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“Decepticon Commanders: Transform and Rise Up”
Researching propaganda posters for this piece , I came across this image portraying Mao as the rightful successor of the progression of communist thought and leadership from Marx and Engels through Lenin and Stalin. It occurred to me that there were enough Decepticon leaders in the original Marvel comic series to fill out a similar lineage. (In fact, I even had to be a little stingy, focusing just on the Earthbound succession so for example Thunderwing was left out, and not even getting into the Marvel UK material.) Seeing their oddball mugs lined up emphasizes something I love about that series: how motley a crew the 'Con commanders are, with unexpected characters like Ratbat and Bludgeon getting their turns between the likes of Megatron and Scorponok. The slogan I threw in came not from the comics nor even the G1 universe at all, but from the Transformers: Animated cartoon. It was a rallying cry Megatron had shouted once, a takeoff of the Autobots' "transform and roll out." I wish it had been used more in the fiction since then, and this seemed like a good opportunity to dust it off.

Putting this in the fictional context, I realized that it actually made some sense for Bludgeon to present himself in this light between the events of the Generation 1 and Generation 2 comics, when he had taken the Decepticons into exile to regather their strength and build the Warworld. He was a new leader who had simply stepped into the power vacuum after Scorponok's death, having only briefly served under that commander at the tail end of the Decepticons' Earth-based operation. In contrast, most of the 'Con army at that point had either followed Scorponok from Cybertron to Nebulos to Earth, or been on Earth under Megatron, Shockwave, and then Ratbat before Scorponok took over that group too. Bludgeon's prior service had been under Thunderwing on Cybertron, and the other troops from that cohort were likely already used to the idea of him as a leader due to his command of the Mayhem Attack Squad. So for all the rest, playing himself up as the proper continuation of their prior leadership and the manifestation of their high ambitions would've been wise when the 'Cons were probably feeling restless and chagrined after their defeat by and self-imposed isolation from the Autobots.

Description
“Decepticon Commanders: Transform and Rise Up”
Researching propaganda posters for this piece , I came across this image portraying Mao as the rightful successor of the progression of communist thought and leadership from Marx and Engels through Lenin and Stalin. It occurred to me that there were enough Decepticon leaders in the original Marvel comic series to fill out a similar lineage. (In fact, I even had to be a little stingy, focusing just on the Earthbound succession so for example Thunderwing was left out, and not even getting into the Marvel UK material.) Seeing their oddball mugs lined up emphasizes something I love about that series: how motley a crew the 'Con commanders are, with unexpected characters like Ratbat and Bludgeon getting their turns between the likes of Megatron and Scorponok. The slogan I threw in came not from the comics nor even the G1 universe at all, but from the Transformers: Animated cartoon. It was a rallying cry Megatron had shouted once, a takeoff of the Autobots' "transform and roll out." I wish it had been used more in the fiction since then, and this seemed like a good opportunity to dust it off.

Putting this in the fictional context, I realized that it actually made some sense for Bludgeon to present himself in this light between the events of the Generation 1 and Generation 2 comics, when he had taken the Decepticons into exile to regather their strength and build the Warworld. He was a new leader who had simply stepped into the power vacuum after Scorponok's death, having only briefly served under that commander at the tail end of the Decepticons' Earth-based operation. In contrast, most of the 'Con army at that point had either followed Scorponok from Cybertron to Nebulos to Earth, or been on Earth under Megatron, Shockwave, and then Ratbat before Scorponok took over that group too. Bludgeon's prior service had been under Thunderwing on Cybertron, and the other troops from that cohort were likely already used to the idea of him as a leader due to his command of the Mayhem Attack Squad. So for all the rest, playing himself up as the proper continuation of their prior leadership and the manifestation of their high ambitions would've been wise when the 'Cons were probably feeling restless and chagrined after their defeat by and self-imposed isolation from the Autobots.