Stranglehold is a minor antagonist in Generation One of the Transformers franchise. He was based on a figure from the 1989 toyline.
Marvel Comics[]
Stranglehold first appeared in the Marvel UK story "Aspects of Evil", which depicted an alternate 1990 in which Stranglehold served Megatron on Cybertron. When Megatron accused Bludgeon of being an Autobot agent, Stranglehold was one of a trio of Decepticons assigned to fight him in a trial by combat. This, it transpired, was a ruse by Megatron to flush out the real traitor, Warmonger, who was quickly killed.
Stranglehold's first present day appearance was in "Hunting Party", where he was part of the new Decepticon Mayhem Squad assembled by Snarler to hunt down the renegades Carnivac and Catilla, who had allied themselves with the surviving members of the Autobot Wreckers. The team travelled to Earth and unleashed a mechanical hell hound on a human village in the hope of drawing out the Autobots. In fact, they succeeded in drawing out Carnivac himself, who they pursued across New Mexico in a running battle. Although Catilla was killed when he came to Carnivac's aid, the group were forced to flee when the Autobots arrived.
Stranglehold made his Marvel US debut in Issue #60, in which he and the other Mayhems were serving Thunderwing on Cybertron. Stranglehold was sent with Bludgeon and Octopunch to assassinate the recently resurrected Autobots Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee, who were aiding the Autobot resistance. However, their attack coincided with the trio (together with the Autobot Rescue Patrol) being transported to Earth and resulted in all involved being transported to the centre of Cybertron, where a fight broke out. Although they were all eventually transported to Earth, they had already managed to awaken Primus, which attracted the attention of Unicron.
Stranglehold and the others joined up with Scorponok's Earth Decepticons for a time but were eventually transported back to Cybertron to help the other Transformers battle first a group of Unicron cultists and then Unicron himself. In the aftermath of the battle, Bludgeon took over as the new Decepticon leader and, as one of his closest comrades, Stranglehold found himself high up in the new hierarchy, helping plan the Decepticons' invasion of Klo and acting as Bludgeon's lieutenant in the subsequent battle with the Autobots. However, the tide was turned when Optimus Prime arrived with the human superhero team the Neo Knights and the Last Autobot, who began reviving all the Autobots killed in the battle. Heavily outnumbered and suffering huge losses, the Decepticons were forced to retreat, leaving the Autobots victorious.
The Marvel UK Earthforce storyline, set in a different continuity, continued the Carnivac story as the Mayhems set up an island base on Earth. Despite their preparations, Carnivac attacked and wiped out half the team, while Bludgeon, Octopunch and Stranglehold were taken prisoner by the Autobots. They later escaped and were employed by Megatron and Shockwave as part of their plan to kill Soundwave and Starscream and regain control of the Decepticons. The Mayhems attacked the two new Decepticon leaders but were defeated when Dinobots Sludge and Swoop, who needed Starscream to act as a donor to save Snarl, entered the battle against them.
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