Killmaster

Killmaster is a Decepticon from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

I'm mad because Movie Megatron stole my mouth.

A hulking slab of a Decepticon with an enthusiasm for killing that borders on the psychotic, Killmaster lives up to his name. Despite his massive frame and quiet demeanor, he's more intelligent than he appears, and uses those smarts to make new and terrifying advancements in the field of "bi-directional weapons", which utilize teleportation and interdimensional travel in unorthodox ways; the most notorious of these is his distinctive wand. His real name is Murderking... evidently, he felt that this name didn't quite communicate his lust for violence enough, which tells you all you really need to know about him.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: More than Meets the Eye #5 (mentioned); Spotlight: Trailcutter (depicted)

During the early days of the Great War, Killmaster was one of a number of high-ranking Decepticons taken prisoner by Zeta Prime's Autobots. When a group of Decepticons took Ratchet hostage, Orion Pax expected the Autobots would have to trade a high-ranking Decepticon like Killmaster get him back. Omega's Conundrum

Killmaster ultimately returned to the Decepticons under unspecified circumstances. He eventually climbed the ranks to become a member of the dreaded Warriors Elite, who fought Ultra Magnus during the Battle for Hell's Point. The Gloaming Off the battlefield, he developed a line of bespoke devices that weaponized interdimensional teleportation: these ranged from shunt bombs and displacement mines all the way up to a "moongun", a device capable of destroying entire planetoids. Modes of Production His infamous "wand" became his signature weapon; although it initially could only teleport inanimate objects, he later upgraded it to send living victims into a personal "pocket prison". Bad Moon Rising The Autobot weapons engineer Brainstorm studied many of Killmaster's inventions, Modes of Production and the Galactic Council acquired the blueprints for his moongun and used them to reverse-engineer a series of weapons known as "geobombs". Animals

At some point during the conflict, Killmaster took Ratchet hostage and held him at gunpoint (or possibly wandpoint). His most notable enemy, however, would become the psychotic Autobot Whirl, who admired his stone-cold, single-minded approach to murder. The hulking Decepticon considered Whirl to be his arch-nemesis and vice-versa. Despite their repeated clashes, Whirl was never actually able to best his massive foe, but developed a habit of composing bombastic, self-aggrandizing speeches he'd recite whenever the two crossed paths. The Reluctant Specialist Their rivalry came to an abrupt end when the time travelling Necrobot, who had identified Murderking as one of the "Disappeared", kidnapped Killmaster and brought him to the future before he could vanish from history. A World Misplaced Whirl assumed that Killmaster had died; for the sake of his ego, he invented a story that he had broken into a Decepticon medical facility, crushed Killmaster's brain while he was recharging, and shoved his wand up his... ahem. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

As with all the Transformers that the Necrobot had rescued, Killmaster was disoriented by the temporal journey and placed in an oversized stasis pod to recover... one that was locked up and kept near the back of the stasis chamber. Naturally this made it irresistible for Swerve and Whirl to open. Killmaster, confronted by his old nemesis, immediately went on a rampage, zapping Ten with his wand before engaging Whirl in combat. Aware he couldn't defeat Killmaster alone, Whirl ordered Swerve to call Cyclonus and Tailgate for backup. When only Cyclonus arrived, already horribly injured, Killmaster used the distraction to send Swerve away with his wand before advancing on the other two. A World Misplaced Working together, Whirl and Cyclonus managed to cut off Killmaster's wand arm and zap him with his own weapon, trapping Killmaster inside his own prison dimension. Bad Moon Rising Brainstorm used the wand to bring back Swerve and Ten, but left Killmaster behind. Modes of Production

My Little Pony/Transformers

"Oh boy, here I go killin' again!"

One of the many Decepticons enthralled by King Sombra, Killmaster confronted Arcee and Greenlight in battle, using his magical wand to to deflect their energon weapons. When Holiday and Lofty tried their hoof at defeating him, Killmaster snapped the yarn they tried to ensnare him with before the four combined their strengths, tying him up in yarn before catapulting him away. As he flew off, Killmaster promised that they hadn't seen the last of him. A Real Mother

Notes

• In MTMTE #13, Whirl speculates that Killmaster is a monoformer and indeed, we've never glimpsed any possible alternate mode he may have possessed.
• In Lost Light #3, Killmaster and Whirl literally refer to each other as "Nemesis", which is the best worst thing ever.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Killmaster (キルマスター Kirumasutā)