Megatron

Megatron is very powerful and utterly ruthless. His imposing robot form is dominated by his primary weapon - his arm-mounted fusion cannon, capable of leveling a city block in one blast. He can also sub-dimensionally link the cannon to a black hole, generating even more powerful antimatter blasts (capable of destroying a small planetary body). However, this ability is almost never used, as it leaves him extremely weak and vulnerable.

He has a secondary weapon barrel mounted on his back, and can retract and replace his right hand with an energy flail. He can fire electrical blasts from his hands, laser blasts from his eyes on at least one occasion (The Autobot Run) and can reprogram computers with a port in his head.

Megatron transforms into a Walther P38 pistol, delivering more focused energy blasts. He can shrink and reduce his mass as he transforms, assuming sizes that comfortably allow either another Transformer or even a human being to wield him. In one instance (the episode Dinobot S.O.S.), he retained his full size and connected to jet-mode Starscream's underside.

There have been several interpretations of his character; some see Megatron as a strategic leader who calls the shots from afar, whilst others see him as a tactical battlefield commander who leads by brutal example. Unlike many other villains in popular fiction, Megatron was not generally depicted as overly chaotic or insane. He was highly aggressive and a megalomaniac, but there was usually a consistent rationale behind his actions, albeit that Megatron was often the only one who could perceive this.

There have been some sparing occasions where Megatron displays a personal sense of fair play and even honor, a complexity that is most evident in his complicated relationship with Optimus Prime. There is an unspoken mutual respect between the two leaders, born of each knowing the other better than anyone else. Megatron at times seems to derive enjoyment from the perpetual conflict that exists between them - the pleasure of ending the life of Optimus Prime will be Megatron's and Megatron's alone, and to ensure this, he has aided Prime in the face of greater threats, such as the Combaticons or Jhiaxus's second generation Cybertronians. In instances such as these, the two have come to face the fact that were it not for their diametrically opposed ideology and views, in another life, the two could be comrades - a fact that Optimus Prime views as a tragedy, but which provides Megatron with amusement.

According to his original tech spec, Megatron has no known weaknesses. This does not, however, spare him from defeat at the hands of his enemies. For all his famed battle prowess and tactical ability, Megatron often overlooks some significant detail, and has a bad habit of ordering a retreat as soon as the tables start to turn against him (even when the overall strategic level of the battle remains firmly in the Decepticons' favor). Another factor that could contribute to his losses is his rough relationship with some of his own troops (most specifically Starscream). Despite his lust for galactic domination, one of Megatron's key priorities remains the safety and health of Cybertron; and from his viewpoint, the best way to accomplish that is for him to conquer it.

Megatron is a Decepticon, one of the lineal descendants of the military hardware robots created by the Quintessons on their factory world of Cybertron. Following a war between the Decepticons and the other robot race, the Autobots, the Decepticons were defeated by the Autobots' invention of transformation, which allowed them the advantage of stealth. The Autobot victory in the war began the Golden Age of Cybertron, but a viper lurked within this paradise, as the Decepticons too eventually developed transformation, eventually leading to the creation of Megatron. Gathering a small number of troops together, Megatron made a small strike on an outer city, killing the current Autobot leader. However, this event was not made public knowledge, and young robots like the naive Orion Pax still looked up to Megatron and his followers because of their new robot-mode flight powers. Pax soon learned the error of his ways when Megatron duped him into allowing him access to energon warehouses, and Megatron fatally injured him in a scuffle. However, the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, reconstructed Pax into a battle hardy configuration - now, he was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and Megatron's sworn opponent as the civil war erupted again (War Dawn).

Eventually, the war drained Cybertron of most of its energy, necessitating that both factions seek out new worlds and new sources of power. Megatron and his elite forces pursued the Autobots' craft (referred to as the Ark in Beast Wars, following the ship's name from the Generation 1 Marvel Comics) in their star cruiser (referred to as the Nemesis in Beast Wars) and attacked and boarded the craft, causing it to crash on prehistoric Earth, entombing all on the ship in emergency stasis as it crashed into a dormant volcano.

In 1984 (again, cited from Transformers: Beast Wars; the year was also mentioned in the Marvel comic, and "Starscream's Brigade, a second-season episode of the original animated series, features a subtitle that places that episode in 1985), a volcanic eruption jarred the Ark's computer, Teletraan I, back to life, and it proceeded to repair the Autobots and Decepticons, re-igniting the war on the energy-rich world they found themselves upon: Earth. After their first series of battles, the Autobots believed Megatron and the Decepticons were destroyed when their new space cruiser crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but in reality they survived and reconstructed the cruiser to serve as a sub-oceanic staging ba

In 1984 (again, cited from Transformers: Beast Wars; the year was also mentioned in the Marvel comic, and "Starscream's Brigade, a second-season episode of the original animated series, features a subtitle that places that episode in 1985), a volcanic eruption jarred the Ark's computer, Teletraan I, back to life, and it proceeded to repair the Autobots and Decepticons, re-igniting the war on the energy-rich world they found themselves upon: Earth. After their first series of battles, the Autobots believed Megatron and the Decepticons were destroyed when their new space cruiser crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but in reality they survived and reconstructed the cruiser to serve as a sub-oceanic staging base and bunker.

Megatron re-established contact with Cybertron, and began construction of an intergalactic transport system called a space bridge, although the early tests nearly resulted in his destruction when he was sucked into the portal and teleported to Cybertron. The technology was eventually stabilized, however, and used in a grand scheme to transport Cybertron through space into Earth's orbit, where the natural disasters its gravity wreaked created tremendous energy which Megatron and the Decepticons gathered. The planet Earth was saved, however, when Megatron's stockpiles of energy were detonated by the Autobots, the explosion forcing Cybertron out of orbit. Again, however, Megatron was able to cheat death, and was forced to team up with Optimus Prime in order to stop the machinations of his treacherous lieutenant, Starscream.

In his next scheme in Heavy Metal War, Megatron absorbed all the separate powers of the other Decepticons into himself, and challenged Optimus Prime to one-on-one combat. With the added abilities of all his minions, Megatron easily defeated Prime in the battle, but when his deception was revealed, he and his followers were defeated in a group attack.

Over the following years, Megatron's schemes to obtain Earth's energies continued. His assorted plans included various attempts to harness the power of Earth's core, thefts of several unstable energy devices from human scientists, the draining of energy from a time-lost prehistoric island, forming a partnership with a corrupt human politician that allowed him to force the Autobots off Earth and briefly conquer Central City, co-opting Earth technologies, and reprogramming the robotic ninja Nightbird.

Fed up with the Autobots ruling the roads, Megatron ordered the creation of the Stunticons, four Decepticon cars and a truck. He even traveled to Cybertron and stole the key to Vector Sigma to give them full cybernetic personalities. Megatron used the Stunticons in many schemes, including sending the Stunticons to sabotage a race in the Middle East to obtain the power source to control weather.

Megatron even made a number of temporary alliances with the Autobots - including stopping the Insecticons and his own mind controlled troops, stopping the Combaticons from destroying Cybertron and forcibly making Perceptor cure him of a plague of Cosmic Rust (although most of these alliances ended in double crosses).

Eventually, however, Megatron turned his attention away from Earth, and succeeded in completely conquering Cybertron by the Earth year 2005. Learning the Autobots were preparing a strike against the planet, Megatron and the Decepticons intercepted the shuttle sent to Earth to acquire energy to power the raid, and unleashed a mighty assault on Autobot City. In the course of the conflict, word was sent to Optimus Prime, who arrived the following morning after the slaughter and personally confronted Megatron in a final, violent fight.

Megatron appeared beaten, but spying a discarded pistol, stalled for time by pleading for mercy as he attempted to reach it. The young Autobot Hot Rod then intervened, tackling Megatron, but the Decepticon leader was too powerful for him, seizing Hot Rod and using him as a shield. Prime would not shoot for fear of hitting Hot Rod. Taking advantage of Prime's sense of compassion, Megatron grabbed the pistol and opened fire on Prime. The wounds were fatal and led to Prime's death - but not before Prime delivered his own final blow to Megatron, seriously damaging him and forcing the Decepticons to flee.

On the return trip to Cybertron, it became necessary to jettison excess mass, or else the Decepticons would be unable to reach the planet. At Starscream's instigation, the wounded Decepticons were voted out, and set adrift in space, including Megatron. This was not to be the end for the deposed Decepticon leader, as the world-devourer Unicron offered Megatron a new body and new troops in exchange for Megatron's cooperation in destroying the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Thus, Megatron was reborn as Galvatron, while the rest of the wounded Deceptions became Galvatron's new warriors.

Although this would be the end of Megatron in the U.S. animated series, he would make several more appearances in the animated segments of various Transformers toy commercials, where it was depicted that he became an Action Master, and eventually a CGI sequence of him in his first Generation 2 form and Combat Hero forms.

In the Japanese exclusive manga stories accompanying Transformers: The Headmasters Megatron would make a number of appearances. On one occasion Galvatron used a massive army of Megatron clones to overwhelm the Autobots, only being defeated when Rodimus Prime destroyed Galvatron's control over them. Rodimus and Galvatron would also even team up to battle Guiltor, a hybrid of both Optimus Prime and Megatron.

With his transformation into Galvatron, Megatron departed from the Japanese G1 continuity (which took a different direction after the end of series 3, opting to replace the events of The Rebirth with those of Headmasters), until five years later, in the manga-exclusive storyline, Battlestars: The Return of Convoy, which, although not animated itself (told instead through one chapter of manga and color magazine spreads), continues the tale of the cartoon Universe.

In the previous Japanese-exclusive animated series, Transformers: The Headmasters, Galvatron had been apparently destroyed when he was buried on an iceberg. In the "Return of Convoy" storyline, a new evil force named Dark Nova recovers Galvatron's body, and restores him to life as Super Megatron (who transformed into a futuristic jet), pitting him against Star Convoy (the reborn Optimus Prime) and his Autobots.

Super Megatron subsequently gets an upgrade to Ultra Megatron, and for the final battle, merges with Dark Nova himself, becoming Star Giant. In the Japanese Generation 2 manga, he was shown to have survived and, in a body resembling his "Hero" toy, once again opposed Optimus Prime.

The Predacon leader known as Megatron from the Beast Wars and Beast Machines animated series is a separate character from the original Generation 1 Megatron, and should not be confused with him. However, this was not the original intent for the character, as the original pack-in mini-comic and biographies released with the earliest Beast Wars toys indicate that the character was supposed to be the original Megatron, in yet another new body. With the advent of the animated series, however, the fiction of Beast Wars was re-imagined and eventually applied to the toy line, establishing this Megatron as an independent character. But that is not to say that the original Megatron did not play a role in his namesake's rise to power.

At some undefined point during the Autobot-Decepticon war, the original Megatron acquired the Voyager probe's Golden Disk and inscribed a secret message onto it, intending for future generations of Decepticons to uncover it and follow its instructions should he fail, to use transwarp technology to travel back in time and kill Optimus Prime while he lay in stasis aboard the Ark, thus ending the great war early with the Decepticons the victors. Around three centuries after the eventual end of the "Great War," the Predacon that would become Megatron uncovered this message and quickly stole a Predacon transwarp cruiser called the Darkside with the aid of a small like-minded army, heading to prehistoric Earth. This Predacon took the moniker "Megatron" in honor of the original Decepticon.

Pursued by a crew of Maximals, both ships crashed on the planet, with only Megatron truly aware of when and where they were. Megatron, however, found himself unwilling to carry out the instructions of his ancestor, instead attempting to amass power through the huge reserves of energon and portions of mysterious alien technology that littered the planet. Systematic defeat by the Maximals eventually left all his options exhausted, and he proceeded to strike at Optimus Prime, only to be once again thwarted by his enemies.

This would not be the last time G1 Megatron's influence would be felt. Observing how Primal boosted his own strength and form by holding the spark of Optimus Prime within his body, Beast Wars Megatron made the same move, purloining the spark of his ancestor and taking it into his own body, transforming as a result into a monstrous dragon.

When he was finally defeated by the Maximals, the original Megatron's spark was returned to his body (in a deleted scene from the television series), and history carried on as before.

Although the producers attempted to get Frank Welker to reprise his role as Megatron for his recording on the Golden Disk, he was unavailable. As a result, during his cameo appearance in Beast Wars, G1 Megatron was voiced by series regular Gary Chalk, who also provided the voice of the heroic Maximal leader Optimus Primal.

Megatron's beginnings are much simpler in the world of Marvel Comics - here, rising from his beginnings as a gladiator for the city-state of Tarn, Megatron and the Decepticons were the ones who developed transformation first, using it to begin the war against the Autobots, who fought back by mimicking the technology. Megatron is known to have competed with Sureshot and Optimus Prime in a sharpshooting competition some time in his past.

In time, the war grew so fierce that Cybertron itself was shaken from its orbit, and set adrift in the cosmos. Eventually, four million years ago, the planet fell into the path of an asteroid cluster in the Sol system that threatened to destroy it, and so Optimus Prime led a contingent of his troops in the Ark to reduce the asteroids to rubble, saving Cybertron. The plan was a success, but immediately afterwards, Megatron and his troops attack, forcing Optimus Prime to crash the Ark into prehistoric Earth.

Four million years later, in 1984, the Transformers were reawakened, and Megatron immediately set about trying to locate a source of fuel for the Decepticons. Unable to ingest common Earth gasoline, the Decepticons kidnapped Sparkplug Witwicky and forced him to develop a conversion process, but this only afforded him the chance to poison their fuel, deactivating them all. The Autobots were not saved, however, as Shockwave then defeated them all and brought the Decepticons back online to serve him - including Megatron. Chafing under his command, Megatron battled Shockwave, but was soundly defeated. This forced him into an alliance with Ratchet, who located and reactivated the Dinobots, who had defeated Shockwave in the past. However, Ratchet unleashed the Dinobots on Megatron after convincing him that the recordings of their previous battle with Shockwave were the real thing. Though Megatron knocked out the recently reactivated Dinobots, in a near suicidal move, Ratchet managed to knock Megatron off a cliff. As he fell, Megatron transformed and shrunk to a human-sized pistol to reduce his mass and increase his chances of surviving the impact. Megatron disappeared in a snowbank for some time.

Soon, however, Megatron re-emerged, trapped in pistol mode, his higher brain functions disconnected. Used as a weapon by wannabe gangster, Joey Slick, Megatron eventually restored himself, and was impressed enough with Slick for standing up to him that he allowed him to live. At this point Megatron was desperately low on fuel, and attacked a coal mine in an attempt to locate some when he eventually completely ran out and froze in place. He was soon located by Soundwave and brought back online. They then entered into an alliance with the human Donny Finkleberg, who used the alias of "Robot Master" to con humankind into thinking all Transformers worked for him. After a communication from Lord Straxus on Cybertron, Shockwave and Megatron entered into a period of shared leadership; but when a two-pronged attack by the Autobots saw Megatron defeated by Omega Supreme and Shockwave allowing the Autobots to capture the secrets of Devastator, Megatron was able to spin the situation and reclaim his leadership.

In order to attain possession of a new energy-generating device known as the hydrothermacline, Megatron battled Optimus Prime in a video game duel, using a cheat code to continue the fight after he had lost. Prime defeated him again, but at the expense of some of the game's characters, and ruled himself the loser because he would not have committed such an act in real life. As per agreement, Prime was destroyed, and Megatron's elation soon turned into paranoia as he had not killed Prime with his own hands and believed he may still be alive. Eventually descending into insanity, Megatron boarded the space bridge to Cybertron and detonated it with his fusion cannon, apparently killing himself.

That would be all the U.S. comics saw of Megatron for quite some time, but their sister title in the UK, which produced its own material, interspliced with the U.S. stories, soon brought back the great slag-maker for more adventures. Prior to Megatron's seeming death, there had been a story in Marvel UK #99 which after being attacked by the Predacons had seen both him and Prime transported to Cybertron. There Prime was accused of being a Decepticon spy and hunted down by the Wreckers and Ultra Magnus thanks to misinformation spread by Megatron. However the disembodied local Decepticon leader, Lord Straxus, attempted to possess Megatron's body as his own had been mostly destroyed in a battle with Blaster. The attempt failed as Prime and Magnus defeated Megatron as the two minds warred for dominance. With the now insane Megatron threatening to destroy Polyhex with his antimatter powers, Ratbat teleported him back to Earth with amnesia in time for his U.S. "death" in issue #25.

However, unbeknown to all, Straxus made another attempt with a specially-crafted clone of Megatron created from a regular trooper, which was transported to Earth soon after the real Megatron vanished. The clone believed itself to be the real thing - as did the comics' readers, thinking that the space bridge explosion had transported Megatron elsewhere on Earth - and after a battle with the mechanoid, Centurion, it was salvaged by Shockwave, who brainwashed the clone and unleashed it on Galvatron, a recreated future version of Megatron who had traveled back in time from the year 2006 and posed a threat to Shockwave's leadership. The clone Megatron, however, saw a possible partner in Galvatron, and the two teamed up to battle Autobots and Decepticons from both present and future in the apocalyptic "Time Wars". Subsequently, the clone returned to Cybertron, where it defeated the ruling Decepticon triumvirate, but was then confronted with the real Megatron - the Space bridge explosion had deposited him in the Dead End region of Cybertron, where he had wandered with no recollection of who he was, until he had saved a Decepticon from Autobots and regained his memories. The clone Megatron subsequently destroyed itself to prevent Straxus, buried inside its mind, from taking over.

The stage was now set for Megatron's return in the U.S. comics, as he had his Micromaster Sports Car patrol capture the Autobot medic, Ratchet and forced him to recreate Starscream as a Pretender with his personality reprogrammed to serve Megatron without question. Ratchet did so, but also restored Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee as Pretenders in the same manner, as well as arranging for Starscream's old personality to resurface, thwarting Megatron's scheme. When Megatron then attempted to flee through a trans-time dimensional portal, Ratchet tackled him as his base then exploded around them, apparently killing them both.

Soon after, however, Autobot detective Nightbeat discovered that the explosion had actually blown them through the portal, and he dispatched a probe to pull them back from the gaps between reality. However, when they rematerialised, it was revealed that the explosion had fused the two enemies together into a hideous, twisted mockery of a being which ran rampant through the Ark. The half that was Ratchet begged Optimus Prime to kill them, but Prime could not, ordering the Micromaster Fixit to separate their bodies. Unfortunately, Fixit could not separate their minds, as the two discovered when they were reactivated with Nucleon - sharing each other's thoughts, feelings, sensations and sights. When the Ark was stolen by Shockwave and Starscream (as well as a stowaway Galvatron from an parallel universe) in order to escape Cybertron's destruction both Megatron and Ratchet were reactivated. A confused and disorientated Megatron soon encountered Galvatron and the two attacked each other - Galvatron wanting to end the madness of Megatron buried within himself, while Megatron thought he was fighting Ratchet. The mental link with Ratchet nearly proved his undoing - Ratchet's return to consciousness and the horror of his previous bond froze Megatron and nearly allowed Galvatron to kill him. Galvatron stopped just in time, however, coming to the realization that killing Megatron could mean he was in effect killing himself. Shockwave then appeared and attempted to kill Megatron, but a hidden Galvatron stopped him and Galvatron and Megatron teamed up once again. Matters were soon taken out of their hands, though, as an eager and desperate Ratchet crashed the Ark on Earth to escape the cycle of death and insanity of being bonded to Megatron as well as stopping a renewed Megatron/Galvatron alliance. This supposedly killed everyone on board.

A few years later, the Transformers franchise was given a shot in the arm with the launch of the Generation 2 toy line and comic book series.

To go along with his return to the toy line with a new tank alternate mode, Megatron also returned in the comics despite his seeming demise. Although thought dead for a year or two, Megatron had actually survived the Ark crash, and had quietly worked to repair it, concealing it beneath the ground (Ratchet apparently died in the crash, as their shared mind does not come up in the story). Tracking a transforming signal, mistakenly believing it was another Transformer, Megatron came across the shape-shifting castle of the terrorist organization Cobra, and entered into a bargain with its leader Cobra Commander, offering him the technology of the Ark in exchange for the new weapons his organization was developing. Reconstructed into a new tank body with a powerful railgun, Megatron defeated a squad of Autobots sent to stop him, and then turned on Cobra, capturing the scientist who had developed his gun (Doctor Biggles-Jones) and escaping in the airborne Ark.

Following a climactic battle with Fortress Maximus which saw the destruction of the Ark, Megatron then battled and killed Bludgeon, reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons. He then stole the Matrix from Optimus Prime, using it to bring his newest warriors online only to have his faction bested by the forces of Jhiaxus and his second-generation Cybertronians. Megatron then entered into an alliance with the Autobots to defeat Starscream, who had seized control of the Decepticon ship Warworld through the power of the Matrix, stop Jhiaxus, and halt the spread of the Swarm. The tale ended with the Autobots and Decepticons uniting.

The final page implies that Megatron is in fact a direct offspring of the Liege Maximo through the same replication process that created the Generation 2 Cybertronians of the story.

The Transformers Classics comic strip published in the Official Transformers Collectors Club magazine is set in the Marvel Comics continuity, but in a timeline where the events of Generation 2 did not occur. The story occurs fifteen years after Megatron was presumed dead in the crash of the Ark. As in the G2 comics, Megatron survived, gaining a new body in the process (based on his Classics toy body) and gathered many other Decepticons to him (including Astrotrain, Laserbeak, Ramjet, Ravage, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream and the Constructicons).

When Skyfall and Landquake were presumed killed in the midst of a bloody Mini-Con civil war and attack by Unicron (set concurrently with the events of Transformers: Cybertron), they were, in actuality, transported across universes, from the world of the Unicron Trilogy into the Marvel Comics timeline. Unclear what had happened, they then found themselves staring down the barrel of Megatron's cannon. The two were saved by a group of Robot Hunters in battle suits. Megatron slaughtered them, only to be confronted by a team of Autobots led by Optimus Prime. The story is ongoing.

Megatron would also appear in several BotCon comic sagas, written principally by Simon Furman. His story Reaching the Omega Point indicates that the Autobot-Decepticon alliance established in the conclusion of the Generation 2 comics didn't last and that Megatron eventually became Galvatron. In a prelude story The last days of Optimus Prime, Prime, feeling that there is no longer a place for him within the new Cybertron, journeys to J'nwan - a quasi-mystical realm - and is greeted peacefully by Megatron. In the Beast Wars future in which the story takes place, the greatest Autobots and Decepticons have passed on to J'nwan, where they can finally live in peace. A Predacon called Sandstorm, one of the Covenant of Twelve created by Primus, journeyed to this realm in order to get them to help against Shokaract - an evil being created from a Predacon fusing with Unicron's essence - who was attacking the Beast Wars Transformers - including Optimus Primal - and ruled the universe in their future. They refuse, but later in the story a group of these Transformers including Megatron, Optimus Prime, Grimlock, and Soundwave distracted Shokaract long enough for Primus to deal the killing blow.

Megatron also featured prominently in Alignment, Simon Furman's take on what happened after the Generation 2 comic. In this story Megatron was defeated for command of the Decepticons by Galvatron II (the U.S comics version) and left for dead. Galvatron then constructed a fleet of Warworlds and attacked the Autobots before being killed by Optimus Prime. The Decepticons then retreated to their base, a conquered replica of Cybertron, before being attacked by the Liege Maximo's troops. Unbeknown to all, Soundwave had retrieved his master's body and had it rebuilt and upgraded, finally resurrecting Megatron's Spark via Unicron-inspired dark science with his fellow conspirators Direwolf, Ramjet and Ravage. Megatron then killed the entire Decepticon High Council for their failure to lead, save for Shrapnel who pledged his allegiance once more. Megatron then made a sacrifice play, destroying the now evacuated planet and annihilating the Liege Maximo's fleet with it. Taking a fleet of scavenged Warworlds to face the Liege Maximo and thwart his plan to become a god, Megatron was finally destroyed for good when he unleashed a massive energon-fueled blast which actually hurt the Liege Maximo. In retaliation, the Maximo used his arm cannon to obliterate Megatron. However, his sacrifice was not in vain as this caused the Liege Maximo to flee too soon and be destroyed when his energy gateway collapsed, shredding him between the physical realm and the realm he wanted to ascend to. This sets up the Pax Cybertronia and the evolution of the Autobots and Decepticons into Maximals and Predacons. Whether this story is reconcilable with "Reaching the Omega Point", or whether it is even part of the Transformers canon is debatable.

In the course of its run, the U.K. comics produced several stories which do not fit into the continuity of the G1/G2 storyline, instead branching off in their own direction. For example, after the first disappearance of Ratchet and Megatron, a disparate continuity of storylines based around the "Earthforce" - a team of Autobots based on Earth - began, which saw Megatron and Shockwave establishing a joint leadership of the Decepticons only to have command usurped by Starscream and Soundwave.

Also, after the end of the Generation 1 comics, the final UK annual printed a text story entitled "Another Time and Place", which followed up on the events of the Ark crash and saw Bludgeon and his followers locate Megatron's body and revive it with Nucleon (reflecting the release of Megatron as an Action Master figure in 1990). The process only barely succeeded - Megatron was deranged and animalistic, and was ultimately defeated by Optimus Prime and Grimlock. This conflicts with the Generation 2 comic but does not conflict with the rewritten UK Generation 2 comic by Fleetway, in which Megatron simply attributes his new body to human scientists, with no further explanation to contradict the events of "Another Time and Place". This tale, somewhat concurrent with the Earthforce tales, has Optimus Prime arriving on Earth in response to a distress call from Grimlock. Bludgeon has attacked Earth in order to draw Prime into the open. The Decepticons, low on energon, are defeated. Megatron then arrives and battles Prime. He is attacked by both Autobots and Decepticons, holding them off until Starscream arrives to bail him out. After this point it switches to reprints of the U.S. material. The most notable difference between the two is that Bludgeon is not killed by Megatron, and Bludgeon and Prime actually meet (although Bludgeon would later be killed by Megatron in the U.S. reprints).

Megatron appeared in the 2006 TransformersCon voice actor play. Voices in the play were performed by a variety of volunteers and the actual voice actors attending the convention. In this play, various Transformers from different timelines and realities were swept up in a repeat wave and transported along with Unicron to Earth. The Transformers included Generation 1 Tracks, Ariel, Cosmos and Megatron, Beast Wars Tarantulas, Robots in Disguise Sky-Byte and Beast Machines Tankor.

Upon arrival, Ariel found herself enamored with Megatron for his ability to fly. Sky-Byte, ever loyal to Megatron, any Megatron, pledged himself to his new leader. Although Megatron initially attempted to ally himself with Unicron, Tracks and Cosmos, who were from a later timeline than Megatron, warned him of his fate in their future.

Eventually the Transformers were able to learn that the death of Unicron in 2005 was what created the repeat wave. They defeated Unicron by tricking him into Transforming and using up his power, then using the Key to Vector Sigma program (which Tankor had brought with him) to tap into the power of Vector Sigma itself, and through it the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. With Unicron's energy severely drained the various Transformers faded back to their original timelines. Megatron, enraged at being bounced around the time stream, decided to take out his anger on Starscream.

Megatron was featured in the 1985 Transformers audio books Autobots' Lightning Strike, Laserbeak's Fury and Satellite of Doom.

In the 21st Century reimagining of the Generation One Universe by Dreamwave Productions, Megatron was envisioned as an ancient gladiatorial combatant in the depths of Cybertron's underworld. As victory upon victory mounted, he began to realize that the games were nothing more than an elaborate attempt by the Cybertronian elders to hide the truth of Cybertron's history from the masses. When Megatron attempted to gain access to that knowledge through exploration and research, the Cybertronian elders attempted to have him assassinated - a plan that only resulted in stirring up even more discontent among Cybertronians which allowed Megatron to begin recruiting for the Decepticon movement. It is known that at one point Megatron attempted to recruit Grimlock as one of his inner circle, but the fellow gladiator refused the position, eventually joining the Autobots.

Megatron's forces began a civil war of Autobot against Decepticon in order to mask his reactivation of the ancient planetary engines buried beneath Cybertron's surface, as part of this ultimate intent for the planet - it would be transformed into a massive war world that would cut a swath of destruction through the galaxy. This plan initially failed, as during a conflict with Optimus Prime, Megatron's lieutenant Starscream activated the planet mechaforming process too soon - resulting in the destruction of the machinery.

Approximately 7.4 million years ago, Megatron and Optimus Prime disappeared in an early test of the new unstable Spacebridge matter-transport system. Spending an undisclosed time on the planet Quintessa, Megatron returned with an overwhelming army of lifeless Seeker clones, quickly subjugating Cybertron. However, this story was never finished due to the closure of Dreamwave.

Four million years ago, when Cybertron was threatened by a massive approaching asteroid, Optimus Prime led a contingent of Autobots aboard the Ark to blow the rock to fragments, which were transported away by an orbital Spacebridge network. When this task was completed, Megatron chose this moment to strike, attacking the Ark with his troops. Crippled, the craft flew through one of the Spacebridge portals, and was transported to prehistoric Earth, where it crashed, entombing the occupants in stasis for four million years.

The Autobots and Decepticons were reactivated in 1984, but specific details of the battles were unrecorded, although what few flashbacks are seen of that time imply events similar to the animat

The Autobots and Decepticons were reactivated in 1984, but specific details of the battles were unrecorded, although what few flashbacks are seen of that time imply events similar to the animated series pilot "More Than Meets the Eye" parts 1-3 occurred.

In 1999, an Autobot/human military alliance succeeded in capturing and deactivating the Decepticons. However, the Ark II, the spaceship carrying them back to Cybertron, exploded shortly after liftoff (sabotaged by rogue elements of the military, unwittingly being manipulated by Shockwave), and the Transformers were believed destroyed - but in actuality, they had been scattered back to Earth, where they lay in stasis-lock across the globe for three years. This slumber was brought to an end when Adam Rook, a rogue military scientist who had devised a method of controlling Transformers, salvaged many of the fallen Cybertronians and reprogrammed them as mass killing machines, which he then attempted to sell on the black market. Megatron was first to break free of Rook's control, overriding the new programming and capturing Rook during an auction. Megatron forced Rook to watch as he unleashed a technorganic virus designed to transform all of Earth into a new Cybertron. It also served to lure Optimus Prime and the Autobots, also now reactivated, to his location, where Megatron, tired of the war, continuously asked Prime to join him. After his first failed attempt, Megatron unleashed Devastator on San Francisco in a mass slaughter, in an attempt to show Prime that humans were not worth his protection. However, the selfless sacrifice of several firemen restored Prime's faith in humanity and allowed him and the Autobots to beat back Megatron.
Megatron, by Pat Lee
Megatron, by Pat Lee

Several months later. Megatron was subliminally summoned to a remote area in Alaska along with the other earthbound Transformers. There they battled until Megatron's former second-in-command, Shockwave, arrived and revealed that in their absence, the war on Cybertron had ended, and attempted to arrest Megatron, Prime and their troops as war criminals. Megatron, weakened by battle, was quickly defeated by Shockwave and loaded aboard his shuttle for return to Cybertron, only to have Starscream seize the opportunity to be rid of his former leader by jettisoning him into space on the return trip. Megatron used the time floating in space in stasis lock to contemplate his existence and the Decepticon goal. Realizing that he had wasted mill