Kyle Pennington

Kyle Pennington is a human from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Kyle Pennington graduated as a Navy SEAL and spent twelve years in the United States Army before joining the anti-Transformer group Skywatch. He's a man of action who is more concerned about the safety of his fellow soldiers than strictly following orders. As part of Major Spike Witwicky's unit, he was among the first humans to realize the innocence of the Autobots, whom he now gets along well with.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Pennington's team and Campolongo were sent out to capture four Autobots who were driving around out in the open. While the rest of the squad took care of Beachcomber, Hoist, and Tracks, Pennington himself took aim at Blurr... who broke the sound barrier and fled at supersonic speeds before the Skywatch officer had time to react. Pennington was boggled by the Autobot's speed, but shrugged it off as his team had successfully captured the other three. Satisfied with a job well done, he called in an airship to bring the Autobots back to base. A Rude Awakening

Months later, after Skywatch and the Autobots had settled their differences, Pennington was part of the joint Skywatch-Autobot operation to stop the Combaticons in North Korea. He and Sandra oversaw the attack from their base in the U.S., though he got annoyed by Brawn and Silverstreak's constant bickering and told them to grow up. Sandra, on the other hand, was unhappy with how they were actively deceiving people with their plans to avert spy satellites in order for their Autobot friends to avoid detection. Pennington dismissed her worries as their strategy was necessary in order to defeat the Combaticons. Hawk Among the Sparrows

Once the Autobots ended up in fighting the Predacons as well, Pennington opened up a satellite channel so that he and Bumblebee could see what was going on, but at that point Sandra refused to take their lies any further and shut off the encryption on the broadcast. As a result, the world found out about the secret Skywatch-Autobot alliance, greatly distressing Pennington. The government was unsure of how to explain it to the public, anti-Transformer riots began to blossom up outside the Skywatch base, and Pennington promised Spike that he had a lot of paperwork to go through when he got home from Korea. A week later, Pennington was in attendance when Bumblebee attempted to calm a crowd protesting outside their base with an inspiring speech. However, just when the Autobot seemed to be on the verge of winning the crowd over, a man pulled out an unusually powerful handgun and fired at Bumblebee. All My Sins Remembered

He was upset enough over this to go Super Saiyan, apparently.

The would-be assassin was arrested, but everybody was shocked when they saw his weapon: Megatron, or at least an Earth-made facsimile of Megatron in his Walther P-38 pistol mode. While Brawn argued with Pennington over his decision to store "Megatron" in the base, they received news that the Skywatch aerial transport carrying Spike and the other Autobots back from Korea had been shot down by unknown attackers. Then Maria alerted him to a television interview with Ben Simpson, an anti-Cybertronian pundit and leader of the Earth's Children movement, which may have inspired Joe Gladki to attempt to kill Bumblebee. Just when the Skywatch soldier thought things couldn't get any worse, the Decepticons suddenly attacked, intent on freeing their imprisoned comrades. Only Pennington realized what was going on, but as he made his way down to the holding cells, he was rammed by the newly liberated Dead End, and could only watch as Blitzwing carried Scrapper out and the rest of the Decepticons escaped. The Demolished Man

Pennington was left in critical condition, and Silverstreak feared that moving him around would make things even worse. Altered Carbon Luckily, he managed to get back on his feet fairly quickly, albeit covered in bandages. Following the Decepticon attack, the Skywatch crew and their Autobot allies abandoned their base to regroup at Omega Supreme, but were followed by Mexicans armed with additional Megatron facsimiles. Ultra Magnus was ready to defend himself, but Pennington reminded him that the attackers were civilians, and killing them would only further ruin humanity's general opinion of the Autobots. Woken Furies Later, while getting medical attention, Pennington was reunited with Spike and the others, who had survived the plane crash. Enemy Mine

Pennington's injuries left him requiring a wheelchair for some time. He compared himself to Bumblebee, who was forced to walk with a cane after recovering from his attempted assassination, and joked about challenging him to a race. Orphans of the Helix

After the majority of the Autobots left Earth, Pennington spent a week overseeing file transfer protocols, since his injuries kept him from active duty. Prowl convinced him to gather information for a secret investigation regarding Scrapper's death. He also spent some time with Hot Spot, brainstorming ideas on how to improve the Autobots' reputation. Police Action #1

Kyle helped trick Sandra, who was laying low in her mother's house, into being questioned at Skywatch base about Spike Witwicky. Only Forward Spike admitted killing Scrapper and escaped the base. The Autobots decided that their time on Earth was done. Jazz and Kyle Pennington went to a decommissioned Skywatch base in New Mexico where Jazz explained Spike was now a fugitive and he was dissolving the Autobot's alliance with the government and wiping the Skywatch computers of any Cybertronian weapons data. Jazz apologized for tricking Pennington and burned the base to the ground. A Second Chance at Eden

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Kyle Pennington (カイル・ペニントン Kairu Peninton)