Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
From Transformers Wiki
- Main
- G1 cartoon
- IDW (2005)
Steven Witwicky, sometimes known as Stevie but best known as Spike. A career soldier and the Autobots' ahem, "friendly" human companion. You can totally trust this guy.
- First appearance: All Hail Megatron #5
Contents |
Fiction
The Cybertronian threat
Steven "Spike" Witwicky was born in Charlotte, North Carolina Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3 and was the son of four-star general Daniel "Sparkplug" Witwicky. From a young age, he wanted to be a soldier just like his idolised dad. All Hail Megatron #5 Sparkplug often took him on long camping trips in the woods, and this outdoors lifestyle caused Spike to develop a dislike for relying on machines. (In school, he didn't learn much but sure did get into fights a lot) Scrapper
He met his friend Joe Henderson at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. By this point, Spike had let his family ties go to his head and was insufferably arrogant and obnoxious. Worse, he started to act like he was in an action movie, treating everyone else as the supporting character and doing "cool" stuff like rule-breaking, acting reckless, and taking personal vendettas, which is less "cool" and more "dangerous and illegal" in real life. But since he was both protected by his daddy and also genuinely smart and competent as a soldier, he was able to get away with this. He graduated second in his class and went to work in special forces, where he continued to act like he was in a story. Only Forward Spike also began to have a lot of casual sex. Vs.
IDW Spike: I'm you, but I hate robots unlike you.
In the wake of the Decepticons' devastating attack on Earth, Commander Spike Witwicky met his dad inside a secret bunker where the remnants of the United States military had gathered to mount a desperate counteroffensive. Regrettably, Sparkplug had selected Spike for a mission to assassinate the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, even though he feared his son would not make it back. It was a suicide mission, but Spike was the most qualified. Spike accepted, despite the consequences, but ignored his father's pleas for him to call his worried mother first.
During the night, he and a team sneaked into New York City by boat, but they were discovered by Ratbat. With one dive, the boat and its occupants were dashed to bits under the water, and Spike's signal was destroyed. Learning his son was dead, Sparkplug, in shock, believed it was he who had not only sent his son to die, but had inspired Spike to join the military in the first place. But unknown to Sparkplug, his son surfaced on the shore of New York, perfectly alive... All Hail Megatron #5
Stealing new pants from an abandoned Gloomingdales, Spike ran into the leaders of the underground human resistance movement, who were looking for supplies. Spike took Bridge and Sarah into an abandoned office building to discuss gathering the resistance and assassinating Megatron. But first, Spike took them into a disguised military facility where he retrieved a weapon created from studying Shockwave's gun arm. Their quick escape was cut short, since Rumble was causing a ruckus outside. Telling the others to run for cover, Spike ducked into a building and then reappeared when he drove a motorcycle through an upstairs window, firing a small pistol. This distracted Rumble long enough for Charles to shoot him right in the face. Rumble's defeat was followed by an overcoming sonic screech, and as Soundwave arrived to sadly take Rumble's body away, it seemed the city's electronic blackout was over. Phones were working again, and so Spike called his father. He learned not only that his father thought he was dead, but that there was nothing they could do to prevent other nations from unleashing a nuclear onslaught across North America. All Hail Megatron #9
Later, Spike, Sarah, Bridge, and Charles ran out of a half-demolished building, passing Devastator, who was slagging the European Union jets. All Hail Megatron #11
He and his party set up a better sniper position in a nearby building, where they watched two robots fight each other. When Megatron eventually bested Optimus, Spike decided it was time to intervene. He charged the weapon and blasted Megatron's face, allowing Optimus to defeat him. Later, Hound found him and brought him to Optimus Prime. Prime offered to help Spike and the rest of the humans rebuild their planet. Spike thanked Prime for his thought, but said that there was no chance of the Transformers and the humans reconciling. As he put it, Optimus' "kind" caused all the destruction, and that any chance of an alliance was gone. All Hail Megatron #12
Skywatch Commander
After the Decepticons' defeat, they abandoned Earth, leaving Ravage and others behind. Spike Witwicky headed a military regiment to hunt down surviving Transformers and found Ravage in an abandoned building. Ravage attacked Spike but got blasted for his efforts. At least he put Spike in the hospital, though. Sparkplug became the new head of Skywatch and requested Spike join his task force of ridding the planet of Transformers. The Man of Steel Being lionised for saving the world and becoming a tactical commander went to Spike's head. Only Forward He also made the decision to violate US and international law by trading with the Decepticon war criminal Swindle, giving him resources in exchange for the advanced Cybertronian technology that would become Skywatch's arsenal. (Someone on Skywatch's oversight panel was almost certainly allowing this to carry on...) A Second Chance at Eden
Two years later, Spike was still commanding the Transformer-hunting team. With his Crash suit, he quickly contained the Decepticon Breakdown which subsequently drew the watching Prowl out of hiding. Then he drove away in the contained Breakdown ...For All Mankindto visit one of his affairs in Albuquerque. He came back to the Skywatch HQ after being alerted to Optimus' surrender. His father reprimanded him for being offsite for Prowl's liberation and Optimus' surrender, so to prove himself, Spike went to interrogate Optimus. New Arrivals, Old Encounters In spite of his attempts to appear friendly, however, the Autobot leader refused to be given any special treatment and did not give up any information on the other Autobots. Spike then resorted to capturing three more Autobots and asking Optimus if he'd do it for their sake. A Rude Awakening This didn't work either. With one day left before his father arrived to take Optimus Prime away, Spike had nothing to show for it and was feeling like he hadn't accomplished anything as a leader. Seasons in Flight
During another chat with Optimus, Spike listened to his story about how long it took for him to learn that there was more to leadership than winning battles and how he still treated the situation on Earth like a war. He had given himself up because he could not change, but was impressed by humanity's capacity for change and believed Spike would become a great leader much faster than he did. Needing some time alone to think about this, Spike went on a drive in Breakdown only be to attacked by the other Stunticons and forced to hide in a river. Enemies of the System Once he was picked up by a Skywatch transport, he learned that the Stunticons had combined into Menasor and realized they needed Optimus Prime's help to defeat him. Having thought about what Optimus told him, Spike returned to base and admitted to Optimus that his poor leadership had led to the death of Ironhide at the hands of Skywatch, but now he had realized it was time for a change. He released Optimus from captivity, allowing the Autobots to defeat Menasor, then approached the new Autobot leader Bumblebee with an offer to form an alliance between Skywatch and the Autobots. Earthworks
The Autobots accepted, and so Skywatch stopped hunting them and let them use their facilities in exchange for access to their technology. Sparkplug disapproved, but Spike defended his decision by saying they could never capture all the Autobots or even keep up with their technology anyway, so working together was the best option as long as they kept certain things hidden from them. Still, he had illegally released a prisoner, so his entire unit had to be sworn to silence so that the generals wouldn't find out they had broken military protocol. Sandra protested this deception, but Spike shrugged it off as just a little white lie. All His Engines
Wanting to avoid another combiner incident, and frankly just wanting revenge for a comrade who had been killed by Devastator, Spike set up a secret, isolated system to detect the Constructicon Scrapper. A Second Chance at Eden After a video conference with General Allenby, during which Sparkplug helped corroborate his cover-up story that Optimus Prime had escaped from custody on his own, his father told him the alliance with the Autobots was an uneasy one and now was not the time to get overconfident and sloppy. Then he went AWOL to hunt down Scrapper on his own without telling either Skywatch or the Autobots. He neutralised the Decepticon using deliberately low-tech means, in order to rub in how badass humans are and be a movie-style hero. And then murdered him when he was wounded and helpless, and covered it up. Scrapper
When a shuttle crash-landed in Vegas and unleashed a horde of zombies, organic and robotic alike, Spike joined the Autobots and other members of Skywatch in neutralizing the threat. The situation was further complicated when Optimus and Galvatron began to scuffle amidst the chaos, prompting Spike to tell his men to target Galvatron's "Decepticons." But the situation worsened further still when Spike's fellow operative Larson that the zombies could infect both the Crash suits and their pilots with a bite the hard way... Spike didn't waver from his objective even after Larson was zombified however, and continued to try and subdue Galvatron, only to be caught in the ancient Cybertronian's grasp. With Bumblebee's help, Galvatron was finally inhibited. But the greater threat loomed still, as the zombie plagued spread around the Autobots/Skywatch team. The Autobots quarantined Vegas with a forcefield, and Spike ordered his team to herd the uninfected into safe zones while the Autobots dealt with the threat more directly. The Transformers: Infestation #1 Spike continued to fight alongside Bumblebee until his team could regroup with Galvatron and Optimus's forces. Thanks to their combined forces, they were able to repel the zombie infestation from Earth. The Transformers: Infestation #2
Later, the Combaticons managed to get help from North Korea. Spike, who talked to Optimus over the actual leader Bumblebee, requested that the Autobots help against this threat. That's when the President of the United States said that anyone using a Transformer would be considered in possession of weapons of mass destruction... and Spike ordered everyone that they hadn't heard that alright The Land Ironclads and smuggled the Autobots into South Korea to intervene in their car disguises. Once there, Skywatch banter caused Spike complained about the lack of intelligence that one of his units was showing only for Optimus to point out the unit's intelligence reflects on its commander. The need to keep the Autobots a secret undermined their effectiveness Ranks of Bronze and they ended up in robot mode, in a brawl with the Combaticons and Predacons. Sandra then blew the whistle on what Skywatch were up to. And then she told Spike that Russia had announced they were launching a nuclear missile at the battle. Spike attempted to make the forces stop due to the threat but with no result. He then relied on Cosmos to get rid of the problem. All My Sins Remembered
While arriving back at Skywatch, Spike and his comrades were shot down by a mysterious object. The Demolished Man Spike and the others managed to survive the crash but had to stay underwater until they had reached San Francisco. Woken Furies Spike woke up in Optimus later and received a message from a repaired Megatron that he was holding hostages and Optimus went to save them. Burning Chrome Optimus tried to track down Megatron after rescuing the hostages. Spike suggested a more low tech approach. Enemy Mine
Most of the Autobots later left to liberate their home world, Cybertron. Orphans of the Helix The remaining Autobots were left on Earth to investigate Scrapper's death and Spike requested Prowl remain involved in the case, leaving Prowl to be suspicious of Spike's motives. Police Action: Prologue
Spike suggested Prowl should investigate Ben Simpson but Prowl ended up spying on Spike instead. When visiting one of his affairs again, Spike was attacked by Breakdown but was saved by Prowl. Police Action #1 Shortly after this, Spike decided to admit to Prowl that he killed Scrapper Only Forward and when he was accused of having intended to violate the guarantees he'd made the Autobots all along, he turned it around on Prowl: he claimed it was necessary, that he knew Prowl had made murky decisions out of necessity before, and that it was Prowl himself that would wreck Autobot/human relations if he blabbed. The Autobot responded that he'd trusted Spike before and never could again, but Spike was unconcerned since he'd never trusted the Autobots since, hey, they're not human.
And then his successful moral checkmate and fancy words were blown to pieces because the Autobots had brought in Swindle, who would clearly blab about the illegal and immoral deal Spike had made. Spike fled the Skywatch base and was reduced to an international fugitive, after the Autobots revealed his crimes to both his superiors and to the news media. A Second Chance at Eden His father was again covered for his ass, covertly sending him helpful emails. Vs.
Spike's betrayal not only shattered Prowl's belief in a better way to behave, Devisive it also meant Prowl and the Constructicons, bitter about Scrapper's death, had a common issue to bond over. Plan for Everything Thanks, bro.
Fugitive
Years later, when Skywatch had been replaced by the Earth Defense Command, Spike had fallen in with the Autobots' former ally Jimmy Pink and was on a mission to keep Cybertronians and their technology off Earth. Signals, Calls, and Marches By this point, Spike was aware that the Transformers had visited Earth long before 1984. Vs. Aware of mega-corporation Onyx's use of Cybertronian tech, they hunted down a Mini-Constructicon in Japan and used it to hack an Onyx conference and reveal their crimes to the world. Then he killed the captive 'Con to terminate the link. Both the EDC and Prowl and the Constructicons began hunting for him. Signals, Calls, and Marches When Spike picked up the means to enter Onyx's Wanmu facility from his contact, where he could get his hands on some Cybertronian relics, he came under fire from the bots. He and Jimmy escaped on motorbikes which turned out to be Decepticons in disguise, taking him to Galvatron to be interrogated on that Wanmu relic. Spike was then captured by Prowl...
...who said he forgave him! Vs. Spike thought it was because Prowl understood that he was fighting for his species' preservation, but no, it was because Prowl had come to believe the Transformers were irredeemably destructive. He now wanted help getting the Enigma of Combination from Wanmu to stop the war and, as a final prod, revealed that Galvatron had killed Spike's dad. Teamed up with the 'bots, Spike used a stealth polymer to sneak into Onyx's base... and found Prowl had been lying about that whole "forgiveness" thing, as once he had found the Enigma, the Constructicons and Prowl formed into Devastator and attacked! ONoffON
Spike tried to get out of this by getting the drop on EDC bigwig Marissa Faireborn and use her as a human shield, but she ended up clobbering him. The sight of him caused Devastator to forget all other objectives and go after him, losing the Enigma, while Spike 'helped' by taunting the gestalt until Jimmy Pink could rescue him. Once the battle was over both of them were taken into custody by Earth Defense Command. The Obliterati
Faireborn was uninterested in anything Spike had to say but allowed Blackrock to have a chat with him. She probably should have listened in, as Blackrock told the prisoner that his Onyx source code allowed him to monitor every device on Earth and also the souls of those using them! As he couldn't see his own soul, he wanted Spike to tell him why. As he talked, he used Onyx to take down the Autobots The Nothing Man and even Spike found it disturbing when Blackrock began slowly dissolving the captive Autobots so he could convert them into lonsdaleite! Aphelion The tycoon talked mad crap about how he saw a "black angel" as a child, as well as how dangerous the Autobots could be. Spike, being Spike, said this threat was why Blackrock should release him and put him in charge, but to no avail. Lagrange Blackrock continued to demand that the exasperated Spike find out who he was, and that he could do it as he'd seen the "best and worst" of Transformers—at which point he twigged that the tycoon was himself a Cybertronian, unaware of it!
The Autobots suddenly busted into the EDC base and Spike took the chance to grab Blackrock, but Galvatron showed up, revealed Spike had been right, and warped out with the tycoon. Helden Spike got to witness as Galvatron began his plan to conquer Earth, only for the Autobots to show up in full force! Perihelion Faireborn continued to ignore Spike as he tried to give advice during the Transformers' Beijing battle, and again as he yelled for her to fire everything the EDC had as the Autobots headed for them. She pointed out Optimus had just saved the planet; Spike declared that as an ex-Autobot ally, he knew exactly what they were capable of. When Optimus declared Earth was his protectorate now, she realised Spike had been right Once Upon a Time on Earth and so did the President of the United States, who pardoned him, reinstated his rank of Captain, and made him her liaison to the EDC. Spike smirked and smirked as the President told Faireborn that killing Cybertronians and sabotaging Blackrock had turned out to be the right thing to do. New Worlds Order
Reinstated
Now he could finally visit his mother again, promising he was back and he'd stop the baddie robots "like Dad would". After that, he was part of an EDC/PLA Mecha Force raid on Thundercracker's old base; Spike really, really liked Zilong Qian talking about killing Transformers, and also liked dissing Faireborn when the raid seemed a bust! He took the opportunity to cut in over the EDC to tell the President that the Transformers not being at the Sierras meant the "aliens" could be anywhere, that they "don't think like us", and that they should remember how last time they said they were here to help, Jazz killed a guy. The team found the Autobots had written "WE ARE HERE TO HELP" all over the place before leaving. He flipped his narrative when Optimus stomped outside the White House but then left: that his not wanting to kill humans was an exploitable weakness. Edge of the Earth
The Autobot encampment in Monument Valley was located by EDC, leading Spike and Zilong to pilot their mechs to attack. For a time, Earth Defense Command seemed to have an advantage, since Optimus refused to allow his people to return fire. It's Beginning To And Back Again Spike engaged Soundwave, one of the few Cybertronians willing to fight back. Any advantage he had, however, ended when Optimus Prime located a Titan buried under Monument Valley and awakened the two mile tall creature. As Above...So Below Earth Defense Command was forced to fall back as the new Autobot City took root in the American Southwest. No Fair Fights While Spike was in the field, the EDC was placed under the overall command of Joe Colton and G.I.Joe. He redeployed Spike's forces to a second site in the Indian Ocean. White Light They managed to capture the Decepticon Blitzwing and secure the remains of Galvatron's starship. White Heat
Spike was grousing about being replaced by Colton when Action Man attacked the EDC headquarters on Governor's Island. The Modern World
Assigned as a member of a G.I.Joe unit under Talon's command, Spike's team responded to the arrival of the Junkions on the Matterhorn. He criticized his old friend Zilong's handling of the situation and was told to shut up and respect the chain of command. Spike later suggested they call Thundercracker for aid in cracking the Junkion ship's shields for a scan. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain When Soundwave arrived at the Joe temporary base-camp, Spike pointed a gun at him and asked Talon if he should shoot the Decepticon. Behind My Bleeding Back Spike later complimented Talon's psychological assessment of Soundwave and was on hand when various Earth officials arrived for peace talks with the Junkions. However, the Junkions decided to attack and unleashed a horde of Sharkticons on all present. Dance Among the Shadows Accepting any excuse to kill robots, Spike eagerly retaliated against the Sharkticons. Future Glories Lost
Spike was part of the G.I.Joe team tasked with apprehending Jazz for the murder of John Powell, but the Autobot had fled by the time they arrived on the scene. What It's Really Like
On the day that Earth was to be officially inducted into the Council of Worlds, Spike worked security with G.I.Joe. After the Iron Ring launched an attack on the ceremony, Spike and Talon moved to protect the Earth delegates before being surrounded by Red Shadows. First Strike #1 Held at gunpoint by Major Bludd, Spike and Talon were rescued by Ironhide, who evacuated them from the area. First Strike #2
Yes Spikey and the Talon.
One is an a-hole!
The other's named "Talon"!
After Trypticon arrived on Earth near Mount Rushmore, Spike guarded the President as she met with Marissa Faireborn about the situation. When Jazz showed up with Rom the Space Knight, he was taken into G.I.Joe custody. Unstopped and Unstoppable Spike was in the mood to verbally spar with the captive Jazz, and the two exchanged barbs over their respective perceived betrayals. When the Colonist Soldiers arrived to rescue Jazz, Spike insisted the situation was under G.I.Joe control, but Jazz broke free anyway to try and end the battle. After Rum-Maj arrived with a horde of Sharkticons, Spike was ready to throw down with them too, but everyone stopped fighting when Unicron appeared over the Earth. Time Will Rust Spike confronted journalist Sofía Orozco as she showed up on the scene and told her to stay out of the way because the "action's gonna be intense". OH-KAY. A Sunrise Dark
Spike was part of the massive air squadron assembled to fight Unicron's Maximal army, piloting a Conquest X-30 into battle. He bragged that he once fought off Megatron himself, so these guys would be NO PROBS and everyone else should just stay out of his awesome way. Talon told him to shut up just before they engaged the enemy and Spike was quickly boarded by a Maximal and knocked out of the sky. Assembly He somehow managed to take Talon's aircraft out of the fight too on his way down, and the pair crash-landed in a jungle. Watching the battle continue above, Spike moaned that he wasn't in the spotlight anymore and hoped everyone could manage without his contribution.
Talon told him to shut up. Ceremony
Notes
- It was not until 2016 that The Transformers vol. 2 #51 established "Spike" to not be the character's legal name in this continuity, perhaps so as to justify "Spike" as a G.I. Joe nom de guerre. Shortly afterward, Action Man: Revolution clarified it to be "Steven".
- The IDW continuity debut for Spike and Sparkplug in 2008 marked a first for the Transformers brand: the unnamed woman who is Sparkplug's wife and Spike's mother finally appeared in fiction.
- For much of the IDW continuity it was rather unclear what branch of the United States military Spike was a member of. All Hail Megatron #5 refers to him as "enlisting in the Army", but also addresses him as "Commander" — which is both a Navy rather than Army rank, and an officer rather than enlisted one. All Hail Megatron #16 changes his rank to "Major", an Army officer rank, but then The Transformers vol. 1 #27 establishes that he attended the Naval Academy. The Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3 seems to settle things by firmly establishing him as a Navy aviator... but messes up by also referring to him as "enlisting"!
- The Transformers vol. 1 #17 and The Transformers vol. 2 #51 offhandedly mention that Spike also has a sister, but this was never expounded upon.
