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History

After being severely injured in a raid for Earth oil by the Decepticon Shockwave, computer genius Josie Beller was left paralysed in both legs and one arm. She developed cybernetic implants and an outfit that allowed her to not only move, but disrupt a robot's circuitry, causing it to malfunction and break down.[citation needed]

When her employer, industrialist G.B. Blackrock was about to unveil a robot destroying weapon following the capture of some of his operations by the Decepticons (including the oil rig where Josie was crippled) Josie (as Circuit Breaker) offered her services to Blackrock, who refused because he did not want her to be hurt by robots again. The next day (after forging an alliance with the Autobots) Blackrock's weapon was sabotaged by Circuit Breaker, who then began to pressure Blackrock to tell the public she was his new weapon. Before he could do so, the Decepticons Starscream and Frenzy attacked the presentation, and soon found themselves battling the Autobots Jazz and Wheeljack. Circuit Breaker, not wanting to see a distinction between the two factions attacked both Autobot and Decepticon indiscriminately until convinced by Blackrock to spare the Autobots after the two Decepticons fled the scene. Sparing Jazz and Wheeljack's life, Circuit Breaker left Blackrock, informing him her debt to him had been repaid.[citation needed]

Circuit Breaker later joined a government group known as the Rapid Action Anti-Robot Team (RAAT), which was funded and organized by the government agency known as Intelligence and Information Institute (III), and operated under the command of RAAT leader Walter Barnet.[citation needed]

Her first mission was to aid in the capture of seven Autobots: Beachcomber, Blaster, Cosmos, Perceptor, Powerglide, Seaspray and Warpath who were accidentally transported to Earth following a battle against Decepticon Lord Straxus on a device called the "Space Bridge" which was a transportation device that could bridge the gulf between the planets Cybertron and Earth. Following the Autobots capture they were disassembled and examined, their technology was reverse-engineered to create high-tech weapons for RAAT to combat all robots.[citation needed]

When out-of-work comic book writer Donny Finkleberg became a pawn of RAAT, posing as a terrorist known as the Robot Master (to give the public image that the robots were controlled by a human) he soon became a prisoner of the Decepticons and were freed by the Autobots. Who in turned forced him to help them find their missing comrades, by holding a cheque he had earned for his stint as Robot Master. Finkleberg's greed tempted him to try and sell his Autobot companion Skids to RAAT, which also garnered the attention of the Decepticons who sent their Stunticons to attack.[citation needed]

When RAAT arrived with Circuit Breaker, they saw that Skids was being "protected" by the Stunticons when the Aerialbots arrived ("disproving" Donny's claim that there was a distinction between Autobots and Decepticons in Circuit Breakers mind) Circuit Breaker would then captured Autobots Air Raid, Fireflight, Silverbolt, Skids, Skydive, and Slingshot. The Stunticons, Donny, and Skids would then make their escape, however, Donny would eventually betray Skids and sell him off to RAAT. Because of this, Donny would be put on the RAAT payroll.[citation needed]

Circuit Breaker and RAAT would next get involved in a series of strange incidents involving two Decepticons (Runabout and Runamuck) who were following a family on their vacation across America, and would spray paint threats, insults, and challenges to the humans. During this time, Donny would convince Circuit Breaker to use all the capture robots, jury rigging them into one giant being, to fight back the two Decepticons. Defeating them (but not before they defaced the Statue of Liberty, with graffiti proclaiming that "Humans are Whimps!"), Circuit Breaker then agreed to free the Autobots, which would cost her and Donny their jobs at RAAT.[citation needed]

During the time out of the public eye, Circuit Breaker presumably established a method of operating independently, she would re-emerge when news reports came out about a creature called Skullgrin, an entity believed to be a Yeti-Sasquatch-like being who was, in fact, a Pretender Decepticon (a Decepticon who wears an outer shell making him appear to be a member of another species). Skullgrin, in order to gain oil for the Decepticons, agreed to allow a film producer to use him in a production, in return for oil as payment. Nobody but Circuit Breaker would suspect that Skullgrin was really a Transformer.[citation needed]

Circuit Breaker suspected Skullgrin to be a Cybertronian, going to California to investigate him. She had a glimpse of Skullgrin at a press conference held by the producer, but could not be certain if Skullgrin was a Transformer or not. However, she did run into Carissa Carr, who was to appear in the film with Skullgrin. Circuit Breaker, whom Carr believed to be a harmless physically challenged person, discovered that the filming with Skullgrin would commence in a couple of days at the Grand Canyon. During the making of the film at the Grand Canyon, Skullgrin took off his Pretender shell. Seeing this from nearby, Circuit Breaker finally had irrefutable proof that Skullgrin was a Transformer, and jumped into combat. She took control of Skullgrin's Pretender shell and attacked him with it. During the skirmish between Circuit Breaker and Skullgrin, Carissa Carr was caught on a crumbling cliff, but Skullgrin selflessly rescued her, though it gave Circuit Breaker the chance to press her attack. Before she could totally destroy Skullgrin, the Hollywood producer who had been dealing with Skullgrin called out to Circuit Breaker. He informed her that his workers taped her battle with Skullgrin and that he would pay her a fortune to slay Skullgrin in front of the camera. Circuit Breaker, disgusted at the producer's greed destroyed the camera and left. Circuit Breaker would once more disappear and not resurface for quite some time.[citation needed]

She would later appear seeking to get the aid of a young man named Hector who could channel the energies of the Earth. This would bring her into conflict with the Decepticon Starscream, and G.B. Blackrock and his super-powered agents called the Neo-Knights. Eventually, Hector and Circuit Breaker would join the Neo-Knights and they would combine their powers against Starscream and fight him off.[citation needed]

Later, the Neo-Knights would get involved in a battle between two warring factions of Decepticons (and the Autobots caught in the middle) which threatened to destroy New York City. This battle would be interrupted when the Transformers were all summoned to Cybertron by their creator Primus, in order to battle Unicron. Faced with the idea of being on an entire planet of robots, Circuit Breaker would fall into a catatonic state. Later, when the Transformers were losing their fight against Unicron, Circuit Braker is goaded by G.B. Blackrock to fight back against Unicron, and somehow managed to generate enough power to temporarily stun the demi-god long enough for a counter attack, which would ultimately lead to Unicron's destruction. Circuit Breaker would return to her comatose state.[citation needed]

She and the other Neo-Knights, along with Hi-Q (the Powermaster component of Optimus Prime who was left behind when Prime sacrificed his life to destroy Unicron) would then be confined to a cell until the Transformers were ready to return them home. The Knights (along with the still comatose Circuit Breaker) would be left behind on Cybertron (which is in the throes of destruction) when Hi-Q convinced them that he was also Optimus Prime (Prime's mind had merged with Hi-Q's body when his own was destroyed) to find the Last Autobot, which could save Cybertron from destruction. The Knights eventually managed to locate the Last Autobot, save Cybertron, and resurrect Optimus Prime. What happened to Circuit Breaker and the Neo-Knights remains unknown, but they presumably returned to Earth following Cybertron's restoration.[citation needed]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Circuit Breaker employs a special circuitry mesh that covers her whole body, this mesh reproduces and replicates the functions her damaged nervous system used to provide. Without this suit, she is paralyzed and only has slight mobility of her right hand.

In addition, the suit allows her to fly via magnetic repulsors, fire bolts of energy that can destroy, or disrupt electronic machinery, as well as collect encrypt, change and steal data from any electronic device.

The exact limitations to her abilities are unknown, in most cases, her powers seemed to be strong enough to merely stun and cause circuit damage in average sized Transformers, however, in one instance she was capable of generating enough power to stun Unicron for a few moments.

When she was an employee of RAAT she had access to their resources which included many devices that would aid in the incapacitation and capture of Transformers.

Additionally, she once constructed a giant robot out of thirteen Autobots which was fully under her control (but somehow managed to act independently as well) it utilized each Autobot's powers and had detachable fists which would fly independently of the main body.

Transportation

When posing as a disabled person, Circuit Breaker would use a wheelchair and an accessible RV.

Notes

  • There is another Josie Beller from a reality divergent from Earth-120185, designated Earth-91274. With the exception of her encounter with Jazz and Buster Witwicky on Christmas, this version of Josie Beller has an identical history to her Earth-120185 counterpart.
  • Further, according to the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Volume 1 trade paperback, it has been identified that the Circuit Breaker that appeared in Secret Wars II #3 and encountered the Beyonder was native of Earth-616. This version of Josie Beller also was crippled by robots and had a deep-rooted hatred of them. Although the footnote in this issue regarding Circuit Breaker's hatred of robots is cited as happening in Transformers #6, the Handbook implies that since this Josie is of Earth-616, she was crippled by some other kind of robots as Transformers are only native to Earths 120185 and 91274. In terms of publication, it was originally intended that the Transformers were going to be part of the mainstream Marvel universe much like other licensed characters such as Rom and Godzilla, as is evident with the guest-appearance of Spider-Man in Transformers #3, however following Circuit Breaker's appearance in Secret Wars II #3, all connections were severed.

Trivia

  • Circuit Breaker would also be colored with red hair in some issues.

See Also

Links and References

References

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