A to Z Challenge: Metroplex vs Megatron

Unlike Fortress Maximus, who’s a big Autobot that gets no respect, Metroplex is a big Autobot who gets plenty of respect. Maybe it’s that he’s only about half of Fort Max’s size and thus lines up with big Decepticons like Trypticon or Scorponok better. Or maybe TV and comic book writers are just jerks.

Metroplex is the one that isn't a dinosaur

Anyway, in the third season of the TV show, Metroplex is introduced as part of “Autobot City” from the movie. Blurr and Wheelie have to bring a transformation cog from Cybertron to Earth to allow Metroplex to turn into a giant robot. They of course get there just in time for Metroplex to throw down with Trypticon for the first time. The battle ends with Metroplex throwing Trypticon into the ocean. They fight a few more times, which is always like Godzilla vs. King Kong or the old Rampage video game that will at some point be a movie starring the Rock.

While Trypticon turns into a giant T-Rex, Metroplex turns into a humanoid-shaped robot. He also has a battle station mode and a little car that turns into a robot and another robot you could make out of spare pieces.

Metroplex wasn’t really featured in the old Marvel comics, but he does get a lot of time in the IDW comics. In the prequel miniseries Monstrosity, Trypticon is revived but Metroplex doesn’t have the energy to transform, so an epic throwdown has to wait until the next miniseries Primacy. Metroplex manages to beat Trypticon and then gets a Junkion ship through the chest. Ouch.

In the “present day” comics, Metroplex has been revived somewhat but only the female Autobot Windblade can actually talk to him. He has a “space bridge” teleporter inside of him that allows Transformers to go from Cybertron to other worlds.

In the More Than Meets the Eye comic, the crew of the Lost Light finds a graveyard of “Titans” who look like Metroplex. These Titans were used by the Knights of Cybertron to cruise around the galaxy. The evil Tyrest harvested the fallen Titans for his own nefarious purposes.

The Metroplex toy was reissued as part of the “Titans Return” line in the last year or two. Otherwise he hasn’t really seen any other incarnations. He didn’t appear in the 1986 movie and hasn’t been any of the live action ones either. One wonders how Bay and his crap writers would fuck up a battle between Metroplex and Trypticon on the big screen.

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There are plenty of Decepticons starting with M but you pretty much have to go with Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons. The original Megatron was kind of a flimsy, ugly toy that turned into a Walther P38 handgun. A fairly real-looking handgun too. I don’t remember hearing of kids being shot by cops for holding a Megatron but there were plenty of other incidents with toy guns, which prompted Hasbro to change Megatron into a tank for the Generation 2 line while the other toys at the time were reissues of the 80s toys. In the Beast Wars series Megatron turned into a T-Rex and then later a dragon. In later series and the live action movie he turned into a jet of some sort, though in the third movie he became a broken-down Mack truck. There have been many, many incarnations of the toy throughout the years because he’s pretty much as popular as Optimus Prime.

Don't point this at any cops!

He led the Decepticons in the first two seasons of the cartoon in the 80s, before in the movie he was reconstructed as Galvatron. His tenure as Decepticon leader in the Marvel comic was far shorter. After the fourth issue, he was replaced by Shockwave for a while. Other Decepticon leaders included Ratbat, Thunderwing, Scorponok, and Bludgeon. I really have no idea why that was except he never had a second Generation 1 toy like Optimus Prime until an Action Masters toy that didn't transform; that was in the last series of American toys.

Generation 2 Megatron

In the IDW comics, Megatron started out as a miner who decided that it wasn’t fair for him to be stuck mining just because he turned into a mining vehicle. So he led a revolt against the Powers that Be. Ultimately that revolt turned into a quest to conquer the universe though as you know what they say: power corrupts. In the “present day” Bumblebee sacrifices himself to save Megatron and so Megatron decides to join the Autobots. He then joins the crew of the Lost Light to explore the galaxy.

Besides the original cartoon and the Beast Wars series, Megatron has appeared in most every other Transformers series and the first three live action movies—and also the upcoming fifth one. The original Megatron was voiced by the great Frank Welker while the live action movie version was voiced by The Matrix/Lord of the Rings/V for Vendetta star Hugo Weaving.

In Transformers Prime, Megatron is "killed" after the first six episodes and spends much of the first season in a coma until he transfers his consciousness to Bumblebee and then revives himself with "dark energon" that is the "blood of Unicron."  He's killed again at the end of the series though in the follow-up movie he's revived by Unicron but after being enslaved by Unicron, Megatron learns the error of his ways.  Ha.

For Lions fans, Megatron was the nickname given by wide receiver Roy Williams to wide receiver Calvin Johnson after the 2007 movie came out.  The reason is that Johnson was big, strong, and unstoppable.  The nickname stuck throughout the rest of Johnson's career.  Richard Sherman of the Seahawks decided to call himself Optimus Prime for a game against the Lions and even got the permission of Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime.  Interestingly, Nike and Hasbro teamed up for a variant of a Megatron toy to go along with a Calvin Johnson sneaker, though weirdly it's purple instead of the Lions' blue and silver.

How many Super Bowls would the Lions win with this Megatron?