Daniel Witwicky
Daniel Witwicky is the name of several characters in the Transformers series.
Generation One[edit]
| Daniel Witwicky | |
|---|---|
| Transformers character | |
| Information | |
| Affiliation | Autobot ally |
Search Daniel Witwicky on Amazon. Search Daniel Witwicky on Amazon.
Daniel Witwicky is a young member of the Witwicky family. He is most often portrayed as the son of Spike and Carly, but was once portrayed as the son of Spike's brother Buster.
Reception[edit]
Daniel was named the worst cartoon kid sidekick by Topless Robot.[1]
Marvel Comics[edit]
Daniel's sole appearance in the Marvel era Transformers continuity is in part one of the U.K. story "Time Wars" (issue #199), where he is seen alongside his father pleading with Rodimus Prime to save the earth.
Animated series[edit]
Another character conceived for the animated universe, Daniel Witwicky is the son of Carly and Spike, born in 1993. (Note that Daniel's age is not given in the series, but the script for the movie describes him as being 12 years old by the year 2005.) Living in Autobot City on Earth, Daniel was friends with the young Autobot, Hot Rod, as they broke the rules and had fun together in various ways.
In 2005, when Daniel was particularly feeling the absence of his father (stationed on one of Cybertron's moons), events soon escalated to epic proportions as a Decepticon attack on the city foreshadowed the coming of the planet-eater, Unicron. Watched over by the female Autobot Arcee for the majority of the adventure, Daniel was given his father's old transforming "Exo-Suit" battle armor when the Autobots' shuttle crashed on the Planet of Junk, and he used its powers to escape attacks by the Decepticons and Junkions, and to aid Springer in battle against Wreck-Gar. Arriving on Cybertron, the Autobots' craft was piloted directly into Unicron's massive body, where Daniel was separated from the Autobots, but discovered his father and the three Autobots (Bumblebee, Jazz, and Cliffjumper) who had been captured earlier in the movie when Unicron had consumed Cybertron's twin moons and saved them from meeting a nasty end in an acid vat.
Subsequently, with Hot Rod now in the form of Rodimus Prime and consumed with the duties of leadership, Daniel made a new best friend in the form of new Autobot recruit Wheelie, and they got up to their fair share of trouble when they set out on their own to discover Ultra Magnus's birthday, and stumbled into the clutches of the Decepticons, necessitating rescue by the subject of their search. It was not the last time Daniel wound up in trouble, however, as he and Grimlock soon found their way to the sorcerous dimension of Menonia, where Daniel was imprisoned by the tyrannical Red Wizard. Not long after his return to Cybertron, he was kidnapped by the Quintessons, who sought to harness the unpredictable nature of humans against the Autobots by bringing Daniel's nightmares to life. Daniel was also able to aid the Autobots at times, acting as part of a plan to steal Trypticon's transformation cog.
In 2007, during a friendly race against Blurr, Daniel and Hot Rod worked together to achieve victory, proving one of the theories created by Autobot scientist Brainstorm - that Transformers and humans functioned better together than separately. Soon after, Daniel was among the Autobots and humans who were blasted to the planet Nebulos by the energies of the Plasma Energy Chamber. There, after the Decepticons followed them to the planet and attacked, Daniel attempted to defend Arcee and was mauled by Snapdragon, leaving him fatally wounded. Only the life-support equipment of the Nebulan rebels the Autobots had taken up with was able to keep him alive long enough for the incredible change that was to come. Brainstorm's idea of co-operation was taken to its ultimate extreme when idea Spike performed a procedure to bond some of the rebels and Autobots together as Headmasters to pool their abilities against the Decepticons and Nebulos's evil ruling "Hive". Additionally, to save Daniel's life, Arcee offered herself up as his Headmaster partner, and Daniel and she became bonded, Arcee's head transforming into a duplicate of the Exo-Suit Daniel had previously worn (though in one unusual animation error, when Daniel is seen inside her head, he is still wearing the exo-suit). In the resultant battles against the Decepticons, who duplicated the process, Arcee and Daniel were able to reacquire the stolen key to the Plasma Energy Chamber, but were captured by the Decepticon super-robot, Scorponok, and Daniel was tortured, forcing Arcee to give up the key. Spike - now a Headmaster himself - rescued his son and stopped the Decepticons' plan.
With the removal of'"The Rebirth" from Japanese continuity, replaced with the Transformers: The Headmasters series, Daniel never became a Headmaster on the other side of the Pacific Ocean - instead, he acted as the primary supporting human character of the series, appearing in almost every episode and regularly playing integral roles alongside Wheelie. Although by all rights supposedly older than he was in his American cartoon appearances, the Japanese interpretation of Daniel regresses his personality to a much more petulant, immature child who often bursts into tears; in that regard, much of the Headmasters series is actually about Daniel growing up and maturing.
After Fortress and his Headmasters joined up with the Cybertronian Autobots, Daniel and Wheelie sneaked aboard their battleship so that they could see other planets, and although they were discovered, Fortress allowed them to accompany them on their mission to Planet Beast. Daniel subsequently performed the remarkable act of saving Cybertron by planting the explosives that destroyed a gravity-warping meteor that Galvatron had set on course with the planet. Daniel's tales of Earth ninjas helped expose the deception wrought by Sixshot, and when captured by Decepticons on Mars, he activated the homing signal that brought the Autobots to the planet.
When Spike attempted to hold a peace conference with Galvatron, the Decepticon leader demanded that he leave Daniel on Earth as a show of his good faith. Spike was willing to comply, until the peace conference was revealed as a distraction that allowed the Decepticons to get a heard start on pillaging other planets for energy. Daniel and Wheelie were then permitted by Spike to travel with Fortress and his crew when they set off in pursuit of the Decepticons across the galaxy, so that he might see more planets and grow through his experiences - sadly, it was mostly violence that Daniel saw, although such experiences helped harden him to the realities of war. He was offered one peaceful respite, however, when he met the beautiful young girl, Papika, on the planet of Paradise.
As the Autobots were chasing the Decepticons back to Earth, Daniel foolishly disobeyed orders and sneaked into one of Battleship Maximus's weapons turrets, only for it to be damaged in battle and disconnected from the craft, sending Daniel plummeting to the deserted planet Diamond. Sixshot had also been caught in the storm that dragged him to Diamond, and he rescued the boy from the wreckage, much to Daniel's surprise. Sixshot explained that he might be a Decepticon, but he didn't kill children. In the subsequent adventure they had together, battling Diamond's dangerous native rock creatures, Daniel came to believe that Sixshot was an honorable warrior, and consequently attempted to stop the duel that ensued between him and Chromedome.
Back on Earth, natural disasters caused by Scorponok's plan to destroy the planet began to cause chaos, and Daniel proved to his father how much he had grown by rescuing his mother from the bottom of a cliff. Soon after, during the final battle at the North Pole, Daniel was defended against Decepticon attacks by Sixshot, and as Fortress Maximus was locked in combat with Scorponok, Daniel hit upon the idea of combining all the Transformers' and his energies with the Headmasters' Head Formation, channeling all their power into Fortress Maximus, who destroyed Scorponok's Transtector and won the battle. Daniel was then forced to say his tearful goodbyes as the Autobots left Earth to pursue the Decepticons into space.
Books[edit]
Daniel appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books. In this continuity, his father was Buster Witwicky.
Manga[edit]
In the Japanese manga "Big War" #2 the Autobots Rodimus Prime, Grimlock, Kup and Wheelie, along with their human allies Spike Witwicky and Daniel Witwicky send Computron into battle against Galvatron's new warrior combiner Abominus. The Terrorcons spit "corrosive control liquid" against Computron, taking control of him and turning him into a Decepticon. Spike luckily uses his new Exosuit to free Computron with "defense spray". Defeated, Galvatron retreats.[2]
Dreamwave Productions[edit]
Daniel would make a brief cameo appearance in Dreamwave Productions' first Generation One mini-series as a toddler.
3H Publishing[edit]
In the Transformers Universe comic released at Botcon 2001, in a story set some years after we had last seen Daniel, we see that he is now a teenager and a college student, who still adventures with the Transformers during semester breaks. Unfortunately, he and Wheelie are involved, with other Transformers including Arcee and Springer, in a major fight with an army of robot ninja drones patterned after Nightbird from the episode of the same name. Wheelie is injured and the only way to stop the robots from causing more harm is for Daniel to detonate manually a large number of explosives, committing suicide to give his friends time to get clear. His loss is deeply felt by Arcee, who enters a long period of depression as a result.
Toys[edit]
- Generation 1 Headmaster Arcee (unreleased)
- Like all the new characters in the movie (with the exception of Ultra Magnus), Arcee was designed for animation first, but while the other new characters inspired toys that saw final release, Arcee's design never passed early prototype stages. When she became a Headmaster, Takara dallied with the idea of repainting the Chromedome toy to represent her, but the suggestion was abandoned. A few pictures of prototypes have appeared online. In robot mode, Daniel would have been able to turn into Arcee's head, in vehicle mode he would have formed the front of the car.
- Heroes of Cybertron Arcee (2001)
- A non-transforming "Heroes of Cybertron" Daniel Witwicky was released in 2001 with Arcee.
Transformers Animated[edit]
| Daniel Witwicky | |
|---|---|
| Transformers character | |
| Information | |
| Affiliation | None |
Search Daniel Witwicky on Amazon. Search Daniel Witwicky on Amazon.
Daniel is the son of Carly and Spike Witwicky. Since his parents work for Professor Sumdac, he is forced into being friends with his daughter, Sari. Spike, Carly and Daniel are seen at a hot dog stand in "Transform and Roll Out" and was later seen in "Sound and Fury" and "Headmaster" voiced by Tara Strong. Daniel, Carly and Spike were also seen in both parts of "Human Error", computer simulations of them riding a bus in the first part while their proper selves appeared in the second. Daniel would later appear in an animated short where he asked Optimus Prime where his trailer goes when he transforms into robot mode, a question in which even Optimus himself cannot figure out the answer.
References[edit]
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