The story
The Matrix Quest began when Primus, the Transformers' god and core of their homeworld, Cybertron was reawakened, alerting his nemesis, Unicron to his location. Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader, had deduced that the only thing capable of stopping Unicron was the Creation Matrix, which he had once carried inside his body. The Matrix had been lost with Prime's old body when it had been launched into space for burial. Prime assembles several small teams of Autobots to search different parts of the galaxy for the Matrix.
The story takes the form of four individual stories, each focusing on one team. Although the stories do not connect directly to each other, they each detail the ongoing quest and share the common thread of the Decepticon Thunderwing's growing obsession with capturing the Matrix for himself.
Issue #62: Bird of Prey
The Autobot Headmasters - Nightbeat, Siren and Hosehead - start the Matrix Quest on the planet of Pz-zazz. Pz-zazz is a tough, unfriendly world where corruption and crime thrive. The politics of Pz-zazz are in the hands of two criminal lords, Gutt and B'ghdad. However, a third individual, known as Miss Fatale, also wants her cut of the deal.
The Autobots' troubles start when a dying alien gives them a mysterious, ancient bird icon. This icon seemingly holds the key to the planet's future, and all three crime bosses are after it. Nightbeat, however, places the bird onto the pedestal from which it was originally stolen, and it restores peace and happiness to the world.
At the close of the story, Nightbeat and his companions are captured by Thunderwing and his band of Decepticons.
This chapter pays homage to the Humphrey Bogart film, The Maltese Falcon . Just before he hits B'ghdad with the bird Nightbeat said, "If you want the bird, you can have it! But if you're its real owner, I'm Peter Lorre!"
Issue #63: Kings of the Wild Frontier
The Autobot Triggerbots - Override, Dogfight and Backstreet - arrive on the planet Cheyenne, a world of hot, arid deserts and small, fledgling frontier towns.
Upon arriving, the Autobots are met by a band of mounted men, chasing a small child, with the obvious intention of killing him. The Autobots come to the child's rescue, and he invites them to his home.
The Autobots succumb to the peaceful life on the alien's farm and quickly forget about the Matrix Quest. However, there's more than meets the eye to this - an encounter with Thunderwing makes Dogfight realise he's not in his right mind any more, so he confronts the host family. The family is revealed to be Vrobians, a malevolent race of psychic vampires. The riders the Autobots met earlier were actually a kind of policemen, seeking to arrest the Vrobians. A fight ensues, and the Autobots win.
This chapter references several cowboy movies. The title may also be a reference to the 1980 Adam and the Ants album of the same name.
Issue #64: Deadly Obsession
The Autobot Pretenders - Longtooth, Doubleheader and Pincher - arrive on the planet Pequod, which is a world of vast seas.
While cruising on a ship over the oceans, Longtooth encounters a large whale-like creature called a Klud, which bites off his leg, rendering him catatonic. No longer in his right mind, he becomes obsessed with hunting it down and killing it for revenge, while the other two Autobots try to stop him. Longtooth's second encounter with the Klud is interrupted by a Decepticon attack. After defeating the Decepticons, Longtooth's comrades make him see reason, and he spares the Klud's life.
Meanwhile, Thunderwing has come in contact with the Klud, and has somehow learned that the Klud has been in contact with the Matrix - and thus, Thunderwing knows where the Matrix is.
This chapter pays homage to the novel, Moby-Dick.
Issue #65: Dark Creations
Optimus Prime's body, along with the Matrix, has landed on a moon called Vs'Qs. Vs'Qs is a desolate, almost lifeless place, inhabited only by small vermin, and a human research outpost. However, when the Autobot Pretender Classics - Bumblebee, Jazz and Grimlock - arrive on Vs'Qs, they find that something has killed the outpost's entire crew.
The Autobots face Thunderwing and his Decepticons, but while they fight, a native creature finds the Matrix and tries to escape with it. Thunderwing hunts the creature down and kills it, stealing the Matrix. He then hijacks the Autobots' shuttle and flies back to The Ark, where he attacks Optimus Prime.
This chapter pays homage to Ridley Scott's movie, Alien , and particularly to the sequel, Aliens .
The story also contains a reference to the character of Deathbringer, an alien being mutated by the Matrix that the Autobots faced in a Marvel UK story. This marks one of the few direct references that Furman made to his Marvel UK continuity after he began writing the US comic.
Issue #66: All Fall Down
An Autobot shuttle returns to the Ark and Prime can sense the Matrix aboard. However, when the shuttle opens, it reveals a fighting mad Thunderwing, who has taken the Matrix for himself after overpowering the Autobots in the high gravity of Vs'Qs.
Thunderwing battles the entire Ark crew, as Prime hesitates, unwilling to risk damage to the Matrix. Presently, the Matrix itself makes itself known, taking over control of Thunderwing's body and revealing itself to have been corrupted by evil. The Autobots are unable to resist the power of the Dark Matrix until Nightbeat, imprisoned since Issue #62, shoots Thunderwing with a grappling harpoon from the shuttle and depressurises the shuttlebay, sucking Thunderwing and the Matrix out into deep space.
The Autobots are left to face Unicron without the Matrix.
The Transformers: The Movie is a 1986 animated science fiction action film based on the Transformers television series. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986, and in the United Kingdom on December 12, 1986. It was co-produced and directed by Nelson Shin, who also produced the television series. The screenplay was written by Ron Friedman, who created The Bionic Six a year later.
Megatron is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise created by American toy company Hasbro in 1984, based on a design by Japanese toy company Takara. Usually portrayed as a villain, Megatron is the supreme leader of the Decepticons, a faction of war-mongering Transformers who seek to conquer their home planet of Cybertron and the rest of the known universe. A cruel and power-hungry leader, Megatron leads the Decepticons with an iron fist and has little to no tolerance for failure. He serves as the nemesis of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime. In most incarnations, after meeting his demise, usually at Optimus' hands, Megatron would be resurrected as Galvatron.
The Decepticons are the main antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers multimedia franchise. They are depicted as a faction of sentient robotic lifeforms led by Megatron, identified by a purple face-like insignia. Capable of transforming into alternate forms, these are often high-tech or powerful vehicles; including aircraft, military vehicles, construction vehicles, expensive luxury or sports cars and even smaller-than-human-sized objects.
Unicron is a fictional villain from the Transformers media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie and has since reappeared in Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon, Transformers: Cybertron, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: The Last Knight and Atari's 2004 Transformers video game. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also able to transform into a giant planet. Unicron's origin has expanded over the years from simply being a large robot to being a god of chaos who devours realities. He often employs the help of Decepticons in his work, and in some stories is considered part of the origin of the Decepticon forces.
Grimlock is the name of several fictional robot characters in the Transformers robot franchise. He is usually portrayed as the leader of the Dinobots, a subfaction of Autobots who can transform into metal dinosaurs. In 2007, USA Today polled people as to which Transformer they want to appear in the second installment in the Transformers film series; Grimlock came in tied for second with Devastator..
The Autobots are benevolent, sentient, self-configuring robotic lifeforms from the planet Cybertron. Led by Optimus Prime, they are the main protagonists in the universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, cartoons, movies, graphic novels, and paperback books first introduced in 1984. The "Heroic Autobots" are opposed by the "Evil Decepticons". Both Autobots and Decepticons are humanoid robots that can transform into machines, vehicles and other familiar mechanical objects, as well as mimic organic lifeforms (Dinobots). Autobots typically transform into regular cars, trucks, or other road vehicles (automobiles) but some are aircraft, military vehicles, communication devices, weapons, and even robotic animals. These Autobots are often grouped into special "teams" that have the suffix "-bot" at the end, such as in Dinobot.
Ultra Magnus is a fictional character from the various Transformers storylines in the Transformers franchise, generally appearing as a chief lieutenant of Optimus Prime.
Soundwave is a fictional character appearing in various Transformers continuities in the Transformers franchise. His most well-known disguise is that of a microcassette recorder. Throughout most of his incarnations, he is an undyingly loyal lieutenant of the Decepticon leader Megatron. He is commonly depicted as Megatron's communications officer and, in some interpretations, only speaks when mocking the Autobots.
Designation Jazz is a fictional robot character from the Transformers franchise. He is usually portrayed as a music-loving robot that speaks using American ebonics. In certain continuities he is shown as being Optimus Prime's good friend and right-hand man.
Jetfire is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. He is almost always depicted as an Autobot with flight capabilities and a jet or space shuttle as an alternate mode.
Bumblebee is a fictional robot character in the many continuities in the Transformers franchise. The character is a member of the Autobots, a group of sentient self-configuring modular extraterrestrial robotic lifeforms.
Sideswipe is a fictional robot character in the Transformers franchise. Because of trademark restrictions, toys of the character are sometimes marketed as Side Swipe.
Transformers: The War Within is a series of comic book mini-series written by Simon Furman and published by Dreamwave Productions featuring Generation One characters with brand new pre-Earth designs.
Optimus Prime, known in Japan as Convoy, is a fictional character created by the Transformers franchise. He is a Cybertronian, a fictional extraterrestrial species of sentient self-configuring modular robotic lifeforms, a synergistic blend of biological evolution and technological engineering. In almost every version of the mythos, Optimus is the leader of the Autobots, a faction of Transformers who are rivals of the Decepticons, another faction. He is defined by his strong moral character and is almost always portrayed as the primary hero of the story, opposing the evil Decepticon leader Megatron.
The Transformers: Stormbringer is a comic book mini-series, published by IDW Publishing.
The Transformers was an 80-issue American comic book series published by Marvel Comics telling the story of the Transformers. Originally scheduled as a four-issue miniseries, it spawned a mythology that would inform other versions of the saga. It also had a UK sister title that spliced original stories into the continuity, running for 332 issues.
Transformers Universe is the title of several comic book series based on the Transformers series by Hasbro. The first comic book was printed in 1986 by Marvel Comics as a character guide, while later series printed by 3H Enterprises contained fiction for the Transformers: Universe toy line.
Transformers: Prime – The Game is a brawler video game based on the Transformers: Prime animated series, itself based on the Transformers franchise. It was developed by Now Production, published by Activison, and released for the Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS in October–November 2012. The game's main storyline sees the Autobots on Earth, referred to as "Team Prime" and consisting of Optimus Prime, Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Ratchet, along with their human companions Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Raf Esquivel, once again facing off against their rivals, the Decepticons, led by Megatron, and attempting to stop them from freeing an ancient and powerful Transformer known as Thunderwing.
