This Underrated Transformers Character Might be the Most Evil in the Comics (2024)

Several names come to mind when it comes to the most evil villains in the Transformers franchise. Chief among them is the vile Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, and other characters such as the loyal Soundwave or the traitorous Starscream. In the comics, however, there's another legendary Generation 1 Cybertronian who's just as evil as his comrades and far more logical.

Though he was a comparative footnote in the G1 cartoon, Shockwave was a much bigger deal in the Transformers comic books. Cold, calculated and villainously brilliant, he was behind some of the greatest advancements in Transformers technology. Thus, his evil streak might outshine almost any other Decepticon, including Megatron.

G1 Shockwave Was At His Best In the Marvel Comic Books

In the classic cartoon The Transformers, Shockwave remained on Cybertron and was largely there to operate the planet's Space Bridges. Though he was recognizable to fans who grew up with the show, he ultimately didn't do much. His intended death in The Transformers: The Movie was left off-screen, making his exit from the series irrelevant. That wasn't the case in the Transformers comic books by Marvel Comics, which did a lot more with Shockwave in both the US and the Marvel UK titles. There, he was one of the few survivors of the battle between Tarn and Iacon, with Shockwave ruling the former. Goaded into war and vengeful after the battle, Shockwave joins with Megatron and becomes an official Decepticon warrior.

Shockwave came to Earth when the other Transformers were dormant, with the presence of the Decepticon causing the Autobot ship The Ark to activate 5 Autobots and have them transform into robotic versions of the native dinosaurs in the Savage Land. These were the violent and bestial Dinobots, easily some of the most popular G1 Transformers. All six combatants were trapped in tar, though they became free in the modern day.

Shockwave easily obliterated numerous nearby Autobots using his wiles and his own raw power, even keeping the severed head of Optimus Prime and the power of his Creation Matrix to make more Decepticons. He was more effective in battle than Megatron and soon challenged and soundly beat his supposed superior. Devoted to cold logic and more than sure of his intellect and sound judgment, Shockwave was more of a danger to Megatron's rule than even Starscream was.

Shockwave remained the leader of the Decepticons for quite a while, and even after Megatron came back into the picture, they were still rivals who only occasionally worked together. Shockwave truly believed in the survival of the fittest, seeing all others beneath him. If this included other Decepticons, and he felt they needed to learn their place, then so be it. Cruel and amoral, it was almost impossible to reason with Shockwave.

Ironically, this caused him to eventually come under the command of Ratbat, one of Soundwave's cassette minions. Still, he otherwise refused to back down from a fight, even taking on the powerful Headmaster Scorponok alone. It wasn't until the series' conclusion that Shockwave finally met his end through a spaceship crash, but the fact that he lasted so much longer than his animated counterpart said a lot.

Dreamwave Expanded Upon Shockwave's Relevance

The Dreamwave Productions Transformers comics were set in their own continuity, though this universe was a variant of G1. In these comics, like in the original cartoon, Shockwave remained on Cybertron while the other main Transformers went to Earth. Years before, Optimus Prime had been warned through visions derived from the Matrix of Leadership that Shockwave would become one of his greatest enemies.

Not only did he personally lead several attacks on Autobot bases, but he was also involved with some of the leading technologies that shaped the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Chief among these was that of the Micromasters, which were diminutive Transformers who used far less energon than their larger counterparts. Sadly, he and his creations and other Transformers entered the Great Shutdown due to the lack of energon on Cybertron.

Shockwave's brilliance even led to the creation of the Triple-Changer technology, though this started out through two insane Decepticons he forged, called the Duocons. This came after he mined technology from the time-traveling Scourge, even though the herald of Unicron had saved him. Upon reactivating Cybertron and restoring the species, he sought to only gain more power for himself. This involved making the entire Transformers species inherently more violent and sabotaging a potential return to Cybertron for both Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Shockwave ended up capturing them and their forces, and his desire to try them as war criminals was only to solidify his own control of the planet. The results were criminals such as the Stunticons being released and more heinous experiments involving transformation, with Shockwave's darkly logical ambitions having no end. These comics were easily the biggest push that the character had in years, but sadly, Dreamwave Productions went out of business before further stories could be told.

IDW Had the Darkest Take On Shockwave

Many iterations of Shockwave in the Transformers franchise are evil, but the version in the IDW Publishing comic books is truly amoral. He regards all life as having the same value, though given his contempt for it, said value wasn't much. He began with a body similar to a seeker, which made sense, given that the great Jhiaxus trained him. Always thinking ahead, he feared the fate of the Transformers as a species due to how quickly the Cybertronian race was expanding. Thus, he experimented with alternate fuel sources to replace energon, but his later experiments had far less benign reasoning.

Captured by enemies and subjected to "empurata," his head was replaced with a single-eyed "mask," while his limbs were replaced with claws and weapons. This only made him into a killing machine, with Shockwave joining Megatron and the Decepticons afterward due to the torturous experience. This removed any sense of illogical morality from his now far different personality. Thus, he used whatever means necessary to secure resources for himself and supposedly Cybertronians as a whole, though many of his experiments hinged mostly on the Combiner technology.

Even amid the subsequent defeats that Megatron and the Decepticons suffered, Shockwave coldly persisted, always having ulterior motives in place. He later used Onyx Prime's body (a predecessor of Optimus Prime) to upgrade himself, becoming one of the penultimate villains in the original IDW Publishing Transformers comics. He showed more resilience than Megatron or Starscream, and it was because, at the end of the day, he had both a driving purpose (the continuation of the Cybertronian species) and absolutely no morals holding him back.

Things were the same in the second, far more short-lived IDW Transformers continuity, where Shockwave constantly engaged in dangerous experiments to bolster the Decepticon cause. However, he was more prone to being put in his place by Megatron. Likewise, the new Energon Universe comic books take his brand of experimentation to the next level, with Shockwave known for torturing and pulling Autobots apart for his own purposes.

With Decepticons such as Megatron, his actions can be cast under the banner of war, with the faction's leader having no purpose beyond warfare. With Shockwave, however, he's constantly shown to engage in immoral actions to see if they can be done. This makes him worse in many respects and given that he's driven by logic - or at least his own concept of it - he's impossible to reason with. In these ways, his cold, cyclops-like appearance is a fitting visage for someone with no emotions, with Shockwave representing a depravity that even his leader dares not tread toward.

Transformers

Transformersis a mediafranchiseproduced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, such as vehicles and animals.

First Film

Transformers

Latest Film

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

First TV Show

The Transformers

Latest TV Show

Transformers: EarthSpark (2022)

Cast

Peter Cullen , Wil Wheaton , Shia LaBeouf , Megan Fox , Luna Lauren Velez , Dominique Fishback