Transformers Robots in Disguise (comics)/Characters

Characters appearing in the comic series The Transformers: Robots in Disguise/The Transformers Vol.2 and Optimus Prime. Due to its short run time and frequent crossing over, characters from both volumes of Windblade and Till All Are One are also listed here.

Autobots

• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed but they're far more morally ambiguous than the squeaky clean characters they were in the G1 cartoon.
• Appropriated Appellation: Before the war, aliens used "Autobots" as a deregatory term for Cybertronians to mean "Automaton" reflecting the monotony of Functionist life. Orion Pax decided to be an "Autobot" standing for "Autonomous robots".
• Hero with Bad Publicity: They're not really liked that much. On Cybertron, they were hated for being part of the old Senate security (though Cybertron changes its tune soon enough) and in the larger galaxy, no one can really tell Autobots and Decepticons apart.

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax

• A God I Am Not: Though the Camiens deify him, he's very insistent about this trope.
• Ambadassador: Cybertron's to Earth. It's a largely self-appointed title.
• Badass Baritone: Whirl mentions that Optimus' voice is incredibly, near impossibly, low.
• Big Good: He's Optimus Prime.
• Broken Pedestal: To Arcee, Windblade, Aileron and Pyra Magna (not that he cares about the last one).
• Composite Character: While largely the G1 Optimus, he takes on the moral ambiguity of his Armada and Movie counterparts while also having some of Optimus Primal's uncertainties.
• Deadpan Snarker: He doesn't do it that much but he's no slouch in this department.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Soundwave.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Much of Season 2 is dedicated to exploring this trope. While still morally superior to Galvatron and Sentinel Prime, he is acting a bit more like Nova Prime and the earlier, more moral, stages of the Decepticons. Starscream even notes that annexing a world and acting like he did it a favour is a very Megatron thing to do.
• Good Is Not Dumb: As many humans learn the hard way.
• Humans Are Idiots: Optimus' speech in issue 50 can be summarized as this.
• Humans Are Special: But he does think they have potential. Deconstructed as the Mistress of Flame doesn't disagree with him but she wants to know why he thinks that.
• Ideal Hero: Tragically subverted. He really tried to be this when war broke out but it kept eating away at his optimism making him much more bitter and cynical compared to other versions of the character. That said, he's still a good 'bot at Spark.
• Large and In Charge: He's usually the largest person in the room.
• No Sell: In Revolution, aliens learn the hard way how tough he is.
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Summon Bigger Fish: How does he scare off the EDC? Why summon a Titan (a two mile tall Cybertronian littered with many weapons) of course.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Starscream. Optimus clearly hates him but puts up with him due to Starscream being democratically elected.
• Took a Level In Jerkass: Galvatron suspects it's a result of combining with Prowl and their personalities influencing the other. Jetfire thinks Optimus was just told he was god one too many times.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Post All Hail Optimus, he's inching towards this.

Alternate Orion Pax

• What Happened to the Mouse?: Roller tried to call him several times to no avail with Megatron suspecting that Orion was either off-world or dead. It's later revealed that he's alive.

Prowl

• Being Good Sucks
• Berserk Button: Spike and everything to do with him. And NAILS. And Decepticons.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite all the shit he's pulled, he's allowed to stay in peace on Luna-1 after helping stop Sentinel.
• Everyone Has Standards: For all his underhanded tactics, he thinks genocide via Titan apocalypse is a bit much.
• Evil Counterpart: It's unclear whether he's this to Starscream or Starscream is this to him.
• Fallen Hero: Post Combiner Wars. He's arrested and has to go on the run.
• Jerkass Facade: Anytime he has to be the one to pull the trigger, he's unable.
• The Load: According to Sentinel Prime. It is worth noting however that Sentinel Prime is utterly and completely insane.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: This trope could be renamed "The Prowl". He really does want a better future for his kind but has very little compunctions about what he's willing to do in order to bring it about.

Arcee

• Ambiguous Gender: Arcee's gender is...unclear to say the least. It's known that Arcee was biologically male over six million years ago but Jhiaxus turned her into a biological female at least to the point that everyone else labels her as a girl. Later issues indicate that female Cybertronians used to exist prior to the War of the Primes but were wiped out (at least on Cybertron) and it's debated whether Arcee is the same as naturally occurring females.
• Berserk Button: Arcee doesn't like choices forced on others.
• Cool Car
• Depending on the Writer: Under John Barber's pen, back when Arcee was biologically male, he identified as female and while she's happy with the results, she's angry with how it happened. Under Scott's pen, Arcee still holds resentment for her gender being reassigned and goes out of her way to make sure no one else has the fate inflicted on them.
• Fantastic Racism: Arcee doesn't hate humans, but she feels no love for them either and needs very little excuse to attack them for use as a stress ball.
• Flaming Sword: Her Weapon of Choice.
• Older Than They Look: It's hinted that Arcee served the Fallen.
• We Used to Be Friends: Issues #37 and #52 hint that she knew Galvatron in the past. The revelation that she hails from the same region supports this and, at the very least, they had a mutual acquaintance through Jhiaxus.

Wheelie

• Adaptational Badass: In a way that deconstructs the traditional Wheelie characters. All the time he's spent on hostile alien worlds has given a boatload of survival skills.
• Butt Monkey: How many limbs can this guy lose?
• OOC Is Serious Business: When he nears LV-117, he falls to the floor and stops rhyming.
• Rhymes on a Dime: As per the norm. At first it's said to be due to alien friends of his communicating in this manner and Wheelie picked it up after a while but later issues reveal it to be coping mechanism for the horrors he faced on LV-117 as it lets him focus on the friendly inhabitants he met as opposed to the living hell the planet was.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: After LV-117.
• Put On the Bus: After Dark Cybertron.

Jetfire

• Cool Plane
• Deadpan Snarker
• Everyone Has Standards: Though he firmly believed in what the Decepticons were doing before the War, he opted out when he saw the brutality with which Starscream operated.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He built D.0.C. singlehanded due to the lack of a medic on the Ark-7.

D.0.C.

• Expy: Of R2-D2.
• Robot Buddy: To Jetfire and Cosmos.

Jazz

• 0% Approval Rating: Among the human race due to killing John Powell.
• Advertised Extra: In Season 2.
• Break the Cutie: He desperately wanted to make peace with the human race and they gave him a hard lesson in how cruel they can be.
• By Primus, What Have I Done?: Killing John Powell.
• Disappointed in You: In the human race once he learns that they don't care about his side of the story, they just want to kill him for killing John Powell
• Foil: To Prowl. Both do what they whatever it takes to complete a mission but Jazz will feel regrets afterwards while Prowl has no shits to give.
• The Watson: A brief one to Prowl.

Sideswipe

• The Big Guy
• Blood Knight: He loves being in the midst of heat seekers since it means that even if he misses, the missile will come back and give him another shot at destroying it. He later notes that his tombstone will probably read that he wanted more guns.
• Jerkass
• Made of Iron: He was caught in a massive running firefight, had several grenades detonate in his face and was then shot in the head by Brawl. He survived though it rendered him comatose.

Sunstreaker

• Narcissist: So much so that he crashed a shuttle because he was distracted by his reflection.
• Took a Level In Kindness: Since the Furman-era for sure.

Bob

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He acts like a goofy dog but he's more than capable of eating Dire Wraiths alive.
• Last of His Kind: Of the Insecticon swarm.
• Nightmare Face: He is an Insecticon.

Cosmos

• Acrofatic: He's rather bulky and he can travel at FTL speeds.
• Butt Monkey: Not to Waspinator's extent but there.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Owing to his FTL drive, he is special but he everyone just treats him as a spy satellite.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Underneath it all, he's very lonely.

Sky Lynx

• It's All About Me
• In-Series Nickname: The humans call him "Space Dragon".
• Non Standard Character Design: Befitting Sky Lynx.

Aerialbots/Superion

• Adaptational Badass: In the original cartoon and comics, Superion was the prototype Autobot combiner and was often beaten or needed to be bailed out of trouble. He's much more powerful here.
• Cool Mask: Superion Mark II anyway.
• Detachment Combat: Since his limbs are all sentient, they can come right back if they're severed and hit anything in their way.
• Equippable Ally: Powerglide becomes Superion's gun.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Superion destroys himself so the Earth Enigma will be broken forever.
• I Am Not Him: Superion makes it clear (though gently) that he's not Silverbolt or the Aerialbots though they're a part of him. He doesn't think it can be understood by anyone who's not a Combiner.
• Spanner in the Works: If not for his sacrifice, Galvatron would have conquered Earth.
• Third Person Person: "Superior is superior".
• Torso with a View: Weaponized. He rearranges the metal in his torso to send Menasor's arm through and trap him.

Tracks

• It's All About Me
• Sibling Rivalry: With Needlenose.

Fixit

• Gallows Humor
• The Medic

Metrotitan

• The Ace: An understated version but unlike his brothers, he's operating at 100% capacity even after all the millions of years.
• Adaptational Heroism: In his original appearance, he was a proud Decepticon. He's a firm follower of the Primes here.
• Made of Iron: Pun aside, he takes an insane amount of damage and it never slows him down.
• Retcon: Originally the entire race was called "Metrotitans" before it just became his name.

• Teleporters and Transporters: His Space Bridge.

Decepticons

• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the Marvel comics or G1 cartoon, the Decepticons in IDW are not inherently evil and are just ordinary people who chose a side in the Great War. That said some are still complete and total monsters.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Something many Autobots have trouble understanding for the more moral ones.
• The Dreaded: They're feared across the galaxy.
• Fantastic Racism: They loathe organic life sometimes even using them as cheap batteries.

Galvatron

• 0% Approval Rating: Very few people like Galvatron.
• Arm Cannon: Which proves his undoing as Arcee detonates it right in his face and the resulting explosion detonates half his body.
• Bad Boss: Deconstructed. He abuses his troops so much that they all abandon him and he casually sacrifices the one left leaving him alone against three Autobots and killed soon after.
• Big Bad: Post-Dark Cybertron.
• Composite Character: Inverted, he's not connected to Megatron in any way.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Fantastic Racism: Galvatron views organics as odd things that come and go, not really lifeforms in the true sense of the word.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Well anyone that doesn't fit his rather ill-defined archetype of what a "true" Cybertronian is.
• Irony: In a meta-sense. The series establishes his hatred for Titan Masters/Headmasters and how he hunted them all down to near extinction for not being "pure" Cybertronians. Both the toy line and the contemporary Beast Wars: Uprising give him a Titan Master partner and in the latter, he was very eager to get one.
• Take That: Galvatron may be a slight jab at the hardcore fans of the original G1 cartoon who believe all Cybertronians should be male and turn into vehicles.
• Tank Goodness
• Time Abyss: The First Cybertronian War ended ten million years ago and Galvatron was active back then. He claims to have battle axes older than the whole of human civilization.

Soundwave

• Adaptational Heroism: This is by far the most sympathetic version of Soundwave.
• Shoulder Cannon
• Telepathy: His thing.
• Verbal Tic: His habit of saying "Operation: X" when he does something, usually making it rhyme. An attack for example is "Operation: Incineration".

Astrotrain

• Butt Monkey: It's never made clear what he did to make Galvatron hate him so much.

Skywarp

• Teleporters and Transporters: Subverted. While he's been physically stabilized, he's lost his teleportation powers. He's waiting for them to be restored.
• Token Evil Teammate: For G.I. Joe.

Colony Worlds

After the First Cybertronian Civil War, thirteen Titans took the stars to found new outposts of Cybertronian civilization and create "Pax Cybertronia" across the Milky Way. While the plan failed, the colonies were still established and upon Metroplex's return to Cybertron, he located five of them.

Caminus

Aileron

• Character Development: She started out as scared of Arcee but soon stubbornly stood by her side and offerred her comfort.
• Hypocritical Humor: She mocks the new colonist Autobots for their hero worship of Optimus and Jetfire soon points out that she acted exactly like them less than a year ago.

Torchbearers/Victorion

• Distaff Counterpart: It's hard not to draw parallels between Prowl and Pyra.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Something the other Autobots are not shy in pointing out and the Torchbearers take offence to.
• Never My Fault: Pyra Magna insisted Optimus act more like a "true" Prime and acts indignant when he does so.
• The Starscream: Pyra isn't even trying to hide it.

Midnight Express

• Cool Train: A bullet train.

Lightbright

• Age Lift: She was pretty much a child in Animated and has been redrawn to have a more adult feel here.

Caminus

• Facial Markings: His kabuki still mask which Cityspeakers wear to honour him.

Devisiun

• Out of Focus: It's the colony we know the absolute least about. It's only been seen twice and its Titan has gone unnamed.

Oiler and Slide

• Angsty Surviving Twin: Slide after Oiler dies.
• Combining Mecha: Oiler formed the truck and Slide formed the tanker. Slide now can't transform into anything due to Oiler's death.
• Killed Off for Real: Oiler by the Junkions.
• Gender Flip: Slide is female. Not that means anything since this is the first time the character received any characterization.

Velocitron

Roulette

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: She joined Optimus Prime because she wants Velocitron to move forward, she wants to help the lost colony of Earth get to a civilized level of planetary development and thinks Optimus is awesome because he moves pretty fast for a truck.
• Cool Car: A Dodge Viper.

Eukaris

Gimlet

• Big Creepy-Crawlies: He turns into a starfish.

Bump

• Out of Focus: He's the least seen of the new colonist soldiers.

Cybertronian Council of Worlds

In the aftermath of Combiner Wars, Cybertron contacted five of its thirteen colonies to create a representational republic (instead of the empire Starscream wanted) for all Cybertronians across the galaxy. It's not going too well but it could be worse.

• Depending on the Artist: The members stay the same and have the same design, but the meeting room differs greatly in each appearance.
• Double Standard: They all distrust Starscream due to his imperial ambitions but will hear Optimus out regrading annexing Earth (even if they disprove of it). Starscream lampshades (and rages about) this.

Obsidian

• Adaptational Heroism: Obisidan has always been one of the more moral Decepticons/Predacons (and sometimes was even an Autobot) but he's firmly a good (if secretive) character here.
• Non Standard Character Design: His Beast Machines stands out compared to the rest.
• Odd Friendship: Seems to have this with Winblade and Airazor.

Earth

Earth Defense Command

• Adaptational Badass: Inverted. As incompetent as they were in the original cartoon, they're even more pathetic here.
• Expy: Of SHIELD.

Marissa Faireborn

• Buxom Is Better: She's consistently drawn with a larger chest than her fellows. The covers make it more notable.
• Fiery Redhead
• Heroic Bastard
• The Peter Principle: Marissa is a competent leader but compared to the vast experience and technological superiority of the Cybertronians, she's out of her depth.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead
• Spy Catsuit: One that grips her body quite nicely.

Daniel "Sparkplug" Witwicky

• Adaptational Villainy: He's unrecognizable next to his cartoon self.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yeah it's totally fine to antagonize Galvatron. It's not like Galvatron is prideful, short tempered warlord who was zero compunctions about killing humans as form of casual sport. Right?

Zilong "Talon" Qian

• It's All About Me: He views himself as the main target of Optimus Prime's machinations and the sole one standing between an Autobot conquest of Earth.
• Unknown Rival: To the Autobots. They know who he is but refuse to acknowledge as even remotely resembling a threat.

Steven "Spike" Witwicky

• Adaptational Villainy: He's unrecognizable next to the original Spike.
• Fantastic Racism: He hates Cybertronians.
• The Friend Nobody Likes
• Hate Sink: No one likes him. Prowl will even come back to Earth and form Devastator again just to kill him.
• It's All About Me
• Jerkass
• Never My Fault: He traded with Swindle and yet blames Prowl for the government turning against him.

Jimmy Pink

• Put On the Bus: Again. He hasn't been seen since the "Onyx Interface" arc ended.

The President of the United States

• Our Presidents Are Different: Jerkass, Buffon and Minority. She's an antagonistic black woman who can't seem to grasp that Optimus and Galvatron weren't friends.

Hector Ramirez

• Mythology Gag: His appearance in the 1980s Hasbro shows (bar My Little Pony) was what led fans to believe all the shows took place in the same universe. So of course he shows up after Revolution.

The Thirteen Original Primes

• Adaptational Villainy: More like Adaptational Jerks but they're not the squeaky clean paragons they usually are. See Deconstruction.
• Deconstruction: They're subjected to this. If you're older and more powerful than your entire species, then chances are you're going to, at best, have an inflated ego and at worst view yourself as the rightful ruler.
• Demoted to Extra: Vector Prime and the Fallen.
• Expy: Of their Aligned counterparts.
• The Ghost: Most haven't been seen at this point.
• Mysterious Past: They ruled Cybertron after the Knights of Cybertron and before Nova Prime. How they came to power though is a mystery.
• Precursors: Elita One says that all Cybertronians are based on the template of the Thirteen Primes.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: They all hightailed it when Galvatron killed Nexus Prime.
• Takes One to Kill One: Subverted. They (and all of Ancient Cybertron) believed this but Galvatron proved this wasn't the case.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to them after they fled Cybertron isn't clear. They settled on other planets but it's clear they didn't stay there.

Prima

• The Ace
• BFS: The Star Saber.

Megatronus Prime/The Fallen

• History Repeats: The implausible coincidence between his and Megatron's name unnerves both Alpha Trion and Optimus.

Alpha Trion

• Adaptational Badass: While he doesn't like fighting, don't assume he's incapable of it.
• Badass Beard
• Composite Character: By and large his G1 self but he takes on his Aligned self's status as one of the Thirteen Primes.
• Cool Starship: His modern day alternate mode.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time: Regarding his endorsing Nova Major's ascension to Prime-hood and Functionist rule. He defends it by saying that the First War was hell and the order that Functionism offerred was very appealing
• Off with His Head: Though it wasn't fatal and it was only temporary.
• Shout-Out: Prior to the Great War, he turned into what appeared to be the Tumbler.

Alchemist Prime

• The Alcoholic: Implied. Galvatron said that Alchemist had consumed twelve drams of rancid Engex when he dreamed up the "Chosen One".

Solus Prime

• The Blacksmith: Of the Primes.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female among the Thirteen Primes.

Micronus Prime

• King in the Mountain: He didn't do a thing to save Microspace.
• Neglectful Precursors: He founded the colony of Prion and just up and left leaving them all to be wiped out by the Black Block Consortia. Then he created Microspace and didn't do anything as entropy or Ore-13 tore up the place.

Nexus Prime

• Bigger Bad: He was Infinitus/Sentinel's master who believed everything Nexus said making him indirectly responsible for Titans Return.
• Jerkass: And that's being charitable.
• Underestimating Badassery: He really paid for dismissing Galvatron as nothing but a grunt.

Onyx Prime

• Adaptational Villainy: As opposed to being the spiritual in-between of the Thirteen, he's an aggressive conqueror.
• Dark Is Evil: Well he is called Onyx.
• Mythology Gag: He's based on Antilla, the planet that hosted the Cosmic Rust plague in the eponymous episode of the G1 cartoon.
• Pet the Dog: He may be a conqueror but he still established Eukaris so that his followers could live peacefully free of discrimination.
• Reality Warper: He's shown the ability to control a singularity.
• Red Optics, Take Warning

Liege Maximo

• Deadpan Snarker
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He was as loyal to Vigilem as Vigilem was to him.
• Horned Humanoid
• Sealed Evil in a Can: But the can was loyal to him and chose to set him free the second it could.
• Shadow Archetype: To Starscream.
• Shout-Out: His design resembles Loki. Considering his traditional personality, it's very appropriate.
• Villain Exit Stage Left: The instant he's freed, he teleports away.

Junkions

Wreck-Gar

• Adaptational Villainy: Though downplayed.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The loud red to Rum-Mag's blue.

Rum-Mag

• Canon Foreigner
• Cool Bike
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm blue to Wreck-Gar's red.

Sharkticons

• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Why it takes only a rousing speech from Soundwave.
• Slave Race: To the Junkions and they're hinted to be this to the Quintessons.

Dark Cybertron Antagonists

Nova Prime

• Shadow Archetype: He's what many fear Optimus could turn into.

Others

Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign

• Adaptational Villainy: Both as Blackrock and Sovereign he's much more self-serving when compared to his original selves.
• Composite Character: Garrison Blackrock is just a false identity for Sovereign.
• Cool Mask: Much like Optimus'.
• Everyone Has Standards: He did some awful things but still finds Sentinel's attempted genocide a bit too much.
• Expy: He's Tony Stark without any morals or concern for other people.
• Foil: To Prowl. Both are long-term, smug schemers but Prowl genuinely wants the best for his people while Sovereign's world ends with himself.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: In Titans Return. Sentinel activates him and Sovereign becomes as arrogant and racist as Sentinel before Soundwave restores him to Blackrock. Which personality is his real one is unclear however.
• It's All About Me
• Manchurian Agent: For Onyx Prime. Sentinel Prime reactivates him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Galvatron hints that by activating the Onyx source code, he's sent out the signal to Onyx Prime that it's time to come to Earth.
• Ridiculously-Human Robot: He's a Cybertronian, he just wore an excellent Pretender shell to pass him self off as human.
• That Cybertronian Is Dead: He thinks of himself solely as Blackrock now given that his memories as Sovereign are locked deep in his subconscious. He'd still like to have those memories however.

Trypticon

• Adaptational Heroism: Trypticon eventually decides he's had it with being a living weapon and goes to fulfill his purpose of brining new life to Cybertron.
• Breath Weapon
• Composite Character: Though he's primarily based of G1 Trypticon, his starship mode, breath weapon and muddled origins are all from the Aligned version of the character.
• Cool Starship: One of his alternate modes.
• The Corruption: His Energon can turn Cybertronians berserk. He seems to be able to choose whether or not this happens.
• Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: His robot mode is very saurian inspired.
• Foil: Both he and Vigilem are evil Titans but Trypticon is fiercely independent contrasting Vigilem's undying loyalty.
• Mysterious Past: Exactly where he comes from isn't clear. He could have spawned by Mortilus or he could have just been an unusually formed Titan. There's the also the question of which Prime, if any, he might have served. Whatever the case, he's not telling.
• Mythology Gag: His reactivation in the modern day is how Shockwave reactivated him in the Aligned continuity.
• Person of Mass Destruction: People seem to legitimately believe that Trypticon could conquer the galaxy on his own.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Trypticon eventually decides that everyone and everything sucks.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Then Scorponok opened the can for shits and giggles.
• Teleporters and Transporters: His Space Bridge.
• Token Evil Teammate: To the Titans though not to Vigilem's extent.
• Worthy Opponent: Why he spares Devastator.

Scourge

• Composite Character: Inverted. He's not connected to Thundercracker in any way.
• Killed Off for Real: John Barber confirmed in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #2 that Scourge died off panel during the Chaos event.
• The Lost Lenore: A platonic version to Cyclonus.
• Out of Focus: Compared to Galvatron and Cyclonus, Scourge got very little screen time.

Quintessons

• Always Chaotic Evil: Megatron's vision of them in Primacy suggests all they do is conquer worlds.
• Demoted to Extra: The Quintessons often function as great threats, specifically in G1 universes, but their appearances have been very intermittent here.
• Evil Mentor: Pentius functions as Megatron's.
• Sigil Spam: Their insignia appears more than a few times on LV-117.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Hinted at. Their symbol often appears near Shockwave's Regenesis project and the ores of said project were said to have been sent to the (original) resting places of the Thirteen Primes. And there's been no word on Quintus Prime's fate.