Swarm (Transformers)

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The Swarm is a creature in the fictional world of the Transformers: Generation 2 comic by Marvel Comics.

The Swarm is a large, amorphous, black mass of particulate, corrosive organisms that travel from planet to planet, seeking out cybernetic life forms. Upon contact with other life forms, the Swarm devours them, leaving behind only lifeless husks. Small portions of the Swarm can be destroyed, but it grows faster than anything can get rid of it. Energy shields have little effect on it, as it put intense strain on them until they collapse. The Swarm can also pick up small amount of information from computers that it eats.

The origin of the swarm was revealed in the Generation 2 comic series. When the Transformers were first created by the god of light, Primus, they originally had the ability to undergo binary division, to split into two separate organisms. After the Cybertronian population reached a certain size, a memory Primus caused them to lose the ability to reproduce and to forget that they had ever been able to.

At the end of the Great War, after Optimus Prime and Megatron had left Cybertron for Earth, a group of Decepticons also abandoned their home world for deep space. They went about conquering other planets and terraforming them into "little Cybertrons." At some point these "Generation 2"(G2) Decepticons rediscovered the process of binary reproduction and used it as a tool to expand their armies.

Each split produced a small flying mass of Cybertronian genetic material that was not unlike cancer. In low levels, the flying cancer dissipated on its own. Unfortunately, the use of the binary reproduction was far more regular than Primus had originally ordained. The cancerous by-product formed into a massive cloud, and eventually gained some level of sentience. Once it did, it descended on various worlds, consuming all metallic and organic materials, leaving only dead husks behind.

In the final issue of Transformers: Generation 2, the Swarm devours Optimus Prime. In doing so, it also consumes the creation Matrix, the soul of Primus. Once it is exposed to the Matrix energies on its most basic level, the Swarm is given a purpose of some sort and reconstitutes Prime, and possibly others.

The Swarm is last seen travelling off into space. It is implied that the mysterious Vok from Beast Wars is an evolution of the Swarm, resulting from the power of the Matrix.