G.B Blackrock

G. B. Blackrock is one of the main human supporting characters in Marvel's Transformers series.
He was created by Bob Budiansky and the late Alan Kupperberg.
==Biography==
G.B. Blackrock was a millionaire industrialist. First appearing in Issue #5, shortly after the Transformers arrived on Earth he unveiled a new oil rig, with a defence system set up by his top programmer Josie Beller. However, the rig was immediately attacked by new Decepticon leader Shockwave, who defeated the defences, severely injured Josie, and took control of the installation, forcing Blackrock and his workers to evacuate. Haunted by Josie's injuries, and suffering further humiliation when the Decepticons also took control of his aerospace construction facility and took several workers hostage, Blackrock began working on a laser cannon to defend against the robots.
However, he was then approached by Jazz, who convinced him the Autobots were the good guys and offered assistance in exchange for fuel. Blackrock prepared to unveil the weapon but the event was disrupted by Josie, who had designed an exo-skeleton that not only let her walk but also fight Transformers and now called herself Circuit Breaker. When Starscream and Frenzy attacked, and Jazz and Wheeljack moved to defend Blackrock, it led to a three-way fight with Circuit Breaker attacking the robots indiscriminately and Blackrock having to stop her killing his new friends. He was given a tour of the Ark by acting Autobot leader Prowl and helped them tap into the phone lines of the aerospace facility where Optimus Prime was also being held, allowing them to launch a rescue which ultimately freed the hostages.
Blackrock attempted to convince the government of the Autobots' true nature but they refused to acknowledge any robots as their allies. Blackrock in turn refused to endorse their cover story of the Transformers being controlled by a human terrorist named Robot Master. He met with Bumblebee and explained the situation to him, failing to stop the military firing on the Autobots when they tried to stop Megatron being revived. In the UK-exclusive story "The Gift", Blackrock delivered a shipment of fuel to Jazz and Jetfire, who had to fight off a raid by Thrust and Bombshell. In the G.I. Joe and the Transformers miniseries, Blackrock managed to convince G.I. Joe members Mainframe and Crankcase that the Autobots were on their side.
Blackrock finally rejoined the main Marvel US comic in Issue #29, when he was contacted by Bumblebee, now known as Goldbug, and Blaster, who had left the mainstream Autobot army now led by Grimlock and needed information from him about Decepticon activity. Blackrock informed them of both raids on oil tankers and a crashed spacecraft. Investigating the latter led to them being infected by the metal-eating Scraplets, and Blackrock had to provide them and the Throttlebots with the water needed to cure the infection. In the process, he was fitted with a control device by Astrotrain and brainwashed into helping new Decepticon leader Ratbat set up car washes that hypnotised the users into donating their fuel to the Decepticons. He was finally freed by Buster Witwicky and led the other freed humans in chasing off Ratbat and Laserbeak.
Blackrock wasn't seen again until Issue #67. With the government's anti-robot operations in a shambles, he used super-powered humans Thunderpunch and Rapture to form a superhero team, the Neo-Knights, to fight the Decepticons. They attempted to recruit Hector Dialonzo, AKA Dynamo, but found Starscream also seeking to recruit him, as well as Circuit Breaker, still committed to destroying all robots. Hector chose to go with Blackrock, and Circuit Breaker also agreed to sign up. They were first deployed to break up a fight between Scorponok and Shockwave, but the operation was disrupted by Circuit Breaker ignoring Blackrock's orders and attacking Optimus Prime and Nightbeat until Blackrock pointed out Shockwave was the robot who injured her, causing her to turn her attention to him.
Blackrock and the Neo Knights were accidentally transported to Cybertron by Primus and became caught up in the Transformers' battle with Unicron. Blackrock was able to goad Circuit Breaker into attacking the Chaos Bringer, distracting him enough to allow Optimus Prime to detonate the Matrix within him. Largely ignored in the aftermath of the battle, Blackrock and the others agreed to stay behind on Cybertron with HiQ, the late Optimus' Powermaster partner who now possessed his memories and personality, and help him find the Last Autobot, needed to stabilise the planet. Afterwards, they followed the Autobots and Decepticons to Klo. After helping the Autobots win the final battle, Blackrock was briefly seen standing with the Neo Knights as a revived Optimus Prime promised to return them home.
==Trivia==
* Blackrock's full name was never given in the strip, which merely referred to him as GB Blackrock, but he was named after a friend of Bob Budiansky, Gary Bernard Schwarz. In the IDW comics, his first name is given as Garrison.
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