Centurion (IDW)
From Transformers Wiki
| This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Centurion (disambiguation), Bumblebee (disambiguation). |
- Centurion is a Maximal-turned-Autobot from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Centurion is lost in more than one sense of the word. His memories gone in the crash that stranded him on an alien planet, Centurion and his Maximal shipmates found themselves pressganged into a battle that was not theirs—a battle that would stretch into the 19th century and beyond. His original identity lost to history, Centurion became "Bumblebee" for a time, convinced that he was the yellow Autobot until a moment of self-realization broke the mask and revealed the 'bot beneath the conditioning.
Nowadays, whatever remains of Centurion's chipper "Bumblebee" persona have been lost beneath Centurion's grim, world-weary attitude. Having seen—and shaped—so much of human history, Centurion's sense of purposelessness grew into a distaste for his own kind, considering Transformers to be nothing more than destructive abominations to be hunted down and dispatched by his own hand. It's this pragmatism that caught the attention of Garrison Kreiger, and in spite of his implanted Autobot sensibilities Centurion found a kindred spirit in the ruthless villain.
This career would take an unexpected turn when the spirit of the human superhero Atomic Man fused with his consciousness, creating a new, amalgamated persona. Now a living bridge between Earth and Cybertron, Centurion—part Autobot, part Maximal, and part human—remains entirely conflicted about his role in the affairs of both of his homeworlds.
Contents |
Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
- First appearance: Revolutionaries #3
Ten million years ago, Centurion was one of the many Maximals who followed "Onyx Prime;" unaware or uncaring that this member of the Thirteen Primes was a cover identity used by a time-travelling Shockwave. Following the end of the First Cybertronian Civil War, Onyx and his Maximals departed Cybertron for good and established a base on the barren planet Antilla. In time, Onyx would uncover the artifact he dubbed the "Talisman", part of an ancient doomsday weapon responsible for the planet's destruction.
Twenty thousand years ago, Centurion was part of an expedition under the command of Domitius Major, at the behest of "Onyx"; as part of his larger goals, Onyx decided to have the Talisman relocated to Earth, and assigned the crew of the starship Axalon to do so. Our Finest Centurion and his shipmates were evidently not aware of the full scope of "Onyx's" plans, nor the paradoxical nature of their impending voyage; they reached Ice Age Earth solely by accident, having been drawn off-course to refuel their ship after a ten-thousand year voyage. While preparing to land, however, their ship was intercepted by the younger Shockwave, who had come to investigate his Regenesis project. Shockwave confused the crew aboard with a bounced broadcast of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee before easily shooting them down and causing their ship to crash in prehistoric Europe. In the crash, the Talisman aboard the Axalon scrambled the memories of the crew.
Centurion was the first of them to awaken, and, disoriented, briefly glimpsed the transmission of Optimus he had seen earlier. His brief confusion over his identity led him to wonder aloud if he was Bumblebee... which inspired the nearby Shockwave to use the amnesiac explorers in a twisted experiment. By replacing the lost memories of the Axalon crew with data on the Cybertronian Autobots and Decepticons, Shockwave convinced the stranded beast-bots that they were warriors in the Great War and pitted them against one another in a series of simulated wargames in order to study their tactics for his own use. After Shockwave was entombed in lava by the Dynobots, "Bumblebee" and the other Maximals fought on amongst each other until they finally ran low on Energon and went into stasis underground. Strange Visitors
"Bumblebee" awoke in the 19th century to the sound of human workers building a railroad line over their cave. Shedding his original beast mode, he disguised himself as a small steam locomotive with no control cab and a built in steam-hammer for driving spikes. Hearts of Steel #1 Initially, he directly competed with steel-driving legend John Henry. After "Bumblebee" revealed himself in robot form to Henry, Henry set aside his mistrust of automation after realizing that "Bumblebee" was a living being (not just a machine) who wanted to put in a fair day's work. Hearts of Steel #2
"Bumblebee" reactivated several other "Autobots", and after learning that the "Decepticons" had already awoken, they adopted steam-powered alternate modes to stop their enemies from reaching New York City. Hearts of Steel #3 With the help of John Henry, Tobias Muldoon, Mark Twain, and Kitty Merriweather, the "Autobots" succeeded in preventing them from doing so. With the Decepticons defeated, "Bumblebee" and the other "Autobots" returned to stasis. Hearts of Steel #4
John Henry would later tell his family about his encounter with "Bumblebee". Primeless, Part 1
Several years later, "Bumblebee" had adopted a streetcar alternate mode and was one of a handful of Maximals who awoke to warn his ally Tobias Muldoon about the threat of an Elder God. This menace required more firepower; as a result, the "Autobots", with the help of Nikola Tesla, awoke Domitius Major—Centurion's old commander, now conditioned into believing he was Optimus Prime. Infestation 2: The Transformers #1 "Optimus" succeeded in driving off the eldritch horror, but pledged that his forces would remain alert should its like resurface. Infestation 2: The Transformers #2
By the time of World War I, the surviving Axalon crew members were beginning to die off, and several were beginning to shake off Shockwave's conditioning. "Bumblebee" was present when Domitius Major, still believing himself to be Prime, died in the middle of a European battlefield. Realizing that he was not who he thought he was, "Bumblebee" soon reached the conclusion that his kind were abominations who brought only death and destruction. Embittered from his experiences, "Bumblebee" dedicated the rest of his life to tracking down and killing the surviving Maximals on Earth, battling IRON Soldiers created from the Talisman as he went.
When World War II swept the world, only "Bumblebee," now sporting an automobile form, and "Shockwave" remained. In the winter of 1944, "Bumblebee" tracked down and fought "Shockwave" in France, where their combat was observed by Sgt. Savage and the Screaming Eagles. After a protracted fight, "Bumblebee" killed the false Shockwave, taking his cannon arm as a trophy; as the last surviving member of the Axalon, he requested the help of Savage and his men in finding the wreckage of his ship so that he could return there to die in peace. Strange Visitors Officer Garrison Kreiger, eager to learn more about the extraterrestrials, pushed the reluctant Savage into helping the alien. Centurion profile
The strange trio located the Axalon's remains in Brasnya, battling IRON Soldiers along the way. As he stepped into the frozen wreckage of the ship, "Bumblebee" was struck by an unexpected memory: his true name, Centurion. Kreiger discovered an empty plinth inside the ship that had once held the Talisman. Before Centurion could tell his comrades about his master, who the Talisman had once belonged to, they were attacked by more of the drones, now inhabiting and animating Domitius's corpse. Kreiger watched, fascinated by the battle, until the Talisman's energy made the entire Axalon disappear—with Savage inside it. Centurion managed to defeat Domitius's animated corpse, but was upset at losing what he hoped to be his final resting place. Confused, angry, and psychologically vulnerable, Kreiger — given new purpose by the discovery of the Talisman — offered to help the erstwhile "Autobot" in finding the artifact that had brought all this upon him. Strange Visitors
Over the next fifty years, Centurion became Kreiger's servant and bodyguard as his benefactor scoured the world for alien technology The Iron Klaw and eventually recovered the Talisman from Egypt. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb During his time in the employ of Kreiger, Centurion would occasionally perform fieldwork alongside some of Kreiger's shadier contacts, on several occasions partnering with the German bounty hunter Colditz. Unification Day: Dusk
Though Kreiger would come to learn more about Centurion's heritage and the circumstances surrounding his arrival on Earth, he chose to keep the truth from Centurion himself, believing that the knowledge would erode the Maximal's fealty to him. Unification Day: Dusk Strange Visitors
In 1994, Centurion was present in Kreiger's Brasnyan base during Kreiger's experiments on Mike Power, the "Atomic Man." Through this experimentation, Power managed to interface with the Talisman, somehow summoning the lost Axalon... and with it, Sergeant Savage. Second later, Joe Colton's Adventure Force stormed the base, though Kreiger ordered his Cybertronian asset to avoid attacking the intruders in the ensuing standoff.
Twelve years later, Kreiger and Centurion joined Joe Colton and Skywatch in Project: Hot House, an effort to renovate an abandoned Decepticon bunker located inside Mount St. Helens and develop new forms of anti-Transformer weaponry using the Talisman as a starting point. Through the Talisman's energy, Kreiger was able to bring Bugly back online, but the Decepticon managed to escape the perimeter. Centurion was dispatched to bring Bugly back into Skywatch custody, and he found and subdued the runaway Decepticon in front of Sgt. Savage and several members of the newly founded G.I. Joe. Dragging the struggling Decepticon behind him, Centurion returned Bugly to Skywatch custody, chaining him to Talisman as part of an experiment involving Ore-13. When Savage objected to Centurion's ruthlessness, the Maximal simply tossed him into the path of the Talisman's beam as it blew Bugly apart — Colton's goal had always been to lure Savage, saturated with Talisman energy, into the base to use him as a test subject. When Eagles Scream
A decade later, Kreiger joined Joe Colton (as "Baron Ironblood") as a key member of the Iron Ring, an cabal of villains aiming to gather resources and weaponry required for a full-scale invasion of Cybertron. First Strike #0 Following the loss of the Talisman to a quartet of heroes, Centurion accompanied Ironblood and Doctor X to visit Tomax Paoli, current CEO of I.R.O.N., to warn him that their enemies would be after him next, urging him to take up the mantle of Cobra Commander and providing Centurion as a bodyguard. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
Together, Tomax and Centurion undertook a mission to San Francisco to retrieve data from Kreiger's "Project: Ice Man" experiments on Mike Power. In the meantime, said heroes had launched an attack on Count van Rani's Iron Castle and stole data on Tomax's recent activities. Their secret plans threatened with exposure, Ironblood decided to scrub Tomax and Centurion and abandon the Ice Man data — something that Krieger was unhappy with, considering his Cybertronian ally to be an irreplaceable asset. The Iron Klaw
In the meantime, Centurion had chauffeured Tomax to the I.R.O.N. building in San Francisco when Mayday, Kup, Garrison Blackrock, and Action Man stormed the building. Centurion initially chose to remain undercover until Kup revealed himself; mistaking the elderly Autobot for a Maximal straggler, Centurion opened fire on Kup and their brawl threatened to collapse the skyscraper. Shortly afterwards, however, Blackrock accessed Kreiger's files and learned the truth about Centurion's history. Admitting that he was also a lost servant of Onyx Prime, Blackrock and Kup explained that Centurion was not the last of his kind as he had thought, and that there were many other Cybertronians out in the cosmos. Strange Visitors Feigning a change of heart in order to fool his enemies, When Eagles Scream Centurion stood down and travelled with the team to Buenos Aires, asking if he could meet the real Optimus Prime on the way. Strange Visitors
Following the capture of Garrison Kreiger and a reunion with a time-displaced Sgt. Savage, Kup had taken it upon himself to teach the amnesiac Transformer about Cybertron. Centurion politely listened while hacking the Onyx facility's defense systems to create a diversion, firing on an incoming G.I. Joe air unit as a distraction. Deploying an arsenal of hidden weaponry, Centurion apologized for fooling the Autobot and opened fire. When Eagles Scream The two Cybertronians grappled with each other until their fight was interrupted by a swarm of Dire Wraith hybrids that Action Man released as a distraction. The horde chased Centurion through the halls of the building and managed to bring him down before Blackrock successfully reversed the Wraith mutation using a burst of Talisman energy, turning them back into humans.
The curative pulse had the side effect of releasing a copy of Atomic Man's consciousness that had been preserved inside the Talisman's systems, which somehow found its way to Centurion's body. The resulting combination created a composite being: though still calling himself "Centurion", this new Transformer contained the memories of both the Maximal and the human. With an angry Metrotitan and Optimus Prime bearing down on them, Colton's alliance retreated, leaving Centurion behind — but not the Talisman, which Doctor X and Storm Shadow took with them. The energies released by the Talisman's teleportation threatened to unleash another wave of mutative energy, and Centurion threw himself into the Talisman, seemingly perishing. Seconds later, however, he returned to life and explained his recent rebirth to the assembled Revolutionaries and Verenyans. Though not all the Verenyans had survived their time as Dire Wraiths, Centurion reassured them that they should count their recent adventure as a victory. Ghost in the Machine Centurion's unique life had repeatedly brought him into contact with the Talisman, and as a result the "new" Centurion possessed an almost symbiotic connection to the artifact, able to sense its movements and even channel its power. Unification Day: Dusk
On the day of Earth's induction into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds, Centurion and G.B. Blackrock had travelled to Iacon, where the combined Centurion/Power entity attempted to sort through his jumbled memories with the help of the genuine Optimus Prime. He proved unable to piece any further details together about his past, and, watching the ceremony play out from his quarters, was skeptical about the idea of two civilizations joining forces. Unification Day: Dawn When the Iron Ring attacked Iacon, Kreiger quickly deduced that Centurion — both of his identities charged with latent Talisman energy — would be one of the few beings capable of stopping him from his ultimate goal of restoring magic to the cosmos. First Strike #6 Realizing this, he dispatched Colditz to take the Maximal into the wilderness of Cybertron, not telling Colditz that this was a bid to eliminate his "mechanical pet." Unification Day: Dusk
Colditz broke into Centurion's quarters and offered him the opportunity to return to Kreiger's ranks. Unification Day: Dawn Tired of Kreiger and disgusted by his plans to harm Cybertron, Centurion saw in Colditz's words a way to get close to his former benefactor and kill him in revenge for two lifetime's worth of manipulation and abuse. Unification Day: Dusk Pretending to return to his old ways, Centurion absconded with the villains and kidnapped Blackrock as they left. Unification Day: Dawn
Joined by some Red Shadows, Colditz and Centurion soon left the outskirts of the city and set up a camp in the wilds while Colditz tried to contact Kreiger. Blackrock learned of Centurion's plan before Kup and Arcee caught up with them, prompting Colditz to detonate his explosives and Kreiger to remotely transmit a destructive surge of Talisman energy through Centurion's systems. Realizing that this was a deliberate bid to kill Centurion, Blackrock managed to convince Centurion to rein in the out of control energy at the cost of leaving him comatose in stasis lock. Deprived of their best chance to end the invasion of Cybertron, the heroes returned Centurion's unconscious body to Iacon. Unification Day: Dusk
Centurion remained comatose throughout the rest of the crisis until Kreiger—revealed as the alien wizard Merklynn—unleashed the energies of the Talisman, First Strike #6 which had the side effect of returning Centurion to operational status. Still trying to investigate his Cybertronian side, Centurion chose to return to the wilds of Cybertron and made the acquaintance of the Dinobots and Sandstorm, who were guarding a cache of protoforms. He sent a message to Blackrock, who brought Arcee, Optimus, and Slug with him to investigate. The brief reunion quickly became a melee as Slug, unwittingly guided by Bludgeon's Void Scepter, turned on the group. The Dead Come Home, Part 1 Centurion quickly intervened to try and split up Prime and Sandstorm; after Slug was returned to his senses, Centurion watched with some apprehension as Optimus Prime announced that Trypticon would become a new embassy for humanity on Cybertron. The Dead Come Home, Part 2
Following the return of "Onyx Prime" and his eventual unmasking as Shockwave, Centurion was aboard Trypticon when the Titan teleported to Earth, and remained there until the awakening and subsequent arrival of Unicron posed an existential threat to the galaxy. With Cybertron destroyed, Centurion was part of the massive Cybertronian and Space Knight army that rolled out to stop the planet-eater, with an unsure Centurion taking control of Trypticon. Assembly Despite Trypticon's assurances, the bestial Titan was the first to fall, slain by Unicron's eye beams, and Chromia was forced to pull Centurion's unconscious body out from the burning remains of Trypticon's head. Ceremony
Centurion returned to Earth, and after making a full recovery he was one of the many heroes who attended Optimus Prime's funeral. Post
Notes
- Centurion is the result of two separate Barber pitches made at different times: a story about a Transformer "ghost" left behind from an earlier era, and a Cybertronian who was raised in isolation from their species. Hence a remnant from the ancient past unaware of his kind! The reason for using the Hearts of Steel backstory was Michael Kelly had suggested it and while John Barber initially balked at the idea, considering it fundamentally irreconcilable with the modern IDW universe, he came around after seeing the story potential and possible connection to then-current big bad Onyx Prime.[1]
- In the initial pitch for Revolutionaries, before the Hearts of Steel backstory had been developed, Barber's original concept was that Centurion would be a Superman expy—the last survivor of Thunderwing's rampage on Cybertron, he would have crashed in Kansas in the 1930s, been adopted by a kindly family, and embark on various super-heroic adventures. A good chunk of this origin story would find its way into Stardrive's character.[2]
- In a nod to his origins, Centurion speaks using the rectangular "electronic" speech bubbles that the Transformers used in the original Hearts of Steel miniseries. Following his mental fusion with Mike Power, he switches over to the regular word balloons that other characters use.
- Centurion's profile in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook identifies him as an alternate reality version of the human-built robot of the same name from the Marvel Generation 1 comic. This wiki opts to give the IDW incarnation of Centurion his own article given the stark difference in characterization.
- Though we never see Centurion's original beast mode on-panel, the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook notes that he used to transform into a "dinosaur-like space monster".
- In his Revolutionaries appearances, Centurion is seen sporting a cowcatcher-like mouthplate that does not appear in the original Hearts of Steel comics. Perhaps he added it to physically differentiate himself from Bumblebee?
- Centurion is apparently a fan of a TV show called Mastermind. While initially it was believed to be a reference the British quiz show Mastermind, John Barber later clarified that it was supposed to be a fictional show based on the board game Mastermind. Yes, seriously. Barber is just that crazy.
- According to Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1, Centurion is 26 feet tall and weighs 14 tons (7.9 metres and 12.6 metric tonnes).
References
- ↑ John Barber Q&A at TFcon Canada 2017
- ↑ John Barber interview
