and that the Decepticon Justice Division would quickly catch up to him, Shockwave selected thirty-one prisoners who were also on The List so as to bribe his former pupil. However, when Tarn called, he rejected the bribe, much to Shockwave's bafflement, before he began applying his killer voice to the former senator. Though forced to his knees, Shockwave simply destroyed the communicator before the Torment arrived, scaring off the D.J.D. The Ties That Bind

During Shockwave's time in Skywatch captivity, the researchers had gathered enough information about him to design a weapon based on his technology. According to Spike Witwicky, the first working prototypes were the size of a house, but with some unspecified "outside help", they were able to condense it to a size small enough for hand-held use by a human. Around the time of Shockwave's liberation from Garrus-9, roughly a year after Megatron's forces overran the Earth following the Surge, Spike was sent in with a military squad to retrieve the weapon from its New York City storehouse and use it to kill Megatron. All Hail Megatron #9 Though his team perished, Spike survived, got the weapon, and successfully shot Megatron in the head, ending the Decepticon occupation. All Hail Megatron #12

Over the next two years, Shockwave returned his focus to Regenesis, and began slowly putting the players and pieces in motion for his ultimate endgame. He re-established communication with Bludgeon and Monstructor, Shockpoint and also recruited the Decepticon warmonger Turmoil, providing him with a ship in return for his visiting LV-117 with instructions to collect data from the Regenesis missile there. In actuality, with this particular action, Shockwave was deliberately perpetuating a predestination paradox of sorts, ensuring the visions of the future that he had seen while on LV-117 years beforehand would come to pass. Syndromica (2) His plans for the future momentarily complete, Shockwave rejoined what remained of the main Decepticon command structure, now under the leadership of Starscream and encamped on a desolate asteroid following their retreat from Earth. Conferring with Soundwave, he agreed to help build a new body for the devastated Megatron in exchange for being able to utilize some of the Decepticons' limited resources to finally perfect space bridge travel. Shockpoint The scientist made the two projects one and the same by implanting nodes obtained from Metroplex in Megatron's new body, giving the Decepticon leader the power to open space bridge at will. Spotlight: Megatron Altered Carbon

Having been unaware of the plan to repair Megatron and believing Shockwave had been working on space bridge technology alone, All His Engines Starscream was furious when he discovered what he believed the pair had been dedicating their resources to: using the remnants of Megatron's old body to make tiny replicas of his gun form, with plans to distribute them amongst the population of Earth in order to create chaos amongst both the humans and Autobots. Megatron revealed his revival to Starscream, Altered Carbon and a short time after that, retook Decepticon leadership; Shockwave eager to run further tests on the new technology within his body, but Megatron, unwilling to be a cog in whatever machinations Shockwave was surely planning, assured him everything was in order and had him continue working on the gun replicas. Spotlight: Megatron After finishing, Shockwave carefully calculated that Quetzaltenango, Mexico was the most appropriate location to deposit the Megatron guns, and stood by Megatron as he sent the weapons through the space bridge to Earth. Altered Carbon Four months later, the Decepticons themselves traveled to Earth to see through their plan, where Soundwave was heavily injured in a confrontation with Optimus Prime. When ordered to repair him, Shockwave protested that he no longer had the resources he had used to rebuild Megatron, but when pressed, affirmed that he could in fact save Soundwave's life. Enemy Mine

Shockpoint

Megatron would later use the space bridge technology built into in his new body to summon Shockwave and the rest of the Decepticons to him on Cybertron. The Question They arrived in the midst of Galvatron's attempt to prevent the emergence of the Dead Universe entity known as the D-Void, Kings and the evil entity proceeded to ensnare the minds of the Decepticons, using their collective belief in the Decepticon cause to mentally and physically fuse them all together into a huge monster. All, that is, save for Shockwave, who had never believed in the cause, and silently watched as Megatron battled the giant beast. Once Galvatron and the monstrosity were defeated, Cybertron began to reformat into a primordial state; having seen potential in the merged Decepticon monster to perfect combiner technology, Megatron withdrew into the wilderness, informing Shockwave of his plans. Shockwave then shared this information with Soundwave and Bombshell, and the trio began conspiring to facilitate Megatron's new scheme. Shockpoint

Rather than try to escape or fight a battle they knew they could not win, Shockwave and his compatriots allowed themselves to taken into custody with the other Decepticons when Ratbat negotiated their surrender to the Autobots. They were kept in confinement for a few weeks in the rebuilt Iacon, now under the unstable governance of Bumblebee, before being released to deal with rioting "NAILs" who had returned to repopulate Cybertron. The Death of Optimus Prime After a while, being an enforcer for the Autobots did not sit well with Needlenose, and he accused Shockwave, Soundwave and Bombshell of just sitting around instead of doing something about the Decepticons' situation. The Autonomy Lesson He was wrong, of course: along with Soundwave, Shockwave was working with Ratbat to take control of the inhibitor/deterrence chips implanted in them by the Autobots, though he was plainly uninterested in the plan, merely remarking that "Events will play out as they will." when asked for his opinion. The World & Everything in It But Megatron's ongoing plot was not the only reason for Shockwave's disinterest in Ratbat's power games: in furtheration of his own personal, secret schemes revolving around Regenesis, he had once again contacted Bludgeon and Monstructor, and had them free his old teacher Jhiaxus from Autobot captivity, before setting them on course for LV-117. Syndromica (1)

Following the failure of Ratbat's plan, Shockwave was petitioned by Swindle to help Dirge, who was on the run from the Autobots after claiming to have witnessed Prowl murder the Constructicons. Swindle gambled that Shockwave was not as disinterested in the political strife of the planet he appeared, but Shockwave merely questioned what Swindle expected him to do with this information. Dinobot Hunt Far greater matters occupied Shockwave's attention: Turmoil had recently returned to Cybertron, the ship Shockwave had given him now outfitted with a time machine created by inhabitants of LV-117 he had enslaved during his visit there. To ensure the future he had seen would come to pass, Shockwave had Reflector steal the ship and return it to LV-117, Night and the City where it was then retrieved by Jhiaxus's group. Syndromica (2) Around this time, Shockwave also made contact with the Ammonites, a faction of a robotic alien race whose cold war had recently grown hot again, and offered to end their conflict if they would work for him. The Dead Are Not Enough Shockwave had the Ammonites attempt to obtain the one Regenesis ore that had been lost to him: Ore-7, which had been found by Metroplex. The Titan put the ore out of his attackers' reach by jettisoning it, so as a back-up plan, Shockwave had the Ammonites infect Metroplex with Ore-2, knowing that in time, he would have to call the Ore-7 back to heal himself. The Becoming

After an explosive assassination attempt on Omega Supreme, Starscream confronted Shockwave, assuming the attack was his doing. Though Starscream warned Shockwave to not interfere with his political ascension, Shockwave refused to humor him; Starscream had made his choice to live with the Autobots, while the remaining Decepticons under Shockwave's care rejected the growing new government architecture. Shockwave seemingly underestimated Starscream's cunning, however, and later he and his Decepticons were assaulted by Arcee. The Autobot assassin, under orders from both Prowl and Starscream, made it appear as if the Decepticons' own base had exploded and buried them, stealing Shockwave, Soundwave and those under their command away to the Black Room with Prowl's other secret prisoners. The End of the Beginning of the World In truth, this was all an act for Starscream's benefit: Prowl was under the control of Bombshell, and had only "captured" Shockwave and the others so they could be reunited with Megatron in time for his master plan: using a new and improved Devastator to conquer Cybertron once and for all. The Verge Before the Dawn

His role in Megatron's plan now complete, Shockwave no longer needed to keep up appearances and promptly left Iacon. Plan for Everything Believing both Megatron's rebellion and Bumblebee's government were doomed to fail, Shockwave took Dreadwing with him out into the wilderness, to the subterranean remains of Crystal City, which had somehow survived Cybertron's reversion to its primitive state and the supposed recent obliteration by an exploding Metrotitan. It was the original seed Shockwave had sown beneath the city that had recreated it each time, Ore-14, the key to resurrection—which Shockwave tested by shooting Dreadwing dead, only for the ore to immediately revive him. A plan begun millions of years ago was at last reaching its endgame. Shockwaves

Dark Cybertron

From the new base he quickly established in Crystal City, Shockwave communicated with Jhiaxus again, who, in accordance with his plans, had lured Optimus Prime to Gorlam Prime. Homecoming Shockwave was briefly distracted from his work by the arrival of a furious Soundwave, seeking revenge for Shockwave's abandonment of the Decepticons, Shockpoint but after a brief, vicious battle, it became apparent that the presence of Ore-14 in the cavern meant that none of the combatants could die, so Soundwave retreated, and Shockwave allowed him to leave rather than face further delay. While this was going on, Jhiaxus duped Optimus Prime into awakening a Titan that had been slumbering on Gorlam Prime, which, under the direction of new recruit Waspinator, then teleported directly to Crystal City. Soundwaves Shockwave gleefully welcomed the Titan, and watched as the Ore-2 from Gorlam Prime in its systems began reacting with the Ore-14 around them, transforming it into a zombie "Necrotitan". Through the link to that Dead Universe this behemoth provided, Shockwave was able to contact his old contemporaries Nova Prime and Galvatron, and, feigning obeisance, vowed to serve Nova in the conquest of the living universe. Dark Dawn In forging the communications link between the living and Dead Universes, however, the Necrotitan's space bridge had unexpectedly disappeared, leaving Nova and Galvatron with no means of crossing over, but Shockwave, of course, had a contingency plan: the space bridge he had equipped Megatron's body with months beforehand. Black Metal

Megatron was currently in Autobot custody after the failure of his most recent scheme, so Shockwave had the deceased NAIL leader Metalhawk revived with Ore-14 and mentally controlled by Jhiaxus into retrieving Megatron's immobilized form for his use. Winners & Losers Unsurprisingly, Megatron refused to co-operate, so Shockwave sliced him open and activated the bridge manually, Into the Abyss but as Nova Prime and Galvatron began to emerge, the united forces of Bumblebee's Autobot and Soundwave's Decepticons stormed Crystal City. During the ensuing battle, Shockwave took possession of Waspinator's stinger weapon, through which the hapless Decepticon had forged his link with the Titan; using this link, Shockwave was able to take direct control of the Necrotitan, and brought it crashing into the cavern to end the conflict. In the chaos that resulted, Nova Prime was forced back through the portal, but Galvatron managed to make the crossing, and was then surreptitiously directed by Shockwave to disable Megatron, shutting the portal down. Finally, Shockwave sent the Titan to ravage Iacon. Finest Hour

In short order, Jhiaxus, Bludgeon and Monstructor returned to Cybertron, bringing with them what ores they had obtained during their travels, the last of the pieces now in place for Shockwave's endgame to be enacted. The Dead Are Not Enough The Necrotitan's rampage was no mere act of random destruction: it was intended to force Metroplex's hand, necessitating that he return to Cybertron to defend his allies, bringing the Ore-7 with him, thereby gathering all the products of Regenesis on Cybertron at last. Finis Temporis Uniting the Ore-7 with Ore-2 and Ore-14 put the power of life and death in Shockwave's hands; merging Ore-6 with Ore-8 granted him control of the potential energy of all matter; and fusing Ore-1 and Ore-13 bent the fabric of time to his will. The universe itself was now Shockwave's to mould, but to do so required the sacrifice of another universe: the Dead Universe. Nova Prime's failure to cross over had not been unintentional; cast back to the Dead Universe, he was subsequently slain by Optimus Prime, who had traveled there through the Gorlam Prime portal, just as Shockwave had planned. With Nova dead, his control of the energies of the Dead Universe was lost, allowing Shockwave to drain them via an unwitting Galvatron's link. With these powers combined within him, Shockwave could now enact the perfect solution to the problem of finite resources that he had striven to solve all his life: he would bring the Dark Cybertron prophecy to fulfillment by collapsing all of reality into a pinpoint singularity, to feed Cybertron in an endless forever. The Becoming

The time machine from Turmoil's ship was used to drain the life energy of the Dead Universe from its very beginning to its end, then linked with Shockwave's systems. Upon the machine's activation, Shockwave was assailed with images of his life from all throughout his past; only his emotionless focus prevented his mind from being set adrift on the sea of time. The unlikely pair of Bumblebee and Megatron ventured into Crystal City to stop him, but the empowered Shockwave slew Bumblebee, sending Megatron into a rage. Black Planet The battle between the two Decepticons was soon joined by Optimus Prime, returned from the Dead Universe, who attempted to reason with Shockwave and remind him of the kindly senator he had once been. Prime's words had little effect, so Megatron opted for a more outrageous display: his recent experiences had opened up a new way of thinking to him, and before the stunned Shockwave's eye, he declared himself an Autobot and donned the faction's symbol. Confused and distraught, Shockwave's focus began to waver, and the memories of his pre-Shadowplay self began to creep back, until Optimus gave them a final push by reminding him of small, intimate details of their friendship like a broken bench at their favored meeting spot. Senator Shockwave was horrified to see what he had become, but with the time machine integrated with his systems, he was unable to simply turn if off. At Shockwave's request, Prime and Megatron opened fire and destroyed the drive, collapsing the machine into a singularity that seemingly consumed Shockwave's body. ...And the Damage Done

Six months later, Shockwave's old base of Crystal City (along with Ore-14 and the Time Drive) had been completely consumed, leaving a city-sized dent in the planet's surface. The singularity itself hovered a few feet above the centre of the crater. Ironhide was a frequent visitor, as Shockwave's machinations had destroyed his vision for the future. No one on Cybertron either knew or cared that Shockwave had seemingly perished as his original self rather than the emotionless one he was famous for. The World of Tomorrow News of Shockwave's demise would eventually reach Earth; when Ian Noble encountered the "Maximal Shockwave" that the real Shockwave had once created, he mistook the facsimile for the genuine article. Power and Glory

Onyx Prime

Unbeknownst to all, Shockwave had not perished beneath Crystal City; rather, the singularity Shockwave had inadvertently created could warp time as well as space. Shockwave was flung back in time by twelve million years and wound up in the barbaric age following the departure of the Knights of Cybertron, awakening in the land where the Crystal City would one day be founded.

Badly damaged and running low on energon, Shockwave aimlessly wandered the deserts of prehistoric Cybertron, coming to grips with his newfound emotions, until the day he stumbled across "Onyx," a kindly shepherd who led a flock of less-fortunate beasts in their search for energon. Realizing the historical significance of this individual from his studies of Cybertronian history, The First Who Was Named Shockwave saw a way that he could complete his final goal of ensuring a lasting Cybertronian hegemony, Last Stand and swiftly slew him. The deed done, Shockwave recruited one of Onyx's followers and dubbed this nomad "Megatronus", so named for the Decepticon conqueror that would one day arise. Shockwave fashioned a new body for himself from Onyx's remains, and dubbed himself "Onyx Prime"; The First Who Was Named having learned from his mistakes, Shockwave was no longer a being of pure logic, and vowed to "embrace chaos" as he embarked on a new mission to wipe Cybertronian history clean and ensure the perpetual dominance of the Cybertronian species—a complex, multi-faceted goal that would last millions of years. Last Stand

Knowing that the conquests of Megatronus would provide the impetus for the rest of Cybertron to unify against the warlord, Onyx trained Megatronus as his pupil, instructing him in the ways of war and eventually inspiring him to build an empire of his own in Cybertron's western lands. The First Who Was Named As Megatronus's Darklanders ran amok across Cybertron, Onyx set about gathering new allies, and found a willing collaborator in the deposed king Liege Maximo Origin Myths and his army of bestial Maximals. Endless Forever Taking on the Maximals as his new "menagerie," Onyx brought his forces to the village that would one day become the Crystal City, where he met with the alliance of Primes —Alchemist, Vector, Solus, Nexus, and Alpha Trion—and inspired their followers to take up arms and stop Megatronus' army together, using the young Alpha Trion's belief in the power of myths and legends to goad the young civilization into taking a stand.

The next morning, Onyx and his forces joined the fight against Megatronus; as the battle ground on, however, the ground beneath Cybetrtron shook and disgorged three Titans: Metroplex, Metrotitan, and Chela. The sight of the ancient warriors drew the entire battle to a halt, providing Onyx Prime with the opening to slice through the Darklanders and reach Megatronus; his goal of unifying Cybertron against a common foe accomplished, Onyx and Megatronus agreed to a "truce," and that night all eight Primes agreed to work together to unify their world. Origin Myths Onyx took advantage of the new peace to begin spreading stories of his own devising—not only did he design a sigil for their new alliance, based on his foreknowledge of the rise of the Autobots, he would also invent the "Dark Cybertron prophecy" out of whole cloth, the prophecy that his younger self had tried to complete. Origin Myths The First Who Was Named

Alpha Trion was less than convinced by these manipulative tales, worrying that Onyx was beginning to blur the line between "stories" and outright lies, Origin Myths but Onyx Prime soon learned that he could keep Trion's suspicions at bay by feeding him one well-told tale after another. The First Who Was Named

During the reign of the Thirteen, Onyx Prime became a feared warlord in his own right, establishing a kingdom in the city of Kalis The Crucible and taking on the Titan Chela as his servant, Windblade vol. 2 #6 with the Titan Master Sovereign serving as his herald. White Heat In time, the other Primes came to believe that they were immortal, and that only a Prime could kill another Prime. The Crucible During this triumphant reign of the Thirteen, Onyx continued in his plans; as Shockwave had once experimented with the stranded crew of the Axalon, he now employed a similar method as he tracked the many complicated variables that led to his race invariably falling to civil war—an experiment he began by engineering the fall of the Primes.

Onyx began sowing division among the Thirteen by encouraging their leader Prima, to turn the Cybertronian race's natural drive to conquer outward so as to spread Pax Cybertronia across the galaxy, eventually targeting planets such as Caminus and Devisiun. Time Will Rust The First Who Was Named Onyx and Megatronus led the first of these interstellar colonization missions; though their chronicler Alpha Trion would remember this expedition as one of interstellar goodwill, aimed at spreading the "light" of Cybertronian civilization to their neighbors, the truth was far uglier: when the Omega Sentinel fleet arrived on the planet Antilla, the genocidal ambitions of the Cybertronians became clear, sparking a brutal conflict between the Cybertronian colonizers and the native Antillans. Shockwave informed Trion, who had chosen to gloss over the carnage in his official chronicle of events, that Antilla would become his world; Shockwave's means of ensuring that each of Cybertron's eventual colonies would "belong" to each member of the Thirteen. The First Who Was Named The war finally came to an end when an Antillan scientist developed and deployed a destructive superweapon that annihilated all life on the planet. In the process, the planet itself was remade, transforming it into Unicron—a being whom Shockwave would come to harness in his quest to fulfill his final goal. By deliberately awakening and loosing Unicron eons into the future, Onyx realized that the could use the magic of the weapon that had created Unicron to "poison" his homeworld; in doing so, he would sacrifice Cybertron itself in order to neutralize Unicron and ensure that he could build a new empire, an empire free of the superstitions, factional violence, and stigma that had plagued his homeworld since the start of Transformer civilization. Our Finest

Still unaware of Shockwave's larger goals, Prima blamed Megatronus for the mission's failure, and Onyx manipulated events from the shadows to ensure that the simmering tensions between the tribal leaders would boil over into full-blown hostilities, encouraging his other protégé, the Liege Maximo, to join forces with Megatronus and stage a coup against Prima. This coup would end with the death of Solus Prime, the first blow in what would become known as the First Cybertronian Civil War. The First Who Was Named The Crucible According to Sentinel Prime, Onyx and the Liege Maximo were both "betrayed" by Micronus Prime during the war. White Heat Crisis Intervention Liege Maximo was eventually brought to justice; his use for this particular pawn now at an end, Shockwave agreed with the other Primes that he had forfeited his right to live on Cybertron and oversaw his banishment, imprisoning him aboard his own Titan, Vigilem, and using a variation of the shadowplay technique to ensure that Maximo's Titan would become a mindless living prison. The First Who Was Named

One way or another, Onyx Prime eventually allied with Nexus Prime late into the war, and together they used the Enigma of Combination to create an army of Headmasters: combiners of beasts and 'humanoid' Transformers. The Crucible This was only an alliance of convenience, however; Onyx was disgusted by the haughty Nexus, who saw Primes as superior beings destined to rule over "lesser" Cybertronians. Helden The barbarian warrior Galvatron found this unification disgusting, and eventually killed Nexus, his Headmasters, and those under his command in the twilight of the conflict. The Crucible The Mind Bomb The death of Nexus prompted the Titan Master Infinitus to defect to Onyx. White Heat

With the war nearly at an end, Onyx joined Prima on his mission to bring Megatronus to justice aboard Emissary, the three Primes tracked Megatronus to the barren world of Tsiehshi. Onyx and Prima went to confront Megatronus in a final duel; Onyx was happy to let Megatronus slice Prima in half with his own Star Saber, but then intervened; no longer requiring Megatronus's bloodlust, he slew his former student, coldly informing him that, thanks to the eventual rise of his namesake, Cybertronians would, after a fashion, remember his name. Trion was once more swayed by "Onyx Prime's" well-told tale that Prima had heroically slain Megatronus at the cost of his own life, and so this account became the "official" version of events that would find its way into the chronicles of Cybertron... and thus, the inspiration for the lie that the time-travelling Shockwave used to cover up the truth. Prima's body would be interred inside Emissary, who would carry it throughout the cosmos. Onyx, however, sabotaged Emissary's systems, and so the Titan crashed on the primitive world of Elonia: The First Who Was Named one of the planets where his younger self would one day send one of his Regenesis ores. Our Darkest

Indeed, Onyx Prime had manipulated events so thoroughly that all of the planets where his younger self would select for the Regenesis program—Elonia, LV-117, Arduria, Caminus, Devisiun, Eukaris, Gorlam Prime, Prion, Tsiehshi, Velocitron, and Earth—all possessed a connection to the Thirteen Primes or the Titans who had once served them. The First Who Was Named

By the end of the war, many of the Primes had either died or fled Cybertron, leaving Alpha Trion as the last Prime still on Cybertron. When Galvatron, Nova, and Alpha Trion visited his castle in Kalis, Onyx's former subject Rhinox informed them that he and most of his Maximals had fled. Though several members of his tribe stayed behind to fight on in his name, the remnants of his army were soon subjugated under Nova Prime's growing school of functionist doctrine, which denigrated individuals with beast modes. The Crucible

Approximately seven million years ago, Crisis Intervention Chela had settled on an uninhabited jungle planet that he dubbed "Eukaris", which was intended to be a safe refuge where Transformers with beast modes could live free of the prejudice they faced on Cybertron. Windblade vol. 2 #6 Unstopped and Unstoppable Eukarian legend states that Onyx's last command to Chela was to protect their home from any and all "standard-formers" by any means necessary. Even after his disappearance, the planet's inhabitants continued to venerate him, and Blackarachnia the Fateweaver claimed to be his prophet. Windblade vol. 2 #6 Unaware of the truth behind his origins or his future goals, future generations of Eukarians would view Onyx as a wise and benevolent protector who preached equality for all Transformers. Time Will Rust

Onyx's innermost retinue of Maximals, however, would stay by their master's side aboard Nemesis, as he set course for another world that would play an instrumental role in his ultimate goal: Antilla, now reduced to a barren wasteland of rust. There, Onyx excavated the heart of the superweapon responsible for devastating the planet and creating Unicron, and dubbed it the "Talisman." Eventually, Onyx would decide that the Talisman would need to be moved to Earth, to ensure that the organic world would become the seat of his new Cybertronian empire. To do so, he entrusted the artifact to his follower Domitius Major and sent them out into the galaxy aboard the Axalon, some 20,000 years ago, knowing that his younger self would find and shoot down the ship and unwittingly ensuring that the Talisman would find its way to Earth. Strange Visitors Our Finest The remaining Maximals stayed behind on Antilla with their leader. Surfeit of Primes

At some point during his stay on Antilla, Onyx would send Sovereign to Earth, ostensibly to find the Enigma of Combination and summon Onyx Prime when he had done so. Helden Sovereign, clad in a human disguise and conditioned with false memories, remembered this experience as a childhood visit from a "black angel" who showed him a world of rust and infinite darkness. Lagrange

In the recent past, Antilla was visited by three Camien Transformers who arrived on his planet following a Cybertronian beacon. Onyx instantly beheaded one of them while the other two managed to escape. Surfeit of Primes Years later, Onyx followed them back to Caminus to retrieve samples of the Ore-4 that his younger self had fired at the planet; arriving at Parvus Oppidum, Onyx and his army felled their leader Praesidia Magna, one of the two escapees, and dragged her body into a singularity under Onyx's control. Torchbearer Pyra, who had survived a close encounter with the Prime himself, began experiencing nightmares of her old commander, trapped on the dead, rust-stricken world of Antilla, and Onyx Prime reciting an ancient Camien poem. It wasn't until Pyra Magna realized that if Onyx had fled when the opportunity presented itself, then he could not be infallible; bolstered by this knowledge, she and a new team of Torchbearers privately began preparing for his return. Ghost Stories

In order to fulfill his eventual goals, "Onyx"—at some point after leaving Cybertron—came in contact with Metrotitan once more, and used supplies of Ore-10, seeded by his younger self, to manipulate the Titan's mind, leaving him firmly convinced in the "Dark Cybertron" prophecy Onyx had invented... and championing Starscream as the "Chosen One" who would unite the planet, with Shockwave fully aware that the vainglorious Starscream would leave the war-torn planet divided and unable to properly rebuild. The Hallowing Shortly after Metrotitan returned to Cybertron and imparted Starscream with this knowledge, he was seemingly swallowed up by an explosion—Primus: All Good Things in reality, however, Shockwave had used Ore-9 to teleport him to Earth, where Optimus Prime would one day find and raise him from the ground; an act that would seemingly prove his status as a "true" Prime, only so that Shockwave could eventually tear it all down. The Hallowing

When the Republic of Cybertron made contact with Eukaris in 2015, the presence of Windblade and Starscream on the planet was enough to provoke Chela, who rose to carry out his master's final command. It wasn't enough, however; Starscream killed the Titan, allowing Eukaris and its inhabitants to join the Council of Worlds. Windblade vol. 2 #6

In his final battle with Optimus Prime in 2016, Galvatron warned his nemesis that Onyx Prime was still a threat, and would soon return. No Fair Fights When Infinitus and Sovereign made their presence known, Infinitus proclaimed that the Titan Masters were the "harbingers of [Onyx's] return". Though Optimus and Soundwave were given pause to consider what Galvatron had said about Onyx Prime, they were confident they could best the ancient Prime. White Heat

After being captured by the Iron Klaw and hooked into a replica of the Talisman, Blackrock dreamt of Onyx Prime standing over his divided selves, reciting the same Camien poem. This vision caused him to realize that there was a connection between the Talisman and his former master. The Iron Klaw While hacking into I.R.O.N.'s systems, Blackrock found what Onyx had done to Centurion and declared his former master would have to go through him to get Earth. Blackrock was able to use the fact that both were pawns of Onyx to convince Centurion to stand down. Strange Visitors During the final battle against Baron Ironblood and his forces, Blackrock's consciousness entered infraspace, where he encountered Onyx. Onyx revealed to his former servant that the Talisman was inoculation against a coming threat before attempting to slay the Titan Master. He was stopped by the spectre of Mike Power. The two returned to the living plane, leaving an enraged Onyx behind. Ghost in the Machine

The End of Everything

After Liege Maximo escaped captivity, Rubicon he eventually crossed paths with Onyx once again. Shockwave discussed Liege's exile, and having had time to reflect in his years imprisoned, he agreed with Shockwave's decision. The First Who Was Named Now reunited, the two began the penultimate phase of Shockwave's scheme: shattering Cybertron's faith completely, whether in Primes or Decepticonism, in order to allow chaos to reign. Unforgivable As part of Shockwave's scheme, Liege pretended to be Onyx's prisoner, subdued and chained. Onyx returned to Cybertron atop Nemesis, and on arrival announced his intent to pass judgment on Maximo for betraying the Cybertronian race. Onyx agreed to Prime's request to meet with him, declaring him the mythical figure known as "The Arisen." Surfeit of Primes

Throwing Liege at Windblade's feet, "Onyx" declared he had come to free Cybertron from its tangled web of alliances; at the subsequent meeting in the Spire, Onyx offered to fix Cybertron's corrupted energon, causing the Mistress to ask if he was intentionally trying to split the Council of Worlds. As conversation went on, Onyx kept deflecting everyone's suspicions, painting himself as a victim of false accusations; when Optimus suggested that the Transformers give "Onyx" a fair chance to explain itself, his apparent willingness to embrace the Prime angered the recently arrived Soundwave, and as the situation grew increasingly fraught, Onyx's agents set off a massive explosion that killed Alpha Trion. Onyx quickly declared Soundwave and the Decepticons guilty, that democracy had failed Cybertron, and that the rule of Primes was needed once more. Another Mine

As emergency crews scrambled, Onyx continued to slander Optimus' name in front of the arrived press, along with making himself look like a wounded party. Then he revealed his bombshell - a years-old recording of Soundwave secretly detonating Horri-Bull's I/D chip to make it look like Bumblebee's doing. With that, Onyx told the gathered Cybertronians that when they found Liege to "do with him what you will", and left the crowd to fight amongst themselves. As he flew back to his ship, he was caught off-guard by Metrotitan's attack, the Titan having followed Optimus to Cybertron. As Optimus tried unsuccessfully to get the ancient Cybertronian to stand down, he fell, only for Onyx to catch him, and demonstrate the power of his own Titan, having Nemesis down Metrotitan with a single shot. Outraged at the apparent demise of his friends, Optimus attacked... and as he did, Onyx finally revealed himself as Shockwave. The Ground

Taking his former friend captive, Shockwave began explaining to him the whole story of his survival, his trip through time, and the depths of his manipulation of history. When Optimus refuted Shockwave's belief in darkness, Shockwave—seeking to eliminate the last tenet of Cybertronian religion—dropped him into the Crystal City singularity, which promptly crushed Prime's body to nothing. The First Who Was Named

With Optimus gone for the moment, Shockwave told Maximo to take a squad of Maximals to the not-quite dead Metrotitan, bluntly telling the Prime he was wasting time with his complaints as he shed the last of his Onyx disguise. Shockwave arrived over Metrotitan just as Starscream did the same, interrupting his former comrade's musing about whether he was The Fallen reborn to put him straight on a few facts: he had manipulated history to make sure the Seeker wound up in charge of Cybertron because he was a fool, who would have been unable to see Shockwave's plans coming, and that his religious musings meant that he was even stupider than Shockwave thought. Punctuating his revelations by finishing off Metrotitan, Shockwave left Starscream with a few more parting insults, leaving the "Chosen One" to his despair. The Hallowing

Watching the nearby fight between Victorion and Devastator, the later unknowingly aided by the presence of one of Shockwave's Ores in the Nemesis above them, Shockwave mused on how he was providing what Cybertron needed, and how the results would validate his methods. He then made his way toward the Singularity, where he found a Camien and a wounded Jetfire. Holding them at arm-point, Shockwave told the scientist he was required for the "final bloom". Endless Forever

With the remains of the Matrix of Leadership now annihilated, Shockwave informed them that he needed to bring Optimus back from the limbo of infraspace; this was soon revealed as a lie, however, when Pyra Magna arrived, and Shockwave informed the duo that he intended for her to serve as a host for Optimus's bodiless consciousness. Learning that Onyx and Shockwave were one and the same, Pyra briefly tried to attack the Decepticon, but was unable to overpower him. Using a sample of Cybertron's tainted energon, combined with the energies of the Matrix from within infraspace, Optimus and Bumblebee were both able to escape back to reality, taking refuge inside Pyra's mind. With the two Autobots driving her onward, Pyra was able to take down Shockwave, ripping his gun-arm off in the process. Ultimately, the Torchbearer realized that she would have to do the right thing and spared Shockwave's life, presenting him to the Council of Worlds and revealing the great lie that their civilization had been built upon: the Primes were just robots like any other. Ultimately, Shockwave had succeeded in his plans to rob Cybertron of its heritage and history, stripping it down to nothing just in time for the arrival of the final piece of his plan: Unicron, awakened thanks to the machinations of Merklynn and preparing for its assault on the galaxy. Unforgivable

Shockwave was subsequently arrested, paraded through the streets in chains as he rambled aloud about his time as Onyx Prime. Unbeknownst to his jailers, his ancient servant Rhinox was a part of the crowd, one of the loyal Maximals ready and willing to serve his old master during the final phase of his plan. Unstopped and Unstoppable As Unicron began his rampage across the galaxy, swallowing up each Cybertronian colony world one by one, Shockwave was visited by Starscream, and Shockwave took that moment to explain his plan: by relocating the Talisman to Cybertron, he had poisoned the planet, and when Unicron destroyed Cybertron, the planet-eater would die with it—leaving the rest of the universe open for him to conquer. Last Stand Shortly afterwards, Unicron did indeed appear over Cybertron, intending to consume it, leading Prime to interrogate Shockwave for more information regarding the Talisman and the doomed world of Antilla, and how the destruction of Cybertron would lead to the rebirth of a triumphant Cybertronian empire. Our Finest

Sure enough, Unicron began devouring Cybertron, prompting Shockwave to activate a built-in teleportation device and flee to Earth, reuniting with his Maximals in the streets of Toronto. Believing that his plan had gone off without a hitch, the Decepticon received a new cannon-arm, courtesy of Rhinox, and ordered his underlings to begin restructuring the planet into the new capitol of his empire, monitoring the destruction from atop the CN Tower. Shockwave soon learned that his plan had failed, however, and for the simplest of reasons: Cybertron had indeed been annihilated by Unicron, but the Transformers on the planet had used the Talisman escape to Earth, bringing the artifact with them and allowing Unicron to consume the rest of the planet without any consequences. Road's End Trying to get his scheme back on track, Shockwave refitted the human building into a communications relay, tapping into the remains of Nemesis—now incorporated into Unicron's structure—and using them to scan Earth for the Talisman. Ordering his subordinate Bludgeon to retrieve it, Shockwave learned that the Decepticon's allegiance had shifted; he and most of the Maximals now served Unicron. Assembly

As Shockwave tried to exert control over Bludgeon, Rhinox turned on him, only for Shockwave to easily overpower his minion. However, when the scientist tried to execute Rhinox, the Maximal revealed he had rigged the cannon and made it unable to fire on his kind. Seizing the weapon, Rhinox explained that the Maximals had turned on their master when they realized "Onyx Prime" had been nothing but a trick. Shockwave was saved by Prowl who quickly dragged him out to the street where Stardrive used her Dire Wraith magic to hack into his mind, and tie into the Talisman's operating system. Though making one last attempt to convince Prowl that "faith" was meaningless, Shockwave soon came to realize the hollowness of his philosophy when his mind was briefly linked to the Afterspark. Ceremony

In the aftermath of Unicron's defeat, Shockwave was immobilized and chained up within the Lemuria. Shortly before Optimus Prime's funeral, Shockwave revealed to Prowl he was unsure which of the many faces he'd worn in his life was the "real" him. Before leaving, Prowl bluntly told the Decepticon that they had all been the real him. What Shockwave had always failed to realize was that people were judged, and defined, by their actions, not the intentions that they'd set out with. Post

Notes

• The unnamed senator was not intended to be Shockwave back in "Chaos Theory" but James Roberts immediately thought it would be cool to make him a character we already knew. Shockwave was picked because he was one of the few important characters that did not have an IDW pre-war backstory yet, and because it allowed Roberts to tie together empurata and shadowplay.^[1]
• In his subsequent "Shadowplay" appearance, the still-unnamed Senator Shockwave was deliberately designed and coloured to look like Ultra Magnus,^[2] making it a real surprise that we'd been reading the origin of Shockwave all along. It helped that Shockwave was a Robots in Disguise character and this origin was then in the 'wrong' comic, tying the two together.^[3]

References