Misfire (Transformers)

Misfire is the name of a fictional character from the various Transformers universes. Misfire and his partner Aimless were released in 1987 with the other first year Headmasters and Targetmasters. Neither the molds for Misfire and Aimless nor even their names were ever reused.

Transformers: Generation 1

Misfire's original Marvel profile said that Misfire is reputed for his aim - unfortunately it's about how bad it is. His fellow Decepticons vacate the battlefield when he starts shooting. He says he is improving, although his colleagues don't believe him. He is paired with the appropriately named Nebulan Aimless, an apathetc former construction engineer who saw his buildings collapse due to poor design. Now he doesn't even care enough to aim.

Animated series

Misfire and Aimless were introduced in "The Rebirth", the three-part fourth-season finale to the original "Transformers" animated series.

When the Decepticons attempted to seize the power of the Plasma Energy Chamber in 2007, a group of Autobots were blasted across the galaxy to the planet Nebulos by the ancient foundry's energies, where they took up with a group of rebel Nebulons. To fight the Hive, the evil rulers of Nebulos, some of the Autobots and Nebulons bonded their bodies a minds together, becoming Headmasters, serving up a definitive defeat to the Decepticons pursuing them. This group of Decepticons was then approached by the Hive, who sought to replicate the Headmaster process with them, but Cyclonus was able to bargain them to down to taking only half the Decepticons' heads, offering up the weapons of the others as alternatives. Using Nebulan technology, the guns were engineered into a transforming exo-suits which were donned by five members of the Hive, creating the Targetmasters, giving their Transformer wielders ten times the accuracy and firepower.

The Decepticon Targetmasters overcame the Autobots and reclaimed the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber, but in the struggle, the Autobot Brainstorm was able to scan Cyclonus's partner, Nightstick, and that data was used to duplicate the Targetmaster process with the remaining Autobots and Nebulan rebels, creating the Autobot Targetmasters. Their power, however, was nothing in the face of the Decepticons' newest weapon, the super robot, Scorponok, who transported the Decepticon forces back to Cybertron, where their plans were foiled by Spike Witwicky and Fortress Maximus.

Transformers: The Headmasters

Although "The Rebirth" marked the end of the "Transformers" cartoon in the US, in Japan, a different direction was taken - ignoring the events of "The Rebirth", a brand new, exclusive 35-episode series, "", was produced to take its place, which introduced the Targetmasters towards its conclusion. Notably, in Japan, the 1986 characters were not re-released as Targetmasters - only the six new characters featured in "Headmasters".

In the world of "Transformers: Headmasters", there are no Nebulons - the Headmasters themselves are simply small Transformers, who, having settled on the planet Master, learned to transform into heads and connect to lifeless larger bodies named Transtectors. It was to Master that the Decepticon forces returned after the Autobots forced them to flee Earth, and consequently, a ship was dispatched by the planet's inhabitants to alert the Earth-bound Autobots to the Decepticon invasion. At the same time, the youthful Autobot, Wheelie, had summoned three of his old superior officers - Pointblank "(Blanker in Japan)", Sureshot and Crosshairs - to Earth to aid in the clean-up operation currently going on, when Autobot Headmaster Chromedome accidentally activated one of the plasma bombs the Decepticons had left behind. Heading out into space so that the bomb might harmlessly explode out in the void, the Autobots then crossed paths with the approaching Master ship, which was being pursued by the Decepticon Sixshot and three new troops - Slugslinger, Misfire and Triggerhappy. As Pointblank and his men tangled with the Decepticons, the Master refugees offered their help by transporting away the plasma bombs, only to have the bombs detonate in the middle of the battlefield.

Recovering from the explosion, Pointblank, Crosshairs and Sureshot discovered that the six Master refugees had been fused to their arms. Although Fortress was able to surgically remove them, a bond now existed between the larger Transformers and the Master refugees, who could now freely attach and detach to their wrists as guns. Unfortunately for these new Targetmasters, the same had happened to Slugslinger and his fellows. The Targetmasters joined up with Fortress's crew on the mission to Master, but quickly clashed with the Headmasters - Pointblank and his men were hard, experienced warriors who thought little of the Headmasters, and Pointblank spent a good deal of time attempting to soothe Chromedome's fiery temper to improve his battle ability.

Marvel Comics

Misfire and Aimless first appeared in Transformers: Headmasters #4 when the Decepticons under Scorponok's leadership. With the Autobot Headmasters captured by their Decepticon counterparts, the Decepticons ran rampant over the planet Nebulos, a group of the remaining Autobots on the planet joined with a group of Nebulons branded as criminals by Nebulon's political leader, Lord Zarak - partner of the Decepticon, Scorponok - in order to protect the Nursery, Nebulos's primary agricultural research facility, against Decepticon attack. Through bio-mechanical engineering, the Nebulons were given the ability to transform into the guns of the Autobots, and, as Targetmasters, they fended the Decepticons off. Within several days, the Decepticons had duplicated the process with five of their own troops, including Misfire.

One of his most prominent actions during this period was to ambush the Autobot Headmasters in the Fortess of Despair alongside the other Decepticon Targetmasters. The Decepticons captured Highbrow, planning to use him to perfect their own Headmaster process. The plan failed when Highbrow forced Scorponok to flee. (Transformers UK 130-131)

When Maximus' troops fled Nebulos to save it from further devastation, Scorponok's troops followed. Misfire would be amongst those battling Ratbat's earthbound Decepticons and then uniting to defeat the Earthen Autobots. In the Time Wars he arrived following Maximus group and battled the Earth Autobots. Misfire wounded Goldbug, but was then transported to the limbo dimension when Soundwave and the Terrorcons arrived from the future. After Scorponok took command, Misfire served as one of his troops, and was heard voicing doubts about letting the resurrected Starscream back into the fold.Misfire last appeared in Transformers #75 during the battle with Unicron over Cybertron. He did not appear after this, opening the possibility he was killed by the Chaos-Bringer.

Misfire had a Transformers: Universe profile published in the back of issue 60 if the U.S. Marvel Transformers series.

Dreamwave Productions

Neither Misfire or Aimless appeared in the storyline of Dreamwave Comics before the company closed, but they did get a one page biography in their More Than Meets The Eye series.