Favourite Female Character month: Circuit Breaker

[icon_uk]

In reply from a request from werehawk , I've done some digging through my longboxes, the local library and the invaluable resources at tfwiki to produce this profile of one of more interesting humans to interact with the Transformers in many, many years...

The fact that she appears to be wearing nothing more than a layer of shredded tinfoil should not lead one to underestimate Josie Beller, better known as...



CIRCUIT BREAKER!



Josie is introduced briefly in Transformers 5 (Original Marvel run) as a brilliant young technician and engineer working for GB Blackrock



Blackrock is sort of a low rent Tony Stark (he even wears multiple medallions with his open necked shirt), Blackrock Enterprises being a vast multinational concern, including a LOT of energy and fuel concerns. He also tended to come to the attention of the Decepticons a lot, in this case building a super-efficient oil rig. He was also prepared for some Decepticon interest in it, and so had a few extra's built in by Josie.

Sure enough, in #6, things go VERY bad, when the last Transformer you want to take an interest in your project shows up... Cue Shockwave demanding that the oil rig be turned over to HIM.



I include this next page simply because it's fun to see a giant flying ray gun being attacked by a swarm of autogyros! :)



Things go about as well as one would expect....



Alas it doesn't work and there's only one option...





This becomes one of the defining moments in Blackrock's life, his hubris attracted the attention of the Decepticons and Josie suffered as a result and he remains guilt ridden about it.

By issue #7 Josie is taken to the finest hospital that money can afford, but





And in issue #8



And by the end of the issue...



Give Josie her due, she is NOT one to sit back and do nothing.

And now we move to issue #9





Now I have to say that that is QUITE the entrance, and one hell of a design.





Now that's an interesting set of abilities, and I like that this isn't a "cure" per se, her body is still paralysed but she has constructed something to assist her (I also like that she can only fly when in the presence of a LOT of electromagnetic metal... can you think who might qualify in that regard?)

Next thing you know, the Decepticons attack ANOTHER Blackrock site which is showcasing a "Anti-Robot Photonic Multi-Cannon" (Blackrock is taking the attacks by the Decepticons VERY personally and had built a fake giant robot as a target) and this time an Autobot show up to help (Up until this issue Blackrock had no idea that the Autobots existed, but being kidnapped by Wheeljack helps him understand the situation)

Whilst Wheeljack deals with Frenzy, Starscream attacks Jazz, only for a flying human figure to knock him out of the sky by making his internal elextrics go on the fritz!

Wheeljack is delighted by the unexpected ally





In case you were wondering, that with the dummy giant robot that Josie blew up there...

She became a semi-regular foe, her complete and utter hatred of ALL robots, be they Autobot or Decepticon, made her dangerous to both sides. She used a wheelchair when not actively using her Circuit Breaker gear (It folded up around the chair so she could activate it at a moments notice) She became the first leader of the human organised RAAT team (Rapid Anti-robot Assault Team) and led them to some success to, as this image from later in her career shows...



She never really improved her approach to robots, loathing them pretty much completely, and even started to referring to Josie as being dead, and that she was Circuit Breaker who had been "built" to destroy robots. If there's interest I can try posting a couple more of her appearances.

Now, there is another weird quirk about Circuit Breaker, she belongs to Marvel, OUTRIGHT. And they made damn sure of that by featuring her in the pages of, of all things, "Secret Wars II", before she appeared in Transformers (Well, as Circuit Breaker at least, she'd appeared as Josie by then)



The resulting problem is that whilst marvel could therefor reprint any stories that she appeared in, no other company could, so even IDW can't reprint her appearances OR use the character in their "Transformers: ReGeneration One" series, so, undaunted (Well, fairly undaunted) they sort of worked around it.

By the time they spend much time on Earth they established that Josie had died some time before, but her technology had been passed on to a successor, someone who had already offered himself up for cybernetic enhancement.



Meet the new identity of Spike Witwicky (Buster Witwcky's older brother) who had previously been the Headmaster unit for Cerebros, who was in turn the Headmaster unit for Fortress Maximum, but now known as Circuit SMASHER (And see more from that preview here)

Hmmmmm, whilst I have no actual objection to half clad blonds with technological implants (Hi there!) he doesn't have quite the same impact does he? (And the new name misses the joke completely)

Oh, and just for kicks, from the "Maximum Force" trade collection...



Interesting that the original plan was for her circuitry sections be red rather than blue (Though blue does get a mention)

Comments

[angelophile]

And then there was that time she fried a god.

[icon_uk]

True, I was thinking of leaving that for another post, along with stories like her Christmas issue appearance, and that time Skullgrin the Pretender became a film star

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Good, I was hoping there would be more. =)

[shadowpsykie]

so.... was she a villain?

[icon_uk]

Interesting question, what do YOU think? :)

[shadowpsykie]

well... she seems to be a sterotypical "The heroes broke me now I will be thier bane!" or "The Super powered beings broke me now since i have powers i will punish ALL superbeings regardless of alignment" 80's villain....

injured by the "heroes" to give her villainy more pathos.

[icon_uk]

Except she wasn't injured by the heroes, she was injured by Shockwave, who is very definitely a villain.

[shadowpsykie]

which is why i said "The Superpowered beings Broke me, now since i have powers i will punish ALL superbeings regardless or alignment" 80's style villain...

i guess i should have added injured by superbeings in order to give her villainy more pathos...

[icon_uk]

Her fairly inflexible approach makes her closer to a villain than a hero IMHO, though perhaps a sort of anti-hero.

Plus she has the fact that the Transformers really ARE to blame for her situation. The fact that the Autobots didn't reveal themselves as a discreet group until AFTER she was injured (and became somewhat judgement impaired) doesn't help much.

[sir_razorback]

She's featured towards the end of the 80-issue Marvel run as fighting with the Autobots, but from what I remember, she doesn't adjust well.

[damar148]

I thought she turned good at one point, but that might just been temporary or an false memory.

[icon_uk]

She was convinced to help the Autobots a time or two, but remained something of a loose cannon even after she joined the Neo-Knights.

[md84]

Eh, on the one hand, Circuit Breaker was technically a racist. She essentially let one (albeit really bad) experience taint her opinion of all Cybertronians and wanted to murder them all. The worst part is that she was usually a bigger hindrance to the Autobots then the Decepticons.

On the other hand, she once kicked UNICRON'S ass.

I'm so conflicted!

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Yeah, if given the choice-- save Shockwave himself being there-- it always seemed like she'd attack Autobots before Decepticons.

"There's a robot kicking puppies and stomping on babies! And there's another one shooting at it! Let's get the one shooting at it first!"

Maybe she sees it as like an game deep down, and doesn't want anyone stealing her kills...

[crinos]

IIRC didn't one of her stories end where she actually went to Cybertron and being on a machine planet surrounded by machines freaked her out so badly that she went catatonic?

[icon_uk]

Yes, that was the Neo-Knights story at the end of the original Gen 1 comic run. I'll see if I can post that another time perhaps.

It was not a "fun" story inasmuch as Blackrock subjects her to emotional and physical abuse *(He slaps her and berates her for being weak) in order to get her to come out of her shocked state and take action against Unicron, which she does, fairly spectacularly, but it results in her mind fracturing again and any progress Blackrock had made in helping her get over her pathological hatred is instantly undone and she's back in "All robots are evil" mode.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

How did she die? Did they ever say?

(Waaaay behind, I am.)

I don't think Circuit Smasher was meant to be as punny, all things considering, but a clear successor.

I wonder if IDW or Hasbro ever tried to buy the character, especially since Marvel and Hasbro are chummy. It's not like Marvel has ever done anything else with her, right? Even Death's Head had tons more done with him.

[werehawk]

I don't have it in front of me. Spike told his origin in 83, which included the death of Circuit Breaker fighting to save the Earth. She got one panel (kind of whitewashed with color so as to not infringe on Marvel's copyright.

[werehawk]

Thanks! Great post! I loved it of course. I hadn't realized that Josie's backstory had that much depth (well pages-wise anyway they gave her a bit of those early issues). And thanks for the sketch too. Originally wanting red circuits was certainly interesting.

Now if only the powers at be at Marvel will let her fight Avengers AI.

And while I am not enamored with Circuit Smasher, at least his design, but maybe they tried to make it as close as they felt comfortable. At least he has contempt for all robots like his predecessor.

[beyondthefringe]

I just want to know whose heads she has mounted on her wall...

Edited: Found it. Apparently it was the Aerialbots and the so0called Cybertron Seven (Perceptor, Blaster, Beachcomber,Cosmos, Powerglide, Seaspray and Warpath). Better known as "hey, the latest toys to come out so get them into the comics..."

[richardak]

This is great. Thanks for posting. I actually got into comics in the first place because of this series. I loved Transformers, so my parents got me the oversized trade paperback collection of the first three issues of the TF comic series (at Toys 'R' Us, of all places). I thought Blackrock and Circuit Breaker were both very interesting characters--much more interesting than the human characters from the cartoon (Spike, Sparkplug, and Chip). Anyway, thanks again for posting this stuff. If you've got more material on Circuit Breaker or Blackrock, I for one would certainly appreciate it if you would post it.

[icon_uk]

Coming soon will be another story that GB features in, though not Josie. I simply have to post from it because how can I call myself a Transformers fan and NOT include the story called..

BUSTER WITWICKY AND THE CARWASH OF DOOM!

[richardak]

Ooh, that was a good one. Ratbat was such an interesting Decepticon leader.