Primus (Transformers)

Primus is the benevolent deity in the fictional Transformers comic Universe who created the Transformers to fight his ancient enemy, the Chaos-Bringer Unicron.

Contents

1 History 2 Revisions and additions 3 Armada & Energon 4 The Ultimate Guide

History

The first clash between Unicron and Primus came when Unicron, unbelievably, succeeded in his goal of consuming the universe. But as he slumbered in the void, he hadn't been thorough enough - tiny fragments of the universe remained, and reacted with each other, creating the Big Bang that bore the current universe. The universe grew around Unicron, and when he awoke, he did not question it, and merely began to consume it again. The sentient core of the universe responded by creating a guardian to battle Unicron - and this was Primus. The infant universe shook and quaked from the ferocity of their battles, and Primus was eventually forced into a desperate gamble. He shifted the battle to the astral plane, where he fared no better, and then returned them to the physical universe - but instead of allow them to materialise in their energy forms, he entrapped both Unicron and himself in two metallic asteroids.

But Unicron would not be stopped, psionically shaping his asteroid into a massive metal world, and then into a gargantuan robot. Primus, however, elected to create a race of guardians to defend the universe against Unicron, transforming his own asteroid into a metal world - Cybertron. And on that world, he gave birth to the Transformers, bestowing the race with his distilled genetic Matrix. And so Primus slumbered, shutting himself down to hide the world from Unicron, until the time came.

And the time came in 1991, when Primus was briefly awakened by a stray laser blast in the middle of a battle at the planet's core. He screamed once, before falling back to sleep, but the scream echoed across existence, reaching Unicron's ears. And so Unicron headed for Cybertron, sending his herald, Galvatron ahead of him. But Galvatron proved treacherous, and awakened Primus, who possessed the body of Emirate Xaaron and brought all the Transformers to Cybertron before Unicron destroyed him. Subsequently, Optimus Prime used the Matrix to destroy Unicron.

Revisions and additions

The above is the story of Primus as related in the US Marvel comics, but the story was originally told in the UK comics, where there was also a mention of Primus and Unicron having armies, something that was retroactively removed from the story and has not been touched upon since.

The expanded fiction of the Botcon and OTFCC comic books revealed that Primus experimented with a small planet before actually transforming himself into Cybertron. This world, named Protos, was where he created the first 12 Transformers, each of the themed after an animal of the zodiac.

Armada & Energon

When the Transformers Armada series came to feature a new incarnation of Unicron, the Fleer series of trading cards included on this Unicron's card a biography that mentioned Primus and told an entirely new story for this universe. Here, Primus and Unicron were brothers, twin heralds created by the Allspark to explore the universe. But Unicron was a flawed being, and he eventually turned on his brother when they discovered a region of space rich in Energon. Unicron sought to use it for his own power, and to stop Primus telling the Allspark of this, he apparently slew him, and cast his body into the orbit of a nearby star. This is as far as the story on the card goes, but it can be presumed that Primus then somehow became Cybertron.

Armada's sequel series, Transformers Energon, went on to feature a character named Primus, who dwelled at the core of Cybertron. Portrayed as an incandescent sphere of light, Primus is given no origin or explanation in the series, beyond apparently being the sentient energy core of Cybertron. This is probably for the best, however, as the Japanese-produced cartoon probably would not have agreed with the American-written Fleer Cards story, meaning that the two storylines do not suffer a conflict.

Primus's first noted act in the Energon universe was to imbue the young Chad "Kicker" Jones with the ability to sense Energon (presumably, this was to enable the Autobots to find the mineral, but seems like a very callous and self-serving act, which is in-line with the Marvel incarnation of Primus, but not how the Energon version of the character would go on to act). Subsequently, he bestowed upon the Autobots of this universe the "Spark of Combination," giving them the ability to Powerlink their bodies together for enhanced strength in the face of the attacks by Alpha Q and his Terrorcons. When these battles eventually led to full-scale Decepticon attack upon Cybertron, Primus's chamber was infiltrated by Terrorcons who began to drain his energy. When the Autobots successfully repelled them, Primus reconstructed the injured guard, Wing Dagger, as Wing Saber, who joined the battle, which resulted in a fissure being torn in space, hurling the Autobots far from Cybertron.

In this new region of space, the Decepticons succeeded in restoring and reanimating Unicron. Primus guided Kicker's father, Doctor Brian Jones, to a subterranean temple on Cybertron, where they awoke the legendary Omega Supreme, who Powerlinked with Optimus Prime into "Optimus Supreme" to aid in fighting Unicron. Primus then transmitted the entirety of his energy across the gulf of space, enhancing the armour and power of Hot Shot, Jetfire, Ironhide, Cliffjumper and Landmine, and allowing Optimus Supreme to grow to a colossal height, to battle and best Unicron one-on-one.

With Unicron defeated, the Autobots were afforded a brief moment of relaxation, but another Decepticon attack launched upon Cybertron soon shattered that. Having expended his energy, Primus was in "sleep mode," and had to be forcibly awakened by an infusion of Energon from the Omnicons, only to find himself forced to use all his power to once again enhance Optimus Supreme so that he could stop the Decepticon-induced movement of Cybertron. The Omnicons quickly re-energised him with Super Energon from the reservior beneath the planet's surface, while Optimus Prime struggled with a Unicron-possessed Galvatron. Primus merged himself with the reservior of Super Energon, creating a foundling sun, into which Galvatron plunged himself, preferring to be destroyed, rather than manipulated by Unicron any further. With this act, the sun ignited, as Primus and Unicron together breathed new life into the stars.

For an unexplained reason, in the mid-point of the Energon series, the show's dub writes out much of Primus's presence and influence. His lines are given to other characters - usually Rad or Dr. Jones - and he is often referred to as "the core," rather than by name. However, this is never consistent, as he will again eventually speak a line or perform an action, and by the show's final story arc, this strange trait had disappeared.

The Ultimate Guide

When Transformers: The Ultimate Guide was released by Dorling Kindersley, it created one unified timeline that would take aspects from both the classic cartoon and comic, which is, apparently to be treated as the main G1 timeline by official sources (it appears that this is the timeline of the Dreamwave Comics, but this has been debated).

Here, elements of the Fleer and Botcon stories are added and more new information is created to create another new origin for Primus and Unicron. The book again presents Primus and Unicron as brother heralds, existing as metal planetoids, here created by "The One", rather than the Allspark, sent into the new universe to explore. When Unicron fell to evil, he adapted his body to transform into a robot mode, and Primus was given the power to do so as well by the Allspark, but Primus preferred to remain in planet mode, connected to the universe on a planetary level. To operate his planetary-mode defenses and weapons, he created the first 13 Transformers, but one of them turned on the remaining twelve and sided with Unicron. In the final battle, Unicron and the traitor - The Fallen - were sucked through a black hole into another dimension. Subsequently, Primus settled his planet mode into orbit around Alpha Centauri, and bore the entire race of Transformers. Primus is alleged to have seeded many worlds across the multiverse (an explanation for his existence in assorted continuities), while Unicron is considered to be one singular being, who travels from universe to universe. While not a repellent concept, the story requires the adjustment of and dismissal of some facts from earlier stories (particularly the G1 cartoon) to make it universally correct.