Tarn (G1)

Tarn is a Decepticon from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

He kills you with culture... and also violence.

Tarn (aka Damus and Glitch) is an eloquent Decepticon. He enjoys nothing more than playing beautiful music as he waxes poetic quoting Towards Peace and other philosophical works by Megatron. He tends to indulge these pleasures at the same time he's using his outlier ability to cause the Decepticon Justice Division's latest transgressor's spark to self-destruct. The leader of the D.J.D., Tarn epitomizes the mentality of the team. He is beyond zealous in his devotion to Megatron's cause, going so far as to emboss the Decepticon insignia onto his own faceplate. No traitor, no coward is capable of escaping his team.

Despite appearances, Tarn is a mess of contradictions. Viewing himself as the central pillar of the D.J.D., he can be as brutally violent as any other Decepticon, but views himself as a bureaucrat and his team as his administration. He believes his actions are entirely justified, yet sometimes his thoughts are a constant stream of self-denigration. He works hard to run a tight but fair ship, and is not above taking in an open-minded, needy stray. On the other hand, for all his thoughts of sophistication and control, Tarn can go from affable to life-threatening at the least provocation. His addictive tendencies have led to him burning out his original transformation cog years ago, and his reliance on the power-enhancing Nuke can lead to his losing himself to the lust for violence. And have no doubt that while he may try and convince himself otherwise, Tarn is a truly sociopathic murderer. Ultimately whether Tarn is a monster or not is irrelevant. His utter devotion to the Decepticon cause means he will ensure the fear of Megatron is put into any that would consider abandoning their noble goals.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: More than Meets the Eye #5 (shadowy image); #7 (full appearance, as Tarn); #10 (as Glitch)

Glitch is the one with the claws.

Damus was forged, born an exceptionally powerful Point One Percenter The Permanent Revolution and an outlier who possessed the ability to render non-sentient machinery inoperative by touching it, but with one drawback: the power hurt him every time he used it. Before the war, Damus attended the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology where they possibly attempted to analyze his brain-wave patterns and kept his outlier status hidden from the Senate and Functionist Council.

At some point, he crossed the Senate and was subjected to empurata: his hands and head replaced to mark him out as someone to shun. After that, to tie in with his power, he started to call himself "Glitch". Patternism

When Orion Pax devised a plan to steal a bomb disguised as the Matrix from Nominus Prime's corpse, his Senator friend recruited Damus, Windcharger, and Skids from the Academy to participate in the heist. Damus's part in the plan was to deactivate the deflector beams above the Primal Basilica and despite a slight hitch when Damus accidentally jammed Skids' grappling hook by touching his arm, the plan succeeded. An Intimate Beheading

Following Shockwave's capture and brainwashing by the Senate, the Outliers stuck with Orion Pax and aided him in defending a hot spot in Alyon from Sentinel Prime's forces. By this time Damus had gotten replacement hands and learned to use his power from a distance, utilizing it to break down Elite Guard vehicles from afar. With help from a group of time travelers from the Lost Light of the future, the group took down a weapons platform sent to irradiate the hot spot's sparks, then had their memories of the travelers wiped by Chromedome. Possibly due to interference from his powers, the memory wipe seemed to work less effectively on Damus.

"And what would you have your Justice Division do?"

During the whole affair, Orion Pax had recommended reading Megatron's treatises around Glitch: "powerful stuff," he said. Thanks to Chromedome's memory wipe only partially working on him, Damus hung on to Pax's overheard recommendation and took his first step down a dark path. All Our Parlous Yesterdays

Exactly how and when Damus joined the Decepticons is unknown, but Megatron would later claim he had deliberately "corrupted" Tarn to hurt someone and prove a point. Your Fierce Tears Damus joined early enough to be at the beginning of Megatron's march across Cybertron. Rebuilt under the supervision of Lobe, The Permanent Revolution Damus's power and endurance was considered by Prowl to put him on the same level as a Phase Sixer. Remembrance Day His mask was taken as a sign of Decepticon supremacy but, at least so he told himself, it was really so nobody would notice when he closed his eyes around Decepticon brutality. The Permanent Revolution In one particular battle during the war, Damus tussled with Thunderclash. Shining Armor #3

"How's it hanging? ... Oh... oh. That dude is really hanging there. My bad."
"Stop it, you uncultured mech. You came here to report, not make puns."

Damus became commandant of Grindcore prison, where he became associated with "The Empyrean Suite", playing it at maximum volume to drown out the screams of the prisoners he executed via smelting. Speak, Memory: Part 1 In this, he was trying to deliberately bastardize a song composed by Eucryphia to celebrate Prima and the Citadel of Light. The Permanent Revolution One of his prisoners, soon after the prison's smelting chamber had malfunctioned, was his old comrade Skids. Damus bargained with Skids to fix it, telling him it was a "teleport chamber" and fifty prisoners would be released from Grindcore for this, and was able to con Skids into thinking that he could be trusted. Skids was relaxed enough around Damus to take praise genuinely and push for more freed prisoners later.

In the end, Damus sent all fifty prisoners to the "teleportation chamber" and cruelly forced Skids to watch as it was used to execute a group of prisoners, including Skids' cellmate Quark, melting them down into raw materials for use in the creation of M.T.O.s. Damus deliberately used the event to cripple Skids' religious faith. Speak, Memory: Part 1 Speak, Memory! (Part 2)

After Damus became leader of the D.J.D. as "Tarn" (and would never again use his old name), his powers developed to the point where he could shut down sentient machines using his voice alone. Under him, the group became very focused on paperwork: the Decepticon Empire required good administration, in his view. The Permanent Revolution When Grimlock, who had briefly defected to the Decepticons, Animals Grimlock profile returned to the Autobot ranks, Megatron was so incensed by the betrayal that he ordered the DJD to bump the Dynobot leader up to the top of the list. In a subsequent battle against Grimlock, Tarn had his face badly mangled by his opponent. The Ties That Bind

Some two hundred years ago, Tarn was present at Megatron's current command center when Starscream returned from a botched mission on Xetaxxis. Shining Armor #5

There's an ironic joke about empurata in here if someone cares to find it.

Some time later, the DJD established a base on the world of Messatine in order to obtain the "Nuke" superfuel there. The Permanent Revolution Tarn coerced Pharma, head surgeon of the planet's Autobot medical facility Delphi, into helping feed his addiction by supplying him with an ever-increasing number of transformation cogs from deceased patients, in exchange for the hospital being unmolested by his team. Pharma would eventually cut off Tarn's supply by orchestrating the facility's shutdown. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back

In 2009, following the Surge, Tarn led the D.J.D. to Garrus-9 to find and eliminate his old teacher Shockwave, who was now the most wanted Decepticon on the D.J.D's master hit list. After intercepting his vessel, however, they discovered that Shockwave had prepared for this eventuality by staffing his ship with crewmembers who were also on the list, in the hopes of bartering their lives for his. Tarn opted to ignore the offer, using his voice to slowly talk the old Senator to death, but Shockwave was able to blast the radio in time. When Shockwave's backup arrived in the form of Bludgeon and the Monstructor Six, the DJD retreated. The Ties That Bind

He's got friends on the other side.

Though the war formally ended in 2012, Tarn and his group refused to give up the cause—indeed, they would only deign to stand down when Megatron personally commanded it—and continued to hunt down those Decepticons that had betrayed the cause and hadn't yet returned to Cybertron. Who's Afraid of the DJD? Informed by Decepticon spy Brainstorm that high-priority _target Overlord was aboard the starship Lost Light, Tarn and the D.J.D. continued to work through their list of offenders as they waited for Brainstorm to drop the ship's shielding so they could pick up Overlord's signal. The Permanent Revolution One such unfortunate was Black Shadow, whom Tarn explosively finished off with his deadly voice, after which the team set course of the planet Clemency to hunt down Decepticon deserter Fulcrum. Rules of Disengagement Arriving on Clemency, the team discovered a mysterious stasis tube awaiting them; when Tarn investigated, he found it contained a deranged, circuit speeder-enhanced Grimlock, unleashed by Fulcrum and his new allies, the Scavengers. Tarn was soon able to subdue the brain-damaged Dinobot, but was then crushed beneath the foot of a Cybernought battle-mech that Crankcase had activated. Tarn recovered in time to hear Fulcrum deliver a speech to all assembled about Decepticon ideals before apparently committing suicide. At that point, Kaon detected Overlord's long-awaited signal, and Tarn ordered the D.J.D. to head out—but not before warning the surviving Scavengers that their names had now made it onto The List. Who's Afraid of the DJD?

Tracking Overlord's signal, the D.J.D. found the Lost Light—which was, unbeknownst to Tarn and his team, actually one of two versions of the ship created by a malfunction of its quantum generators—near the planet Ofsted XVII. Despite having promised Brainstorm they would not harm any of the crew, the discovery that the traitor Deadlock was aboard the ship set the D.J.D. off and, after dealing with him, they set about murdering the rest of the ship. The Permanent Revolution Tarn personally destroyed Ultra Magnus, Swerve, and Cyclonus, and forced a large portion of the crew to transform before executing them, leaving their transformation cogs warm for locating and harvesting. Eventually, Tarn removed a still-restrained and suicidal Overlord's head with a chainsaw, and the D.J.D. left the ship. slaughterhouse The Road Not Taken

'Cause when push
Comes to shove
I will send a fully armed battalion
To remind you of my love for the cause

Sometime during the months that followed, Kaon spontaneously began writhing in agony right in front of Tarn, who tried to get his teammate to tell him what he could do to help, before the mysterious effect subsided. Arm the Lonely Also during this time, the D.J.D. welcomed a new member—Nickel, the last survivor of a Cybertronian colony wiped out by the Black Block Consortia. At Nickel's insistence, they returned to Ofsted XVII to salvage the quantum engines from the derelict Lost Light. They wound up arriving in the middle of a battle between the Consortia and the Galactic Council, who teamed up against the Cybertronians. Under attack by both sides and faced with additional enemy reinforcements, Tarn was forced to retreat, leaving Vos and Kaon behind. The Permanent Revolution Tarn eventually gifted Nickel a phone onto which he recorded a message she could use to paralyze people who were threatening her. Kill All 'Cons

The diminished D.J.D. returned to their duties, though Tarn began to weary of the work. After apprehending the Sparkeater-worshipping Blip, Tarn was about to end his life using his voice, until Blip used his last words to demand that Tarn remove his mask. Affronted, Tarn allowed Helex and Tesarus to finish Blip instead, averting his gaze beneath his mask. Tarn subsequently ordered performance reviews for the team, and nearly came to blows with Tesarus when he implied that abandoning Vos and Kaon was not the Decepticon thing to do. Calming himself, Tarn explained that they were returning to Ofsted XVII again in order to recover their bodies, but was interrupted by Helex's announcement that Vos and Kaon had returned to the ship safe, sound, and with something unbelievable: a postwar edition of Towards Peace that revealed Megatron himself had defected from the Decepticons.

His world shattered by this discovery, Tarn had the D.J.D. return to Messatine, where he attempted to fatally overdose on Nuke. Finding even the sensation of dying disappointing, Tarn opened his eyes to see a distraught Nickel pressed against the glass of his fueling capsule. The sight of her triggered a revelation for Tarn: she was a 'bot who had experienced first-hand the threat the predominantly-organic universe posed to Cybertronians, and who had fully embraced the Decepticon cause despite living her life outside of the war. The cause, Tarn now realized, was bigger than any one 'bot—bigger than Megatron. Galvanized, Tarn set up a meeting with the rogue Decepticon warlord Deathsaurus aboard his stolen Warworld. Knowing full well he was on the D.J.D.'s list, Deathsaurus pre-emptively attacked Tarn upon his arrival, even deactivating his audio receptors to protect himself from Tarn's voice, but Tarn was able to communicate with him and his troops through inter-Decepticon radio and explained the reason for his presence: he wished them to ally with him, in return for their being taken off The List. Deathsaurus agreed on the condition that Tarn kill the rest of the D.J.D., which Tarn refused to do—which was the response Deathsaurus had been hoping for. With their alliance cemented, Tarn declared their new objective: kill the traitorous Megatron and all of his allies! The Permanent Revolution

I'm about to drop the hammer and dispense some indiscriminate justice!

The allied forces of Tarn and Deathsaurus proceeded to attack the Necrobot's world, killing its sole inhabitant and using his machinery to broadcast a message that lured Megatron and all those aboard the Lost Light sympathetic to him down to the planet. When they arrived, the villains shot them down and cornered them in the Necrobot's fortress. How Bright Their Frail Deeds As an act of indirect torture, Tarn had their forces pull back, warning Megatron and his comrades that they would return at sunset, leaving them to stew in their own fear. Returning to the Peaceful Tyranny, Tarn spent the time showing off his collection of Megatron's writings to Deathsaurus, and discussing tactics with his men; he did not take Tesarus' concerns about the Necrobot's fortress' storm shield seriously, but the discussion was interrupted by a call on Tarn's personal communicator from Megatron himself. The Sun in Flight

Give me your...you know the drill.

Tarn agreed to a meeting with Megatron alone, whereupon his former leader agreed to surrender in exchange for the rest of the Autobots being allowed to go free. Saddened and disgusted to truly see with his own eyes how far his idol had fallen, Tarn beat him to within an inch of his life, and was just about to deliver the killing shot when Overlord suddenly appeared, insisting that it was his right to end Megatron's life. Both refused to stand down, resulting in a bickering battle between the two that gave Megatron the chance to escape. Realizing their folly, Tarn and Overlord agreed to a truce, though Overlord continued to needle Tarn all the way back to the Peaceful Tyranny. The final straw came when a distraught Kaon arrived with the news that the Autobots had kidnapped the D.J.D.'s pet sparkeater; determined to cut out of both the hearts of himself and his men the compassion that he saw as Megatron's downfall, Tarn slew Kaon on the spot, tearing his head from his shoulders. Your Fierce Tears

At sundown, Tarn led the Decepticons in their attack, At Close of Day playing "The Empyrean Suite" across the battlefield as battle commenced. He initially hung back with Deathsaurus, but joined the fight in earnest after a temporary power-up acquired by the Autobots wore off, ripping Ravage clean in half. Unfortunately, that turned out to be just the thing to bring Megatron out onto the battlefield, cutting swathes through the Decepticon troops. Tarn surreptitiously ordered the D.J.D. to retreat, whilst demanding Deathsaurus' troops enact a suicidal assault on Megatron. When the ex-Decepticon's new fusion cannon was destroyed, he unexpectedly sunk to his knees in panicked defeat, and Tarn and Overlord moved to strike the final blow together. Rage, Rage

You will die alone. Unmourned. And unloved.

Their shots, however, were reflected by the sudden activation of a forcefield by Megatron. Whilst Overlord and Deathsaurus abandoned the planet, unwilling to waste their time and troops respectively on Megatron, Tarn and the other remaining members of the D.J.D. assaulted the forcefield until they could finally force their way in. Things went very badly wrong after that, as soon as the D.J.D. were all inside Megatron rose to his feet and chided Tarn, ripping the D.J.D. leader's fusion cannon off in disgust. With dawning horror the D.J.D. realized everything was all according to Megatron's plan–after years of study, he had finally managed to interlink his systems with a black hole to harvest antimatter, and he had no intention of letting any of them leave alive. With his former enforcers now trapped, Megatron tore through them with tendrils of antimatter, speaking their true names at the moments of their deaths. Tarn was saved for last, his mask ripped off as Megatron called him by his previous name: "Glitch". Tarn first begged for Megatron to be "reasonable", then tried fake bravado, just as many of his own victims had done... and with as little success.

Completing his denouncement of his former enforcer, Megatron informed Damus that "Everything you did was for nothing" and obliterated him with antimatter. Do Not Go Gentle

Much later, when Nickel was on the verge of being killed by Scorponok, she used Tarn's voicemail message to paralyze the ex-Decepticon, allowing her and the Scavengers to escape. Kill All 'Cons

The Functionist Universe

"There must always be a Megatron."

Damus was amongst a group of Anti-Vocationist League members who attended a secret meeting beneath Nova Point. There, he listened to the universally-displaced Megatron speak about how to fight the Functionist Council for the goal of "peace through empathy". This Machine Kills Fascists

Kre-O online manga

Tarn was part of Bludgeon's forces when they uncovered the Red Bucket. Treasure Competition! Defeat with Block Power!

TransTech

An Offworlder in Axiom Nexus, Tarn was a judge of Cybertron's Got Talent in the wake of Ego's death. Tarn enjoyed calling out sub-par transformations as part of his judging. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/14

An Arcee Sort of Day

After the Great War ended, Damus joined a Unicron cult, warning a passing Arcee that the world was ending. An Arcee Sort of Day

2019 IDW continuity

Damus was enjoying a drug den when Nightbeat kicked down the door and requested both calm and Sixshot's squad from the War of the Threefold Spark. The Change In Your Nature Part One

Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic

Tarn was a spectator of the second week of the Speedia 500 on Velocitron and scared the nearby Crankcase. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 3

Games

Transformers Legends

Tarn and the rest of the DJD pursued Black Shadow for taking bribes from the Autobots. The DJD found their _target hiding on planet Clemency, and dispatched them with extreme prejudice as Tarn set course for their next assignment. Rules of Disengagement

Transformers: Earth Wars

Tarn was brought to Earth to hunt the traitorous Megatron and his Predacons. He formed a new D.J.D. team consisting of Spinister, Dirtbag, Exhaust, and Soundwave. Enter the DJD Later, Tarn attempted to capture Tarantulas after he abused Cosmic Rust. Rust & Fire Tarn and the D.J.D. failed to contain the rampages of God Neptune and Ruination, leading to Lancelon fixing their mess. The Last Knight When hunting for the Forge Fire Amulet, Junkheap was brought to Earth and enlisted by Tarn to help fend off opposing forces. Junk Culture

Toys

Legacy

psssh... nothin personnel... kid...

• Comic Universe Tarn (Voyager Class, 2023)

• TakaraTomy ID number: TL-26
• TakaraTomy release date: March 25, 2023
• Accessories: Tank turret base, 2x tank barrels
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro), Yūya Ōnishi, (TakaraTomy)^[1], Alex Milne (original concept)^[2]

Part of the first wave of Legacy: Evolution Voyager figures, "Comic Universe Tarn" is based heavily on his appearance in IDW's comics and transforms into a Cybertronian tank. Tarn's tank turret can detach as part of the Evo-Fusion gimmick, and the barrels can split off and peg into the turret itself to make an extra-long fusion cannon. His hands feature hinged knuckles, allowing them to open and close, but are unfortunately exposed on the tank mode's rear end. While transforming into tank, the head can turn 180 degrees to provide better clearance for the robot back/front tank turret panel.

Unfortunately, the mask is not removable, and thus there is no "Damus" face underneath. Additionally, though the head contains violet-colored light-piping, it is constructed in such a way that makes the eyes appear completely black when not illuminated.

In an undocumented feature, Tarn’s smaller back turrets are removable.^[3] Detaching them reveals two 5 mm ports at the base and beginning of the turret, allowing them to be held as small guns or batons respectively. Doing this can be quite difficult given how tight they are in the back, so exercise caution when removing them as his backpack is made from very thin clear plastic and can snap easily.

This mold was later redecoed to make Cyberverse Universe Tarn and retooled twice to make two different versions of Bludgeon.

This figure was revealed during Hasbro Pulse Con 2022. Though scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2023, its wave arrived at Hong Kong retail in early December 2022. Its run at retail was kind of short-lived though, and the toy proved a bit difficult to get.

Tarn was repacked and re-released the following year, in the fifth and final wave of United: Legacy Voyager-class toys, alongside several other figures that US fans had trouble acquiring the first time around (though Tarn was the only wide-release toy among this batch, the rest being former store exclusives). There are no notable differences between the two toys other than the packaging.

• Mark Maher's designer commentary on Legacy Evolution Comic Universe Tarn
• Machine translation of Tarn's TakaraTomy bio

Merchandise

Flame Toys

"You'll suffer till the end of time, enduring tortures, most of which rhyme, trapped forever here in Robot Hell!"

• Tarn (August 2018)
  • Accessories: mask, 2 fusion cannons, 2 back cannons, clean mask (exclusive), 2 vocal effector cannons (exclusive)
  • Sculptor: Chemical Attack
  • Painting by: Decomas Lab (Hiroyuki Hirose]

Produced by Flame Toys as part of their Kuro Kara Kuri line, Tarn is a detailed non-transforming action figure featuring die-cast parts and LEDs in his head, chest, and legs. He comes with two fusion cannons that can be mounted on his arm or combined into one giant handheld weapon, two guns that attach to his back and a removable mask. If purchased via D4toys.com, SEN-TI-DEN Hong Kong, or events attended by Flame Toys, he also includes an alternate mask without scars and two speakers that can replace the back guns.

• Tarn (Power Burst ver.) (July 26, 2019)
  • Sculptor: Chemical Attack
  • Painting by: Decomas Lab (Hiroyuki Hirose]

Debuted by Flame Toys at ACGHK 2019, "Tarn (Power Burst ver.)" is a chrome-plated redeco of the above figure, limited to 300 pieces: 200 at ACGHK 2019 and 100 at D4toys.com.

ULTIMATES!

• Tarn (ULTIMATES!, 2022)
  • Accessories: Alternate unmasked head, mask, fists (L & R), open hands (L & R), grasping hands (L & R), clawed hands (L & R), double fusion cannon, Nickel, Nickel's jet pack

Part of the third wave of Transformers ULTIMATES! from Super7, Tarn is a 7-inch-tall non-transforming action figure. Despite his retro look, he has an extensive amount of articulation, including multi-directional joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles; plus swivel biceps, elbows, knees, and a bit of ab crunch. His hands pop out at the wrists so they can be replaced with his additional spare hands, and he includes both masked and scarred head options as well as a separate mask accessory.

He also comes with a smaller, non-transforming figure of Nickel.

Preorders for Tarn (and the rest of Wave 3) opened on December 1, 2021, with the toys projected to ship in fall 2022... and actually shipping in November 2023.

Transformers Character Card

It's me and that guy you thought was me.

• Wandering Roller & Tarn Set (March 19, 2024)
  • ID number: 79 & 80

Released as part of the eleventh wave of the e-HOBBY exclusive Transformers Character Card series, this pair of holographic trading cards depict super-deformed art of Roller and Tarn along with character profiles and tech specs.

• Translation of Tarn's Transformers Character Card

Blokees

• Tarn (2024)

• Series: Galaxy Version 04 - Fractured Space-Time
• Accessories: 2 pairs of hands (fists/accessory-holding, splayed open-palm), stand

Part of the fourth wave of Blokees Transformers Galaxy Version line, Tarn is a small “chibi”-style articulated model kit that comes to about 3-4 inches when fully assembled.

Due to its construction, Tarn unfortunately does not feature the unmasked Damus face.

Notes

• Tarn's true identity was a mystery all the way up until his final appearance in issue #55. A popular theory was that he was Roller—a character who'd conspicuously gone missing sometime before the events of Megatron Origin and Autocracy—and More than Meets the Eye issue #36 even dropped a few clues that furthered this interpretation, with issue #55 directly playing on readers' expectations by having Velocity ask who Tarn really was... right before revealing that Roller was in fact alive and well! Still, James Roberts' notes for the series suggest that Tarn and Glitch were not initially conceived as being the same character,^[4] leading to speculation that plans for Tarn's identity may have changed or developed as the series progressed and Roberts was able to gauge readers' theories.
• Damus's name is derived from the historical figure Nostradamus.^[5]
• Damus's original body is based on War for Cybertron Bumblebee, meaning it probably turned into a similar Cybertronian car.^[6]
• According to James Roberts, Damus was forged in the city of, uh, Tarn.^[7]
• James Roberts described Tarn as a Phase Sixer.^[8] This is not the first time this has come up: More than Meets the Eye #14 had Prowl compare Tarn to known Phase Sixers Overlord and Sixshot, but given the fact that Tarn does his own thing and doesn't follow infiltration protocol, it's likely an offhanded comment referring to his specific "power level" and not a direct commentary on his role in the Decepticon army.
• Cocreator Alex Milne's ideal voice for Tarn is Keith David.^[9]
• Like all non-toy robot Kreons in the Kre-O manga, Kreon Tarn is made from existing Kre-O parts, but extensively "painted". He uses the Ratchet helmet, the Megatron arm-cannon, and some kind of setup to wear the Bludgeon treads on his back.
• The Decepticon supersoldiers from Transformers: Cyberverse are designed to resemble Tarn, including one that shares his name.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Tarn (ターン Tān)

References