I prefer them as the same guy to some extent.

But my compromise would be to have him be a Serpentor type. Serpentor was created by Dr. Mindbender as a composite clone of history's great generals (and sometimes Sgt. Slaughter as well) in order to fill a leadership vacuum in Cobra.

My take would be that when the Ark/Nemesis vanish and are presumed destroyed, Shockwave believes that the Decepticons need a new leader. He tries to replicate Megatron but fuses in other great leaders like Straxus, Omega Prime, Megatronus, Tyrest. Fused and empowered with Dark Energon from dormand mechanoid planet (Unicron). The result is the mad tyrant Galvatron.

Meanwhile, Alpha Trion and Elita One are concerned at the arrival of the Chaos Emperor. The Dynobots (the missing Wheeljack's imperfect prototype rescue squad) are sent to find the Ark but they've gone missing. Trion and Elita dispatch the Fembots, Hot Rod, Springer, and Kup to gather Cyber-Planet Keys from Paradron, Junkion, Quintessa, Nebulos, Velocitron, and Caminus. On Paradron, they recruit Arcee, who eagerly abandons her life as a medic to become a warrior; she and Hot Rod have a magnetic connection that is hard to classify simply as romance or friendship. They're just perfect tag-team partner warriors, which makes Kup's life harder, especially as Springer seems to have gone from siding with Kup to following Hot Rod and Arcee's lead. They make other friends in their travels. Gathering the Cyber-Keys, they activate Vector Sigma and create a second Matrix with Galvatron hot on their trail.

Hot Rod is fatally injured and Arcee places the second Matrix into his dying form... and Rodimus Prime is born.

For three million years, Rodimus Prime and Galvatron battle for Cybertron until a space bridge opens and a yellow car darts through with Insecticons hot on its trail. The Ark and Nemesis crews are alive!

 

Do we need Galvatron at all?

 

A clone of Megatron, built to superior specs when Megatron went critical for a while, this clone suffered mental problems and was put into stasis lock.

 

Growing up on G1, I'm naturally inclined to having him as reborn Megatron. That said, I did like IDW's take on him.

I never liked crazy Galvatron from the cartoon and post Target 2006 comics.

The cunning, in control villain from Target 2006 was always my favourite portrayal. I still remember how shocked my ten year old self was when I read the last page of Marvel UK 83 where he revealed to Jazz he was Megatron.

Also, we didn't get much of it in IDW or the Marvel UK comic, but I always liked Cyclonus and Scourge as his loyal lieutenants and much prefer, the honourable, intelligent cartoon Cyclonus to the thug in the comic.

 

Yesss

 

Here's what I'd do.

Megatron and Galvatron start out as separate individuals. Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons as normal, Galvatron is an ancient warrior and cunning strategist, a potential rival to Megatron himself (so as to add Galvatron to the list of potential, effective usurpers alongside Shockwave and Scorponok). Eventually something happens and both are put out of commission. Insert mad science or Unicron, whatever, that merges them into a single being (Galvatron II), who is more powerful than either of them but suffers mental instability due to the two personalities of both tyrants being in conflict, driving him insane.

At some point Megatron's mind is freed from this psychotic amalgamation and gets a new body, while Galvatron regains his sanity, but with elements of Megatron's personality and strategic mind.

 

Depending on if we have temporal shenanigans, why not have a unique take on Galvatron. He could be a historic warrior that brought peace to the ancient past, whom Megatron models himself after (upgrade to the fusion cannon on his arm, maybe a few stylistic choices here and there) who disappeared in the ancient past. Sometime during the war, Megatron disappears, but in reality he's launched back into the past. Not knowing where he is, and to avoid prejudice, he asks if they've ever heard of Galvatron, and takes the name for himself. He disguises himself, and tries to hide, believing the bots he sees are after him. He eventually becomes a freedom fighter, becomes a heroic legend, and then eventually his crew from the present bring him back, which caused Galvatron to essentially disappear. So, in the end, he's both Megatron, AND Galvatron.

 

I kind of wanted IDW to do something like that when they ended their continuity.

But then I also hoped they'd elaborate on Hot Rod's hinted Matrix affinity from when he returned the Matrix to Optimus and in their private conversation spoke of how right it felt carrying it. I wanted him to become Rodimus Prime.

 

Amped up Megatron from the future suits me down to the ground. Doesn't have to be Unicron doing the amping.

I would still like to see the Megatron / Galvatron alliance we got to see for about three panels' worth in Marvel #78. "Together we could-" "Rule the galaxy!"

 

People should really stop wanting to rewrite the past. Unicron recreated a dying Megatron. Period. Deal with it.

 

...but isn't the whole point of a reboot TO rewrite history?

 

Not necessarily. Icons like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man etc, have been around for decades and have been rebooted many times. However, their origins have remained consistent. Superman came from Krypton as a baby. Bruce Wayne watched his folks get murdered and Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider.

Unfortunately, due to Hasbro’s fecklessness, the Transformers’ origins are now up for grabs to any opportunistic fanfic writer who believes they will be the Seigel and Schuster of the franchise.

 

Easy one, he is a Decepticon Leader in near far Future with mysterious origins that rumors to had connections to Unicron and being Megatron reborn.

 

Galvatron could be Megatron's dad 

 

These characters aren't as consistent as you think.

Superman was originally raised in an orphanage before Siegel and Shuster retconned Ma and Pa Kent in a year later. Flight was introduced in the radio serial; imagine the screaming if someone just gave a character a completely new power in a movie today. Before the sun was made the source of his powers, it was assumed Krypton had heavier gravity. Then there's the nature of Krypton; utopia in unavoidable catastrophe or repressed xenophobes who were too prideful to survive?

And that's Superman; one of the Trinity of Golden Age superheroes more popular today than they ever were. Galvatron isn't Superman. The closest thing we have to Superman is Optimus Prime who true to form is adapted much more conservatively than other characters. If he still isn't stable enough, blame the concurrent conflicting origins of Sumbow and the Marvel comics.

That said, I have other characters to be rival decepticon leaders so my Galvatron is similar to @Spiderus Prime 's. A future evil worse than Megatron rumored to be unicron spawned or Megatron himself risen from the scrapheap. Time travel shenanigans ensue.

 

I believe I’m talking apples and you’re talking oranges.

Me: Superman came from and has always came from Krypton as a baby.

You: Different things happened to him after that.

I find it annoying (not you Rewind Eject) this constant effort to rewrite historical canon. I really believe much of it stems from naive hubris in many modern writers.

Galvatron is Megatron rebuilt by Unicron.

 

I think you're right about those apples and oranges...

The further an element is from a franchise's essential core, the more I believe you can get away with changes. Galvatron doesn't have a place in Transformers comparable to Superman in DC. I wouldn't even compare him to Luthor or Brainiac. Instead, he's Doomsday; has one very iconic moment in the history of the brand but was otherwise only relevant in a maximum of two or three stories.

If Doomsday looks right and can make Superman bleed, then I don't care if he's a random alien, a kryptonian predator, created by Cadmus to kill a rogue Superman or whatever. His origin isn't that important.

Similarly, I'm happy with Galvatron so long as he's got his iconic crown and cannon and is a leader of the decepticons regardless of where he comes from.

Since I wasn't born early enough to watch the 1986 movie new, it is possible he is much more important to some people than he is to me.

 

So, a consistent origin story isn’t important to you as long as it’s entertaining? That’s reasonable and fair.

Here’s my take on a new Galvatron: Unicron’s first creation was Galvatron. This Galvatron died in an epic battle against the early Cybertronians. Millions of years later, Unicron comes across a dying Megatron floating in space. Megatron reminds him so much of Galvatron that unicron decides to recreate him in his first son’s image. Hi jinx ensues.

Edit: This sounds familiar to me. Maybe I read this somewhere else and it’s someone else’s idea.

 

That’s actually the original idea behind Galvatron and his lieutenants. Unicron reformatted them all from the corpses of ancient Cybertronian warriors.