ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON

SUB-GROUP: POWERMASTER
HUMAN COMPONENT: HI-TEST
FUNCTION: AIR DEFENSE
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 42

“Fear is a friend whose presence is felt long after he’s left!”

Profile: Dreadwind is the proverbial “deactivation of the party,”
a mournful presence always first to look on the bleak side of things. Grim and
gloomy, he always acts as if his best friend has become permanently inoperative.
Most other Decepticons avoid him like the plague, knowing that however buoyant
their mood, Dreadwind is sure to bring them to Earth with a bump! As ominous
as a storm cloud and as chilling as a winter breeze, Dreadwind somehow manages
to convey his doom-laden message when he’s in battle, even in jet mode! Foes
have been known to feel despair at Dreadwind’s approach, even at a vast distance.
Dreadwind doesn’t appreciate the advantage this gives him in battle; it just
serves to further depress him. He’s been known to wade through a battlefield,
blasting Autobots and shouting, “Why does no one like me?” But Dreadwind
has been known to come close to reveling (in his own low-key way) in the carnage
he wreaks, knowing that perhaps his only true friend is fear. He sees it in
the visual receptors of enemies and feels slightly better himself. Though the
two profess to hate each other, and certainly detest combining to form Dreadwing,
Dreadwind and Darkwing are the perfect partners in crime, almost trying to outdo
each other in the bleakness stakes. The same cannot be said of Dreadwind’s binary-bonded
human component, Hi-Test. He’s a thrill-seeking, overachieving perfectionist
who can’t understand Dreadwind at all! How can he be so gloomy when there’s
so much wonderful badness in the world? Hi-Test does his best to bully Dreadwind
into enjoying himself, or at the very least concentrating his morose mind on
the job at hand.

Abilities: In jet mode, powered by his high-performance Powermaster
engine, Dreadwind can reach speeds up to Mach 2.6, and is able to climb to sub-orbital
altitudes. When combined with his fellow Powermaster Darkwing, as the vehicle
Dreadwing, they become capable of space flight, reaching light speeds and beyond.
His jet mode is armed with air-to-air missiles, thermal melters, rapid-fire
machine guns and lasers. He’s a flying armory with a vast capacity for devastation.
In robot mode he’s more cumbersome and less effective, presenting an easy target.
But at close quarters, his bulky strength and multi-shot wrist guns give him
an advantage.

Weaknesses: All of Dreadwind’s weaknesses stem from his continual brooding
and permanent depression. He’s so busy feeling sorry for himself, he tends to
forget he’s in the middle of a battle, leaving himself wide open to attack.