Ratbat (G1)

Ratbat is a Decepticon character in the Generation 1 continuity.

Marvel Comic Continuity
Ratbat was one of the many Decepticons left on Cybertron, where he rose to the critical post of fuel auditor. With a drive towards extreme efficiency he would rarely counter unnecessary risks. After the fall of Lord Straxus, Ratbat emerged as the most powerful Decepticon in Polyhex.

Ratbat grew increasingly dissatisfied with the inefficient use of fuel by the Decepticons based on Earth under the command of Shockwave and developed schemes to improve the planet's output. He dispatched hypnotising machines with the hope of taking over the minds of many humans and using them to deliver fuel at minimum cost to the Decepticons, but this plan was disrupted by the intervention of the Autobots' ally Buster Witwicky.

Ratbat allied with the earthbound Decepticons but remained dissatisfied with the leadership of Shockwave. When the earthbound Autobots briefly left the planet in Ark, Ratbat was at the forefront of a new Decepticon reign of terror and kidnapped Buster Witwicky, taking him to the Decepticons' island base.

When the Autobot Headmasters and Targetmasters besieged the base the Decepticons were forced to flee by deploying its rocket facility. In the process of departure Shockwave was shot down in space and seen heading towards Earth, apparently dying, and Ratbat declared it would be inefficient to rescue him and so instead seized command of the Decepticons for himself.

Of all the leaders of the Decepticons on Earth few came closer to outright victory than Ratbat. He followed the Autobots under Fortress Maximus when they set out to unite with those under Grimlock and launched an all out attack that resulted in huge casualties and the Autobots briefly stranded on the Moon.

Later Ratbat promoted the newly recovered Starscream to the position of second-in-command and set out to learn the truth about the legendary Underbase, which could seemingly make a Transformer supremely powerful. Ratbat was determined to attain its power for itself but this ambition was shared by Starscream. The latter lured the separate Decepticon faction led by Scorponok to a meeting with Ratbat's forces which soon resulted in conflict between the two, allowing Starscream to seek the Underbase for himself. Both Decepticon factions allied with the Autobots in fighting against Starscream, suffering huge casualties in the process. However both Ratbat and Scorponok independently suspected that the Autobot leader Optimus Prime had plans to seize the power of the Underbase for himself and they set out to stop them. Seconds later Ratbat was dead, shot in the back by Scorponok.

Cartoon Continuity
Like the other cassette tape Transformers that turned into animals, Ratbat was not capable of speech, and was likened more to a pet than an equal member of the Decepticon forces. However, in the Japanese series, he and the other cassettes possessed the power of speech, though their roles seemed no different. Ratbat first appeared in Transformers: The Movie.

Blackthorne Continuity
In the shortlived series of 3-D Transformers comic books, Ratbat was the pet of Galvatron who secretly plotted to rule the Decepticons. He was defeated by Searchlight while searching for mysterious Energon-producing aliens.

Dreamwave Continuity


Millions of years ago, before the Transformers crash-landed on Earth, Ratbat was the leader of a sub-faction of Decepticons called the Ultracons during the time when Megatron had disappeared. Megatron's return saw the Ultracons reintegrated into the Decepticons. At this point in time, Ratbat possessed his original Cybertronian form, able to transform from robot mode to jet. However, at a later date, after the Great Shutdown, when Shockwave established control of the planet, many Transformers including Ratbat had their bodies reformatted into Earth-themed modes, leading to Ratbat's bat/tape body. It was noted that he was not pleased with its unimposing nature compared to his original structure. When next we saw Ratbat, he had been freed by Starscream from imprisonment, and was given to Soundwave, implying a past connection - it is entirely possible that Shockwave may have viewed Ratbat as a threat to his control of the planet, and deliberately gave him a weak body and imprisoned him to keep him out of the way.