Jhiaxus

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Jhiaxus (pronounced gee-axe-us) was a fictional character in the Marvel Comics's Transformers: Generation 2 comic. He was the Cybertronian leader (or more appropriately, warlord) of the second-generation Decepticons.

[edit] Transformers: Generation 2

He held the rank Liege Centuro. In one notable occurrence, Jhiaxus destroyed San Francisco, just to anger Optimus Prime.

He had a cold, callous personality - a big departure from Megatron's zeal, Galvatron's insanity and Shockwave's calculating logic - and, as he didn't view organics as being actual lifeforms, believed the Empire was a progressive force of construction. His weakness, however, was his inner demons as he attempted to suppress his past as a brutal butcher and, after constant defeats by the G1 "throwbacks", went insane under the stress of it.

He is one of the strongest combatants in Transformers, sending a berserker Optimus on the run and defeating G2 Megatron in single combat.

[edit] Biography

Jhiaxus was among the earliest "second generation" Decepticons that would eventually form the Cybertronian Empire, and he was originally a vicious, warmongering butcher and sadist who revelled in slaughter. When the Empire abandoned Cybertron and turned to Cyberforming the universe, he believed they were progressing towards construction and that he was abandoning his brutal past. When he ran into the Autobot platoon under Optimus & Grimlock, he captured them alive with intent to convince them to join the Empire, and when they rebelled he pursued them with intent to destroy.

The pursuit went bad when both Autobot & Imperial flew into a sector of space inhabited by psychic parasites that fed off violent feelings. Everyone went berserk, and after they'd escaped Jhiaxus was left staggered by witnessing his brutal past once more. He internally pledged that he had to hunt down and wipe out the Autobots, because their existence and morality challenged the Empire's ideology far too greatly - if they were right about organics being alive, he was still a sadistic butcher. This was where his downfall began, as he became obsessed with removing the "throwbacks".

Prime made an attempt to form an alliance with Megatron against Jhiaxus. It failed, and Optimus decided to wait for Megatron's Decepticons to come into conflict with Jhiaxus'. The conflict began with the obliteration of a Decepticon scout team and then a mass assault on Megatron's Warworld flagship. The battle resulted in an indiscriminant slaughter, with the original Decepticon forces being decimated. In an attempt to turn the tide of the battle and prove himself the true Decepticon leader, Megatron challenged Jhiaxus to a duel and was nearly killed. Ironically, it was this defeat that caused the Decepticons to ally with the Autobots, and thus Jhiaxus' attempt at removing a threat had only increased it!

Over the course of the ensuing war, he began to slip more into rage and insanity, ordering galaxy-wide massacres to draw the Autobots out and proving himself unable to deal with unexpected setbacks, greatly limiting his effectiveness as a leader. In the end it was to be his rage that destroyed him.

After learning of the existence of The Swarm, Optimus Prime attempted to reach out to Jhiaxus. The latter however had now lost all grip on his sanity due to his defeats at the hands out the outnumbered & 'outdated alliance. Soon after the destruction of San Francisco, done solely to show he could, he engaged Optimus in battle and decimated him, his first blow shattered Prime's faceplate and destroyed his vocal systems. Before he could finish the battle, The Swarm arrived. Driven by his rage, Jhiaxus challenged The Swarm itself. Being a foe that could not be combated through ordinary means, Jhiaxus was unable to harm it and was consumed with ease.

Unlike most of the notable Transformer characters in the Transformers comics, Jhiaxus is not based on a toy, but was instead completely invented by Marvel. The name "Jhiaxus" is a pun on the words "gee, axe us", anticipating the short life of the Generation 2 comic, which proved to be correct.

[edit] Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Near the end of the toyline's life, the name Jhiaxus was used for an orange repaint of the Beast Machines jet Jetstorm.

Although he had no tech specs or background information, he was finally given a bio in one of the Transformers collectors club magazines, where it was revealed he was indeed the same character as the Generation 2 Jhiaxus. The collectors club planned to make Jhiaxus part of their Transformers: Universe fiction, explaining how a G2 character could appear in Robots in Disguise, supposedly a different universe altogether.