Porter C. Powell
From Transformers Wiki
- Porter C. Powell is a human from the Animated continuity family.
Porter C. Powell is Chairman of the Board of Sumdac Systems, CEO of Powell Motorworks, publisher of the Detroit Powell Press... and also a major financier of Biotech Unbound, one of Sumdac's chief rivals. This should not be a great shock: As an arch-capitalist of the sleazy, profit-at-any-price type, Powell is not above working with the villainous or demented to make big bucks.
Basically, he's a rich jerk. His mullet, however, is truly inspirational.
| “ | There's no room for sentiment in business. | ” |
| —Porter C. Powell, "The Elite Guard" | ||
Contents |
Fiction
Animated cartoon
- Voice actor: Bumper Robinson (English), Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese), Klaus Lochthove (German), Julio Lorenzo (Castillo Spanish), Paulo Castro (Latin-American Spanish, seasons 1 and 2), Armando Duque (Latin-American Spanish, season 3), Joonas Suominen (Finnish), Sylvain Lemarié (French), Walter Cruz (Portuguese, seasons 1 and 2), Vagner Santos (Portuguese, season 3)
After the highly public failure of Biotech Unbound's test subject Colossus Rhodes, Porter C. Powell spoke to BU chief Prometheus Black via the video link in his lab. When Black tried to sell Powell on his latest innovation (a super-corrosive derived from Autobot mech fluid and Black's own steroids) and the necessity of a new human test subject, Powell informed him that Black's investors were unwilling to sink any more money into his mad science—and furthermore, that even the prison system wouldn't provide Black with a new guinea pig. Regretfully, Powell ended both the call and his business relationship with Black. Total Meltdown
Powell was among the crowd who watched Isaac Sumdac unveil his new improved Dinobots at Dino Drive. Blast from the Past
After Isaac Sumdac was abducted by Megatron, Sari took over leadership of the company. Powell disapproved of having a mere child responsible for the business, especially since she was diverting corporate funds to the search for her father. Powell wouldn't have to deal with her for very long, however: He was unable to discover any legal documents referring to a "Sari Sumdac"—no will, birth certificate, adoption papers, Social Security Number, anything. Not only was there no proof she was Sumdac's daughter, from a bureaucratic standpoint, there was no proof she existed. Powell was installed as new CEO of Sumdac Systems, and one of his early decisions was to lock Sari out of Isaac's lab and offices. He then rather smugly informed Sari of her "lack of existence". What a nice guy. The Elite Guard
Totally unsympathetic to Sari's circumstances, Powell evicted her from Sumdac Tower, confiscated Tutor Bot and Sparkplug, and gave her bedroom to Henry Masterson. Powell had invested considerable effort in clearing up that whole attempted nuclear terrorism thing and wanted to use Masterson's skills to gain access to lucrative military contracts that had previously been ruled out by Isaac Sumdac's silly, unprofitable conscience. As part of his new research and development, Masterson body-jacked Sentinel Prime, and Powell helped him out, preventing Optimus Prime from searching the tower for evidence and trying to conceal Masterson from detection. But when Powell phoned Masterson to warn him the Autobots were looking for him, an eavesdropping Optimus traced the call and was able to apprehend the nerdy ne'er-do-well. But Powell wasn't about to let a corporate asset go to jail; even as Captain Fanzone was slapping the cuffs on Masterson, Powell drove up in his limo to announce that no real crimes had been committed (the damaged property belonged to Sumdac Systems, and the alien robots had no legal rights), and further that the alleged crime had occurred in international waters and thus outside Fanzone's jurisdiction. The Return of the Headmaster
Powell decided to cash in on the Autobots' popularity. He took the Powell Motorworks assault vehicle that Bulkhead had chosen for his alternate mode and re-marketed it as a family-friendly SUV named "The Bulkhead". When the real Bulkhead complained about this inappropriate use of his name and likeness, Powell retorted that Bulkhead himself had "borrowed" the likeness of the pre-existing PMW vehicle and threatened to sue him. Bulkhead then implored audiences not to buy the impractically huge armored cars, but Powell easily re-edited his requests into a glowing endorsement. Soon Detroit was jammed with "Bulkheads," with even some of the super-villain population having their own customized models. As a publicity stunt, Powell then announced a televised "Pimp My Bulkhead" contest in which citizens could show off their most creative modifications to the giant vehicles, with Powell himself judging the winner of course. As Powell was judging a particularly garish repainted specimen (which happened to have Powel's face plastered on its side), it suddenly drove off with him inside it, careening wildly. Powell pleaded with the silent driver to release him or at least to slow down, sputtering that the vans were terrible road hazards—prone to tipping over and catching fire and generally "unsafe at any speed." Which, of course, was just what the real driver had been waiting to hear; the van was Bulkhead himself, with the driver's seat being occupied by an automaton. Powell's confession was then broadcast throughout Detroit and presumably his manufactured fad ended shortly thereafter. The Arrival issue 4
Powell continued his ruthless streak by holding out on having the company service the city's malfunctioning trashbots until the mayor would agree to a renegotiated and more lucrative contract. During these delays, his research team showed him that they'd retooled the nanomachines that were used to produce rampaging giant insects, and that now they were more useful for eating garbage. As a bonus, they cost a fraction of what the materials for the trashbots went for. Powell realized that this, combined with charging the city more, meant he was soon to be even more fabulously wealthy.
Unfortunately this was all derailed when the armored car containing the sample was cracked open by the ever-affable Wreck-Gar. Powell hurried to tell Edsel that the demonstration had to be called off, only to be cut off by the sighting of a garbage scow with a rapidly decreasing load. Smugly claiming credit, he was about to nail that new contract when it was further revealed that the garbage scow itself was rapidly decreasing as the nanobots devoured it. After Ratchet managed to avert disaster, the mayor steadfastly refused to renew the contract—until the curmudgeonly Autobot picked up both parties and gave them a good shake and a yell, accompanied with the threat of tossing them in the water. Negotiations proceeded in good faith from there on. Garbage In, Garbage Out Powell went so far as to rename Sumdac Tower into Powell Tower. Offended, Sari reprogrammed the Reception Bot into saying the original name again, as well as informing visitors that Powell was a booger-head. SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy
As it turns out, one of Powell's main concerns in "Powell Tower" was keeping tabs on his former business partner, Prometheus "Meltdown" Black, in prison. Thus, he was rather unnerved when, in response to Sari and Bumblebee asking him to provide information on anything that would incriminate Powell, Meltdown said that it would be useless, but if they freed him, he'd make all their problems "melt away". (Read: liquid Powell.) Although Sari and Bumblebee clearly thought that was taking things too far, Powell still considered this bad news, so much so that when the Dinobots broke Meltdown out, he showed the tape to Fanzone, trying to implicate Bumblebee. Between the fact that Powell had illegally hacked into the prison's security cameras and his earlier arrogance while freeing Headmaster, Fanzone wasn't inclined to take Powell seriously.
Powell's frustrations rose even further when Optimus and Grimlock charged into Powell Tower to learn the whereabouts of Meltdown's genetic modifier. When Powell refused to divulge the whereabouts of his private property, he found himself swallowed by Grimlock. (Step one in his karmic debt payment, many more to go.) Terrified, he agreed to lead the Autobots there and was duly spit back out, covered in the Dinobot equivalent of saliva...nasty, purple saliva. (Step two performed, still many more to go.) After Optimus took away the modifier (and an accident named Grimlock happened to several of Meltdown's leftover experiments), Powell contacted Fanzone about the "robbery". However, Optimus returned the modifier in the end...ruined by contact with Meltdown. Enraged, Powell demanded that Fanzone arrest Optimus for destroying private property. Fanzone retaliated by saying he was more inclined to arrest Powell for being a public nuisance. Fanzone and the Autobots then left Powell to stew in his own pompous indignation. Black Friday
Pompous indignation turned to terror when Sari Sumdac returned to Powell Tower with the only person who could threaten Powell's authority: Isaac Sumdac himself. Realizing his position was threatened, Powell tried to smooth things over by saying how happy he was that Isaac was alive. Masterson, however, had just been robbed of his Headmaster unit by the Decepticons, and made several threats to the Autobots, while Powell stated that there was little difference between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Powell was quickly reminded of those differences when Optimus Prime picked up Masterson and asked for clarification on his threats. Furious over his actions while running the company, Isaac immediately terminated Porter C. Powell and Henry Masterson's employment at Sumdac Systems. Masterson made a cocky comment about refusing to do what "some old man and his little daughter" told them, and Powell expressed further doubts about Sari's parentage. At which point a furious Sari somehow blasted the two into an elevator, and out of Sumdac Tower. TransWarped
Down but not out, Powell had acquired the designs for the Sound Wave toy that Isaac had made for Sari and patented them. Powell released the Sound Wave toys for the Christmas season, despite Isaac Sumdac's protests, at the low, low price of only $19.99. The fact that the Sound Wave toys were under the control of the original would in no way blow up in his face. Human Error, Part I
And then it totally, unexpectedly blew up in his face when Soundwave instructed his toy replicas to hypnotize the humans of Detroit, so that they would not interfere with Soundwave's plans to reprogram the Autobots. Fortunately for Detroit's humans, Optimus Prime managed to defeat Soundwave and end his mind control signals. Unfortunately for Powell, consumers began returning the Sound Waves en masse over the hypnosis incident. Powell lamented that the resulting refunds would leave him financially ruined. Karma finally hit him where it hurts: his wallet. Human Error, Part II
At some point, Porter C. Powell contacted Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster and contracted them to write The AllSpark Almanac. He was later one of several commentors on the quality of the book, though he assured readers that despite his direct financial relationship to the book, he was unbiased. The AllSpark Almanac
Some time after the core Autobot forces had returned to Cybertron, Powell purchased an AllSpark fragment on the black market for his latest greedy scheme. But he then came under attack from the Angry Archer, and in the confusion the AllSpark fragment became embedded in the dashboard of Powell's TUX model mega-limo, bringing it to life as the bourgeoisie baddie Stretch. This newly-sparked Decepticon quickly set about bankrupting Powell in order to acquire all the finest treasures that caught its fancy--so a desperate Powell had to turn to Isaac Sumdac for help, using the spacebridge portal atop Sumdac Tower to teleport Stretch into another dimension--presumably one without ATMs. Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II
Notes
- Powell was originally meant to be a one-shot incidental character. However, the strength of his design prompted the other Animated staff members to bug Marty Isenberg into using him again, delving further into his identity and place in the Animated universe.[1]
- Powell is described as being "very '70s game show-esque". Derrick J. Wyatt is in fact a big fan of the Game Show Network, particularly vintage episodes of Match Game.[1]
- At BotCon 2008, it was revealed by one of the Cartoon Network guests that Powell's limo was based on the Renegade GoBot Tux because another member of the production staff still owned one from childhood. This was more-or-less confirmed by the audio commentary of "Garbage In, Garbage Out", where it was noted that Powell's limo was designed by Byron Penaranda, and Eric Siebenaler brought up that "there was a character from another transforming-robot show that was based on that vehicle", with Derrick J. Wyatt pointing out that it "had a little top hat". As it stands, the limo is not an exact match for Tux, having more futuristic detailing. So obviously, the Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II book made him so, using the name Tux used in the Hanna-Barbera Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, Stretch.
- It remains unclear exactly what Powell does. He's been seen as the CEO of a car company, breaking deals with gene-splicers, usurping a robotics company from an 8-year-old girl, and selling knockoffs of the original Soundwave toy. His main area of expertise remains a mystery.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Porter C. Powell (ポーター・C・パウエル Pōtā C. Paueru)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 DVD audio commentary for "Garbage In, Garbage Out".
