| “ | Until next time. | „ |
| ~ Shockwave to his old friend, Wheeljack. |
Shockwave is a major antagonist in the 2018 animated series Transformers: Cyberverse.
A brilliant and calculating scientist, even if coldly so, Shockwave would join the evil Decepticons and rise to the rank of head scientist, a profession where his skills and robotic ruthlessness could shine, while also giving him the resources to do some twisted research of his own. He loyally assisted the Decepticon leader Megatron in many attempts to defeat the Autobots, even being willing to annihilate planets in their quest for the powerful AllSpark with which they could rule over Cybertron.
He was voiced by Ryan Andes.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- He was a brilliant scientific mind capable of creating amazing technology, some of which even impress Wheeljack, who is a genius inventor himself.
- Like most iterations of the character, he is focused on coldly efficient logic above all else.
- He used his scientific acumen to aid the Decepticon cause and, with strategical thinking and great invention, he lent his faction many victories or near-victories. According to his calculation, he had a success rate of 99.8%.
- He was willing to compliment his enemies should they prove cunning enough, clearly respecting Wheeljack's smarts and calling Bumblebee's methods "efficient" when he briefly defeated him in their last battle.
- He was one of Megatron's most loyal enforcers, even worrying for his injured leader at one point. However, unlike other undyingly loyal Decepticons in the series, such as Soundwave in Prime, Shockwave was loyal to the Decepticon cause more than to Megatron himself, and would even reluctantly do away with his lord had he proved himself too incompetent a leader.
- He is a proficient fighter, especially thanks to the blaster cannon he has for a left hand, while his actual left hand he turned into a drone and his personal lab assistant.
- He has a lot of Evil is Cool even on a superficial level with a flashy, well-made design, a menacing voice and a very badass alt mode as a large insect-like drone.
- He used to be good friends with both the former fellow Megatron fan Bumblebee and Wheeljack.
- Surgically saved Shadowstriker's life after she was mutilated by an explosion, even in the horrific mean of fusing her with limbs from her fallen comrades.
- When Bumblebee was trying to regain his lost memories with the help of the Cityspeaker Windblade, Shockwave hacked into the cortical psychic patch they were using, impersonated Windblade with admittedly wooden acting that still did the trick and then tried to gaslight Bumblebee into thinking him and Optimus Prime were actually Decepticon spies through fabricated memories. The plan only failed because Bumblebee had far too much faith in Optimus to believe he was actually evil and, once the jig was up, Shockwave immediately tried to extort information from Bumblebee by threatening in exchange for sparing Windblade.
- When the Seekers found out the AllSpark was stranded on Earth, he struck a deal with their chief, Slipstream, to save her from demotion by Starscream if they fixed Earth's space bridge, allowing him to arrive to the planet before the rest of the Decepticon armada, Shadowstriker with him.
- To make the search for the AllSpark easier, he tried to use two ships to disrupt the Earth's magnetic field and kill all life on the planet. When the Autobots and Teletraan-X foiled his plan, he smuggled a drone of his onto their plane to spy on them, observing as they found the location of the Ark, Mount St. Hillary, where he faced them with his Seekers and Shadowstriker before trying to kill them all by triggering the volcano to erupt, something that Teletraan-X barely averted by activating the ship's shields.
- During the battle on the moon, he tried to use a planet-smashing machine to destroy the Earth so the Decepticons could find the AllSpark in the remaining debris and, when the Autobots defused it, Shockwave already had the backup plan of using rockets he had installed in the moon to drive the satellite into Earth, destroying it.
- When Starscream seemingly killed Megatron and usurped him as the Decepticon leader, it was Shockwave who actually took charge of strategy when Starscream proved himself to be out of his depth in dealing with the Autobots attacking.
- He tracked down the location of the AllSpark using the network of ground-bridges on Earth.
- After putting trackers on the Scraplets, Starscream's mindless minions, proves ineffective, Shockwave tried to strike a temporary alliance with his old friend Wheeljack, who had the same idea, to track down Starscream and kidnapped him when he refused. He then coerced assistance from Wheeljack with an hologram of a captured Bumblebee and left his left hand drone to keep tabs on the Autobot while Shockwave left to meet with Megatron. When the quick-witted Wheeljack managed to escape, even using a drone-controlling device to sic "Lefty" on Megatron, Shockwave managed to take advantage of Wheeljack's doing, as the Autobot had left the Decepticon a device they could use to control Starscream's Scraplets.
- As they finally got the Ark freed, Shockwave tricked the Autobots by using a hologram to make it look like the Space Bridge to Cybertron was destroyed, thus making the Autobots take the long route while the Decepticons could arrive first on Cybertron, where they laid a trap for the Autobots using a message from a blackmailed Chromia and then a laser snare built by Shockwave that destroyed the Ark, though it was luckily evacuated first by a savvy Optimus.
- In the war on Cybertron, he helped greatly both with his own fighting and help from controlled Scraplets and giant drones he had prepared.
- In a final show of devotion to the Decepticon cause, Shockwave committed suicide using a Spark extractor so that his evil Spark could corrupt and destroy the AllSpark, with only Cheetor's own sacrifice being able to undo the wicked scientist's action.
- While this Shockwave is more genuinely prideful, argumentative and unprofessionally mean-spirited than most versions of the character, this doesn't make him too petty as what little he does out of actual pettiness are very minor rude acts, while his actually heinous actions are him following orders, pursuing a coldly logical goal or furthering his scientific knowledge.
- While he shows disdain towards Seekers, viewing them as unintelligent, they seldom proved him wrong due to their incompetence and he was willing to give a chance to any Seeker he saw as deserving, saving Slipstream from demotion and even having had Acid Storm as an apprentice once because they actually managed to prove him wrong and be competent soldiers.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- In the Cybertronian conflict, he joined the side of the power-hungry extremists, the Decepticons just because he thought it was "logical" to do so and fought alongside them in a grueling war against the Autobots which eventually killed their planet.
- He tried to gaslight Bumblebee into thinking he was a Decepticon spy.
- He ran many twisted experiments for the sake of science, something even his evil allies find disturbing (as they should, since they are the first people Shockwave turns to when he wants test subjects).
- In the search for the AllSpark, Shockwave tried more than once to destroy the Earth, the planet it was located on, just to make the search easier.
- He kidnapped Wheeljack and forced him to cooperate in tracking Starscream down, coercing him with the hologram of a captured Bumblebee.
- As ordered by Megatron, Shockwave committed suicide and attempted to use his evil Spark to corrupt and destroy the AllSpark, an act which was only undone through a heroic sacrifice from Cheetor.
- He did not care for his allies, experimenting on them and even endangering them in some of his ploys, such as trying to awaken a vulcano while Shadowstriker and the Seekers were still inside, and he was even ready to dethrone Megatron, albeit reluctantly, if he kept being too ineffective a leader.
Trivia[]
- His Japanese voice actor, Tetsu Inada, also voiced Prowler in the Japanese dub of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
External Links[]
- Shockwave at the Villains wiki
- Shockwave at the Near Pure Evil wiki
[]
 Magnificent Baddies
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Generation One Continuity Transformers: Animated Transformers Film Series Aligned Continuity Other Continuities | ||