Lazarus

Lazarus is a human character in the Generation 1 continuity.



Adam Rook, a.k.a. Lazarus, was a rogue government engineer-turned-arms dealer who attempted to use the Transformers as weapons of war.

=Fiction=

Dreamwave Comics
Engineer Adam Rook was hired in 1997 by US General Robert Hallo to design and build an army of intelligent shapeshifting robot soldiers. Despite ample resources and staff, each of Project Lazarus' fifty protoypes was an abject failure. Confronted with these setbacks, Hallo changed course, and took advantage of the recent Autobot/Human defeat of the Decepticons to experiment upon the deactivated Decepticons. Eventually, Rook succeeded in creating a program to control Transformers - the program allowed specific objectives to be input into the Transformer's central intelligence, suppressing their free will but retaining a level of intelligence sufficient to make independent decisions while carrying out the mission.

In order to acquire the Autobots, Hallo plotted to destroy the Ark II, a ship carrying the victorious Autobots, their Decepticon prisoners, and several humans back to Cybertron. The plan was successful - the Ark II exploded, killing its human passengers and depositing the Transformers into the Arctic Ocean, but Rook disappeared, taking the control program with him.

Over the next four years, Rook, motivated by greed, adopted the alias 'Lazarus' and built an organization to retrieve and reactivate the slumbering Transformers. From a remote base in the Northwest Territories, succeeded in reviving a number of Transformers, including Soundwave, Hound, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Starscream, Thundercracker, Rumble, Ravage, Prowl, Laserbeak, Skywarp, Cliffjumper, Ratchet, Ironhide, Bluestreak, Huffer, Brawn - and his 'deluxe model', Megatron. He hired them out to a number of tyrants and terrorists, who used them to attack their enemies. Often, he would take potential customers on a tour of his base, showing them the merchandise (and using his origami skills) to convince them to make use of his services. On one such tour, Lazarus attempted to demonstrate his control program to a terrorist named Bishop, only to find that Subject 6 - Megatron - refused to kneel before him. Explaining it away as a 'minor wrinkle', Lazarus led Bishop away, failing to note that Megatron had switched himself back on...



Some time later, Lazarus sent Grimlock, Bumblebee, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker, Rumble, Ravage, and Laserbeak to attack an Arctic SmitCo oil refinery, as a demonstration to an audience of potential customers. Once the refinery was destroyed, he then proceeded to auction off his Transformers, starting with Megatron. Bidding reached 85 million dollars before Megatron unexpectedly awoke, sending Lazarus' clientele running for their lives. Megatron devastated the base, freed his fellow Decepticons from Lazarus' control, and chained Lazarus himself up like a dog. The Decepticon leader then used Lazarus as the first test subject for his latest doomsday device, a virus powered by the life-forces of captive Autobots and humans; the virus converted Lazarus' body to lifeless technomatter in a matter of seconds, presumably killing him. The statue-like corpse of Adam Rook was left as a permanent monument to his greed.

(Note: Lazarus possessed a large scar over his left eye. The scar's origin is unknown.)