Mike Franklin

Mike Franklin is ahumanfrom theCybertronportion of theUnicron Trilogy continuity family.

He'd make this look good... if there were anyone to make it look bad.

ColonelMike Franklinis an officer in an unnamed branch of theUnited Statesmilitary. He has cool shades.

Fiction

Cybertroncartoon

Voice actor:Michael Dobson(English),Rintarō Nishi(Japanese),Marco Kröger(German),Pauli Virta(Finnish, unknown episodes),Vesa Hämes(Finnish, "Hidden" )Arto Nieminen(Finnish, episodes 27 - 52),Guy de La Berg(Swedish),Salvador Serrano(Castilian Spanish),Tomasz Marzecki(Polish),Beomki Hong(Korean)

Years ago, young "Mikey" Franklin went on a fishing trip to theGreen River Rapidswith his father. The boy was accidentally pulled in, with the current moving too fast for his father to retrieve him. Ultimately, however, the Transformer known asEvaccame to his rescue. This instilled a desire to understand the creature that had saved his life, and Franklin began a lifelong pursuit of this knowledge. He immersed himself in studies of sightings of strange vehicles and beings, and later joined the United States military to have access to classified information.RevelationEventually, he worked his way up to a position where he could launch his own investigation; though thepresidentthought this was a waste of money, she still provided the necessary funding.Family

Sightings of the Earth-dwelling Transformers turned his attention to the town ofRockville,Colorado.HiddenHe began to closely watchCoby Hansen,his brother,Bud,and their friend,Lori.CollapseIn addition, he made contact with Dr.Lucy Suzuki,who had discovered artifacts that ultimately turned out to be remnants of an earth-dwelling Transformer civilization.RaceHe then tracked down the Hansen boys and spied on them as they were discussing a race their Autobot allies had participated in.Detour

Suspecting Dr. Suzuki knew something about the Transformers, he secretly followed her to theArctic,where he witnessedCrosswisebeing released from the ice.TrustWhenStarscreamattacked, he organised a blockade to prevent civilian humans from being caught in the crossfire, and once again met up with Dr. Suzuki.Trap

Soon afterwards, during the appearance of Starscream's army ofAncient Decepticons,he took the people living in Rockville into government custody, and tried to learn the location of the Autobots' base from the children, only for them to be saved by theRecon Mini-Con Team.Franklin also observed a battle between the Autobots and Starscream's Decepticons, and noticed that there was a significant tactical difference between the two groups.Invasion

Franklin would soon after reveal himself to the AutobotsRetreat,where he explained his story and was finally able to properly thank Evac.RevelationHe presented himself as a friend, and used his contacts to mobilize part of the military in an attempt to help the three Transformers who would become theCybertron Defense Teamafter they sustained near fatal damage fromMegatron.During this time, when a blast of theOmega Frequencyarrived from the Omega Lock and reformatted the three, Franklin arranged for the base's receiver arrays to trace the signal, allowing the Autobots to find Starscream's secret base.CriticalFranklin became an indispensable ally, and Earth's main representative to the Transformers.

When the Autobots and the kids returned to Cybertron, Franklin led a force to Starscream's island base, but found it deserted and devoid of anything useful.Darkness

After the kids returned to Earth, the president called him up to admit she had been wrong about his secret Autobot research. Around the same time, Lori contacted him via Dr. Suzuki in the hope he would persuade her and Coby's parents to let her go toGigantion.To Lori's dismay, they both argued that this simply wouldn't be safe; however, they were quickly overridden by Optimus Prime, Vector Prime, and Landmine, who all appeared and argued in the kids' favor. The pair then watched the Autobots and kids riding off on thespace bridge,Franklin mulling on youthful enthusiasm and determination.Family

During the Autobots' absence, he and Dr. Suzuki could only watch as theUnicron Singularitycontinued to slowly manifest above Earth.CityThe two later observed Primus's efforts to contain the black hole from the Autobots' base.ChallengeHe also attempted to contact the Autobots, but was unable to do so as they were in another universe at the time. However, just as he was giving up, a space bridge opened between Gigantion and Earth, allowing him to get in an encouraging message.Showdown

After the Autobots returned to their own universe, Col. Franklin and Dr. Suzuki contacted them to tell them about catastrophic events on Earth due to Galvatron's influence on the Unicron Singularity. Franklin then co-ordinated the civilian Autobots' rescue operations for a while, but soon decided that what they were doing was ineffectual, and told them all to get to Cybertron and stop the problem at the source.HomecomingIn the meantime, he and Dr. Suzuki evacuated the people of Earth to areas where they would presumably last a little longer in the event of planetary explosion; after that, they could just wait and watch.End

In the aftermath of the conflict, Franklin was appointed Earth's representative at the first interplanetary peace conference. He proposed sealing the Cyber Planet Keys away; however, Optimus Prime suggested that instead of hiding them, they instead take them to the far corners of the universe and expand the space bridge network their ancestors had started.

Franklin also struck up a relationship with Lucy Suzuki, which culminated in her proposing marriage to him—after mistakenly believinghewas proposing toherfirst. Years later, the two married and had a child together, and were in attendance at Coby and Lori's wedding.Beginning

Notes

• InGalaxy Force,it is Colonel Franklin who very desperately proposes marriage to Dr. Lucy Suzuki as she leaves Earth, instead of what's seen inCybertron.She was verylaissez-faireto his pleas, but the end result was the same.

Foreign names

• Japanese:Mike Franklin(マイク・フランクリンMaiku Furankurin)