Thunderwing

Thunderwing is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers toyline.

Transformers: Generation 1

Transformers character
name =Thunderwing
japanname =


caption =
affiliation =Decepticon
subgroup =Ultra Pretenders
function =Aerial Espionage
partner =
motto ="Cover yourself with lies and no one will find you."
alternatemodes =Cybertronian Jet
series =
voiceby =

Marvel Comics

Thunderwing had a prominent role in Marvel's "Transformers" comic book as a Decepticon warlord, first appearing in #60 of the US comic.

Thunderwing had several appearances in the UK comics which predate his appearance in US #60, showing how Thunderwing rose from being a young, promising warlord to leader of the Decepticons. His first chronological appearance was in a text story called "The Magnificent Six", where flashbacks revealed he had once been a lieutenant of the sadistic Decepticon leader Megadeath. At this point, before Prime and Megatron were marooned on Earth, Thunderwing already had his Pretender shell. Later, his trial for leadership, set by a council of Decepticon elders, consisted of hunting down and exterminating several Autobot prisoners released on Earth but due to the intervention of Nightbeat & Siren, Thunderwing was taken offline. He later reactivated and went on a rampage before a Decepticon squad arrived to take him back to Cybertron; he beat the squad into obeying him and then launched a doomed five-man attack on the Ark in revenge for what Nightbeat did to him. While this attack was a failure, the drive and ambition he'd shown impressed the Decepticon elders and they promoted him to Decepticon commander.

In his first U.S. appearance, he was concerned with the Autobot Pretender Classics bringing hope to the Autobot resistance and increasing the number of attacks on Decepticon bases. He sent a team of Decepticon assassins, led by Bludgeon, to crush the Pretenders and the entire resistance cell led by Emirate Xaaron. The assassin group followed the Autobot Pretender Classics down to the center of Cybertron, where they accidentally woke up the god Primus, causing the events that led to the Matrix Quest.

Obsessed with acquiring the power of the Creation Matrix, Thunderwing followed the various Autobot squads, intending to steal the Matrix once they located it for him. During the mission, he was able to capture and severely wound Nightbeat's squad and fought the Classic Pretenders to a standstill before finally reaching the Matrix. However, the Matrix had already begun to become corrupted and wanting to better understand the nature of evil, it bonded with Thunderwing and became far more corrupt. The warlord become possessed by the Matrix, depriving him of his free will and unleashing him on the Ark.

The possessed Thunderwing was defeated by a joint effort between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Still holding the Matrix, he was hurled to an unknown planetoid, where he remained inactive until the corrupted Matrix revived him and used him to attack the dark god Unicron. However, the attack failed, killing Thunderwing and causing Optimus Prime to capture and revert the Matrix to its original state.

Dreamwave Productions

In the 21st century release of new Transformers comics by Dreamwave Productions, it would not be the Armada version of Thunderwing that would appear in the "" comic, but his Generation One counterpart. In this world, the incarnation of Thunderwing was one of the heralds of Unicron, from a different dimension, sent to cause destruction prior to Unicron's arrival alongside his fellow heralds, Scourge, Dirge, Bludgeon and their leader Galvatron (all characters from the G1 universe, though their names are not mentioned and are not the versions from the Generation One Dreamwave comics).

While Galvatron attacked Megatron on Earth the other Heralds attacked the Decepticon base on Cybertron. Activating the Spacebridge links and leaving Bludgeon behind to guard them, Thunderwing, Scourge and Dirge journeyed to the Decepticon base on Earth, unaware they were being watched by the Mini-Cons. Finding and beating the luckless to a pulp, they then detected anomalies within the Spacebridge network and returned to Cybertron - only to be destroyed on their arrival by a cache of explosives set by Jetfire.

IDW Publishing

Thunderwing made his IDW Publishing debut in their "" miniseries in 2006. Thunderwing was the first Transformer scientist to realize that the war was killing Cybertron, and that it was too late to stop the deterioration. He tried to find a way of ensuring Transformers could survive it by the invention of the bio-cybernetic grafting technology, where protective outer shells would be created from "bodily tissue" extracted from living Transformers. Showing it to Megatron, the Decepticon leader rejected it as an abomination and stripped Thunderwing of his rank; desperate, Thunderwing tested the grafting process on himself. The result was a disaster. Thunderwing was transformed into a supremely powerful, but completely insane being, and went on a rampage that devastated even more of the planet before facing a combined Autobot-Decepticon force at Thunderhead Pass. This was the final event that saw Cybertron made uninhabitable and forced the Transformers to abandon it, while Thunderwing ended up in the bowels of the planet with his sentience burnt out.

In 2006, Jetfire and the Technobots investigated an energy spike at Thunderhead Pass and discovered a small cult, led by Bludgeon and consisting of several other Decepticons (all of whom were amongst the Pretender toys). Worshiping Thunderwing, they reactivated him with Ultra Energon, hacked into his mind and gave it rudimentary commands to attack & destroy whole planets, believing this to be a form of mass sacrifice that would lead to the rejuvenation of Cybertron. Acting on these commands, Thunderwing launched an attack on Nebulos. By the first page of Stormbringer #3, a large swathe of Nebulos had been destroyed and even the intervention of the local Decepticon garrison couldn't hold him back. With the destruction of the device Bludgeon used to control him, Thunderwing abruptly returned to Cybertron only to be confronted by the Wreckers, a Predacon-led Decepticon party and Optimus Prime himself. After a massive battle Jetfire discovered his weakness: the Ultra Energon used to power Thunderwing burnt itself out quicker the more he exerted himself. A final all-out attack by Prime caused Thunderwing to simply shut down.

Thunderwing's fate was eventually revealed in the ' issue on Galvatron, where it was discovered that Hound's unit had been dispatched to guard his inert corpse. Galvatron arrived and easily defeated them, taking Thunderwing's body back to the Dead Universe. When Cyclonus activated the Nega-Core central to the Expansion, it was revealed that Thundering was its guardian, easily driving off Ultra Magnus' Autobots.(')

In this continuity Thunderwing's shell had a much larger secondary "Ultra" robot mode, which involved his wings wrapping around his main Pretender body as an extra layer of armor, his legs extending, and his wing-mounted engines becoming giant clawed arms. This mode was likely highly energy-consumptive, and possibly contributed to Thunderwing's second defeat.

Toy

*'Generation 1 Thunderwing:Thunderwing transforms into an jet aircraft. His Pretender shell transforms into an interstellar jet and is able to combine with his vehicle form. Although his tech spec profile is quite generic, describing him as an untrustworthy, yet ambitious spy, his persona in the U.S. & UK. Marvel comics drove his toy into meteoric popularity, despite the small number of Thunderwings produced.

Black Shadow

In "", the Thunderwing toy (with a different outer shell) was originally based on a different mold for a character called Black Shadow. He was a Crossformer working for the Space Mafia.

Because Black Shadow's principal colors were black and red, this is the source of Thunderwing's primarily red labels.

His function is "Crossformer Mercenary" and his motto is "I'll make you cry before I kill you."

Fun Publications

Black Shadow was a major character appearing in Fun Publications fiction "Gone to Far", a text-based story set on Transtech Cybertron.

Transformers: Armada

Transformers character
name =Thunderwing
japanname =Flame


caption ="Universe" Thunderwing toy
affiliation =Mini-Con
subgroup =Air Military Team
function =
partner =
motto ="No one hears the lightning until after it strikes!"
alternatemodes =Stealth Fighter Jet
series =

voiceby =

Dreamwave Productions

Although the G1 incarnation of Thunderwing appeared as one of Unicron's heralds, the Mini-Con Thunderwing did not appear in the series.

Toys

*Armada Thunderwing:"Armada" Thunderwing was repainted into "Armada" Seeker, Twirl and "Cybertron" Razorclaw.

*Universe Thunderwing:"Armada" Thunderwing was recolored for the "" line and packaged with Fireflight and Firebot.

Transformers Classics

Transformers character
name =Thunderwing


caption =
affiliation =Autobot
subgroup =Mini-Con
function =
partner =Nightscream
Steel Wind
motto =
alternatemodes =F-14 Tomcat
series =
voiceby =One of the new Mini-Con Molds released for the Transformers Classics line, Thunderwing is an Autobot allied Mini-Con who turns into a F-14 Tomcat jet fighter. He is a member of the Clear Skies Team along with Nightscream and Steel Wind.

The toy of Classic Thunderwing is identical to that of Cybertron's Nightscream (packaged with Cybertron/Primus as an end-of-series bonus).

Toys

*Classic Thunderwing:This toy was later redecoed as a Takara exclusive Mini-Con Noise Effect.