- G.B. Blackrock is a human in the Marvel Comics portion of the Generation One continuity family.
Tony Stark pulling a Clark Kent
G.B. Blackrock is the multimillionaire owner of Blackrock Industries (occasionally called Blackrock Enterprises) and ally of the Autobots.
Fiction[]
Marvel Comics continuity[]
Disco is dead, Blackrock.
Blackrock was one of the first humans to feel the presence of the newly-arrived Shockwave, who attacked a highly efficient oil-drilling platform developed by Blackrock Industries and designed by Blackrock employee Josie Beller. The attack left Beller paralysed, and Blackrock blamed himself for the incident. The invasion of Blackrock's aerospace plant soon afterward caused Blackrock to believe that he had been specifically singled out by the giant robots, which he did not yet recognize as aliens from another world. The New Order The Worse of Two Evils!
This soon changed when Blackrock was approached by the Autobot Jazz, who helped Blackrock understand the distinctions between Autobot and Decepticon, and offered Blackrock a deal. The Autobots would provide Blackrock with protection in exchange for a source of fuel. Blackrock agreed, and also provided the Autobots with information and assistance from time to time. DIS-Integrated Circuits!
Blackrock saved Goldbug and a host of other Transformers from a Scraplets-induced holocaust by hauling trucks of water, the cure for the disease, deep into Death Valley. The Cure!
The Decepticons set their sights on Blackrock at least one other time, hypnotizing him into setting up a series of car washes that likewise hypnotized its patrons into unloading the fuel from their cars at a Decepticon installation. Once freed from this hypnotic suggestion, Blackrock's path did not cross again with the Transformers for quite some time. Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom
Blackrock eventually re-emerged to create a group of superhuman defenders called the Neo-Knights. Unlike RAAT, the Neo-Knights were taught the distinctions between Autobot and Decepticon, and were instructed to direct their offensive energies against the Decepticons alone.
I think we all wanted to do this, but geez!
Blackrock and the Neo-Knights were mistakenly transported to Cybertron by Primus shortly before an attack from Unicron. Blackrock proved instrumental in victory against Unicron by causing Josie Beller, who had since become "Circuit Breaker" and had eventually joined the Neo-Knights, to attack Unicron. However, he did so at the expense of the remnants of Circuit Breaker's sanity, and now bears this guilt in addition to blaming himself for her paralysis.
After the destruction of Unicron, the Autobots abandoned Cybertron, believing that the planet was about to be destroyed, but Blackrock was convinced to stay behind by Hi-Q, whose personality had been fused with that of Optimus Prime. Together with the Neo-Knights, Blackrock and Hi-Q recovered the Last Autobot, who was able to prevent Cybertron's destruction. Blackrock and the Neo-Knights were shortly returned to Earth by the Autobots.
Classics[]
He likes to watch.
Notes[]
Clockwise from upper left: Issue 6, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10.
- G.B. Blackrock was named after writer Bob Budiansky's friend Gary Bennett Schwartz. It is presumed that this is what his initials stand for. (Note also that the name "Schwartz" means "black" in German.)
- Within Blackrock's first several appearances, he seems to not be able to decide whether he wants a mustache or not. He's got one up through issue 6, then in 7 and 8 he doesn't have one, then in 9 he has a mustache again, and then it's gone in issue 15. After that, he always has the mustache. Perhaps he decided to keep it to physically distinguish himself from his Chief of Staff, Ames, who is otherwise his perfect double.