Impactor: A summary and brief analysis.

Posted: Jan. 17th 2026 || Word count: 4,442

First post to this site and it's about my favorite character of the year 2025 going on 2026. Crazy.

Anyway this is a post about Impactor; a character I am deeply infatuated with and have been left only crumbs to feed on. I'll be going through the continuities he's most involved in and go into high detail about his story in IDW1 specifically.

Impactor is a character from the Transformers franchise, originally showcased in the Marvel UK comics, subsequently followed by the IDW1 (2005) continuity and War for Cybertron: Siege. He is (if unfortunately) in very few media within Transformers, and I think that's disappointing. Especially considering his complicated and compelling character and all he's been through within this franchise.

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As far as I know he's only included in 2 comic runs and 1 show, if only for a few episodes (and through a load of clones). But what I find quite interesting is this: in all three (3!) continuities I've listed, Impactor dies in every single one.

First on his list of deaths: the Marvel UK comics; where he ends up becoming a robot zombie. I don't know anything about these comics though so sadly I have nothing to say about them for now, but I might delve into them if only for Impactor and the Wreckers as a whole.

Second is the IDW 2005 comics, though this is the continuity I'm personally more interested in and know more about. And because of that I'll get into this continuity after his third (un)installment as I'm going to go into huge detail about it.

Last but not least is his third and final death (as of writing this): War for Cybertron: Siege. One of a trilogy, Siege is a very dark 3D animated show that has Impactor included as a Decepticon warrior. And a very well known one at that! According to the show, Impactor is actually the greatest Decepticon warrior to date. My man just keeps winning. But unfortunately he would die by taking a blast aimed at Ratchet, whom he was rescued by. Per Ratchet's rules at his hidden medical camp, Impactor was forced to help with his other patients after getting repaired himself.

After Optimus Prime asked Ratchet to help the Autobots fix a spacebridge, Impactor stepped in and questioned the mission and why they should help them. He ended up going with the group in order to make sure Ratchet gets back in one piece. Unfortunately for Impactor he himself would not be coming back to camp in one piece. I think this is a little sad but he actually kinda cared about Ratchet and even saved his life at the cost of his own... I wish he had more screen-time overall and more character development.

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Alright. Now that Marvel UK and WFC has been covered, it's time to dive into the IDW1 continuity. This is an absolute behemoth of a continuation, but it's so worth the read. Even if you focus on only a few sections (such as only More then Meets the Eye (MTMTE)/Lost Light, the Wreckers Saga, etc...) it's still a really good run. Yes it has its flaws (*cough* the entirety of Spotlight: Arcee and more *cough*) but it's overall a really cool and fleshed out version of the Transformers storyline.

This one's gotta be my favorite continuity solely because of how much worldbuilding it has. So many writers and artists have contributed to this run and I gotta give them props for it. Sadly I can't list them all here both because I don't know them all and because there's a crap ton of them. But this article isn't about IDW1 as a whole, this is about Impactor and his own flaws and special traits I have come to enjoy. So lets get right into my favorite iteration of his character.

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Impactor's story in IDW1 starts in the mines of Cybertron! I'm not quite sure what exactly he was tasked to mine, but I'm assuming it's energon and other valuable minerals and materials. Typical miner stuff. This also means he was constructed-cold and not forged! Anyway he's not the only main-ish/known character to start off in the mines either, as Megatron himself was previously a miner as well. These two would actually come to know each other within the mines, and even become best friends. Megatron would seek advice from Impactor about his poetry and other writing outside of Terminus.

It's shown in MTMTE (issue 37) that during one of their off-shifts they went to Maccadam's Oil House and ordered some drinks while going over something Megatron wrote about the state of Cybertronian society. He feels pretty strongly about this stuff huh? Anyway a poor bot gets thrown onto their table and kicks off a whole bar brawl. Impactor's the one to kick it off after the initial incident, but Megatron tries to stay out of the fight by hiding under a table.

This wouldn't exactly save him though as he would still be arrested along with several others (including Impactor) soon after anyway. It's never clear what happens to Impactor after being arrested, but it's hinted that Whirl beat him in his cell before moving onto Megatron to do the same thing. (Whirl later states his regret for doing this.)

I don't believe it's ever clear what exactly happens between his miner days and the start of the war, but there is a brief excerpt from the prose story "Zero Point" by James Roberts where Roadbuster is reading a blurb from Fisitron's (Ironfist's) "Wreckers: Declassified" to a comatose Springer. Said blurb is Ironfist's fan-fictionalized version of what happened on a Cybertronian drilling platform that's tilting towards the Manganese Mountains below.

It's explained that Megatron's just beaten Impactor to hell and back, crushing his arm and rendering his lower jaw missing, flung to the side and just out of reach. He pressed his fusion cannon to the back of Impactor's head and poetically went on about his imminent death. Meanwhile Impactor has started weakly carving words into the floor using his harpoon. Words that made Megatron pause: "NOT MORE POETRY". This allowed Springer to ram him off the platform into the mountains below and rescue Impactor from his predicament.

Ironfist specifically wrote several reasons for why Megatron may have paused. Stating that it could've been because of the nature of Impactor's seemingly random final words, his fusion cannon seizing or maybe he thought there was more he was going to write. We can very much tell that Ironfist doesn't know (or at least knows very little) about Megatron and Impactor's previous friendship.

Megatron would hand Impactor his poetry and writings to read (or read them to him) and get some opinions about it, so Impactor carving the words "not more poetry" probably stung him real bad. I've always had the impression that Impactor didn't really care all too much about poetry and similar literature but he does however have a favorite poem:

Between the miner days and Zero Point, Impactor joins the wreckers. He's already the leader of the group by the time the drilling platform incident happened, with Springer as his second-in-command. After that whole ordeal I believe the next thing is Pova, the infamous mission that made Impactor quit. Or so it's believed.

Ironfist's datalogs explains Pova in a heroic light. Impactor and the Wreckers have finally caught up with their rival group Squadron X (the Decepticon's solution to the Wreckers) and has taken them down in a fair fight on a sunny day. But we all know that isn't what really happened. Ironfist wasn't given the real logs on this mission and instead had to learn the hard way what actually happened on Pova, and the real reason why Impactor 'left' the Wreckers.

Pova happened after Impactor and the Wreckers chased Squadron X across 9 star systems (all while avoiding other major events like Simanzi) and finally caught the group refueling on a planet (Pova) in the Redan quadrant. They caught the group off guard and attacked, and both sides fought until Springer got stuck in a trench in the midst of it all. Impactor suggested shooting him in the midsection, much to his dismay, and managed to catch Squadron X off guard again and had the crew captured at last.

After making them uncomfortable with inhibitor vises all around, Impactor called Prowl to get a prison ship and pick them up. Unfortunately Prowl had to decline and told Impactor to release Squadron X, explaining that the Autobots have a treaty with the Povians and the Decepticons could use this against them. This left Impactor furious and he went off to execute Squadron X himself.

The aftermath of Pova had Springer veer away from the Wreckers to purchase a communication device (called a "communicube") and call Autobot high command to report Impactor's homicide. Springer thought they'd send him to a rehab institute or one of the open prisons, but they had him sent to Garrus-9 instead. One of the largest and most secure Autobot prisons there is. He served 20 years here, 3 of which were spent with Overlord in charge.

Speaking of which, years down the line the Wreckers and their new recruits were called to liberate the Autobot prisoners from the overtaken prison. But before they touched down on G-9 they had a Decepticon ship block their path, only to have Impactor blast his way out and towards the Wreckers ship.

On board he explains that Overlord's taken the place and turned it into a "cross between a death camp and an amusement park". The crew (now led by Springer) and the rejoined Impactor went back down to G-9 to carry out their original mission. Just now with the new knowledge of Overlord's reign. However they had a secondary objective: find Aequitas.

They would eventually find Aequitas and download the super-computer's hard drive as they intended, but learn that Overlord had all the Autobots within the prison slaughtered when he heard of the Wreckers arrival. Most of the newly recruited Wreckers would die here securing the data contained within Aequitas, and the remaining would go on to do other things. Among those survivors was Springer, however locked in a comatose state after a brawl with Overlord.

After Garrus-9, Impactor was pardoned for his part in liberating the prison and he took the last remaining of the new recruits (Guzzle) and left to the unknown. By this point is when the story "Escape" takes place. In this 2-page mini-comic we learn that Guzzle was captured by Decepticon harvesters for spare parts. Impactor came to his aid and together they freed the creatures imprisoned there and attempted to flee.

Unfortunately they would be caught, and Guzzle went haywire killing the Decepticons in their way only to be stopped by Impactor. The group ran, but they couldn't run fast enough. They were shot at and the creatures were killed, and that sent Impactor into a frenzy, and Guzzle followed suit. This is when Impactor realized he will never be able to free himself from this never-ending cycle of violence.

I don't know about you but I personally think this one was a valid response. They rescued the little creatures and were making their escape, only for one of the Decepticons to kill them for no reason. If I was in this situation I also would've went crazy on those guys so I don't blame Impactor one bit for that one. Even though it contributed to his unfortunate cycle of violence...

Later on we see that Impactor has brought Guzzle back to the Wreckers base of operations; 'Debris', and locked him in a box to bellow himself empty for what he had done on that previous mission. Guzzle calls him out for being a hypocrite and we see Impactor express his struggle with violence, not being able to quit, and question why it's so much worse in Guzzle.

He then goes on to talk privately with Roadbuster, explaining that he should be the one under a gravestone before Springer. He thinks it's time to let him go, to give Springer the dignity he deserves and let him rest for good. Roadbuster is unimpressed and throws his hypocrisy back at him, telling Impactor that Guzzle's been locked in a box because Impactor's fallen out of love with killing bad guys, so where's his dignity? Impactor insists that is not the same.

On top of that Impactor even subconsciously compares Guzzle to himself in terms of his level of violence, and Springer in terms of locking Guzzle away when he should be getting help instead. He says he's gonna help Guzzle but again, this is probably another parallel to Springer and Impactor. Springer was hoping that high command would get him the help he needed instead of locking him away, but that's exactly what happened anyway.

Soon after the the two are interrupted by Debris' Station Admin; Hubcap. He tells them that Guzzle has started to burn his way out of the box and he's gonna need help dealing with that when he eventually does. Right then an alarm goes off and Impactor mistakenly takes it for a fire alarm. Hubcap tries to correct him but Roadbuster beats him to the punch, saying the alarm is actually Springer's life support. Roadbuster and Impactor find out that Springer's straight up missing from his slab and realize he's finally woken up. It's only been 5 years!

But they would learn that Springer was woken up with a mission at hand; Prowl has gone missing and he's tasked Springer with finding him. Anyhow, The Wreckers head to Earth in search of their missing security risk. They meet with Arcee and Verity in an abandoned warehouse, and Impactor takes Guzzle with him to check things out away from the other Wreckers, only to come across a polar bear that attacks Impactor while he's in his alt mode.

Guzzle reciprocates, only to be met with a Cybertronian "Chimericon" instead. Back at the warehouse we find out that Prowl is able to use Kup as a vessel (though a mind-link) to let them know of his supposed whereabouts. He tells the remaining crew there that he's being kept in a large underwater mass just before his communication is cut and Kup returns to normal.

Later Impactor and Guzzle come across Springer (holding onto Verity) downed and on the ground, seemingly offline. Guzzle is still taking care of the polar bear Chimericon while Impactor makes sure Springer and Verity are alright. The three are then met with an enraged Guzzle after he drank the Chimericon's super fuel.

They meet the leader of the Chimericons here (named Carnivac, under the same vein as the aforementioned polar bear) and find out he's the one responsible for Springer's fall and paralyzation. Carnivac leaves and the remaining four make it back to the other Wreckers consumed in the middle of battle. They sic the enraged Guzzle on the attackers while they form a plan.

As it turns out the large underwater mass is another Chimericon (named Tidalwave) who's concealed in the form of a whale. He tries to attack the Wreckers but ends up stuck mid-transformation. Springer sees this as an opportunity and he brings a crew with him inside, to find out if Prowl may be in hidden within there.

Impactor, Kup and Guzzle stay behind to fend off the other Chimericons. They succeed but Kup brings bad news, telling Impactor that Prowl has made contact through him and that he's been captured by an old acquaintance. Impactor says the acquaintance is someone named Mesothulas, and asks Kup to help him get Guzzle back to Debris.

At Debris, Impactor starts digging up his own grave while talking to Kup about Mesothulas and the danger he possesses. He finally digs up what he needed, a gate to the dimension (called the Noisemaze) Prowl and Mesothulas are said to be held in. They set up the gate, load up with explosives and guns and push Debris in with plans to crash the place.

While inside they come across many more Chimericons and get to work. But they aren't here for them, their goal is to get inside a compound in the middle of the Noisemaze. While fighting Carnivac and giving him a few words, Impactor's interrupted by getting kicked by Tidalwave (who has squeezed his way into his own gate) straight into the compound they've been trying to get into.

Within, Impactor comes across Prowl and Hubcap. Prowl's debating whether or not to shoot Hubcap as he's made himself known as a massive liability and security risk by pairing up with Tarantulas. He decides not to kill him only for Impactor to pull the trigger on his behalf instead, explaining that there's no guarantee that Hubcap wouldn't betray them and expose Prowl in the future like Mesothulas (who we're told goes by the name Tarantulas) so gracefully wants to.

Prowl and Impactor start heading to the center of the compound but are soon reunited with the other Wreckers heading in the same direction. They're clued into Roadbuster's disappearance, Impactor somewhat expressing his sadness in the loss of his friend. But there's no time to mourn, they head back out to the center and plan as a group to take Tarantulas down once and for all, and are met with his appearance when they get to their destination.

At the center, Prowl, Arcee and Verity distract Tarantulas while Impactor and Springer start laying the explosives Impactor brought with him. The two talk about how Springer's been done since Garrus-9 and that he will be the one to lay the remaining charges while Impactor packs some of the super fuel (in crystal form) from the center onto himself and is told to get the others out of here. Impactor doesn't like this plan at all but he doesn't have much of a choice.

Springer stays behind and Impactor loads up Prowl with the super fuel he had with plans to feed it Tidalwave outside, so Carnivac can use the ability he downed Springer with to forcefully transform Tidalwave and collapse the Noisemaze as a result. Unfortunately Verity gets captured by Tarantulas and we learn that Impactor was the one to push him inside the original Noisemaze gate, sealing him in the dimension on behalf of Prowl.

After they recollect about Prowl and Impactor's past sins and free Verity, Prowl carries her out and leaves, with Tarantulas diverting his attention to the remaining Wreckers. Together Impactor and Arcee stop the compound from shrinking while the others complete their plan outside. The two receive news that Springer can no longer hear Impactor through communications but he can still send his own to let them know when to pull the trigger and blow the place up. With Tarantulas going for Springer instead, Impactor and Arcee leave to meet with the others on Debris.

Near their destination, Impactor stops receiving messages from Springer and contemplates pulling the trigger and letting him go for good this time. Arcee reassures him and he flips the switch. They make it to Debris but are met with Guzzle planning to blow Kup and Prowl's heads right off, only to be interrupted by Impactor's harpoon in his own. Everyone is silent, and they wait for Springer to make it back.

And they wait. And they wait. But Prowl decides to go back into the maze himself and grab Springer (much to the chagrin of everyone else), successfully bringing him back and alive. The aftermath concludes that Kup and Prowl's mind-link has been severed and Springer has elected to stay with Verity on earth. Under that same vein is Impactor, joining the Chimericon group "Mayhem" to help carry out their plans to tip the balance of power within the Transformers factions.

In his time within Mayhem, Impactor changes his alt-mode to an earth politician's security vehicle, fitting considering his shoulder cannon sits on top of his new alt-mode. He's en-route to meet Springer as they discussed only to be met with a gruesome scene involving his fellow Mayhem members torn to hell and back with Springer in the midst of it all, also torn and immobile.

He calls out Carnivac and tells him off for reasserting control of Mayhem behind his back while undercover and reassures that he's going to kill him. Impactor then has Carnivac return to Mayhem's base with Springer in tow. They put him in a CR chamber and has Carnivac rest while Impactor watches over Springer's recovery.

Once recovered, Springer punches his way through the chamber's glass and throttles Impactor to the floor. He's obviously furious about Impactor's decision to join a "terror cell" and expresses his discomfort in dealing with Carnivac's forced conversion ability. During their conversation Carnivac shows up fully recharged, and Impactor gives him a mean (and deserved) uppercut. Then he explains that he gave up his liberty to go undercover and that he believed in Mayhem's cause.

Carnivac explains the mission at hand and why he had Springer do what he did, only for Impactor to relay that this was done behind his back and without expressed permission to go forth with the plan they discussed (especially not with Springer) and because of his petty pride no less. Springer interrupts them with his own statements, saying he did his research on Carnivac and is disappointed in his lack of goodness garnered from his time serving under Ultra Magnus.

Springer leaves to rescue Verity, who was unceremoniously taken in the scuffle earlier, and Impactor follows to assist him. When they get to the location they tracked Verity to, they learn Tarantulas is still alive, and has partnered with Overlord for whatever sick reason. Impactor goes straight for Overlord, hooking his harpoon in his eye and attacking him while Springer checks on Verity.

Here it's told that Tarantulas was distracting Overlord earlier in order to protect Verity and save Springer from hurting further due to Tarantulas actions as a result. Meanwhile Impactor's thrown into a pit but intends to drag Overlord down with him. He fired his harpoon again and wrapped it around Overlords legs, but only after Overlord shoots Tarantulas and interrupts his and Springer's conversation.

Naturally Springer goes after Overlord after seeing that Verity is fine. Unfortunately for him and Impactor, Overlord fires above them as they tumble down and get covered by the rocks falling from above. Impactor gets stuck and Springer tries to help him out. They start talking about Springer's past like he wanted to in their intended meeting and he learns quite a bit about himself.

Impactor is then interrupted again by Overlord approaching their location. Unable to move, he suggests reenacting Pova with the roles reversed. Springer hesitates but Impactor convinces him to follow through, saying that Overlord will make Verity suffer if he doesn't. Springer shoots him at the last second and comes out of the rubble engulfed in flames and cursing Impactor out, leading Overlord away to his own demise.

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And there it is. His final death as of the time I'm writing this. I gotta say that his ending, however sad, is satisfying. I mean Impactor goes out saying "Wreck and rule" and giving Springer his last order as a Wrecker himself. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want him to survive in the end. Springer did once so why can't he? Ah well, it is how it is.

Now I wanted to point out that during Kup and Impactor's interaction before they go back to Debris, Kup says that Prowl essentially has him in a mental choke-hold. And Impactor responds to this by almost saying he's sorry and calling Prowl a glitch. I love how he subtly shows that he cares about those he works with and even Roadbuster mentions that it's ok and normal to do that in their conversation while Guzzle is put away in the box.

If you look hard enough you can see that Impactor cares a lot for his fellow Wreckers (and others he's close with) and I love that about him. Even though Springer was his favorite, he still took care of Guzzle after Garrus-9 and tried to help him, he still watched over Kup in the warehouse when he noticed him wobble a bit, he still took Springer to a CR chamber to have him repaired. And yet he doesn't extend this same care for himself.

Impactor's self-loathing is another (albeit sad) trait of his. He's expressed his disdain in his own violent nature and compares himself to the worst. Guzzle ends up being the embodiment of his worst nightmare, going into killing frenzies and not letting up even when they come back to Debris.

Impactor's scared of his own violence going too far and becoming similar to Guzzle. He wants to quit this vicious cycle that keeps tearing him apart. When he joined Mayhem he said that Springer did what he wasn't brave enough to do: stop. Springer quit, but Impactor always finds that he can't. It's very ironic that violence was what led to his death as it's plagued him all his life.

He's dealt with the violence of the war itself (the need for a group like the Wreckers in the first place), the violence of the execution of Squadron X (who he feels responsible for, seeing an echo of him and the Wreckers within he group), of Overlord and Garrus-9, of losing his friends (Roadbuster's sacrifice and death at the hands of Tarantulas for example), of Mayhem's seeming downfall and the violence of his own death in parallel to his own violence directed to the same person that sacrificed him of Impactor's own accord. The cycle only ended when he died, and that is the true tragedy of Impactor...

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If you couldn't tell already I love this guy to bits. he's my blorbo of the year for sure, even though he may not have much screen or panel time. Impactor's still complicated in his own right and I think he deserves a lot more recognition as both the leader of the Wreckers and just a very cool character in general. I think that concludes what I have to say about him for now though, but I for sure want to talk about him again in the future in a more analytical sense.

Thank you for reading up until this point though! I appreciate it.