Nightbeat is a supporting character in the Transformers franchise. Based on a character from the 1988 toyline, he was prominent in the latter stages of G1.
Marvel Comics[]
Nightbeat first appeared in the UK-exclusive story "The Big Shutdown" as an Autobot who had recently joined the group on Earth. He and fellow new arrival Siren took it upon themselves to investigate a report of a dead Autobot found on the beach. Nightbeat was quick to determine the Autobot, Payback, had been a Decepticon prisoner, but it wasn't until Siren tracked down another fugitive Autobot, Hosehead, that they discovered the full story: The prisoners had been freed so Decepticon leadership candidate Thunderwing could hunt them down. Outgunned by the powerful Decepticon, Nightbeat finally put him out of action by using his Headmaster partner Muzzle to reanimate Payback's corpse and then detonate its fuel tank next to Thunderwing, roasting him.
Nightbeat continued to appear in UK-exclusive stories, dealing with a vengeful Thunderwing's attack on the Ark and playing a key role in convincing the mythical Deathbringer, a mythical mechanoid who brought release to the diseased and who had been reanimated by the Creation Matrix, to destroy itself. He made his Marvel US debut in Issue #62, during the Matrix Quest arc. He, Hosehead and Siren were one of the teams sent to search for the lost Creation Matrix. On the planet Pz-Zazz, they became caught up in various parties' hunt for a valuable bird statue, which Nightbeat used to revitalise the planet...only to be promptly shot down by Thunderwing and a group of Decepticons, along with his comrades, and taken prisoner. They were accidentally revived to find Thunderwing had gained the Matrix and stolen an Autobot shuttle, which they stowed away on in order to reach the Ark. As Thunderwing attacked the other Autobots with the power of the corrupted Matrix, Nightbeat managed to spear him with the shuttle and then set the self-destruct, with the shuttle being sent tumbling into space and exploding with Thunderwing attached to it.
Following the incident, Optimus Prime asked Nightbeat to investigate the fate of Ratchet, believed killed when Megatron's base exploded on Cybertron. Nightbeat theorised that the explosion may have blown Ratchet through an open dimensional portal into null space. A probe was despatched to retrieve him but brought back both Megatron and Ratchet, fused together, with them having to be placed in stasis.
After Optimus Prime had surrendered his command to Earth Decepticon leader Scorponok in the hope of forming an alliance against Unicron, only for the talks to be derailed by an attack by rogue Decepticons led by Shockwave, Nightbeat joined Optimus Prime in breaking up a fight between the two Decepticon leaders that threatened human bystanders. The superhero team the Neo Knights arrived, resulting in the robot-hating Circuit Breaker disobeying orders from the Autobots' former ally G.B. Blackrock and attacking Nightbeat. Soon after, they were transported to Cybertron. Nightbeat took part in the battle against Unicron, expressing his frustration at the cavalier behaviour of Siren and Hot Rod.
Nightbeat survived the battle and continued to appear alongside the older Autobots who had returned during the incident. In the final issue of the comic, he was seen among the Autobots destroyed in Bludgeon's ambush. He was presumably revived by the Last Autobot, as several of his former comrades were.
