The first reference to Megatron as a former gladiator is in the “Transformers Annual 1986,” part of the UK-exclusive run of “Transformers” comics published by Marvel. In the issue is a prose story written by James Hill titled “State Games.” Set on a prehistoric Cybertron, this story depicts Optimus Prime and Megatron as rival gladiators. (Prime representing the nation-state Iacon, and Megatron representing the city of Tarn.) After a civil war between Tarn and its rival city Vos, Megatron unites the survivors against Iacon, fighting under his banner as Decepticons.
Simon Furman, who wrote most of the Marvel “Transformers” comics, must’ve remembered “State Games.” In 2002, he wrote the new comic mini-series “Transformers: The War Within,” another Cybertron-set prequel where Megatron was a former gladiator. (“War Within” was drawn by Don Figueroa and published by the now-defunct Dreamwave.)
The 2007 comic “Megatron Origin” (by Eric Holmes and Alex Milne) again showed Megatron as a gladiator, while adding the idea that before that, he was a low-class miner. This added a new shade to the Decepticons: their struggle wasn’t just for conquest, but for class revolution, especially since the Autobots were depicted as originally being Cybertron’s police force. How, then, did the Decepticons become imperialists while the Autobots became freedom fighters? That’s a contradiction I think only “Transformers One” has squared. (More on that soon.)
Due to constant reboots by different creators, the first two decades of “Transformers” are pretty scattershot. It was only in the 2010s that parent company Hasbro started streamlining, Character names and designs would be used more consistently, and each new “Transformers” series would have the same fundamental lore about who created the Transformers, why the war started, etc.
2010’s “Transformers: Prime” was the first cartoon to bring a lot of previously comic-exclusive lore to animation, including Megatron’s gladiator backstory. “Prime” Megatron (voiced again by the OG Frank Welker) won the crowd, leading the masses of the city-state Kaon to revolution against Cybertron’s oppressive caste system. Of course, in the present, he’s the same ol’ warlord as ever — ’cause all revolutions are corrupt, right?!
Throughout “Transformers: Prime,” Megatron was shown to be very proud of his roots. In the episode “Crossfire,” he’s ambushed and locked inside a makeshift arena opposite a powerful Insecticon. Still, though, he triumphs, and after decapitating the bug, he bellows: “Let that be a warning to anyone who dares cross a gladiator of Kaon, be they Decepticon or Autobot!”
In the 2012 video game “Transformers: Fall of Cybertron,” Megatron finds himself back in the gladiatorial pits, cutting down treacherous Decepticons led by a usurping Starscream. Megatron boasts that he had already proved his worthiness to lead in that very same arena. “That day has long passed, Megatron,” Starscream sneers, to which Megatron fires back: “That day will live forever!”
