Shrapnel - IDW

The eccentric way in which Shrapnel phrases his dialogue may seem endearing at first, first. Others are soon to discover that his seemingly benign tic is merely the gateway to a frighteningly twisted and perverse mind, even for a Decepticon, Decepticon. A master of electricity, his dark desires put this skill to use on his victims, victims. Nothing delights him more than to see how they squirm from his touch, touch.

Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback were created by Deluge, under supervision by Megatron. The Insecticons joined Megatron's forces on Earth, where they helped defeat and capture the local Autobots. The Decepticons then shipped their prisoners off to Cybertron via space bridge, intending to feed them to the failed Insecticon creations known as the swarm.

The Insecticons then participated in the attack on New York City, during which Shrapnel took part in destroying some human jets. One of the humans caught in the devastation was Marissa Faireborn, who witnessed the Insecticons' battle with the jets. After listening to Megatron's victory speech, the Insecticons traveled to China and helped wreck Beijing. There, Shrapnel and Kickback sided with Bombshell when he picked a fight with Skywarp and Thundercracker, but the three bugs decided to drop the subject and run away when faced with Skywarp's teleportation ability. After returning to New York, the Insecticons were approached by Starscream, and Shrapnel demanded to know what the Seeker wanted with them, so Starscream chastised him for being rude to a superior officer. Starscream apologized to the three for their treatment at Skywarp and Thundercracker's hands, then decided it was time to tell them about his vision of the future.

The Insecticons subsequently joined Starscream as he rebelled against Megatron, and Shrapnel blasted his former leader with lightning. Unfortunately, this did minimal damage to Megatron, who responded by shooting Shrapnel with his fusion cannon. The revolt was cut short when human jets from Europe attacked and the Autobots returned from Cybertron unharmed, leading to the Decepticons' defeat. As they fled the planet aboard Astrotrain, Shrapnel showed Starscream that Megatron was still functioning, which did not please the Seeker in the least. Shrapnel volunteered to stealthily kill Megatron by siphoning his energon, but Starscream felt assassination wouldn't work in his favor. When he saw that Starscream was going to throw the Autobot Matrix of Leadership down a garbage chute, Shrapnel was shocked and convinced him to keep the artifact as a symbol of leadership.

Unfortunately, Starscream turned out to be a less-than-competent leader, stranding his troops on a desolate asteroid where they had to resort to strict rations or even cannibalism to survive. Upon learning that Dreadwind had been stealing precious fuel for himself, Shrapnel, Kickback and Needlenose hunted him down and executed him for his crime. As they proceeded to loot their victim's corpse, Shrapnel was particularly interested in getting his hands on an afterburner. Shockwave watched their behavior with curiosity from a nearby building.

Shrapnel was controlling the base's defenses with Acid Storm when the latter detected an incoming Autobot vessel. While Acid Storm was busy panicking, Shrapnel calmly fired missiles at the intruder... not realizing that the wreckage of the ship would come crashing down on top of them afterward. After getting to safety, he returned to scavenge the remains of the ship, and found a weapons locker. An empty weapons locker. Then Hot Rod shot him in the back with its contents. He survived and was present when a repaired Megatron took back control of the Decepticons.

Megatron would later use spacebridge technology built into in his new body to summon Shrapnel and the rest of the Decepticons to him on Cybertron. At first they did battle with the Autobots, but were soon mind-controlled by Galvatron into combining with his Sweep army and forming a huge monster. Following Galvatron's defeat and the reformatting of Cybertron, Shrapnel and the other Decepticons had their fair share of trouble integrating into post-war society. Thankfully Megatron finally showed up, giving them an excuse to riot and cause chaos once more. He and a group of other Decepticons immediately marched on the Autobot prison and freed Megatron so that he could lead them again.