Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

"Aww, betcha say that to all the treaty-breaking weapons dealers."

Even in war, there are laws. Ultra Magnus, Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, is the burly blue line that enforces those laws. Whether Autobot or Decepticon, break them and you can do things his way... or the hard way.

He's so popular that people just love to cosplay as him!

First appearance: Escalation #1 (Minimus Ambus, as Ultra Magnus)

Autocracy #2 (the original Ultra Magnus)

More than Meets the Eye #16 (Datum, as Ultra Magnus)

Shining Armor #1 (Convoy, as Ultra Magnus)

Fiction

The original Magnus

Foreshadowing!

The legend of Ultra Magnus began with the first 'bot to bear the name: a stern, no-nonsense Autobot who, during the early years of the war, fought alongside Orion Pax, Skids and the legendary Delta Magnus to contain the Decepticons. Parasites The Divided Self When Orion sided with Megatron to overthrow Zeta Prime's corrupt government, Magnus and his security forces stood with them, Overthrown but when Zeta was deposed, Megatron betrayed Orion and took over the planet, sending Magnus, Ironhide, and Bumblebee into hiding. They were captured when their safehouse was raided by the Decepticons, Transformation but were soon liberated by Hot Rod and met back up with Orion, who had been transformed into Optimus Prime and awoken the dormant Metroplex. Rise Alongside the entire Autobot army, Ultra Magnus then marched on the Citadel to fight Megatron for the control of Cybertron. Broadcast After the Decepticons had been chased out of Iacon, Magnus aided Optimus Prime in inspecting the remains of Zeta Prime's cache of outlawed weaponry. Endgame

Shortly after Optimus Prime's rise to leadership, Ultra Magnus was part of a unit sent to defend the Toraxxis mega-refinery from Scorponok's Decepticons. Rage During the Autobots' attempts at stopping a rampaging Trypticon, Magnus was responsible for bringing out the strongest weapons in the Autobot arsenal The Illusion of Control and subsequently fought at Prime's side during the battle with the beast in Harmonex. Annihilation Following the defeat of Trypticon at the hands of Megatron and Grimlock, Ultra Magnus saw the calm as a chance to arrest Megatron, but was discouraged from doing so when the rest of the Decepticon army arrived. Belly of the Beast He went on to oversee the process of cleansing Grimlock's systems of Trypticon's corrupted energon, Primacy #1 and witness the epic battle between Trypticon and Metroplex. Primacy #3 Once Trypticon's attack turned out to be the first phase of a Decepticon invasion, Ultra Magnus stood with the other Autobots in defense of Iacon. Primacy #4

The immortal lawman

"I've never seen anything so awesome in the entire galaxy...Alright, give me the bomb."

But all beings have a fixed lifespan, and Ultra Magnus was no different. When he passed away (under unrevealed circumstances), the legend he left in his wake inspired Chief Justice Tyrest to ensure that he lived on. Circulating a rumor that Magnus had merely faked his death, Tyrest fashioned a suit of armor cast in Magnus's image and bestowed it upon a succession of other 'bots—the first being Suture, with later successors including Datum, Ramp and Blockus—who took on Magnus's name and reputation, and served Tyrest as a Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, upholding the Code of Interplanetary Conflict, a treaty between Autobots, Decepticons and other alien races. Each wearer was a "loadbearer", a kind of Point One Percenter possessing a spark with an animating force strong enough to integrate the Magnus armor. Upon the passing of each wearer, a trigger in the armor would return it to Tyrest wherever he was in the galaxy, so that it could be passed on to his next chosen enforcer. The Cybertronian public only ever believed that there was a solitary Ultra Magnus who flouted death at every turn; The Divided Self the "freak recoveries" he made only enhanced Magnus's reputation, and he would later be cited by First Aid as an example of a larger sized bot whose Spark could recover from the kind of damage suffered by Rewind. Before & After

You know Magnus, you don't need this much firepower just to fix a leak in your basement.

As such, it becomes hard to know exactly which Magnus was involved in which of his recorded appearances, such as his battle against Black Shadow as part of the 113th Battalion. Rules of Disengagement One bearer of the Magnus Armor perished on Simanzi, 1st Cycle 3718, when he was caught offguard by a Cybernaught while heading toward the Crucible with Rotorstorm. Later, during the 2nd Cycle, another Magnus fell when he took a direct hit from the K-Class Decepticon Torque while giving orders during a battle on Clemency over the Nightmare Engine. In the 3rd Cycle, the statistician Datum was wearing the Magnus Armor and took part in the Battle for Hell's Point, during which he blocked the exhaust vent of the ship in question with his body, trusting that the Warriors Elite wouldn't risk destroying it by blasting him off without Megatron's permission. Unfortunately, he hadn't realized Megatron was right there, hiding in plain sight in his new gun alternate mode, which Heretech used to blast him. The Gloaming Legend held that the smirk Magnus had given the warriors when he thought he had them beaten was the only time he ever smiled in his life. Hangers On One Magnus would fall victim to the Spark affliction known as a zero point, Zero Point and another to the Fast-Folding Sun. The Divided Self

One of the Ultra Magnuses had Wheelie work under him, who supplied him with reserve ammunition. Unfortunately, due to Wheelie's small size, Magnus had a tendency to overlook the little bot. Spotlight: Wheelie

Only a few Autobots ever knew the truth of Magnus's identity; by the time of the 19th century, they included Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Shining Armor #5 Prowl, The Becoming Ratchet The Sound of Breaking Glass and Bumblebee, the latter only aware because people tended to tell him their secrets. Shining Armor #5 However, the secret did leak in the form of a conspiracy theory claiming that Ultra Magnus was "just a little guy in armor", though it wasn't widely believed. Winners & Losers

And then Takara saw this and were all like, "Oh, hmmm. We need to do a redeco, don't we?"

After burning through several other load bearers, Minimus Ambus, spark brother to the noted Autobot philanthropist Dominus Ambus, took up the mantle of Ultra Magnus. The Divided Self Minimus found his overachieving brother difficult to get along with, but loved him all the same; he was off-planet when Dominus mysteriously disappeared, but the connection the brothers shared led Minimus to believe his brother had died. His physical resemblance to Dominus (including the shared "facial insignia" moustache of the House of Ambus) pained Minimus, so when Tyrest chose him to be the next Ultra Magnus—to become a different person—Minimus was happy to take on the role. He aspired to be the kind of no-nonsense lawman the original had been. The Not Knowing

Renowned for his stalwart personality and his commitment to the job, Minimus became the longest serving wearer of the Magnus Armor. The Divided Self As Magnus, Minimus had many adventures in his duties as enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, including the arrests of both a Decepticon peddling miniaturization technology who infected him with Nanocons, You, Me, and Other Revelations and wannabe Sparkeater Blip. The Chaos of Warm Things When Jhiaxus's renegade "patient" Arcee cut a swathe of destruction across the galaxy, Magnus hunted her down, using a combination of holographic trickery and shock grenades to subdue her so she could be sent to the Garrus-9 penitentiary. Spotlight: Arcee

In his leisure time, Minimus began writing Terms of Peace, a book that detailed every law for every conceivable scenario and would ensure everlasting peace and prosperity if followed. He ran into trouble, however, when he failed to find a politically correct way of phrasing "punishable by death" as the penalty for breaking many of the rules. Sardines

Xetaxxis and back

Some three hundred years ago, Minimus Ambus was gravely wounded and opted to take a sabbatical from his duties. In his place, Tyrest appointed Convoy as the next Point One Percenter to don the armor. Convoy brought his own unique spin on Ultra Magnus to the table: eschewing his predecessor's stern, measured approach, Convoy was hotheaded, triggerhappy, and prejudiced against organics. Shining Armor #5

In the mid-19th century, Ultra Magnus and his crew of Bumblebee and Sky Blast were patrolling the Zugzwang Cluster when they came across a pair of Decepticons assaulting a Galactic Council shuttle. They quickly overwhelmed their foes and, at Magnus' urging, investigated the wreckage to ensure that nobody had survived. The two found that the Decepticons had been trying to destroy the Council ship to cover up their tracks; smelling a conspiracy, Magnus hacked into the shuttle's security and discovered the Council had been bound for the backwater planet of Xetaxxis. The Autobots followed, and eventually caught up with them over the Solstar Order space station Orchid Crossing; leaving Sky Blast to watch the ship, Shining Armor #2 the pair made a dramatic entrance by blasting their way in through a wall. Shining Armor #1

The two Autobots were immediately attacked by four Space Knights; misreading the situation, Magnus mistook the Cybertronian orphan Stardrive for a Decepticon operative and opened fire on Starscream and the Knights as the chaotic battle began tearing the space station apart. Sky Blast joined the fight, but was jumped by one of the Decepticon's Dire Wraith allies and subsequently mutated into an out-of-control monster.

Deciding the battle was lost, Magnus hacked into the space station's systems and disabled everything, sending Orchid Crossing plummeting into Xetaxxis in the hopes that atmospheric reentry would burn the hybrid up with them. Stardrive - hoping to rescue the Cybertronians - used her starfighter configuration to rescue them, and all three Transformers plummeted onto the icy surface of the planet. Quickly recovering form his ordeal, Magnus placed her under arrest for violating the Tyrest Accords; Stardrive agreed to go with Magnus under the condition that they find her Space Knight comrades. Irked at the idea of helping organics, Magnus didn't get far into his argument before Rom, Livia, and Sata arrived and shot him. Shining Armor #2

Recovering from the blast, the two Autobots engaged the Space Knights in a brief shootout as he shielded Stardrive from Neutralizer fire. Stardrive managed to break up the fighting and properly introduced herself to the two feuding factions. Rom was left confused by talk of the Decepticons, prompting Ultra Magnus to explain the nature of the Great War and the factionalized state of the Cybertronian species. When Stardrive revealed the existence of her energon synthesizer, the Autobots and Knights agreed to a temporary teamup and rolled out to find the synthesizer before the Decepticons could. The ground-bound Autobots and Sata were delayed when Bumblebee stopped to help the native Xetaxxians cope with the extreme cold, a violation of the Tyrest Accord which earned the ire of Ultra Magnus. It didn't take long before the "Xetaxxians" revealed themselves as Dire Wraith imposters as Astrotrain and Vekktral attacked. Magnus ordered his two comrades to join the others while he stayed behind to hold off the horde. Shining Armor #3

Guzzlord, is that you?

Using the superheated rock as an improvised weapon, Magnus fought wave after wave of Wraiths, shrugging off their blows before he began to tire. After dispatching a hundred of the aliens, an exhausted Magnus was slowly worn down by their onslaught and pinned to the ground as Vekktral approached, boasting that he now understood how to properly control Cybertronian biology. Possessed by Vekktral, the Wraith-Magnus regrouped with the Decepticons and, using his new knowledge, immediately turned on Starscream and the other Decepticons. Shining Armor #4

Decepticons, Autobots, and Space Knights formed a strange alliance against Vekktral and his body-snatching forces, Vekktral losing an arm from their combined attack. Within his mind, Magnus continued to struggle against Vekktral before Convoy realized that the Wraith had made a crucial oversight; unaware of the nature of the Magnus Armor, Vekktral had failed to account for the inner robot. Convoy was thus able to stop Vekktral by forcing Ultra Magnus's chest open, giving Rom opening he needed to end the threat by allowing Rom to shoot him.

Following the sterilization of Xetaxxis, Bumblebee used the armor's recall switch to return to the Autobot fleet and inform Optimus Prime about Convoy's passing. Optimus Prime briefly eulogizied Convoy as he laid the fallen Autobot to rest; after a century of recuperation, Minimus Ambus returned to active duty and donned the repaired armor to become Ultra Magnus once more. Shining Armor #5

The hunt for Scorponok

Tracking down Decepticon wheeler-dealer Swindle on the planet Zull, Magnus was convinced to let the criminal go in exchange for information on the current whereabouts of an even greater offender: Scorponok, against whom Magnus bore a personal grudge. Magnus followed Swindle's lead to the planet Nebulos, and although he disrupted Scorponok's operations, the Decepticon was able to escape. Spotlight: Ultra Magnus The cycle repeated years later when Magnus caught up to Swindle again, arresting him for yet another violation, only to wind up once again letting him go in return for a fresh lead on Scorponok's new location. Escalation #1 Spotlight: Optimus Prime

While en route to help deal with the fallout of a break-in at Garrus-9, Magnus changed course in response to a distress call from Hound's crew, who were under attack by Cyclonus. After Magnus drove Cyclonus off, he teamed with Hound's crew to track him to Corata-Vaz and stage an ambush, only to be beaten back when he unleashed Thunderwing on them. Spotlight: Cyclonus Spotlight: Hardhead After obtaining further intel on the plot being orchestrated by Cyclonus and his fellow Dead Universe Transformers, Spotlight: Doubledealer Magnus co-ordinated a simultaneous strike against their various Nega-Core installations. Spotlight: Sideswipe

It's now my job to jail all the interesting guys.

Sometime after the foiling of the Dead Universe Expansion, Ultra Magnus received a signal from a battered Hot Rod, requesting some backup for Sunstreaker, who was in the process of confronting Scorponok on Earth. Determined to put an end to his old quarry once and for all, Magnus headed for Earth. Maximum Dinobots #1 Maximum Dinobots #4 Scorponok had already been defeated by the Dynobots by the time Magnus arrived, though he made it in time to stop them from killing him, intent on seeing Scorponok punished by the law. After stripping Scorponok's Machination facility of Cybertronian tech and providing Optimus Prime with a report on the events, Magnus departed for Garrus-9 with Scorponok, Shockwave and Grimlock, who had surrendered to Magnus in exchange for his rescinding the warrants on the other Dynobots. Maximum Dinobots #5

Taking charge

Ultra Magnus uses sarcasm quotes to remind you he doesn't find anything hilarious.

Magnus was soon to discover that he had picked up a stowaway when he left Earth: human runaway Verity Carlo. Surprisingly, Magnus warmed to Verity in his own way and allowed her to stay with him; she, in return, affectionately dubbed him "Uncle Magnus". After about four years of adventuring together, Magnus and Verity were called upon by Prowl to transport the Autobot commando squad known as the Wreckers to Garrus-9, which had been overrun by Decepticons during a galaxy-wide uprising a few years before. En route, the group picked up former Wreckers leader and Garrus-9 escapee Impactor, Last Stand of the Wreckers #1 who Magnus encouraged the recalcitrant Springer to take on the mission with them. Magnus proceeded to brief the Wreckers and sent them on their way, but refrained from participating in the mission himself, both to turn a blind eye to the Wreckers' often-brutal methods, and because Prowl had requested his presence back on Earth to investigate the murder of Ironhide. Last Stand of the Wreckers #2 The mission was a disaster at best, with many Wreckers dying at the hands of Overlord; Magnus would go on to carry great guilt over his non-participation. Under Cold Blue Stars Further, on the return trip, Magnus discovered that Verity had also left him, having stolen away with the Wreckers on their mission; In Word and Deed despite appearances, he would dearly miss her. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

Arriving on Earth, New Arrivals, Old Encounters Magnus discovered the Autobots in disarray, Ironhide's death having caused Optimus Prime to surrender to human agency Skywatch, leaving Bumblebee in charge. Magnus called for the Autobots' full cooperation, but after performing an autopsy of Ironhide's body and learning that the 'bot who had led the mission on which he died, Hot Rod, had broken away from Bumblebee's group, he elected to search Hot Rod out for questioning. A Rude Awakening Discovering that Hot Rod—now calling himself "Rodimus Prime"—had begun to construct a rocket to leave Earth, and had allied himself with Decepticons in order to do so, including Magnus's old stoolie Swindle, Magnus attempted to arrest Rodimus under charges of treason. Prowl stood up for Rodimus, and, unable to arrest everyone, the furious Magnus returned to Bumblebee's cave. Seasons in Flight In short order, he forcibly recruited a team of Autobots to arrest Rodimus and his followers, but when they returned to Rodimus's launch site, they were confronted by Swindle's secret weapon: the Stunticon combiner Menasor, who was ordered to kill Magnus first. Enemies of the System Magnus fared poorly in the battle, but was saved from death at Menasor's hands by Optimus Prime, who had brokered an alliance with Skywatch. Repaired after the battle, Magnus was furious to find Swindle had slipped through his fingers again, and took out his frustrations on Rodimus. When Bumblebee tried to defuse the situation, Magnus attempted to cite his greater authority of his legal jurisdiction, but was put in his place when the younger Autobot pointed out that on Earth, he was in charge. However, as this was going on, Rodimus took off in Ultra Magnus' shuttle, leaving him stuck on Earth with the other Autobots. Earthworks

Temporarily provided with a ship by Skywatch, The Land Ironclads Magnus recovered the surviving Wreckers from Garrus-9, and delivered the fruit of their mission to Prowl: a data slug containing complete records of Autobot war crimes from the Aequitas computer. Knowing that it would be disastrous if the data got out, Magnus maintained his plausible deniability and left it in Prowl's hands. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5

Eastbound and Down.

Some time later, when Bumblebee was the victim of an attempted assassination, Magnus lost patience with Brawn's raging and threatened to have him restrained. He was interrupted by the news that the plane carrying Optimus Prime's team back from North Korea had been blown out of the sky, but before he and Pennington could get any real information about the attack, the Decepticons launched an attack on the base. Ultra Magnus was incapacitated by Frenzy's sonic powers, allowing the Decepticons to free their captive comrades and escape. The Demolished Man In the aftermath of the attack, Magnus took command and relocated everyone to Omega Supreme's location, but not before leaving Brawn with a mission to find and recruit the aid of the disenfranchised Decepticon Thundercracker. Altered Carbon On the way to Omega, the Autobots were attacked by humans who didn't want them on their planet, and Pennington had to talk Ultra Magnus out of retaliating. Unfortunately, things got worse when Megatron himself showed up and easily dispatched Ultra Magnus and his troops. Assuming that he was out to destroy the Autobots as usual, Magnus tried to distract Megatron from killing the Skywatch soldiers, but the Decepticon made it clear that the humans were just as important targets for his revenge. Woken Furies The injured Magnus was held hostage by Megatron and Soundwave and used as leverage to get Optimus Prime to meet with them. This meeting ended with Megatron retreating with a stasis locked Soundwave, and Ultra Magnus was brought to safety. Burning Chrome As he awaited repairs, Magnus told Prime that he had managed to place a tracking chip on Soundwave, allowing the Autobots to find Megatron's hideout. Enemy Mine

Six weeks later, Ultra Magnus watched as Rodimus returned to Earth with the Matrix of Leadership and several lost Autobots in tow. He brought news that Galvatron had built an army and taken control of Cybertron, prompting Optimus Prime to lead his Autobots back to their home planet. On Bumblebee's orders, Ultra Magnus remained on Earth with him, Prowl and a few others to investigate charges brought against Spike Witwicky for the supposed murder of Scrapper. Orphans of the Helix He still participated in talks of what would be done with Megatron, who had surrendered himself and been taken into space with Prime's Autobots. When Xaaron explained that they needed a neutral third party to judge the Decepticon leader for his crimes, Magnus suggested Chief Justice Tyrest, and opined that they should aim for a death sentence. Chaos Theory #1

"Don't worry, Swindle. I kept your room the way you left it."

Magnus chewed out Prowl and Streetwise after the latter had broken protocol and transformed into robot mode during a mission to spy on Witwicky. Prowl brought up his suspicions of anti-Transformer pundit Ben Simpson and of a deeper Decepticon conspiracy, but Magnus ordered him to stick to the case at hand. Police Action #1 The Autobots then brought in Sandra, a former Skywatch agent who abandoned Spike's unit once it started breaking too many rules. Ultra Magnus commended her for sticking to military protocol before questioning her on Spike's past. Only Forward Around this time, Ultra Magnus was on hand to witness Bumblebee bring all five Stunticons into custody to everyone's surprise. The Question Then, after learning the whereabouts of Ben Simpson from Sandra, Bumblebee and Magnus agreed to circumvent the slow human legal system and rolled out with Skywatch to confront Simpson, discovering him to be a facsimile construct controlled by none other than Swindle. The Decepticon tried to escape again, but Ultra Magnus dismembered him and dragged him back to base, where he admitted under interrogation that he had been supplying Spike Witwicky and Skywatch with Cybertronian technology from the start. This revelation caused the Autobots to sever their ties with Skywatch. A Second Chance at Eden

The problem with peace

Risk of criminal activity: None. Practically perfect in every way.

The Autobots on Earth returned to Cybertron once Optimus Prime's team had defeated Galvatron, the D-Void, and the Decepticons. Feeling that the Autobots were no longer wanted on post-war Cybertron, Ultra Magnus decided to accompany Rodimus and Drift on their quest to find the Knights of Cybertron. The Death of Optimus Prime He joined the crew of the Lost Light as Rodimus's second-in-command, but soon started to become increasingly petty about minor infractions and had many, many reservations about those who had signed up for the quest. Magnus's troubles on the Lost Light started when an accident at launch caused the ship to quantum jump to a random point in space. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It A ruptured hull led to a portion of the crew being sucked out into space, so Rodimus and Ultra Magnus set the Lost Light down on a nearby planet and went out searching for them. Hangers On The ship was soon repaired and took off again, only for a Sparkeater to be discovered on board, reminding Ultra Magnus of Blip. Magnus heavily disapproved of Rodimus using Rung as bait to lure the creature in to be killed, and told Rodimus that he had to call him out on that because nobody else would, but Rodimus brushed off the lecture, stating that he was in charge now. The Chaos of Warm Things

As time went on, Magnus became increasingly anal about everything, especially minor, pointless things like dirt How Ratchet Got His Hands Back, Autobrands at angles, lighting problems, and so on—an inability to cope with peacetime had led to a full-blown nervous breakdown for Magnus that saw him try to append as much weight to the everyday rules of life as he had to the rules of war. Parasites The Divided Self He made life hell for just about everyone of the ship with his obsessive-compulsive tendencies and relentless attempts to enforce petty, pointless standards of conduct that the entire crew did their best to defy, Rodimus most of all, who simply started ignoring his many, many memos. He started to question why he'd joined the quest and tried to leave several times, but Rodimus would keep talking him into staying. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

Cleanitallitmustbecleaned...

Discovering that the naive Tailgate, who had been offline for the duration of the war, wanted to be a Decepticon Magnus reported him to Rodimus. A history lesson courtesy of Rewind quickly disabused Tailgate of this notion, and he decided to be an Autobot instead Life After the Big Bang so Magnus began educating him in the Autobot Code—a long tortuous process that saw Magnus pore over the unabridged version and go over it in excruciating detail. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back

After attending a ceremony honoring Highbrow, Chromedome and Brainstorm, Ultra Magnus was among the crew members temporarily frozen in place by one of Brainstorm's backfiring weapons. The Reluctant Specialist Learning of the bar that Swerve had set up, he promptly arrested the big-mouthed 'bot, and sent him to join Rewind replacing rivets on the ship's hull. When Fortress Maximus took Rung and Whirl hostage, Magnus listened in on his threats. Interiors

If looks could kill.

The infestation of Nanocons, long thought eradicated, became active within Ultra Magnus, so a team of hardy Autobots were miniaturized and implanted inside him to try to fight the creatures. The Nanocons eventually ended up at Magnus's mouth pistons, and he was forced to destroy them by smiling—not without great effort, as those mechanisms had become rusted with disuse. Though he was greatly embarrassed by it and the crew consequently mocked him for it, Rodimus assured him that it meant they were beginning to accept him. When the Lost Light encountered the Galactic Council ship The Benign Intervention, Magnus was able to use his bureaucratic skills to talk Captain K'gard into allowing a delegation of Autobots to visit Crystal City. He himself was beamed aboard the Council ship, where K'gard told him that he was trusted by the Council and tried unsuccessfully to talk him into joining them—he even smiled at the idea the other Autobots might influence him to be less strict in his outlook. When the Council ship came under apparent attack from the surface, Magnus was beamed back aboard the Lost Light before K'gard began the process of destroying the Autobot ship with an incineration shell. Fortunately the ship had a last-minute save, courtesy of a freed Titan. You, Me, and Other Revelations

Okay, Rewind. Together, we're gonna punch these guys so hard, words describing the impact are gonna spontaneously materialize out of thin air.

Following a reconnaissance mission to Temptoria, Before & After Magnus returned to the Lost Light to find Cyclonus had been blamed for an attack on Red Alert, and was forced to restrain Cyclonus after Drift's attempted interrogation turned violent. Patternism When it turned out Red Alert's decapitation was self-inflicted, Magnus suggested putting him into cold storage, something Rodimus reluctantly agreed with. An Intimate Beheading This matter dealt with, the Autobots were able to follow up on Magnus's information from Temptoria, which pointed to the missing Circle of Light possibly being held there by Decepticons. Magnus joined a task force of Autobots in an attack on the Decepticon base on the planet, his prowess in the subsequent battle particularly impressing Tailgate. Though they liberated Temptoria's capital, they failed to find the Circle of Light. Before & After

Fire exits. Important stuff.

Having been ordered by Rodimus to go on shore leave to Hedonia, Magnus joined Swerve's social group and debuted his holomatter avatar: a copy of Verity. Slipped a nucleon mickey by Whirl, Magnus fell unconscious, awakening just long enough to break down in front of Swerve, admitting that he hated the quest, was upset that nobody liked him, and believed everything had gone wrong when he'd accepted Tyrest's offer. Passing out once more, his unconscious body was hauled out into the street by Swerve and friends, where they jumped up and down on him until he reflexively transformed, allowing them to drive him back to the shuttle. Cybertronian Homesick Blues Afterwards, he tried to socialise with Rung and even tried jokes, to toe-curlingly embarrassing failure. Despite that, they got on quite well. Signal to Noise

Magnus was among those interviewed for Rewind's documentary about life on the ship, "Little Victories". He used his authority to censor the parts that made him look silly. Magnus later joined Rodimus and Drift in welcoming Thunderclash to the Lost Light. Rodimus tried to use Ultra Magnus to impress Thunderclash, pointing out how the Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord was his first officer. Thunderclash ignored Rodimus' petty oneupsmanship and instead complimented Ultra Magnus on an article he had written about military typography, eagerly wanting to discuss its finer points. Thunderclash quickly apologized for coming on too strong, but Magnus responded to the praise by giving Thunderclash a spontaneous hug. Little Victories

Identity revealed

Unbeknownst to Magnus, the captive Overlord was being held in a secret cell on the Lost Light. When he was accidentally allowed to escape, Magnus was the first one to charge against the loose Decepticon, still carrying the guilt after the Garrus-9 fiasco. He managed to briefly beat Overlord into submission until the Decepticon stabbed him through the spark with Drift's Great Sword. While the rest of the crew dealt with dispatching Overlord, First Aid tended to Magnus's injuries, only to discover that he would be unable to prevent the collapse of his spark. Under Cold Blue Stars The comatose Magnus was given only ten days to live, but before his end could come, within the Magnus Armor, Ambus reflexively tripped the recall switch. Under its own power, the armor levitated from the med-slab, carrying Ambus within it, appropriating a shuttle that would take him to Tyrest, who currently dwelt on Cybertron's lost moon, Luna 1. The Gloaming The switch normally functioned as a teleporter, but Ambus deliberately chose to activate the manual recall, which he knew would allow the Lost Light to follow him, in hopes that Tyrest would properly discipline Rodimus for the reckless leadership that Magnus had been unable to curb. This Calamitous Life

Do not remove from packaging!

Upon arrival, Magnus's body was recovered by Tyrest and taken to Pharma, who was able to use Tyrest's collection of bleeding-edge tech to save his life. While the doctor worked, however, Tyrest reviewed Magnus's journals, and was appalled to see how he had become reduced to an officious, bureaucratic joke. He angrily deactivated the Magnus Armor, stripping Minimus Ambus of the role he had played for years and made his very life. The Divided Self Presently, when Rodimus and a contingent of Lost Lighters arrived on Luna 1 as Magnus had expected, they were promptly captured by Tyrest's forces. The Fecund Moon Learning from Tyrest that they were to be put to death for harboring a criminal—amnesiac crewmember Skids—Ambus requested that he be placed in a cell alongside them. The Divided Self He pretended to be an energon trader in order to get them to tell him about their recent escapades, hoping to prove to Tyrest that they, like he, had no knowledge of Skids's criminal past. House of Ambus The Divided Self That went wrong when Rung was able to recognize the personal tics of Magnus in Ambus, and he forced Ambus to come clean about his identity and explain his life story to Rodimus and the others. Rodimus's story also had its share of surprises for Ambus, as he learned that Tyrest was working with the Decepticon Titan Hunters and had amassed a graveyard of Titan remains. Determined to find out what was going on, and why the Lost Lighters were being charged with "crimes against creation", he confronted Tyrest for answers. The revelations were shocking: Tyrest believed that all Transformers "constructed cold" were abominations and he intended to exterminate them all with a universal killswitch. Ambus refused to allow him to go through with his plans, so Tyrest initiated the newest amendment to his accord—pre-emptive execution—and had one of his Legislator robots crush Ambus's head. The Divided Self

You're nothing but a dirty carbuncle, festering in the corner!

Soon after, Rodimus and the others escaped their cell burst into Tyrest's control room. Tyrest warned them against interfering, gesturing at Ambus's fallen body as an example of what happened to those who opposed him. Arm the Lonely Fortunately, the Magnus Armor was not the only load that Ambus was capable of carrying: the head that was crushed by the Legislator belonged to another layer of augmentation around his irreducible core. After Tyrest activated the killswitch, Minimus awoke and punched his way clear of his intermediate body's remains and, grabbing one of the Legislators' guns, shot Tyrest in the back. Along with Perceptor, he devised a way to use Rodimus's half of the Matrix to reverse the effects of Tyrest's killswitch, though at great risk to Rodimus's own life. Before it was put into operation Rodimus and Ambus took the opportunity to clear the air between them, with Minimus revealing that he didn't consider Rodimus a fit captain and Rodimus revealing that he had done far worse, but promising to make amends. Though their plan was successful and Rodimus survived, they were quickly overrun with Legislators and Ambus had to take up his gun once again to fight them off before Tailgate managed to use everything Magnus had taught him about the Autobot Code to re-write Tyrest's laws and shut them all down. This Calamitous Life

In the aftermath of the battle, Ambus retrieved his outer shell and reintegrated with it. Later in the Lost Light's medbay, Ratchet helped him put the Magnus Armor back on, revealing that he had known about it all along, right back to the original Ultra Magnus, but since he had known Minimus the longest he considered him to be the true Ultra Magnus. The Sound of Breaking Glass With his armor reattached, Magnus met with Rodimus to take stock of recent events, then, upon learning that Cyclonus and had saved Tailgate's life, formally welcomed the ancient Transformer on board. This Calamitous Life

Seeing justice done

After the Lost Light rescued Orion Pax from the destruction of the planet Gorlam Prime, Magnus accompanied him and Rodimus on a tour of the ship, Dark Dawn and later joined them for a drink in Swerve's to discuss the current state of affairs. Having learned that a portal to the Dead Universe had appeared on Cybertron, Rodimus and Pax ventured through the portal that had consumed Gorlam Prime to investigate the mystery from the other side, while Magnus was left in charge of the Lost Light and given orders to track down Jhiaxus, who Prime suspected was responsible. Black Metal Before long, however, the Lost Light found itself pushed off-course by Metroplex's thumb, which they had previously recovered. After conferring with the crew, Magnus made the decision to follow the thumb's pull and go in search of Metroplex. Winners & Losers

Locking on to the thumb's signal and quantum-jumping to the ocean world of Hydrophena, the ship was attacked by Ammonites. Magnus's group took to the sea in the Rodpod and soon found Metroplex, Into the Abyss only to discover that the giant's brain module was missing. No Exit While searching Metroplex's interior, they learned that Shockwave was the architect of their recent misfortunes, and encountered the Camiens Chromia and Nautica. The Dead Are Not Enough Their companion Windblade was able to fill the group in on Metroplex's status, and Magnus had the idea to jumpstart Metroplex with the Lost Light's quantum engines. This successfully allowed Metroplex to quantum jump back to Cybertron. Burning Bright From Metroplex, Ultra Magnus and the others had a front row seat as the giant defeated the Necrotitan that had been battering Iacon. Finis Temporis

In the aftermath, Ultra Magnus tried to learn more from Metroplex about the Knights of Cybertron, but could glean nothing. Receiving word of a fight between Chromedome and Prowl, he left to break the scuffle up; Prowl took offense at his intrusion, prompting Magnus to offer some choice words for the police 'bot regarding his underhanded tactics and how they harmed people. A fight seemed like it might break out between the two, until the Constructicons, who had become fond of Prowl, stepped in, and Magnus left Prowl with his new "friends". The Becoming As an army of seventy billion Ammonites descended upon Cybertron, Magnus joined a team led by Bumblebee to confront Shockwave in his Crystal City headquarters, though Magnus became sidetracked fighting Bludgeon with Skids and Brainstorm while the others went on. Bludgeon was about to stab him through the chest when Optimus Prime's team suddenly emerged through a wormhole inside Brainstorm and saved him. Black Planet Prime, Magnus and Megatron confronted Shockwave, but Magnus was blasted by Shockwave and taken out of the fight early. He was fortunately intact enough to escape after Shockwave's time drive collapsed into a black hole. ...And the Damage Done

As a direct outcome of Shockwave's defeat, Megatron decided to lay down his arms and become an Autobot. When the public of Cybertron demanded that the ex-Decepticon be placed on trial, Optimus appointed Ultra Magnus as the defense, a position he accepted, albeit not without a brief hesitation. Towards Peace

HAMMER OF JUSTICE!!!

Following testimony from Starscream—which Magnus had to interrupt to object to the former air commander's granstanding—Megatron asked Magnus to change his plea to not guilty. Words Hang in the Air After Magnus resignedly read Megatron's statement to the crowd, however, a group of Decepticons attacked the proceedings, and Magnus grabbed a giant hammer from one of the arena's statues to beat them back. Subsequently, during a recess, Megatron explained that this change of plea was a ploy to evoke an ancient legal loophole that permitted him to be tried not by his peers, but by the Knights of Cybertron. To that end, Optimus Prime assigned him co-captaincy of the Lost Light alongside Rodimus, and Ultra Magnus rejoined the ship's crew as it left Cybertron to resume its quest. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide

A change in perspective

Some time into the journey, the Lost Light encountered an object in space which turned out to be a coffin. Towards Peace Magnus objected to Megatron's decision to bring it on board, but was relieved that he was at least willing to follow proper quarantine protocols. Words Hang in the Air Following the discovery that the coffin contained a dead second Rodimus and that the Lost Light was disappearing piece by piece, the crew were forced to abandon ship, with Magnus and Rodimus escaping in the Leading Light. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide As crew members began disappearing as well, Magnus used his holomatter avatar to communicate with Megatron on the Rodpod, only to disappear mid-conversation. Twenty Plus One The remaining crew discovered that these disappearances were the result of their coming into proximity with a quantum duplicate of the Lost Light, created in the original quantum jump launch accident, which was "overwriting" theirs. Investigating the wreckage of the duplicate, the small group of survivors discovered that the entire duplicate crew, including Ultra Magnus, had been slaughtered by the Decepticon Justice Division. slaughterhouse Fortunately, they were soon able to shut down the duplicate ship's quantum engines, causing it to disappear and the other ship and crew to reappear. The Road Not Taken

Have some armor removal, courtesy of my disaggregator gun!

As everyone gathered in Swerve's to celebrate their survival, Brainstorm—revealed to be an undercover Decepticon—made his move, triggering a poison he had laced the bar's drinks with that incapacitated the whole crew. Only Magnus, as a teetotaler, remained to confront him, but Brainstorm had prepared for that eventuality and blasted Magnus with a disaggregator gun, which ripped the armor off Minimus. By the time he pulled himself together, Brainstorm had escaped via his time-machine briefcase; Megatron found the whole situation so ridiculous that he lost his temper, but Magnus reassured him that having a mental breakdown on the Lost Light was perfectly normal. The Custom-Made Now Believing that Brainstorm intended to alter history by killing Orion Pax, Rodimus took a team back in time after him; Magnus remained in the present, though he questioned Rodimus's wisdom in taking Whirl along on the mission. All Our Parlous Yesterdays Things did not go well; when Megatron vanished from Magnus's internal database, they realized that they had made a mistake, and that it was the Decepticon leader himself, not Orion Pax, who was Brainstorm's target. Stet Megatron took this as well as could be expected, forcing Magnus to physically restrain him as he tried to force Perceptor to send him back in time to save himself. After Megatron was calmed down, Magnus tried to lighten the mood by comparing Rodimus Stars; he won his for "Neatest Handwriting". Ultimately, the time-travellers were able to keep history from being altered, and when they returned to their present, Magnus joined the rest of the crew in Swerve's for celebrations. Predestination: An Expert's Guide

The Lost Light Internal Legal Affairs Committee was subsequently convened to decide upon Brainstorm's fate, overseen by Rodimus, Magnus, and Xaaron, where it was decided that since Brainstorm was not actually a Decepticon, but had only been using them for their resources to accomplish what he thought would be to the betterment of history, he would not be kicked off the ship. Following the verdict, Magnus visited Megatron in his quarters, suspecting he had stolen a datapad that had vanished from Magnus's quarters, but found nothing. Called in to see Ratchet for a checkup, Magnus admitted to the medic that his irritation stemmed from the fact he was feeling "enfeebled"; now that everyone on the ship knew he was really Minimus Ambus, he believed they no longer respected him, and he had even found a little figurine of Minimus outside his door that he felt sure had been left there to mock him. Ratchet soon discovered, however, that it was just the opposite: the figurine had been sculpted by Swerve's bouncer Ten, who thought Magnus was the bee's knees and had taken his missing datapad, leaving the figurine as a trade. Discovering the that datapad contained poetry that Magnus had been trying to write, Ratchet wrote a message for him on it advising him to be more open, and told Ten to deliver it. Encouraged by Ratchet's words, Magnus accepted Ten as a friend, and removed his armor to get a drink with him at Swerve's as Minimus Ambus. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme

When the Lost Light crew attended a pre-wake for Thunderclash, Minimus Ambus attended sans armor, and studied the supposed map to Cyberutopia that Thunderclash had carved into a wall. The Sensuous Frame Unfortunately, his lack of armor left him defenseless when the crew were attacked by the personality ticks that had brought Thunderclash to the brink of death, but the combined charisma of Rodimus and Megatron proved enough to "overdose" the psychic monsters. A little later, back in his armor on the Lost Light, Magnus informed Nightbeat that Skater, Flex, and Borer had solved the mystery of the ticks before him and were much more humble in doing it. The Frail Gaze Shortly thereafter, the Lost Light was contacted by Optimus Prime on Cybertron, inviting them to return to their homeworld in order to be present for the historic first contact with the colony world of Caminus. Unwilling to pause their quest again, they agreed to send an ambassador on their behalf; Magnus tried to tell Prime about recent events, but Rodimus cut him off. First Contact

When Swerve's mind retreated to holomatter duplicate of Earth, Magnus (along with the rest of the crew) sent a holomatter avatar to help search for the minibot's mind, in the process recreating Community with Chromedome and Rewind. The One Where They Go to Earth Later, as Swerve was recuperating, Magnus, having had enough of Rodimus's dirty office, took it upon himself to clean it up, but in the process he discovered that the doodles Rodimus had carved into his desk were a map to Cyberutopia. Another revelation followed hot on the heels of this one; Swerve's condition had been caused by an infection resulting from a message bullet lodged in his shoulder by the Autobot spy Agent 113. Magnus and Megatron examined the contents of the bullet together, which contained co-ordinate pointing the way to the home base of the supposedly-mythical "Necrobot". Magnus objected to exploring this tangent rather than following the Cyberutopia map, but was overruled by Megatron. Consequently, Magnus shed his armor and took Rewind aside; the little archivist was a former Conjunx Endura of his missing spark brother Dominus, and Minimus cautioned him against being too hopeful that they would find evidence that Dominus still lived. The Not Knowing

After an altercation involving Cyclonus and Tailgate, which ended with the latter hospitalized, Rodimus had Chromedome use his mnemosurgery abilities to discover just what had happened, revealing Getaway had been conspiring to get Megatron killed or arrested, at the cost of Tailgate's life. So Ultra Magnus went to arrest him, at which point Getaway's co-conspirator Atomizer took offense and tried attacking him, for all the good that did. Shortly thereafter, noted psychiatrist Froid arrived on board, in a ship containing the infamous murderer Sunder. For some reason this made Ultra Magnus incredibly unwelcoming toward Froid. Speak, Memory: Part 1 And that was before Sunder got free and started make people tear themselves inside out, Rodimus included. Fortunately, everything turned out fine thanks to Tailgate. In the aftermath, Ultra Magnus helped Megatron make witty comments at his re-covered co-captain. Speak, Memory! (Part 2)

Around late December of that year, Rodimus took off for three days to go surfing on comets, much to Minimus and Megatron's shared exasperation. By the time he returned, the ship had started moving close to Mauler territory, and in order to protect the crew they had to hide their spark energy signatures in Biometric Envelopment Devices, while Brainstorm's cloaking device hid the ship. Rodimus returned just in time to find Megatron helping Minimus put the last finishing touches on the device.

A short while later, as he crooned merrily to himself, Minimus found Swerve, Nautica and Whirl looking stiff and humorless outside his office, rather than in their B.E.Ds. Before he could finish lecturing them, he got a call from Rewind, who was finding the concept of "one bot to a B.E.D." difficult to grasp. Then, as he entered his office Minimus was set upon by his own armor, which had apparently come to life. Before he could react, Minimus was knocked unconscious by a stray wrench. Silent Light Of course, the armor had just been taken over by a swarm of scraplets, and in the aftermath Minimus spent several days fumigating it, just to be sure, distracting him from being concerned about Perceptor's experiments with space-time fissures in Swerve's, though he did join the crew in a toast to surprises. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

Lost in time and space

Some weeks after Sunder's rampage, Magnus was part of the Autobot force that heroically defended the people of Miliarium, fighting alongside Thunderclash. Later, on board the Lost Light, Minimus was present for Megatron's lecture on the Knights of Cybertron, and what the crew had learnt about them. As Mimimus praised for the discipline and focus he was bringing, Megatron started having spasms. When Mimimus tried approaching him, Megatron lashed out. Later, Velocity noted that if Megatron hadn't been taking Fool's Energon, the blow would've likely killed Minimus.

That night, at thirty-one oh-seven hours, several members of the crew were subject to a psychological assault. Rodimus, ever the beacon of rationality, suggested tracking it to its source, distracting Magnus from his concerns with a grammatical slip. Magnus then joined the expedition, which wound up with the Rodpod inside a planet, which soon turned out to be the Necrobot's. Before the crew could dwell on that one, they were attacked. As they fled toward the Necrobot's compound, the Rodpod was shot down and destroyed, Magnus losing an arm in his effort to shield Swerve from the destruction.

Once inside, the bad news just kept on coming. It turned out the crew had been lured to the planet thanks to Getaway, and his fellow conspirators. As in, the rest of the crew, who had gotten fed up with Megatron being in charge, and Rodimus's leadership. So they arranged for them to be stranded there, with no means of getting off the planet and no means of contacting the Lost Light, their punishment for daring to side with the enemy. And just to round off the bad news, the D.J.D. were there too. How Bright Their Frail Deeds The Autobots were given until sundown before the enemy would storm them, in a bit of psychological warfare, but Magnus and the others learned that the Necrobot's teleportation chamber was still active and they could escape. Problem was, that would mean abandoning dozens of slumbering organics in stasis pods that the Necrobot had been keeping. Magnus, along with the others, decided to stay and ensure the organics wouldn't be murdered after Megatron gave a rousing speech. The Sun in Flight

A surprise appearance by Ratchet and Drift, taking the DJD's turbofox "Pet" as a hostage, gave them a titchy edge, undone by Megatron being near-killed by Tarn when trying to negotiate. Your Fierce Tears The crew began to fortify the place while Magnus, in Ambus form, was measured for a new suit of armour by Brainstorm. The biggest possible suit Brainstorm could fit on his loadbearing self! MiniMagnus was clear they were all going to die and that was the be all end all (and he had a poem about poppies to read out for it), and told Nightbeat that to get him to stop talking about this unimportant hollow bit of the Necroworld; just to keep him quiet, he told Nightbeat he could go investigate as long as it wasn't alone. Mid-measurement, Rewind arranged it so the crew could broadcast into space how they wanted their corpses to be disposed of. At Close of Day Minimus Ambus, blaming himself for having fun instead of stopping all of this, requested to be buried in his armour at the Luna-1 hot spot. How Bright Their Frail Deeds

He's bigger, faster, and stronger too. He's the first member of the Lost Light crew.

While berating Rewind for searching the Necrobot's files, Minimus casually mentioned that his brother Dominus had also been a loadbearer, something Rewind hadn't known. This upset Rewind and he wanted to know what Dominus really looked like... and Minimus showed him Dominus' turbofox form, unaware that the "Pet" they'd captured was his brother, lobotimised and "domesticated", and left unaware when Rewind killed Dominus to prevent Chromedome's own death while fixing the man. He was still blissfully unaware when he arrived in his new MAXIMUS AMBUS armour, courtesy of Brainstorm; armour he remarked was "tasty". In the end, after Rodimus thanked everyone for travelling with him, Magnus and his friends charged the Decepticon guns, At Close of Day but not before everyone received a power boost from Skids. Ambus was one of the most ferocious opponents to face the Decepticons, knocking the daylights out of Helex during the battle's opening stages. Soon, however, the power boost wore off and the Autobots were surrounded. Megatron joined the battle and covered the crew's retreat back into the fortress. Rage, Rage After Megatron emerged victorious and the DJD were defeated, Minimus was present with the old command trio of him, Rodimus, and Drift at the Momument to the Disappeared, as Rewind explained how several missing 'bots were rescued by the Necrobot, and Rewind paid a last tribute to his deceased brother. Do Not Go Gentle

The Lost Light crew were now joined by dozens of disoriented Cybertronians yanked from across time and space, and so Ultra Magnus took it upon himself to bring the new arrivals up to speed with the help of an extremely long slideshow. His audiovisual presentation did little to impress new arrival Anode. Minimus Ambus subsequently shed his outer armor to travel back to Cybertron with Rodimus and a small crew of other Autobots to pick up a new ship, using a jury-rigged teleporter. They discovered, however, that their entire world had been shunted into an alternate reality thanks to a rogue Galactic Council geobomb. Some Other Cybertron

The entire group was arrested by Twelve-of-Twelve, believing them to be rogue members of the Anti-Vocationist League, and paraded through the streets in a public spectacle; when Rodimus looked to Minimus for consolation, the tiny Autobot only succeeded in making Rodimus feel worse about their predicament. That's when the real AVL showed up to free the captives, but their prowess left something to be desired and resulted in Megatron taking command of the battle. In the aftermath, Clicker offered to take the group back to Adaptica, their base of operations.Anomie The group met up with rogue Functionist Council member Nine-of-Twelve, from whom they learned more about the history of the Functionist Universe. Their history lesson was overshadowed when Six-of-Twelve announced "Revelation Day" and unveiled Rung's supposed alternate mode: a gigantic mining tank that left Minimus suspicious. Before the Autobots, could coordinate their next move, they were interrupted by the sudden return of Luna Two, thought lost after a string of wars against the greater galaxy. A World Misplaced

The moon, as it turned out, had been weaponized into a gigantic harvester unit and began laying siege to the city, dragging buildings and their occupants into the air to be stripped down and processed. Having learned of a way to return to their own universe, Rodimus and Megatron butted heads as they argued about whether to save this Cybertron or flee back to their home reality, forcing Minimus to step in. Ultimately, Minimus stayed behind in Adaptica with Megatron while Rodimus's crew went off to rescue Rung, helping to coordinate the evacuation as Cybertronians fled the city. Bad Moon Rising Modes of Production

With time running out, Minimus relayed an urgent communique from Brainstorm back on the dimensionally-displaced Necroworld, warning the Autobots that they had less than twenty minutes before it would be impossible for them to return home. With Rung laying down his life to fight the moon, the Autobots hatched a new plan where they would teleport the entire moon away from Cybertron, saving the planet and allowing them to return home. Clicker led the group to a matter transporter, which turned out to be a dud, and then to a second device, which worked. Frustrated that Megatron and Terminus had yet to return, Minimus warned Rodimus that they couldn't let the ex-Decepticon "get away"... which provoked Rodimus into leaving the two behind. This Machine Kills Fascists

You forfeit all rights to my heart!
You forfeit the place in our bed!
You sleep in your office instead
With only the memories
Of when you were mine…

In the wake of their adventure, Minimus donned his old, repaired Magnus Armor once again, only to discover that it wasn't working properly. Unbeknownst to the tiny Autobot, this hardware failure was a result of his internal cognitive dissonance after letting Megatron escape, unable to reconcile the murderous Decepticon with the odd friendship he had formed with the ex-Decepticon leader. Realizing that he was uncharacteristically late for an inspection, Minimus Ambus headed off to check up on Skip's makeshift starship form. Once more ensconced in his malfunctioning armor, Ultra Magnus sadly mused on Rodimus's leadership versus Megatron's own stint as captain. Rodimus admitted that he had come to accept Megatron's change of heart... which prompted Ultra Magnus to snap at Rodimus, decrying his captain's judgement and denouncing Megatron as an abuser and manipulator. This tirade snapped Ultra Magnus's armor back to normal, and he promptly stomped off to conduct a proper inspection before takeoff. After Megatron

Three weeks after the mutiny and the adventure in the Functionist Universe, the funerary broadcast reached Cybertron and Earth. How Bright Their Frail Deeds

At some unspecified point after this, a message reached Ultra Magnus and Whirl via the holographic Shimmer—Springer, sending out a message to those he trusted, asking them to destroy the legacy of the Wreckers and make a better future. Requiem of the Wreckers

Road's End

Aboard Skip's cramped alternate mode, Magnus attempted to continue his work on Terms of Peace only to be suddenly magnetized to Anode as part of an increasingly ridiculous prank war between her and Swerve. While Lug managed to pull her conjunx off Magnus, this only led to all the tensions erupting, a situation made even worse by Ratchet succumbing to aggressive depigmentation, despite being alive, and turning intangible, all while the mass-displacement began to wear off. Sardines

Salvation came at the hands of an unusually lucid Ten who told everyone that they needed to get to a Mederi facility via the Warren. Though the crew managed to access the cosmic structure, Skip's mass-displacement finally gave out and everyone was forced to "abandon Skip", their bodies being ravaged by the effects of super-compressed space. They'd managed to come within spitting distance of the original Mederi however, now in the year 2018, and fell into its gravity well. The moon's systems repaired them and, based off Cyclonus's powerful desire to reach the Afterspark and reunite with Tailgate, presented itself as the Clavis Aurean interpretation of the realm. Metastasis You Are Here

Magnus awoke on a mortuary slab to a deserted landscape being contacted by Rodimus who asked him to meet him under the giant Matrix of Leadership and name the planet. Unable to do the latter (given the sheer amount of planets in the galaxy), he met with the group under the artifact. When the more religious among them decided that they were in the next life, the ghosts of Trailcutter and Pipes arrived to confirm the belief. After Rodimus had a brief mental breakdown, he angrily demanded an audience with Primus before being blasted by divine lighting. Metastasis

As Magnus examined the scorch mark where Rodimus had once stood, he was approached by Dominus Ambus's spectre who declared his pride for his younger brother and apologized for the distance between them. Finally at peace, Magnus began to ascend into the full Afterspark... only to be snatched away by the Guiding Hand to serve as legal counsel in their plea for resurrection. While Magnus quickly established that the Hand could revive them, doing so would bar them from the second life when they inevitably perished again. Ultimately, it was Adaptus who decided that, since Rodimus' main objective was his crew's happiness, they had no need to be revived and sent them back limbo. Satisfied, Magnus drove off to speak with Dominus again. The God War

He's great at combo maneuvers...

Rightly suspecting that Rodimus wouldn't leave well enough alone, Magnus turned back and caught up with him as he, Drift, and Ratchet were fighting a group of Omega Guardians, though a batch notably weaker than those on Ki-Aleta. After Magnus performed a Fastball Special with Rodimus, Ratchet turned his attention to the cylinder of "trapped light", the seeming power source of the afterlife, while Whirl called Magnus to relay his suspicions that everyone else was going to be murdered. Ratchet then shattered the cylinder causing the afterspark to fade away and revealing them Mederi to them. As Magnus told Whirl to inform the others, and to never call him "chunky" ever again, Rodimus deduced that Mederi was Cyberutopia, the Knights having contracted atrophosia and come here for treatment. With the quest wrapped up, and joined by the Decepticon Scavengers, the group prepared to leave Mederi and head back to Cybertron before the crew of the Lost Light arrived, now mutated into sparkeaters. You Are Here

-even unwilling combo maneuvers.

After a failed attempt to reason with the infected, the group retreated before Wipe-Out's ship arrived, dropping Grimlock into battle, who began hacking apart the sparkeaters. Using Crankcase as a makeshift gun, Magnus reined in Grimlock before First Aid caught Rodimus up on Getaway's depravity. When the Lost Light was sighted, Magnus boarded the Q-Ship, Magnus ordered Crankcase to dock in Shuttle Bay Four. No sooner had the ship landed did Getaway blow the ceiling above them, flooding the bay with the contents of the oil reservoir, including the Scraplets. A Dance Before Dying

As Magnus lectured on the biology of the Scraplet combiner, Grimlock cleaved it in twain only for it to quickly reform into a serpentine form before they lunged at Whirl. Rather than devour the Wrecker however, the predators gently brushed up against him. Recognizing that the Luna 1 Scraplets he'd domesticated on Christmas Eve were part of the swarm, Whirl broke them free of the flooded bay and set off to aid Rodimus. No sooner had the ship been retaken did a massive tear in the Warren open above the moon. Lūstrāre The Lost Light was quickly brought down to Mederi's surface, and the crew loaded aboard, but it was soon found that, despite Magnus' monstrously intimidating glare, that the gravity of the rift was too much for the ship's engines, dragging them to the Benzene Cluster. When they arrived, they were taken captive by the forces of the Grand Architect. When Froid and Sunder reunited with the group, they informed them of what little they knew about the Architect and his plans for the God Gun. As the weapon began drilling into the void between universes, a war fleet emerged from the portal with a duplicate Lost Light flying point. Its captain then called Magnus and Rodimus, revealing himself to be Megatron. Farsickness

Though the Autobot duo thought Megatron was invading the universe once more, that theory was soon disproven when the Functionist Universe's Cybertron itself appeared, now cast in the likeness of Primus and controlled by the Functionist Council. After he'd shaken off the Functionary ships, Megatron flew to the Worldsweeper and caused a hull breach to free his friends. While the Architect managed to seal the hull breach, Magnus was brought aboard the Last Light where Megatron brought them up to speed on the Council's plans. When the Magnificence opined that they destroy "Primus", Megatron overruled it on the basis that "Primus" was inhabited. The Return of the King

Once Rodimus' group had freed themselves, and brought news that Rung was the real Primus, everyone met on the Lost Light to compare notes. It was decided that Rung would manufacture twelve duplicates of the Matrix and their energy would be unleashed on every one of Functionist Cybertron's hot spots to overload Vector Sigma. At this, the Omega Guardians, speaking from the Higher Realms via the Magnificence, flew into an unholy rage and demanded that the false "Primus" be destroyed so that they could return. That problem was quickly handled however by Nickel crushing the Magnificence. The Unremembering Magnus was given a Matrix and he and Whirl were sent to the hot spot at Mesmerica, quickly being surrounded by Functionist soldiers. Magnus was unable to open the Matrix and distracted as he was, was hit by a Functionary's missile, knocking him out of both layers of his armor. With Minimus Ambus now unconscious, Whirl managed to open the Matrix and ultimately, the Functionists were defeated. A Spark Among Embers

As the crew took stock, Prowl arrived to inspect "New Cybertron" before declaring that, since the Knights of Cybertron didn't exist, Megatron would once again have to stand trial, this time with the Galactic Council presiding. Over Rodimus's protests, Megatron agreed to go quietly but was nonetheless allowed to join the Lost Light for one last "victory lap" cruise. As the crew prepared to quantum jump home, the science team proposed the risky gamble of recreating the malfunctioning launch, thereby quantum duplicating themselves before then shunting the duplicates into a parallel universe to ensure that the Lost Light's adventures would never truly end. When the time to jump came, the crew simply wound up back on Cybertron.

As they all settled into Swerve's for a last drink, Magnus recited his favorite poem, Afterlight, which Megatron revealed to have written under a pseudonym. Adding that it was Impactor's favorite too, Megatron lamented that he'd wasted his life. Not wanting to leave it at that, Magnus gave a toast to all the friendships and bonds they'd forged... before construction cranes killed the moment and began disassembling the ship.

Now kiss.

When Megatron was tried again, Magnus again acted as his defense orator. As the jury debated between infinite imprisonment and outright execution, Magnus allowed Rodimus and Megatron had one last discussion, with Megatron revealing he'd always held onto his Rodimus Star, before they were called back to the sentencing chamber. On their way, Minimus revealed he was going to follow Megatron's advice and destroy the Magnus Armor.

Following through on his words, Minimus Ambus dedicated his life to helping bring the Lunarians, the generation born on Luna 1's hot spot, to term, never quite getting around to finishing Terms of Peace. Years later, when Ratchet had passed, Minimus had overseen the rearing of half the new generation.

And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate Lost Light materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2

Prevenge

Voice actor: Jack Angel (English)

Ultra Magnus was lecturing Tailgate on the Autobot Code when he was suddenly transported away from the Lost Light through a trans-dimensional portal. He found himself in a metal corridor, accompanied by a reverse-polarity Ravage. The recordicon's speech mannerisms soon began to annoy Ultra Magnus, but "thankfully," auto-cannons popped out from the corridor, giving Ultra Magnus something to blast. The two of them made their way through the labyrinth they found themselves in, eventually meeting with six other abductees from different universes: Blades, Sonar, Snarl, Ironhide, Arcee, and Sureshock. Despite Sureshock's protests, Ultra Magnus established himself as being in charge, stating that it was his business to be the ranking officer in any given situation.

A menacing voice then made itself heard, saying that it was responsible for bringing everyone together inside its death trap. After rather embarrassingly unleashing a sick and rusted Sharkticon against the group, the voice commanded the lot to fight one another to the death. The group (for the most part) refused, and forced the Skuxxoid to reveal himself as the architect behind the whole plot. The villain was disposed of in short order, leaving the abductees to devise a way to get themselves back home. Sonar suggested that since the place they were in was governed inherently ridiculous laws, an equally ridiculous solution was called for. Ultra Magnus went along with the idea, despite it going against everything he held dear in life. The group settled on all laughing together, as characters in a cheesy cartoon are prone to do when an episode comes to an end. Surprisingly enough, this worked, and Ultra Magnus found himself on the Lost Light once more. Shaken by his adventure, he made Tailgate promise to never speak of what had just happened, and dismissed him from his lessons for the day. Prevenge

Notes

• Magnus here is very different to the previous G1 takes. Simon Furman stated this was out of his 2005-2006 desire to be different and not repeat things; rather than be uncertain of his role as he was in Marvel Comics, this character would be utterly certain and unwavering.^[1]
• Furman spent some time teasing an Ultra Magnus/Galvatron fight in homage to the Marvel UK Transformers comic, but had abandoned it by the time he wrote Revelation.^[2]
• Ultra Magnus was one of the characters whom both James Roberts and John Barber wanted for their respective books.^[3]
• Optimus Prime's unnamed Senator friend wandered around the "Shadowplay" 3-parter in not only a Magnus-style design, but in Ultra Magnus' colours. This was deliberate, making us believe that this was going to be the origin of Ultra Magnus rather than the origin of Shockwave.^[4]

• James Roberts had carefully seeded some clues of Ultra Magnus's true identities in issues of More Than Meets The Eye:
  • In "Interiors", Skids mentions that Magnus used to do wisecracks.
  • In the 2012 annual, he prescriptively describes himself using the third person. Twice.
  • Magnus refers to Tyrest giving him everything he wanted in "Cybertronian Homesick Blues".
  • The fatal damage done to Magnus in "Under Cold Blue Stars", the damage First Aid says can't be fixed? It's exactly the same type of damage First Aid says Magnus survived once before in "Before & After".
  • Flashbacks in "The Gloaming" showed Ultra Magnus dirty, with a crooked badge, and wise-cracking, all things his present self could never do, and each flashback ended with damage that Magnus would be really lucky to survive.
• Tragically, Ultra Magnus is the best hugger on the Lost Light.^[5]
• The idea of the lineage of loadbearers is a reinvention of the original idea of the Magnus armor, used in the G1 toy and Dreamwave, where Magnus was a single normal-size robot who wore armor.

References