John Powell
From Transformers Wiki
- John Powell is a human from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
John Powell is a police sergeant in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
When two men with guns of Megatron's design were holding a number of injured Autobots at gunpoint in a playground, Powell and his men were sent in to defuse the situation. Ignoring Schwalbe's demands that they take the maniacs down, he had the other officers hold their fire until the alien weapons stopped brainwashing their wielders, who were left disoriented and taken into arrest. However, Powell grabbed one of the guns for himself and continued to threaten the Autobots, revealing he agreed with the vigilantes that the Transformers were a threat to humanity, and after all his job was "to protect." Bumblebee argued that the Autobots were there to protect people as well, otherwise they could just have stepped on the humans threatening them. Powell may have begun seeing the truth in his words... but we'll never know, because that's when Jazz came to his friends' rescue, saw him pointing a gun at them and promptly incinerated him. Burning Chrome His death was reported on the news as a Cybertronian "attack" on Albuquerque. Enemy Mine The fact that the killing was done by an Autobot undid much of the goodwill the Autobots had built up following Megatron's invasion and fermented the anti-Cybertronian feeling on Earth. The Next Day, and the Next
Jazz would long harbor regret over his impulsive action, seeing Powell as an innocent man who shouldn't have gotten mixed up in the Transformers' war. Full Fathom Five
When the Autobots returned to Earth, Jazz was still hated and distrusted for his killing of Powell. The Next Day, and the Next Laserbeak was able to exploit Jazz's guilt over Powell's killing in a battle. Detonation Boulevard
When Jazz was due to give an interview on Mexican television, Feel Safe Without Regrets the President warned Optimus Prime against letting Jazz give the interview lest "the killer of John Powell" become the face of the Autobots' public relations. The Next Day, and the Next
When Jazz was interviewed by Hector Ramirez, the human lulled Jazz into a false sense of security before trying to get a public confession to Powell's killing. An insulted Jazz soon left after a warning from Optimus Prime that the interview was a trap. What It's Really Like
The Colonist Soldiers eventually went looking for Jazz in Mexico where Gimlet questioned why the human race cared so much about Powell's death, noting the Decepticons had killed far more humans than Jazz. The anti-human Slide explained humanity only cared about Powell due to him being killed on camera. Primeless, Part 1 Powell's death was used as the main point in Megan Guiglione's anti-Cybertronian rhetoric which prompted Mayhem to target her to try and validate her fears and remove their species' focus on Earth. Requiem of the Wreckers
Jazz later turned himself in for Powell's killing so that Rom could make use of Trypticon's space bridge. Unstopped and Unstoppable
