Thundercracker (G1)

===Dreamwave comics continuity===

One of the first Decepticons recruited by Megatron. Early in Megatron's scheming, Thundercracker was sent to Sector Zero-Six with Skywarp and Starscream. On the way, Starscream unintelligently leaked the plan to Grimlock. {{storylink|DW Preview Special 2002}}

Thundercracker was one of several Decepticon invaders on board the ''[[Ark (G1)|Ark]]'' when it crashed into [[Earth]] four million years ago while the Autobot ship was clearing an asteroid in the path of Cybertron. 

In 2002, he was one of several Transformers who survived the disastrous launch of the sabotaged ''Ark II'', and was later captured and reprogrammed by arms dealer [[Lazarus|Adam 'Lazarus' Rook]], who intended to rent out the services of the enslaved robots to various terrorist groups. In a demonstration of their power to a group of prospective clients, Thundercracker participated in an attack on the Arctic division of the Smitco Oil Refinery by blowing something up. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 2}}

After Megatron reactivated himself, he freed his Decepticon subordinates in order to put forward his plans to infect Earth with a metallic virus of doom. To pass the time while this happened, Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp busied themselves by tearing apart the Autobot [[Mini Vehicle]] team. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 3}}

Thundercracker later participated in Megatron's attack on San Francisco, where he followed Starscream's orders to maintain formation and drop cluster bombs on the Autobot giant [[Superion (G1)|Superion]], forcing the [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbot]]s to split into their separate component robots. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 4}}

Thundercracker stood watch over the defeated Autobots while Megatron tried to persuade [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] to help the Decepticons conquer Earth. After some human firefighters distracted the Decepticons long enough for Optimus Prime to free the Autobots, Thundercracker was presumably beaten up and escaped when Superion sacrificed himself to stop a nuclear missile launched by rogue US General [[Robert Hallo]]. {{storylink|Prime Directive issue 6}}

After [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] had defeated Megatron and brought the Decepticons back to [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], Thundercracker and Skywarp spent their time relaxing and bathing, though Thundercracker was skeptical of Shockwave's new order, and compared its promised benefits to the benefits originally promised by Megatron.

Starscream eventually brought several Decepticons back to Earth and led them in a battle against the Autobots who had stayed behind there. Thundercracker was among those captured by the Autobots, but was eventually freed in exchange for Starscream's assistance in fighting against [[Sunstorm (G1)|Sunstorm]].