Mirage (G1)

Mirage is an Autobot scout with a Formula One racing car alternate mode in the Transformers franchise. Mirage was raised as an member of the Upper class the Transformers franchise. When the war broke out, he joined the Autobots, although he is often unsure about his motivations for doing so, which leaves his fellow Autobots finding it hard to trust him – a problem not helped by the fact that Mirage can rarely hide that he is often unwilling to fight directly, or his contempt for the “commoners” he is now forced to interact with. He has no lost love for Earth, and would happily return to his old life on Cybertron if he could. 
It is ironic that, given his unwillingness to fight, Mirage is a superior hand-to-hand combatant, and a skilled sharpshooter, having honed his talents hunting game on Cybertron. He is armed with a rifle which fires explosive, armor-piercing darts, but the most important piece of his arsenal in his function as a spy is his shoulder-mounted electro-disruptor, which can bend photons to make Mirage invisible, or appear to be where he is not, or even alter his physical appearance, hence his name.
== History ==
===Cartoon ===
====Season 1====
The animated series opted to present Mirage’s desire to return to Cybertron as a genuinely sad longing, rather than as a result of any great dislike of Earth; and his unwillingness to fight was portrayed in "More than Meets the Eye" more as a semi-pacifistic nature. This shaped him into a more gentle character, not especially like the snob suggested by his profile. His actions immediately after the Transformers’ reactivation on Earth in 1984 were heroic ones, working with Hound on a plan to dupe the Decepticons, and using his invisibility powers to sneak aboard the villains’ space cruiser as it launched, sabotaging it from within and forcing it to crash back to Earth.
Be it as a result of his own desire not to engage in combat or not, Mirage’s role in the Autobots’ battles on Earth was a distinctly minimal one, leaving him confined to the background on the battlefield, or not present at all. 
====Season 2====
In early 1985, however, the spotlight shone on Mirage again when Cliffjumper suspected him of disloyalty. The discovery of a Decepticon installation in a sector Mirage had recently observed caused Cliffjumper to leap the incorrect conclusion that he was a traitor to the Autobots, having concealed the information. After a battle with the Decepticons, Mirage risked the trust of his comrades by sneaking away to perform a plan of his own, framing the Decepticons for stealing Energon Cubes from the Insecticons. Spotted carrying the cubes by Cliffjumper, Mirage’s guilt seemed all but confirmed, and before he could reveal his innocence, he was captured and brainwashed by one of Bombshell’s mind-controlling cerebro-shells. Under Bombshell’s control, Mirage led the Autobots into an ambush, but at the battle’s end, the assorted manipulations were revealed and Cliffjumper apologised to Mirage.
Towards the end of the year, Mirage was among the team of five Autobots who disguised themselves as the Stunticons, with Mirage’s alternate mode making him the perfect choice to masquerade as Drag Strip. Penetrating the Decepticons’ camp, the Autobots ran into trouble when the real Stunticons arrived, trying to prove their identities by forming Menasor. With a combination of Windcharger’s magnetic powers and Mirage’s illusion-creating ability, the Autobots were able to appear as Menasor too, but the deception was soon revealed, though they were still able to thwart the Decepticons’ plans.
==== Transformers the Movie====
Mirage was absent from the events of 2005 and 2006 without explanation; however, a storyboarded scene from The Transformers the Movie featuring Mirage was cut from the finished film, in which, amidst the transformation of Autobot City, Mirage ambushed the Insecticon Bombshell, and was then fired upon by Megatron. Whether or not this would have killed Mirage is not made clear.
===Comics ===
====Transformers 84====
====Early battles on Earth====
Mirage was a member of Optimus Prime's crew on the Ark revived on Earth in the initial miniseries. He repeatedly felt disatisfaction with the Autobots' position, wanting only to return to Cybertron. During their first major battle with the Decepticons, Mirage was knocked down by Ravage and was reluctant to fight back, still hoping Autobots and Decepticons could work together to return home, and having to be rescued by Brawn.
Mirage appeared prominently in early UK-exclusive stories set during the miniseries. In one of their first encounters with humans, depicted in "Decepticon Dam-Busters", the Autobots saved a human town from being flooded when the Decepticons destroyed a dam but Mirage was angered when the humans considered them responsible. In "Man of Iron", he was among the Autobot team who travelled to England to investigate the discovery of an ancient Autobot spaceship. In "The Enemy Within", when Brawn was temporarily sent mad by an accident on the Ark and began attacking human vehicles, Mirage was assigned as an observer when Optimus Prime and Megatron arranged for Brawn and the similarly renegade Starscream to fight each other in a trial by combat. Once he was certain Brawn was himself again, Mirage ended the duel with an illusion of Brawn's death.
At the conclusion of the miniseries, Mirage was one of the few Autobots Optimus Prime chose to keep active to fight off a Decepticon attack with limited fuel reserves. Mirage again found himself up against Ravage, and the Decepticon's savagery finally convinced him to put aside his doubts and fight back. The Autobots were heavily outnumbered, but triumphed when the Decepticons collapsed after having their fuel poisoned by Sparkplug Witwicky. However, mere minutes later, Mirage and the others were offlined by a blast from the newly-arrived Shockwave.
====Later battles====
Mirage was shown to have been brought back online by Ratchet, along with most of the other Autobots, at the beginning of Issue #9. However, he would be absent from the next run of issues, and again be prominent in the UK-exclusive stories. In "Crisis of Command", he supported Prowl in his proposal to create a breed of warrior Autobots, which Optimus Prime ultimately rejected, and worked with Hound to capture a spying Ravage. In "Dinobot Hunt", he was given command of a team comprising Trailbreaker and Brawn to search for the feral Snarl. After the Dinobot attacked an experimental nuclear weapons base, the humans triggered the self-destruct, and Mirage and the others were able to take the damaged Snarl into custody without a fight.
Mirage was among the few original Autobots depicted as still being active in US Issue #13, accompanying Optimus Prime to investigate Shockwave's attack on a rock concert only to find Bumblebee and four new Autobots had already solved the problem. He would disappear after this however, being absent on occasions when the entire Autobot complement was meant to be present. In the UK-exclusive story "Target: 2006", he was injured in the early stages of the battle with Galvatron, presumably leaving him inactive.
Like the rest of the original Autobots, Mirage was shown to be active again in Issue #41, after new Autobot leader Grimlock had instigated a massive repair programme. He was present to watch the duel between Grimlock and Blaster for leadership.
====Underbase Saga====
After Optimus Prime had returned to lead the Autobots again, Mirage took part in training sessions on the Ark. He was among those who travelled to the arctic in response to a distress call sent by Buster Witwicky only to walk straight into a Decepticon ambush and be badly damaged by Octane. He was repaired to join the Autobot/Decepticon alliance against the Underbase-powered Starscream, being part of the detachment led by Blaster and Ratbat stationed in New York. He and a group of other older Autobots followed Goldbug in charging Starscream, only for them all to be deactivated by a wave of his hand.
===Classics===
In this version of events, Mirage was revived at the end of the war, and was delighted at it's end, as he wanted to return home. However, he found that most of his old upper class friends were long dead, and also began a conservation project for turbofoxes, which he had hunted in his youth, as the species was on the brink of extinction. Mirage found he could not relate to his surviving friends. When the Decepticons returned, Mirage was initially hesitant when Optimus Prime asked him to return to Earth with him and continue the fight, but eventually accepted when he realized that his old life was long gone. 
===Regeneration One===
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