Prowl is the name of several characters in the Transformers Universes. After Optimus Prime and Megatron, "Prowl" is one of the single most re-used names in the assorted Transformers series, and its use has become almost syonymous with Transformers who posses a police car alternate mode.
Generation One (1984)
Prowl is an Autobot of many virtues - he is quiet, competent, loyal, and possessed of almost endless patience. When Optimus Prime appoints Prowl a task, he can be guaranteed that it will be completed to the best of Prowl's ability. Prowl is not given to speculation or estimation - the only realm in which he will work is that of the proven fact; if he can't explain it, he will not believe it. He hates doubt, and strives to make a situation and simple and logical as possible, purging excesses of concern from his mind by going to Optimus Prime for assurance. Prowl is friendly, but as a listener, and not a talker, he is not too sociable, enterting a conversation usually only when someone makes an unreasonable remark, and demanding and explanation.
Prowl's logic center is unquestionably the most powerful of all the Autobots' and gives him the ability to analyze any combat situation almost instantaneously and then advise on the optimal course of action - for example, he can compute the paths of movement of 800 separate moving objects and determine the proper countermove in half a second. In robot mode, he is armed with a pair of shoulder-mounted cannons which fire wire-guided incendiary missiles, and a semi-automatic rifle that shoots pellets filled with a highly corrosive acid. He transforms into a police car version of a Datsun Fairlady 280ZX.
Prowl's straightforward mind means that non-linear thinking is one of his biggest weaknesses. Irrational situations and thought processes can sometimes scramble his circuits to the extent that his mind with briefly shut down.
Prowl's toy shares the same mould with Bluestreak, which was later slightly modified into Smokescreen. The face of the toy was the direct inspiration for the design of the Autobot symbol.
Animated Series
A regular member of the battle units assembled to combat the assorted threats the Decepticons posed to Earth, Prowl's primary solo adventure saw him pursue Starscream, Thundercracker and Soundwave alongside Bluestreak after a botched raid, only for injuries sustained in the ensuing battle to knock his battle computer offline. Unable to mobilise himself without its functions, Prowl reached out electronically and interfaced with the nearby computer of Chip Chase, who manipulated Prowl's body and fended off the Decepticons. Beyond that, however, Prowl's role as a strategist put him firmly in the background of the Transformers' ongoing adventures on Earth, participating in many battles but playing key roles in few; among some of his roles in conflict involving him orchestrating the plan to invade the Decepticons' underwater base, devising security measures to prevent Megatron from stealing super-fuel from an Autobot convoy and leading the attack against Blitzwing's fortress when he separated from the Decepticons, only to wind up built into a throne by Scrapper).
In the year 2005, when the Autobots had been forced off of Cybertron and were based out of Autobot City on Earth and two orbiting moonbases, Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet and Brawn were dispatched to Earth to collect a shipment of Energon Cubes that would power the Autobots' subsequent strike at the Decepticons. Getting wind of the plan, Megatron and his forces attacked their shuttle, and a direct hit from Scavenger's weapon penetrated Prowl's armor, melting his internal workings and ending his life. His recovered body was laid to rest in the Autobots' deep-space masusoleum, which was later destroyed.
Prowl was performed by Michael Bell. Strangely, although his toy tech specs placed him as as second-in-command of the Autobots, in the animated series, both Jazz and Ironhide clearly outranked him. Despite his death, he made a further appearance or two due to animation errors in the opening episodes of the Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: Headmasters.
Contrary to his portrayal in the animated series, Prowl was most definitely second-in-command of the Autobots in Marvel's ongoing Transformers comic book series. Following the Autobots' reactivation on Earth in 1984, Prowl led the first mission into nearby Portland. At first thinking that the Earthly vehicles were the planet's dominant lifeform, a battle with the Decepticons soon revealed to Prowl the existence of humans, and he ordered the Autobots to return to the Ark to report the new development to Optimus Prime. He participated in the battles that followed immediately, and was among the majority of injured Autobots who gave their energy to the most healthy group of five for the deciding clash against the Decepticons. Although the Autobots appeared to claim victory, their hopes were dashed by the arrival of Shockwave, who deactivated all the Autobots and strung them up in the Ark.
Thus did Prowl remain for a short period, until surviving medical officer Ratchet repaired and restored them - save for Optimus Prime, decapitated by Shockwave, who was draining the energy of the Creation Matrix from him to create new Decepticons. Prowl proceeded to head up the plan to save Prime, but Shockwave manipulated his headless body to attack the Autobots. Although many were badly damaged before Prime regained control of his form and defeated Shockwave, Prowl was not among them - although not an immediate contributor to any following conflicts, he was seen in several group shots in the Ark.
A little later, across the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom's exclusive Transformers title, writer Simon Furman penned a tale in which Prowl was shredded by Shrapnel's weaponry. This served as explanation for Prowl's condition when he next appeared in the US title - stored within one of the Ark's stasis pods in a badly-damaged but surviving state (with no explanation offered). Under attack by the human known as the Mechanic, Ratchet played upon his fear of the police by reactivating Prowl long enough for him to transform and send the human fleeing before slipping back into deactivation. A later UK story posthumously indicated that Prowl was back in action by the time that Starscream acquired the power of the Underbase, and was among the large number of Transformers deactivated by the villain, but the actual story itself did not show this.
However he came to suffer it, deactivation was Prowl's fate for the extended future, until, in 1990, the Dinobot commander Grimlock pumped the Ark's stasis pods full of the life-restoring fuel, Nucleon, reactivating Prowl, who participated in the epic battle with Unicron, and immediately fell into the trusted role of second-in-command again, only this time, his commanding officer was Grimlock himself, having been appointed leader by the dying Optimus Prime. Prowl's logical approach to things immediately clashed with Grimlock's gruff, unrestrained, unmoderated behaviour, but Grimlock played it Prowl's way by agreed to a truce with the Decepticons in order to evacuate a seeingly-doomed Cybertron. Prowl was left eating his words when the Decepticons sabotaged the Autobots' ships, leaving them to their fates, and almost had a breakdown in the face of his impending demise until Grimlock swooped in to the rescue with shuttles he had previously commandeered. The Autobots subsequently tracked the Decepticons to Klo, where they routed them with the help of the reborn Optimus Prime, and they then returned to Cybertron; rather than destroying itself, Cybertron had been restoring itself to its former glory.
Although the effect did not seem to overtake Prowl before the end of the series, Nucleon's side-effect saw it rob Transformers' of their ability to transform into vehicle mode. Consequently, Prowl would have become an Actionmaster - no coincidence, since a figure of him was released in the 1990 toyline, equipped with a transforming Turbo-Cycle vehicle.
Earthforce
In 1990, in the previously-mentioned UK-exclusive comics, a branching storyline began that was separate from the events of the regular US continuity, and broke away into its own ongoing series of stories. Prowl was among a small group of Transformers awakened from stasis, not by Nucleon, but by the mental probings of the time-travelling Galvatron - but the world that Prowl woke up to was distinctly different to the one he remembered. Transformers were no longer as simple as they were in his day - surrounded by Pretenders, Headmasters, Micromasters, Powermasters and more, Prowl and his fellow old-schoolers longed for the old days, and when Grimlock suggested the creation of a proactive Earth-based Autobot force, they were quick to volunteer to join, that they might recapture some of their glory days in a simpler conflict than what the larger war had become.
As a member of the Earthforce, Prowl performed such feats as travelling back in time to prevent Megatron from removing troops from the past to use in the present, and having to actually break into the Autobots' own base when Wheeljack activated the defenses with everyone outside.
Dreamwave Comics
In Dreamwave Productions' 21st Century reimagining of the G1 universe, Prowl was also portrayed in a position of command, even taking the reins of leadership when Optimus Prime and Megatron vanished in an early test of the Spacebridge transport system around 6.5 million years ago. Leading the team that first encountered the giant Decepticon, Trypticon, Prowl later arranged a brief truce with Shockwave in order to halt the plans of the Fallen.
After the Autobots' awakening on Earth in 1984, and their subsequent apparent death in the explosion of the Ark II in 2001, Prowl was among the deactivated Transformers recovered by the terrorist known as Lazarus, and put under his control. Also among the controlled was Megatron, who soon broke free and initiated his own plan, part of which involved the creation of a transmode virus that would reformat the Earth into a new Cybertron; Lazarus's other Autobot captives, including Prowl, were used as a source of power to generate the virus, but were later rescued and restored.
The following year, Shockwave and his forces arrived from Cybertron, intending to capture Prime, Megatron and their forces as war criminals, as Shockwave had succeeded in unifying the warring factions on their home planet. Staying behind with a small group to monitor Shockwave's movements while Prime returned to base, Prowl was shocked to be confronted by Ultra Magnus, and willingly entered his custody to learn more about the situation. Returned to Cybertron, Prowl and several other Autobots fell in with an underground rebel group opposing Shockwave's rule, who were then mobilised by Optimus Prime into striking back. Prime was seriously wounded in his ensuing confrontation with Shockwave, and while he recuperated from his injuries, Prowl assumed the mantle of leadership again.
The balance of peace on Cybertron fell into disorder once again, and Prowl began an attempt to train new warriors to bolster the Autobots' forces, without much success. Tryingh is hand at public speaking, Prowl found himself unable to handle the deluge of questions from the crowd before him, and it fell to Ultra Magnus to step in. After investigating Vector Sigma and Sunstorm with Perceptor, Prowl, feeling that Cybertronians would not accept change easily, elected to go somewhere that the Autobots were needed more - back to Earth, where he oversaw the beginning of construction on Autobot City.
Although Dreamwave clearly had more stories to tell of Prowl, their bankruptcy and closure means that for now, those tales will go untold.
The Alternator (Binaltech in Japan) version of Prowl transforms into a Honda Acura police car. The toy was redecoed in blue and also released under Prowl's name - the storyline claims it to be an alternate body, kept as an emergency back up for Prowl, or any other Autobot.
Beast Wars (1997)
In the 90's new Transformers toyline, two separate characters were given the name of Prowl - a precursor to the excessive reuse the name would undergo as the years rolled by.
The first Beast Wars Prowl, released in 1997, transformed into a lion, and could combine with teammates Ironhide and Silverbolt (like Prowl, no relation to their original G1 namesakes) into the giant warrior, Magnaboss. Sold as part of a pack, Prowl received no individual biographical information, leaving him a blank slate (although the Japanese version of the character, named Lio Junior, did have a bio, presented as a young, wild character).
Such was not the case, however, with the second Beast Wars Prowl, a Transmetal 2 owl released in 1999, availble first in a white colouration, then later in a black variant (dubbed "Smokescreen" by some fans in a callback to the shared mould of the original two Generation 1 characters). This Prowl's biography is distinctly familiar, being almost identical to that of the original, G1 Prowl. He strives to find logic and reasoning in everything. A listener, not a talker, he has the most sophisticated logic center of all the Maximals, which enables him to analyze and advise on complex combat situations almost instantaneously. He fires highly corrosive acid pellets, and is equipped with a cybernetic eye and frontal lobe, which interact with him wing-mounted ion orbs to supply him limited telekinetic power. He is afflicted with ironic, dry sense of humor. The reason for the similarity to G1 Prowl's biography is made immediately apparent, however - his belief that he was a great military strategist in a former life indicates that this character actually is the original Prowl, reincarnated after his death.
Although neither of these two Prowls puts in an appearance on the CGI-animated Beast Wars series, the original Prowl does, showing up briefly in flashbacks to the G1 era and among the deactivated bodies littering the Ark.
Machine Wars (1997)
Between the two years of Prowl's "return" in Beast Wars, in 1997, this small toyline was released exclusively in KB Toys stores, and featured a new Prowl figure with a spring-loaded transformation and a racing car alternate mode. The lack of any supporting fiction for the line leaves its place in continuity with either Generation One or Beast Wars hard to define, but the bio-card of Prowl clearly shows that he was cast in the mould of his original G1 namesake - As Chief of Security for Autobot forces, he is calculating, quiet and competent. His thought processors are intensely logical, and his enhanced racing design conceals sophisticated micro-circuitry capable of processing 30,000 bytes of information per millisecond. His loyalty and patience are perhaps his greatest assets.
Robots in Disguise (2001)
The first new character in a distinctly-alternate universe to bear the name of Prowl, this character was known as Mach Alert in Car Robots, the original Japanese version of the Robots in Disguise toyline and animated series. As the middle Autobot Brother, Prowl is the most intelligent of the three, and transforms into a Lambourghini Diabolo police car. He is equipped with a double-barrelled flame-thrower which can serve as booster jets for high-speed pursuits. Prowl can use his electronic systems to jam raidios or hack into systems, and his ultra-sensetive scanners can detect the hum of an enemy circuit from clear across a city, and he won't give up until he's got his man. In his role posing as an ordinary human police car, Prowl has become a model officer dedicated to the preservation of law and order - even when it occasionally conflicts with his duties as an Autobot. With the appearance of Megatron's forces on Earth, Prowl was forced to emerge from hiding alongside his brothers, X-Brawn and Side Burn, to engage the villains in a series of battles. As the most level-headed of the Autobot Brothers due to his police training, he was the one who rarely got himself involved in solo battles, instead fighting as part of a team for maximum effect. Prowl's authoritarian attitude shapes much of who he is and what he does - he spent a lot of time keeping Side Burn in line, often catching him breaking the rules of the road in his pursuits of red sports cars, and imparted those same rules to Tow-Line, who followed them with even greater zeal than Prowl himself. So entrenched in his role as a police car, Prowl at one point was even unwilling to disguise his "uniform" so that he could save Side Burn from a Decepticon trap.
When Optimus Prime's brother, Ultra Magnus, came to Earth and forced Prime into a combination that allowed him to share the power of the Matrix, Magnus's link to the Matrix resulted in him inadvertantly channelling its energy in the midst of a battle. That energy involved Prowl, Side Burn and X-Brawn, "supercharging" them into newly-colored, more powerful bodies. After a brief amount of training, Prowl and the others were soon able to control this new ability, shifting to "Supercharge Mode" when an extra power boost was needed in battle. Their supercharged modes afforded them no advantage in their final battle with Galvatron, however, as they were strung up and had their energy drained by the villain, until Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus challenged him to a final battle at the Earth's core, and defeated the villain.
Prowl was performed by Wayne C. Lewis, under his radio pseudonym of "Wankus."
Additionally, although the character did not feature in the animated series, the Robots in Disguise toyline featured a Spychanger figure named Prowl 2, based on a previously-unreleased mould originally inteded for use in Generation 2. Later, in 2004, this figure was recolored to resemble the original G1 Prowl, and released in an unnamed sub-line of Spychangers along with several other similar figures.
Armada (2003)
This new continuity introduced in 2003 again features two distinct characters by the name of Prowl. The first is, fortunately, fairly insignificant - a Mini-Con from the Transformers: Armada line and a member of the Emergency Team, this Prowl transforms into a police car and a gun. He did not appear in the animated series.
Energon (2004)
The second holder of the Prowl name, from Transformers: Energon, is a more notable character, known in Japan as Red Alert. This Prowl is head of security for several strategic bases, and in both robot mode and in his alternate mode as a Formula One police car, he is faster than any of his comrades. His hand weapon fires twin beams of energy which act like restraining cables, wrapping around an opponent and immobilising them. Endowed with the Spark of Combination, Prowl can "Powerlinx" with other, similarly-enabled Autobots, becoming either a torso or legs, allowing for the best configuration in any given his situation. Prowl is a true team player, but his suspicious nature prevents him from completely trusting any of his teammates - with the exception of his most frequent Powerlinx partner, Rodimus.
Prowl was among the Transformers who departed Cybertron under Rodimus's command ages ago, voyaging through space. Even after many of their companions settled on another world and became the Omnicons, Prowl stayed by Rodimus, along with Landmine, and eventually, they encountered Alpha Q, and learned of his plan to use the power of Energon to reconstitute all that had been destroyed by the planet-eater, Unicron. "Team Rodimus" pledged themselves to Alpha Q's plan, and returned to Earth, clashing with Optimus Prime and his Autobots there after an initial misunderstanding, and later, Optimus's own wariness over Alpha Q's plan. Rodimus and his team put themselves under Optimus's command when his misgivings proved accurate, and an Energon reaction caused by Megatron tore open a rift in space through which several Transformers, including Prowl, Powerlinked with Hot Shot, were pulled. In this new region of space, Alpha Q's plan had come to fruition, and all the worlds Unicron had destroyed were recreated, but soon had to be defended against the Decepticons, and the reactivated Unicron himself. With the destruction of Unicron's body, the battle seemed over, but one more challenged stood in the way as Megatron was possessed by Unicron's mind and upgraded into Galvatron. In order to defeat the Unicron-possessed Galvatron, all the Autobots, including Prowl, took Powerlinking to the ultimate extent, using their Sparks of Combination to transform into energy and fuse with Optimus Prime, who battled Galvatron before he shook off Unicron's control and plunged himself into the sun in sacrifice.
Prowl was voiced by Alestair Abel. The Transformers: Energon toyline also contained two additional toys bearing the Prowl name, which did not appear in the animated series:
- A black and white redeco of the Energon toy, one half of a SWAT Team along with Checkpoint (a similiarly redecoed Rodimus).
- A redeco of the Transformers: Armada Red Alert toy, in Energon Prowl's color scheme.
Whether or not these two figues are intended to represent alternate versions of the main Energon Prowl is unclear.
This multiple-universe-spanning line has featured several different Prowls from assorted universes.
Prowls featured in Universe include:
- A Micromaster bearing the name - a Western release of the figure formerly exclusive to Japan from 1992, known as Road Police. This Prowl naturally transforms into a police car, and combines with the other Micromaster Protectobots to form Defensor (SixTurbo in Japan).
- A 2004 slight redeco of Robots in Disguise Prowl, with added red decals and a larger Autobot symbol.
- A 2004 redeco of Robots in Disguise Spychanger Prowl 2, in the color scheme of G1 Red Alert.
- A 2004 maroon and grey redeco of Armada Mini-Con Prowl.
Alternators (2005)
In 2005, a new storyline that branched out of the animated series in the early 21st Century, Prowl staged a comeback. In this new storyline, much of the Autobots' earth-based force had been rendered inactive due to a biological warfare attack by the Decepticons, using Cosmic Rust, necessitating the construction of new bodies in joint partnership with human car companies. Prowl was not one of the injured, based as he was on Moonbase One at the time, but thanks to manipulations of the timeline by Ravage, Prowl became aware of his own impending death in 2005. An attempt was made to alter the course of time by transferring Prowl's laser core into a new body built by Honda, but rather than wait for him to come to Earth, a subspace transfer was arranged, only for a Decepticon attack on the shuttle to disrupt the process, causing Prowl's laser core to be lost in subspace. This loss caused Chip Chase to make a great sacrifice - having already interfaced with Prowl's body and controlled it before, he chose to upload his own mind into the body, fusing it with Prowl's own knowledge and personality, already uploaded into the body, giving it life.