“ | Who am I? I am the presence anointed to carry forth the light. The original light, that which has no beginning and no end. Its searing heat shall purify the earth... purging this world of all flaws, and preparing it for what lies ahead. | „ |
~ Sunstorm, Black Sunshine |
Sunstorm is an orange Decepticon Seeker, and a minor antagonist of the Transformers franchise. While he made only small appearances in the Generation 1 cartoon, Sunstorm was given a major role in Dreamwave Productions short lived Generation 1 comics. In this series, Sunstorm is a clone of Starscream, who believed himself to be the embodiment of the Will of Primus, and the one to deal righteous judgement.
Generation 1[]
The Seeker later named Sunstorm only appeared as part of a Seeker patrol in the first episode of More Than Meets the Eye. Sunstorm, along with Hotlink, Bitstream, and Nacelle attacked Autobots Wheeljack and Bumblebee. The two were able to escape the Decepticons' attacks and plow through the patrol.
Sunstorm made various cameo appearances in prequels and sequels to the G1 cartoon, such as the Wings Universe and the Japanese stories.
Dreamwave Comics[]
As seen in War and Peace Sunstorm was a clone of Starscream created by Shockwave, to be a subject to experimentation to fit a solar-powered fusion reactor into a Decepticon clone. Sunstorm's structure was augmented to endure the enormous stresses involved. He was the perfect soldier; he possessed the ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy, enhanced regenerative capabilities, and his mind was a blank slate waiting to be written according to Shockwave's design.
When the Autobots took New Iacon from Shockwave, he uploaded the compressed contents of the supercomputer Vector Sigma to multiple locations, including the hidden cloning lab where Sunstorm lay. Sunstorm was exposed to the upload when it overwhelmed the lab's mainframe, and spilled into his programming. In Night of the Combaticons, the newly programmed Sunstorm was accidentally awakened by Decepticons Runabout & Runamuck, and heavily damaged them, before flying to Earth to begin his holy crusade, nearly colliding with the Autobot ship Orion.
While the Decepticons attacked Sunstorm in Black Sunshine, he barely noticed while preaching his dogma, using his "divine light" to overload their systems, laughing at the Combaticons when combined into Bruticus. When Bruticus was shot down by Orion, Sunstorm, deprived of prey, felled the ship, and chased Starscream. Here, he tried to have his "brother" join him in his crusade, though Starscream could barely understand his clone's meaning through his religious babbling. Believing his clone to be completely insane, Starscream stalled until Jetfire could surprise him from behind. Restrained by Jetfire in Skyfire, Sunstorm managed to escape the Autobot's grasp, but found he was shielded against his energies. The two fought, and Sunstorm nearly won before being taken off-guard by being blasted in the face, and Jetfire and Starscream escaped while Sunstorm began regenerating his injuries.
Transformers: Animated[]
- Main article: Starscream Clones
Sunstorm is part of an army of clones of Starscream who is a suck-up, in the second season two-parter A Bridge Too Close, with each clone representing an exaggerated part of himself. In Sunstorm's case, he represented Starscream's boot-licking and sycophantic side, constantly lavishing praise on anyone, whether friend or foe. During the space bridge battle, Sunstorm freed Ramjet from stasis cuffs, and managed to pulled the same trick on Prowl. He made sure to tell the Autobot how impressed he was with Prowl's use of the cuffs, so much so that he had to try the move out himself. He and the others joined up with Megatron against Starscream, and when Omega Supreme arrived, Sunstorm briefly sucked up to him, before being blasted.
With both Megatron and Starscream teleported away by a space bridge, Sunstorm made a few more appearances during the third season. He was the first Decepticon to be captured by Lockdown, who turned him over to Sentinel Prime. Sunstorm was eager to tell the Autobots about how fantastic his capture was, but Sentinel Prime cut him off by clamping his mouth shut. In Sunstorm's last appearance, Decepticon Air, he and the other prisoners on the ship were released by Swindle and took control from Sentinel Prime. Optimus Prime, along with Jetfire and Jetstorm, came to the rescue and tricked the Decepticons into trying to use a freezing unit on the Autobots: He had reversed the settings so it froze the Decepticons instead. Sunstorm and the others were taken back to Cybertron as prisoners.
He was voiced by Tom Kenny, who also voiced Starscream and most of the other clones.