Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus is the Autobot City Commander, function Cavalier of the garrison in all but name, whose tech spec sums him up as all soldier: most comfortable carrying out Optimus Prime's orders, uncomfortable in the mantle of leadership, and ever ready to sacrifice himself for the good of men and mission. His motto is "Consistency is victory."

He directs the Autobot defence during the 2005 Battle of Autobot City, ordering Springer and Arcee to raise the city to battle-station mode and alerting the garrison with Blurr. When Optimus Prime is mortally wounded he is handed the Matrix of Leadership and, over his own explicit misgivings, becomes leader of the Autobots.

The promotion does not last a week. Pursued into space by Galvatron, Magnus orders an emergency shuttle separation to shake the Decepticons and puts down on the Planet of Junk for repairs. Cornered there, he tries to open the Matrix against Galvatron and nothing happens; the Sweeps blow him to pieces. The Junkions rebuild him, and he fights on Cybertron in the final battle against Unicron, but the Matrix passes to Hot Rod.

Afterwards he returns, visibly relieved, to being Rodimus Prime's second-in-command, advising an inexperienced leader working in Optimus Prime's shadow. "The Killing Jar" is his best showcase: abducted by Quintesson scientists, he burns out the electron bars of the cells with his own body to free the prisoners, and is then saved from open space by Cyclonus, who considers it dishonourable for a warrior of that calibre to die anywhere but a battlefield. The two part with a mutual, grudging respect and a promise to meet next as enemies.

Immense strength and endurance, a car-carrier alternate mode, an armoured super-robot configuration, and missile launchers rated as able to hit a target thirty miles away. Rated at strength 9 and courage 9 but only speed 6 and firepower 6, he is a heavy line-holder rather than a striker. His decisive limitation is not physical: the Matrix would not open for him on Junk, and his own conviction that he is nothing more than a soldier keeps him from the command role he is repeatedly forced into.

• Optimus Prime: the commander he is happiest serving, and whose Matrix he inherits and cannot use.
• Rodimus Prime: as second-in-command he is the steadying influence, forever trying to draw the new leader out from Optimus Prime's shadow.
• Galvatron: a special enmity on both sides, sharpened by Magnus surviving being blown apart on Galvatron's orders.
• Cyclonus: enemies who develop a real warrior's respect after "The Killing Jar," where Cyclonus saves his life.

Marvel UK makes him a major recurring hero defined by his running war with Galvatron, and he never carries the Matrix; the cartoon's central Magnus beats, the Matrix refusing to open for him and his destruction and rebuilding on Junk, have no Marvel equivalent.

Blown to pieces by the Sweeps on the Planet of Junk and rebuilt by the Junkions, he hands the leadership to Rodimus Prime and returns to being second-in-command, serving through season 3 and into "The Rebirth."

• "Ultra Magnus" is Latin for "beyond great."
• The toy is a redeco of Takara's Diaclone Powered Convoy, itself a redeco of Battle Convoy, the mould that became Optimus Prime; Magnus was recoloured from the original dark blue, red and black into white, red and blue.
• The early promotional trailer and test footage for the 1986 movie shows him in the Diaclone colour scheme, suggesting the white deco was a late change.
• Before the decision to make him a Powered Convoy recolour, Floro Dery drew at least three original Ultra Magnus concepts; the third was reused as the basis for Orion Pax in "War Dawn."
• Simon Furman planned a Magnus/Galvatron rematch for Marvel UK that was cut when the strips shortened to five-page black and white and Time Wars had to wrap everything up.

Where the cartoon, the Marvel comics and the toy bios disagree, or where a popular claim does not hold up. We record these rather than smoothing them over.

• Fan theory long held that the cartoon's Magnus was rebuilt from Optimus Prime's friend Dion the way Prime and Elita One were rebuilt by Alpha Trion; Hasbro later stated otherwise.
• Dreamwave's Generation One continuity makes him Optimus Prime's brother, a relationship the cartoon never establishes.
• Whether the Matrix actively rejected him or simply had a different Chosen One in mind is never settled on screen.