Bombshell is a minor antagonist in Generation One of the Transformers franchise.
He was voiced by Michael Bell, who also voiced Scrapper, Grogar in the original My Little Pony and Lex Luthor in the 80s Superman cartoon and played Zorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
1984 Cartoon[]
Bombshell and the other Insecticons debuted in the late first season episode "A Plague of Insecticons". A separate faction at work on Earth, the Insecticons were contacted by Megatron and the main Decepticon force in order to form an alliance against the Autobots. Although their initial attempt failed, they continued to work together on occasion.
Bombshell reappeared many other times during the second season. In the episode "Traitor", he was tricked by Mirage into leading the Insecticons against the Decepticons until Megatron convinced him he wouldn't betray the Insecticons while he still needed their help against the Autobots. Trust between the two groups would remain in short supply however: The Insecticons attempted to gain control of nova power only for it to overload them, and also found themselves given only a small amount of energon for their work.
In The Transformers: The Movie, Bombshell was among those injured in the attack on Autobot City and ejected into space. His body was used by Unicron to create one of two Cyclonus-like robots.
Marvel Comics[]
Bombshell debuted in Issue #16 as one of the Decepticons serving Lord Straxus on Cybertron. He was among those sent to Earth to reinforce Megatron's depleted Decepticon group there. He played a key role in an early attempt to gain the power of the Hoover Dam, implanting the engineer Ricky Vasquez with a cerebro shell, but Ricky managed to break free. Bombshell followed the Autobots back to the Ark and implanted Optimus Prime with a cerebro shell but was unable to control him. He was however able to use it to siphon power from the Creation Matrix and give life to the Stunticons and Combaticons.
Bombshell was one of the main Decepticons in the G.I. Joe and the Transformers miniseries, working alongside Dirge for both Megatron and Shockwave in order to hijack Power Station Alpha. He found himself working alongside their Cobra allies and planned a painful death for Dr. Mindbender but ended up being disabled and taken prisoner by the Baroness.
He later rejoined the Decepticons but only made brief appearances. His last appearance in the US comic was in Issue #41, where he was gunned down by Fortress Maximus.
Bombshell appeared in Marvel UK's Earthforce storyline, initially as part of Megatron's Decepticon faction. He and the other Insecticons infiltrated Shockwave's base and ended up as willing pawns in Starscream's plan to bring the two Decepticon leaders into direct conflict so he and Soundwave could depose them and unite the factions as joint leaders. Bombshell played a key role in the storyline's final arc, as part of Starscream's Project Smear to discredit the Autobots. After first managing to send Superion on a rampage, Bombshell ended up forcing human journalist Irwin Spoon to write a story claiming the Autobots had abducted him.
Trivia[]
- Despite his fate in the movie, Bombshell reappeared in the third season opener "Five Faces of Darkness" as part of the force attacking Earth. This may have been an error.
