Shockwave (Transformers)

Shockwave is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes. Due to issues with Hasbro's trademark of the name Shockwave, some products were also released under the name Shockblast.
Throughout his incarnations, Shockwave is usually distinguished by a laser cannon in lieu of one of his hands and his distinctive face, which is featureless save a single robotic eye.

As the Decepticons' military operations commander, Shockwave's power is second only to Megatron's Army, and even that is disputed. His actions are carried out with the cold, brutal clarity and perfection one would expect of a purely mechanical being — his way is not that of blood lust, like so many other Decepticons, but rather that of a scientist attempting to solve a problem. And that problem is: how can he use his abilities to most effectively eliminate the greatest number of enemies? Unfortunately for the Autobots, it is rare that Shockwave does not find an answer.

Unlike most early Transformers Shockwave was not modified into an Earthly form, and retains his Cybertron alternate mode — a 35-foot-long ray gun. He possesses the power of flight in both modes, and commands the totality of the electromagnetic spectrum allowing him to emit beams of energy in a wide variety of forms. His high energy output makes him particularly fuel inefficient, but radioactive fuel sources stored in the reactor in his chest can help Shockwave to overcome this problem. Although his logical brain center is usually an advantage, human adversaries often pose more of a difficulty to Shockwave, as more intuitive and emotional thought processes often confound him.

While the animated series established Shockwave as fanatically loyal to Megatron, Shockwave's original bio and most fiction since have described him as coldly and patiently looking for ways to overthrow Megatron, not for personal power (as Starscream would) but simply because it was logical for him to do so. Shockwave concluded that he should rule so that no emotion should prevent the Decepticons from conquering the universe. This was retained in most comic books, where Shockwave became leader of the Decepticons.

Unusually for a 1985 (second year) toy, Shockwave was past in Transformers fiction from the first year, appearing in both the original 10th-episode cartoon pilot, and 4-issue comic book miniseries.

According to writer Bob Budiansky the character of Shockwave was inspired by Spock from the Star Trek series.[1]
Animated series
When Megatron prepared to lead his troops in pursuit of Optimus Prime and the Ark, Shockwave was instructed to stay behind and guard Cybertron in Megatron's absence. Swearing that Cybertron would remain as Megatron left it, Shockwave performed his duty to the letter for four million years, after Megatron and the other Transformers were entombed in stasis on Earth.

So accurately did Shockwave carry out his task, however, that no advances were achieved in the war, and the deadlock slowly caused what little supplies of energy the planet had to dwindle. In the Earth year 1984, Shockwave again attempted to make contact with the lost Megatron - only this time, he received a reply. The Transformers on Earth had been awakened, and immediately, Shockwave and Megatron co-created the Space Bridge, an inter-galactic transport system, with which to send energon cubes made from Earth's energy to the depleted planet. In the first tests of the spacebridge, Megatron was transported to Cybertron himself, but Shockwave soon returned him so that further transport runs could be conducted.

Spacebridge technology was taken to its ultimate extreme in "The Ultimate Doom" when Shockwave and Megatron co-ordinated the transportation of Cybertron itself into the Solar System via the use of a colossal spacebridge.

In "Countdown to Extinction", when Starscream arrives to Cybertron (together with Doctor Arkeville) and proclaims himself the new leader of the Decepticons instead of the "late" Megatron, Shockwave doesn't believe him and tries to call up Megatron again and again. Starscream forbids him to do this and even fires at his computer terminal, but then he becomes too busy with preparing to receive the energy of the Earth's annihilation. Meanwhile Shockwave succeeds in getting through to Megatron at last and in warning him of the explosive device installed by Starscream in the Arkeville's laboratory, so that Megatron and Optimus Prime have time to prevent the explosion and to save the Earth.

Shockwave briefly came to Earth and joined Megatron's troops in episode #23 "The Autobot Run", but returned to Cybertron shortly thereafter.

In 1985, Shockwave contended with the power of the Dinobots when they splintered off from the Autobots and came to Cybertron in "Desertion of the Dinobots", episodes #37-38. With the aid of his guards, Shockwave was able to overpower them and put them to work in the Cybertronian pits, but failed to prevent the escape of Spike Witwicky and his girlfriend, Carly, when they pursued the Dinobots to the planet and were able to effect their release.

Soon after in episode #53 "The Search for Alpha Trion", Shockwave discovered that a guerrilla team of Female Autobots had been raiding his Energon stores for years, and successfully tracked them back to their hidden base, arranging the capture of Elita One. Optimus Prime and several of his warriors came to Cybertron to aid their female allies, and Elita One herself blasted Shockwave out of the battle. Subsequently, Shockwave located the key to Vector Sigma for Megatron (and in a cut scene, battled and seriously damaged Omega Supreme). Spying on the Autobots, he then discovered the key's hidden power to transform organics into technomatter.

When the Combaticons invaded Cybertron, Shockwave attempted to fend them off, but was turned against his sentinel drones when Bruticus seized him in gun mode and opened fire on them with him, before launching him off into space, where he crashed into Starscream. Shockwave and Starscream returned to the planet, but were captured and imprisoned. They both were discharged when Megatron and Optimus Prime's forces arrived to stop Bruticus' rampage.

Over the next twenty years, Megatron turned his attention away from Earth, and succeeded in fully conquering Cybertron. In 2005, however, the planet came under attack by Unicron, and Shockwave attempted to mobilize the Decepticons against the threat. The script for The Transformers: The Movie explicitly details Shockwave's death as Unicron crushes his command tower with him in it, rips it off the planet, and tears it to shreds, and although this was not shown in the finished film, Shockwave was not seen again following the movie (although several incorrectly-colored versions of Shockwave — presumably intended to be generic Decepticons — were seen in some third-season episodes of the TV series, most notably Five Faces of Darkness Parts 1-5). The IDW Publishing adaptation of the movie has Shockwave lead the Decepticons against Unicron, only to be blown in half by the Chaos-Bringer's eye beams.

Here is part of the movie script describing his actual demise in the animated continuity:

Unicron enters shot and grasps at Cybertron with a hideous claw...
ANGLE ON A TOWER ON CYBERTRON
Shockwave talks into a communications device, as alarms sound and troopers run everywhere.
SHOCKWAVE
Decepticons...we're under attack...Scramble -
Then his voice is cut off as...
SHOCKWAVE'S POV - OUT HIS WINDOW
Unicron's hand reaches towards the window, squeezes, and the walls crash in.
In Shockwave's first appearance, in "More Than Meets the Eye", Part One, he has two hands. By his next appearance, in the first episode of the ongoing series, "Transport to Oblivion", his left hand has been replaced with a gun barrel, matching his toy appearance (although notably the toy's box art itself incorrectly presented the gun barrel as being on his right arm).