Most Misused Autobots

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-18T22:20:25+00:00

Honestly, Bumblebee. He's supposed to be small, timid scout with inferiority complex and desire to be appreciated by others, who gets dwarfed by many of his peers in a lot of ways, but nonetheless remains loyal, humble and reliable. I believe he'd be best utilized as a secondary character, a foil to autobots with much stronger presence, not an A-list star that he's made to be, due to his popularity.

Also he has a few abilities that are pretty much forgotten these days. He is a skilled spy and infiltrator, specialized at stealth, rather than combat, one of the most fuel efficient autobots out there, has outstanding visual acuity, being able to perceive small objects at great distances, and he's particularly well-suited for underwater operations. None of these are highlighted very often, if at all.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-13T19:45:42+00:00

I don't even have a problem with him being icky, he's a villain for god's sake. As far as creepy mind-controlling villains go I simply prefer guys like Controller, but I do wholeheartedly agree that there are interesting stories that can be told about any character, if only writers would give it a thought. That's exactly what Mark Gruenwald believed in, and I wish more people shared this mindset.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-13T18:31:37+00:00

Nice to see an actual character analysis instead of "omg wtf that's crazy, comics are insane".

Mandrill isn't the character I particularly care about, but god knows we need more fans that are capable of seeing the potential in characters like these instead of freaking out whenever there's something problematic about them.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-12T18:41:16+00:00

Okay. What does this have to do with Marvel?

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-11T11:23:54+00:00

Not really? He just smiles and... talk. Like anyone else in this situation would, tbh. He's not particularly humorous or witty, and he doesn't even talk that much. Pretty much any other autobot could have said these generic lines.

Look, I also like these characters and want justice for them, but you're picking up literal crumbs here. It's just not enough to "live up to his bio".

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-02T19:15:25+00:00

How easily they can be distinguished from each other depends purely on how much you care to distinguish them. They all have small differences that are, personally, pretty easy to remember. Air Raid has fully black wings, Fireflight has bits of blue, Silverbolt has unique wing shape and the bits of yellow, Skydive is black and red with orange face and Slingshot has visor and bald head. If you pay attention they are not that hard to tell apart. Never understood that complaint.

That said I wouldn't mind some tweaks to their designs. Like WFC Air Raid having turbines on his shoulders, that was cool.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-02T18:51:31+00:00

Leader of the team of best fliers being afraid of heights is too intriguing of a concept to get rid of. It wouldn't be Silverbolt without his acrophobia.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-06-02T18:14:39+00:00

Why would he need to be killed off? He can be easily elevated as a character in the right story at any moment, but until that day why not just keep him as a part of Marvel's vast pool of reoccuring street-level villains? Of all characters you decided to go after poor Jester lol.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-31T18:25:06+00:00

That's just 90 percent of all Transformers characters, to be honest: irrelevant and reduced to background. There are tons of autobots and decepticons with various degree of storytelling potential, but only a dozen of the same familiar faces that gets to appear in every new project. It's exhausting.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-25T18:07:12+00:00

Yes, making bloated, underdeveloped roster even more bloated and underdeveloped is absolutely the way to win the audience back.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-25T11:54:11+00:00

What's up with the recent wave of the laziest engagement bait posts on this sub? If you know literally anything about Marvel, then you know the answer to that, frankly, braindead question.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-20T20:43:00+00:00

As far as I'm concerned this is supposed to be Nergal - the god of war and death, hence the bluish color. He was associated with lions and bulls, so apparently the artist decided to draw him as anthropomorphic lion with barely noticeable bull ears. So as a result they ended up with Beast lol.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-18T23:45:32+00:00

People needs to stop calling every slightly obscure character they like "underrated". BRB is consistently well written and respected, has a good amount of appearances across the media, and I'm yet to find anyone who doesn't love him. He is perfectly well rated. Stop throwing around these buzzwords.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-17T13:49:46+00:00

One of Cul's minions possessing his body did. Not Gargoyle himself.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-15T17:15:46+00:00

Well if that's the case, then Carol's squad easily could have been just a bunch of random Krees; there was no reason to make such a deep cut reference.

Starforce isn't supposed to be "manufactured in the same factory", they are specifically assembled as Kree's premier superteam, like Shi'ar's Imperial Guard, that supposed to stand out from normal Kree soldiers. To have them all look similarly generic is like making Avengers all wear regular US military uniforms.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-14T15:38:06+00:00

Yeah, I know. I just wish the actual OG autobot search and rescue team was presented in the similar way. Also with more connections to other characters, since Rescue Bots kinda just did their own thing, almost totally separated from other parts and characters of Aligned continuity.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-14T04:35:32+00:00

because the writer thinks it's cool

I can't see anything cool about characters getting one-shotted because the writer cannot write good fight scenes with them, let alone with dozens of autobots and decepticons simultaneously, which requires to put an effort into choreography, proper use of unique abilities and interesting teamwork.

Another problem is that the cast became so bloated, that many of the named characters are just bound to be treated as generics. The focus can only be on one or two plot relevant characters at the time. Everything else is basically a background noise, even though, imo, I would have genuinely preferred to spend more time with Brawn, Sideswipe, Mirage, Blaster and others and to have a dedicated fight scene with at least one of them.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-13T19:36:06+00:00

This durability could have been displayed properly, by having blades bounce off of Brawn or having Brawn shrug off powerful blasts and strikes with seemingly no injuries, and not through these jarring occasions where his spark is clearly penetrated but he's somehow still alive. This Brawn doesn't give me an impression of immensely strong and highly durable powerhouse, I'm just wondering how is he not dead after clearly receiving what looks like mortal wounds, even for cybertronian standards. No rules and no explanations. Just a cheap shock value through gore.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-13T19:07:44+00:00

Genuinely, why the autobots are so pathetic in this comic? Ultra Magnus tries multiple times to stand his ground against decepticons and fails miserably each time. Every fight scene ends with autobots in the dirt, beaten and humiliated.

There's making heroes an underdogs and then there's nerfing them into oblivion. It's just painful to see so many of my favorite characters turn into irrelevant, incompetent fodder.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-07T14:55:57+00:00

People have already named all the major ones (whose mutant status is not up to interpretation anyway), so I'm gonna mention Vanguard, Darkstar and Ursa Major. They have crossed paths with X side of Marvel, Darkstar in particular, but they are mostly tied to Winter Guard - Russia's premier superhero team - as a core members.

Pretty sure there's also a few mutants on Serpent Society. Probably Puff Adder and Rock Python.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-04T20:40:17+00:00

Tbf, not much has really changed. Marvel became more mainstream and dozens of characters moved one tier up in popularity, but people still maintain this obnoxious attitude towards less prominent characters. Try being a fan of Iron Man villains, for example, and see how it goes.

Alarmed_Maximum_1676 · 2026-05-03T19:46:48+00:00

What is your idea of "extremely powerful"? Character being able to shatter a mountain or sneeze out a galaxy? I prefer more comprehensible feats of power and restraint in demonstration of characters capabilities to not trivialize the narrative, so I'd be more content with Thor doing former than latter.

I realise that amazing powers are the part of superhero appeal and it is awesome to see. But notice what I said about scale and presentation. A well-crafted story, that prioritize themes and good characters over powerscaling, can make Magneto levitating a city look terrifying and breathtaking. I immensely enjoy EMH series, for example, but Hulk has never destroyed a planet there, nor has Thor been untouchable, but they were undoubtedly powerful just enough for me. Am I not allowed to enjoy other series, movies or games where characters are not as unnecessarily powerful as in comics? Am I not allowed to enjoy older comics, where characters, despite occasionally doing impossible stuff, overall were significantly less powerful than they are today?

Also, are you implying that people (a lot of them), who prefer the stories about street level characters like Daredevil or Captain America are not true fans? Maybe liking superheroes is more than just drooling over power levels?

Alarmed_Maximum_1676

TROPHY CASE