Superior Soundwave

[Varinia Swicegood]

Soundwaveis a fictional robot character appearing in various Transformers continuity lines within the Transformers franchise. His most well-known disguise is that of a micro cassette recorder. Throughout most of his incarnations, he is an underlying loyal lieutenant of the Decepticon leader Megatron. He is commonly depicted as Megatron's communications officer and in some interpretations, only speaks when mocking the Autobots.

Soundwave is able to detect and jam transmissions across the entire energy spectrum, a talent that makes him suited to his position as a Decepticon Communications Officer. Additionally, he has a photographic memory on account of the data storage capacity of the magnetic disks in his chest compartment, and he is armed with a shoulder-mounted laser cannon and hand-held concussion blaster. Soundwave is physically strong compared to most Transformers. His alternative form is that of an Earthly microcassette deck. Within the tape compartment, which becomes his chest in robot mode, he stores a variety of Decepticon spies, all of which take the alternative form of a microcassette. These spy characters include Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ratbat, Rumble, Frenzy, Slugfest, Wingthing, Autoscout and Overkill, all of whom are under Soundwave's command in the original television series. Squawktalk and Beastbox were additional cassette characters under Soundwave's control within the US toyline, who never appeared in the cartoon.[2]

Soundwave's cassettes are quick to serve and defend Soundwave in a crisis, and generally relate to him as servants or even pets. However, when his cassette Ratbat became leader of the Decepticons in the Marvel Comics series, Soundwave fully shifted his trademark loyalty from Megatron to him. In the Dreamwave comics, Ratbat led the Ultracons faction, while Soundwave remained with the Decepticons led by Shockwave, although within that continuity these events occurred before Ratbat took up a cassette form. In the IDW comics, on pre-war Cybertron, Soundwave functioned as a personal assistant to Ratbat, who was a Senator at the time, however, Soundwave's true loyalty was with Megatron. When the time came for him and Starscream to massacre the Senate, he enslaved Ratbat by bestowing the smaller, weaker cassette body upon him.

In the original Transformers cartoon, Soundwave was Megatron's most reliable aide, frequently sent on important reconnaissance missions with his cassettes, and often playing a key role in many schemes against the Autobots. On Cybertron, he used his ability to transform into a lamp-post to spy on the Autobot city of Iacon, learning of the Autobots' plan to search for energy on other worlds. Soundwave participated in Megatron's assault on the Autobots' spacecraft, the Ark, and met the same fate as the other occupants when the ship crashed on prehistoric Earth, leaving everyone trapped in stasis. After awakening on Earth in 1984, Soundwave played a crucial part in generating energon cubes and devising strategies to construct a new spacecraft for the Decepticons to journey back to Cybertron.

Later, he used his mind-reading talents to acquire an antimatter formula for the Decepticons from the brain of Chip Chase. He and his cassette minions were often on spying missions against the Autobots.

One of Soundwave's most notable misadventures came in season 2 when, operating a plan conceived by Starscream, he brainwashed humans with ultrasonic vibrations, leading to a confrontation with his Autobot Communications Officer counterpart, Blaster, and to a lasting rivalry between the two.

Soundwave rarely displayed much emotion, infrequently exhibiting any traits that could be considered to be in line with his tech spec. However, he showed distress when one of his cassettes were hurt in battle, and he always came across as extremely loyal to Megatron, even going so far as to recover his body after being beaten close to death by Optimus Prime at the battle of Autobot City in 2005 (The Transformers: The Movie). But while Soundwave was loyal, he was far from outspoken, and he kept silent when Megatron's body was subsequently ejected into space, and, although he did suggest himself as a replacement leader ("Soundwave: superior, Constructicons: inferior."), Soundwave again loyally served Megatron when he was reformatted as Galvatron.

In season 3, although operating in a less prominent capacity for most of the time, Soundwave played a prominent role in Galvatron's attempt to learn the secret of a sonic weapon on the planet Eurythma, where sound and music were the way of life, leaving Soundwave entranced by the planet's perfect melodies. Recording each piece of the harmony that formed the devastating sonic effect, Soundwave was defeated when the Eurythmans countered the harmony with white noise, and was again pulled into a confrontation with Blaster, who erased his recordings.

Soundwave made his final appearance in the American cartoon series, the Season 3 finale, The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1 as he was only seen giving the latest piece of information gathered by Ratbat that two scientists had discovered Optimus Prime's body, a fact which made Galvatron eager to destroy it once and for all. Although Soundwave only appeared as a background character in the American cartoon series finale, the three-part The Rebirth, he returned to the forefront in the new Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: The Headmasters, which was created to replace The Rebirth. Reborn as Soundblaster (New Soundwave in the English version and Vizar in Italy) Soundwave's new toy incarnation was, like the series, available only in Japan.

Soundwave was performed by Frank Welker, whose voice was heavily modulated by a vocoder to achieve Soundwave's distinctive, metallic monotone. However, Welker's voice was left unmodulated at certain points during the episodes "Roll for It" and "Webworld" due to production errors. This left him sounding like Dr. Claw, another role Welker performed, from Inspector Gadget.

Soundwave also appeared in the Furman written Reaching the Omega Point, as one of the Transformers legends (alongside Optimus Prime, Megatron and Grimlock) who came to the aid of the forces of Optimus Primal against the Predacon/Unicron hybrid Shokaract, distracting him long enough for Primus to deal the fatal blow.

In Devil's Due's run of G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers comic book miniseries, Soundwave was among the Transformers captured by the ruthless terrorist Cobra Organization, when they discovered the Ark. Refitted by Destro, Soundwave was intended to become a battlefield communications station, but when he and the other Decepticons eventually broke free of their control he was damaged in a battle with the Autobots and his parts were captured by the US Government for study. From his data banks, the android SerpentO.R. downloaded information on the history of Cybertron, using it to further investigate the Decepticon goal of conquest. It is indicated that his pre-Earth form was similar to his Dreamwave's War Within form.

In Dreamwave's 21st century re-imagining of the Generation 1 continuity, Soundwave was recruited to the Decepticons 9 million years ago through Megatron's underground gladiatorial games, and made head of communications. When a new Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, was chosen, Soundwave was sent along with Ravagge and the Insecticons, to attempt to kill him and recover the Autobot Matrix of Leadership for Megatron, but they failed, forcing Megatron to confront Optimus personally.

Even in the face of failures such as this, and later the loss of Megatron in an early space bridge experiment, Soundwave's loyalty to the Decepticon cause never wavered, as he remained true to the faction under Shockwave's leadership.

As in most other continuities, the story continues in the traditional manner, with Soundwave a member of the Nemesis crew who attacked the Ark and was sent into stasis when the craft crashed on Earth, awakening again in 1984. After years of fighting on Earth, eventually the combined forces of the Autobots and their human allies were able to defeat and capture the Decepticons. The intent was for the Autobots to take their enemies back to Cybertron aboard a new craft named the Ark II, but just as the ship cleared the atmosphere, it exploded, the victim of machinations by Shockwave, who did not want Prime and Megatron to return to Cybertron yet.

When Shockwave arranged for the capture and extradition of Prime and Megatron's forces as war criminals, Soundwave was among the captives, but when Starscream jettisoned Megatron into space on the return trip to Cybertron, Soundwave made the best of a bad lot and teamed with Starscream to return to Earth and conquer it, being reunited with Ratbat in the process. Heading back to Earth in a kidnapped Sky Lynx and with the Combaticons now added to their ranks, the Decepticons attacked the Ark in hopes of acquiring parts to make the Nemesis spaceworthy again, however Soundwave, Skywarp and Thundercracker were defeated and thrown in the Ark's brig. When the Combaticons, combined as Bruticus, laid into the vessel, they were freed.

Soundwave also appeared in the Dreamwave' Transformers/G.I. Joe series as one of the Decepticons uncovered by Cobra at the start of World War II. Transforming into a radio, he was deactivated at the series' end by Grimlock. Although Dreamwave's collapse precluded the completion of the second series, released art and information revealed that Soundwave would have been involved in the conclusion of that series.[8]

Based on the Transformers Classics toy line, the Timelines 2007 story is set 15 years after the end of the Marvel Comics story (ignoring all events of the Marvel UK and Generation 2 comics). Megatron survived the crash of the Ark on Earth, reformatted himself into a new form and now leads Astrotrain, Laserbeak, Ramjet, Ravage, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream and the Constructicons. Optimus Prime has also returned to Earth commanding Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grimlock, Jetfire, Mirage and Rodimus (formerly Hot Rod). When the Cybertronians Skyfall and Landquake arrive on Earth unexpectedly, Megatron attempts to destroy them, but Optimus Prime and his Autobots are able to drive Megatron away.

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