Superion (G1)


 * Superion is an Autobot combiner in the Generation 1 continuity family.



Superion is the combined form of the Aerialbots:
 * Silverbolt
 * Air Raid
 * Fireflight
 * Skydive
 * Slingshot

In his combined form, his thought capacity is reduced to two things: destroy the Decepticons, and protect the humans. Because of this, he sometimes has difficulty adapting to new situations.

In all continuities he is depicted as being the chief rival and equal of Menasor. However, this makes more poetic than literal sense, as the real-life scale difference between their component vehicle parts would suggest a rather drastic disparity in actual stature.


 * Portuguese name (Brazil comic): Superior

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice actors: Frank Welker → Ed Gilbert(US); Tomomichi Nishimura (Japan)

Silverbolt showed the rest of the Aerialbots how Sparkplug was able to disregard his fatigue out of concern for Omega Supreme's well-being, thus demonstrating to his teammates that humans were worth saving. With that knowledge, the Aerialbots joined the Autobots in battle against Megatron's Stunticons. The Decepticon leader, seeing his new warriors being outmaneuvered, ordered them to merge and form Menasor. The Aerialbots countered to form Superion.

At first, Superion was able to match Menasor, but the Decepticon combiner's sheer aggression soon saw the Autobot on the defensive until he was trapped. As Menasor moved in for the kill, the newly-repaired Omega Supreme suddenly appeared, helping Superion get free. Together, they defeated Menasor and sent the Decepticons into retreat.

Sometime afterwards on Cybertron, Superion had to fight against a damaged Guardian robot, whose immense strength pinned the Autobot down until he managed to knock the drone into the sky, destroying it.

While defending the Statue of Liberty Superion got a second attempt at defeating Menasor. This battle went a lot better for him, as he singlehandedly defeated Menasor and destroyed Megatron's Lightning Bug weapon.

A battle in the Middle East pitted Superion against Bruticus. They were evenly matched but Superion won by separating just as Bruticus charged him (and fell into an oilfield).

Marvel Comics continuity
''Superion was first depicted in a series of visions experienced by Buster Witwicky, the Autobots' human friend who had once contained the Creation Matrix itself within his brain. After a particularly serious nightmare, Buster subconsciously drew the image of a five-jet combiner robot, a design far more sophisticated than what had been achieved by Cybertronian science up 'til that point. Another series of surreal dream images from Buster's mind saw the jet combiner in action, first destroying the Decepticon commander Shockwave who had recently bedeviled Buster, and then fighting against a new car-robot combiner. Realizing these dreams were in fact unfocused visions from the Creation Matrix itself, Optimus Prime decided to mind-link with Buster during his next bout of REM sleep, guiding the visions into a more coherent stream of information. The link was successful, and Prime and Buster observed Superion fighting alongside his fellow combiner Defensor against their Decepticon opposite numbers, Menasor and Bruticus. Relating this information to Wheeljack, Optimus and his chief engineer began planning on how to make these dreams into reality. ''

After a successful siege on the Decepticon mining base enabled Bumblebee to record the transformation sequence of the Constructicons forming Devastator, Wheeljack went to work reverse-engineering and refining the process to create the Autobot Aerialbots and their combined form, Superion. Unfortunately, the Aerialbots were called into action at Hoover Dam before the personality programming could be completed. Only Silverbolt had been inputted with the necessary protocols that caused him to respect life and protect the humans at all costs. When the Aerialbots were forced to combine in order to destroy a massive energy drill sent over by the Space Bridge, Superion was confronted with a human pawn named Ricky Vasquez carrying Megatron in gun mode, infused with a cerebro-shell that forced him to obey the Decepticons' will. Still, Vasquez had begun to fight the Decepticons' control over him, and he tried to resist Megatron's order to shoot Superion. Seeing the human as a danger to his mission, Superion attempted to crush Vasquez and end the threat, but Silverbolt loudly cried out against that course of action inside his head. Strangely, Vasquez and Superion ended up not fighting each other, but themselves, frozen in mid-action as they fought against their own inner drives. Ultimately, Silverbolt forcibly disengaged Superion rather than risk harming an innocent life.

Following the near fatality at Hoover Dam, the Autobots erased the Aerialbots' programming and memories, reconstructing their minds from scratch and giving them an infusion of Matrix energy to start over again. Superion next saw action against the Decepticon combiner known as Menasor, fighting to protect his comrade Skids and their human ally, Donny Finkleberg. Their fight was cut short, however, when the monomaniacal RAAT agent named Circuit Breaker used her powers to overload Superion's circuitry, leaving him open to a blast from Menasor's cyclone gun. The RAAT agents managed to dismantle the combiner into his separate Aerialbot bodies and took them all captive along with several other Autobots. The Autobots were only released after Circuit Breaker was forced to make a deal with them in order to end the threat of the rampaging Battlechargers.

When Optimus Prime determined that a new human construction named Power Station Alpha might tempt the Decepticons into action, he sent Bumblebee to attend the unveiling as a precautionary surveillance measure. Sure enough, Bombshell made an appearance, and so Optimus sent Silverbolt and the Aerialbots as back-up. They arrived just in time to see Bumblebee being blown away by the G.I. Joe team guarding Power Station Alpha. Assuming their Superion form, the Aerialbots attempted to threaten the humans into allowing them to retrieve Bumblebee's body. An intense but one-sided conflict raged between Superion and the Joes until he received a signal from Blaster, conveying the horrific news that Optimus Prime had died in battle while the Aerialbots were on their mission. Superion immediately disengaged and returned to the Ark.

A short time later, the Autobots joined forces with both G.I. Joe and Cobra against the Decepticons, who planned to use Power Station Alpha to destroy the world. The Aerialbots entered the battle and became Superion to pit their strength against the mighty Devastator. Superion eventually scored the winning shot when his stress fracture cannon caused a malfunction in Devastator's coupling links, forcing him back into his individual Constructicon modes.

''Later, the Aerialbots confronted Menasor again, only this time their fusion into Superion let slip Silverbolt's secret shame, and his fear of heights was shared with his fellow Aerialbots by the fusilateral quintrocombination. Horrified at being found out, Silverbolt caused Superion to lash out at Menasor with such savagery that they very nearly harmed the very humans they had come to save. ''

Earthforce
''At one point after the Aerialbots joined Earthforce, Superion was struck with a cerebro-shell, courtesy of the Insecticon named Bombshell, and he began to run amok, crashing through sparsely populated areas on a beeline towards major human population centers. The Autobots were unable to stop him through sheer force, so they enlisted the help of a human reporter named Irwin Spoon, giving him instructions on how to infiltrate Superion's exo-structure and manually pull the cerebro-shell out of his circuitry. Spoon succeeded in the nick of time, freeing Superion's thought processes right as he reached a local township. ''

Dreamwave comics continuity


After General Hallo and Spike Witwicky revived Optimus Prime, Superion was one of several warriors that the Autobot leader called upon from the depths of the sea. Superion served as the Autobots' heavy hitter in their mission to stop Megatron's mad plan to infect the world with technomatter virus similar to the effect the Key to Vector Sigma had on organic life. During this crisis, Superion fought with Devastator before being forced back into his individual component robots.

Hallo launched a nuclear missile at San Francisco in an attempt to destroy all the Transformers, and Superion sacrificed his life to save the city by ramming the missile over the Pacific Ocean. Like Devastator, his remains were later recovered by the EDC for study.

Transformers/G.I. Joe
The Aerialbots were among the Autobots to be awakened by G.I. Joe in 1939. They were reformatted as World War 2 era American fighter planes. After a devastating attack from Rumble, Grimlock nearly fell of a cliff along with Roadblock (who was riding Grimlock at the moment) The Aerialbots merged into Superion and saved them both at the last second. Superion was killed by Shockwave as the Autobots planned the best course of action to save the captives that Cobra chained to their beach head as their first line of defense.

Generation 1

 * Superion (Multi-pack, 1986)
 * Japanese ID number: C-55
 * Accessories: Head, fists, feet, chest plate, waist plate, gun, Slingshot's gun, Fireflight's gun, Air Raid's gun, Sky Dive's gun




 * Superion is formed out of all five Aerialbot toys, with Silverbolt serving as the central body component, and the four smaller team members as limbs, using additional attachments for Superion's hands and feet. A helmet covers Silverbolt's head and a red waist plate attaches onto his chest piece. He carries Silverbolt's rifle as his main weapon.


 * Due to Silverbolt forming his torso, his design weaknesses are carried over to Superion. Additionally, as Silverbolt has rather thin legs, this leads to Superion having very thin thighs.


 * Superion is also a Scramble City-type combiner, meaning his limbs can be interchanged. Just don't put any Stunticon limbs on him, 'kay?

Generation 2

 * Superion (1994)


 * As part of Generation 2, Superion was redecoed in colours deemed popular in products of the time, or something like that. Silverbolt's white is replaced by light blue, Slingshot is gold, Fireflight a much darker red, Sky Dive silver and Air Raid blue. Superion could now wield two spring-loaded missile launchers that came with Silverbolt.

Universe

 * Superion (2008)
 * Accessories: Airazor's gun/Superion's right hand and energon star, Fireflight's gun/Superion's left hand and energon star, Air Raid's gun/Superion's left foot and energon star, Sky Dive's gun/Superion's right foot and energon star.


 * A redeco of Energon Superion Maximus. And the G1 colors are inserted in plastic limbs and torso.

Trivia

 * A Superion Action Master was planned at one point, but apparently went no further than a concept sketch. It was intended to be the included rider of a transforming motorcycle .  Strangely, the body was based on the animation model while the head was taken from the toy.  The motorcycle shown in the concept art is based on Action Master Prowl's Turbo Cycle.


 * In the G2 toy commercial, Gary Chalk played the voice of Superion.