I've been wondering, Since Optimus Prime was shown to have received the Creation Matrix from Sentinel Prime during battle in "The Legacy of Unicron!" doesn't that mean he should've been called "Orion Pax" or just "Optimus" in "State Games", which took place as the war began? It's totally believable that he had it by "And There Shall Come... A Leader!" if the Matrix being passed between "leaders" is hyperbolic and not literal, but unless the existence of the Matrix and the significance of the title "Prime" weren't yet common knowledge, and there was another way of creating Transformers (Vector Sigma?) to explain the population boom that started the war, shouldn't "State Games" be edited somehow, or at least be given a footnote to clarify this?

 

Well, there was an explanation for how other Transformers were created beyond things like the Matrix and Vector Sigma in Generation 2... but the timeline of the Transformers history in the Marvel comics can be difficult to put all the pieces together for, and I'm pretty sure that State Games would have been after all the budding had been completed.

There was conflict on Cybertron before the Great War between Autobots and Decepticons, which was why the Games were instituted in the first place - to help limit hostilities between the City States. Sentinel Prime could have fallen in an inter-City conflict, giving the Matrix to Optimus before the events of State Games. It is pretty obvious in the Marvel comics that Prime =/= Leader for quite some time, since the last Overlord is ruling in State Games, and Optimus is a battlefield commander in And There Shall Come... A Leader, with Emirate Xaaron convincing the council that they should hand command over to Optimus Prime so he can more effectively fight the war with the Decepticons.

It could all certainly use some more clarification, but it does all more or less hold together - it's just that it is very different to how things are presented later and in other continuities, despite many elements of the Marvel comic being adopted and adapted into later mythos.

 

I completely missed that detail, of course Optimus received the Matrix in a pre-war incursion.

Having just reread Generation 2 though I can say the budding, specifically that of Jhiaxus and his faction, was occurring well after the Ark crashed on Earth, so the concept was pretty clearly intended to explain the population boom preceding the war while the Creation Matrix remained obscure. I'm not the biggest G2 fan though, (too many weird little plotholes,) so I'll probably be keeping the Vector Sigma bit in my headcanon. Perhaps it was destroyed early in the war and that's why the Matrix was later referred to as the only way to create new Transformer life.

 

I'm a big G2 fan, weird plot holes and all!   But I can understand it not being everyone's cup of tea... still, it's probably better we got it at the time than Simon Furman's other idea, Techno-X! *

The UK comic also introduces (and does nothing with) the Matrix Flame. According to the bio for Ultra Magnus in UK issue 81, this was what was used to give life to him (it also has a connection with the actual Matrix, snuffing out when the Matrix disappeared along with Optimus Prime into Limbo).

* Ah, who am I kidding? I would have loved to have seen Techno-X  

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm that's interesting. If I had to take a speculative guess, I'd say that since the primal program was divisible (seeing as a fraction of the Creation Matrix remained in prime after he unleashed on Unicron and the Matrix in turn was a portion of Primus' power) the Matrix Flame could be one of those fractions, created by Optimus or one of his predecessors as a sort of "holy horcrux" for religious or ceremonial purposes. Since Ultra Magnus was created while Optimus was stranded on Earth I doubt that spawning brain modules from the Matrix Flame was standard practice given that it wasn't a force of creation in it's own right, rather the circumstance of Ultra Magnus' creation must have been one of unique desperation against Decepticon rule, especially since he was made as the strongest Autobot and appears to be the only one of his generation.

[Edit: I Just read up on Techo-X and it sounds like it would've been completely badass]

 

Yes, Ultra Magnus was supposed to have been designed as a some kind of powerful warrior/figure for the Autobots to rally around after the Ark crashed, and possibly only shortly before his first appearance in the UK comic - I'd say the Matrix Flame probably couldn't be used to create new life in bulk, but the details of the Matrix Flame being able to give life at all only comes from the bio given for Ultra Magnus in that issue. In the story itself, the Matrix Flame is really only seen as a ceremonial thing, and a warning that the Matrix itself had gone missing when it was shunted out of regular space into Limbo.

Optimus Prime also gave a piece of the Matrix to Longtooth, so the Matrix can definitely be divided up in the Marvel continuity. This piece of the Creation Matrix could have been used to restore one Transformer to life (but is instead used to repair the environmental damage done to the Earth following an Autobot/Decepticon battle).

 

Ah, that's in Who's "Lifeforce Is It Anyways?" isn't it. I'm still just before Time Wars.

His Tfwiki article says as much, although I'm not sure where that came from.

 

Yep, that's the story where he gets the piece of the Matrix, followed by 'The Greatest Gift of All' the issue after, where Optimus uses the piece of the Matrix. Is this the first time you've read through the Marvel UK stories? I'm a big fan of the Marvel US and UK runs!

The Ultra Magnus bit comes from the bio in issue 81, but it's been a while since I read the actual original issue - but here it's confirmed in this blog which is going through all the Marvel UK issues, talking about the issues as a whole and not just the Transformers stories:

 

It is! Although I've had the Titan reprints of the US series for ages. That blog is absolutely brilliant though, somebody on Allspark.com pointed it out to me recently to aid in my maddening journey through UK chronology.

 

I hope you're enjoying the Marvel UK run - it really is something special, IMO, but I'm well aware that a big part of that is because I was reading it at the time - my brother and I had it put away for us each week/month/whatever it's schedule was at the local Newsagent (I'm Australian, but we got a lot of British magazines at the Newsagents). But also, part of it is that there really hasn't been anything else quite like it, with the threading together of UK original material and US material, and to have it actually almost kind of sort of make sense, despite the distance and lack of coordination between the US and UK offices!

TFarchive.com and the forums there have some very knowledgeable people about the Marvel comics run as well (that blogger posts there as Inflatable Dalek).

 

Ahh, I'm so jealous! I wish I could've been around for the phenomenon that was The Transformers, even if I grew up reading the Titan reprints.

I'm definitely gonna go poke around TFArchive though.

 

The entire magazine was a big part of the UK Transformers experience - the letters column, Combat Colin, there was a lot of good stuff in it.

 

Exactly! Getting a reply in Dread Tidings or Grim Grams would've been a friggin' dream come true

 

Chalk me up as someone who doesn't favour applying cartoon naming conventions to the comic.
King is a fairly common last name, but you could consider Optimus Prime's name a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Would this mean all references to PMOP would need to be changed to Orion Pax, or is it OK as the original source previously held the matrix?

 

I kind of agree with you, just "Optimus" was my choice initially (Coinilius actually ended up negating the entire poll). Regardless, outside of Rodimus reverting to Hot Rod (To Sell Toys) Primes tend to keep the title even without the Matrix.

 

You know whats funny now, they used to print out kids actual home addresses in the comic on the letters page. They wouldn't be allowed to do that now.

 

The question is still there, though, as to what Optimus Prime's name was before he got the Matrix - even if he presumably had it before State Games, and the Matrix and the Prime lineage was just low-key at the time, as The Madness mentions, it would be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy (or just a mad coincidence) if he was already called Optimus Prime before he got the Matrix (for the record, I'd lean towards him being known as just Optimus before he gets the Matrix from Sentinel Prime in the Marvel comic).

 

I've actually given that a thought too, but at the time it seemed way to big of a coincidence for me to even bring up. On a second thought though, there's the possibility that "Optimus Prime" is a literal elaboration of a simpler name, like Alpha Trion from A-3. Coincidentally, "A1" is a synonym for Optimum.

 

I just saw that you read up on Techno-X - while I think it's definitely for the best that it never went ahead, it certainly would have been interesting to see! In the long run, though, having the NeoKnights become just another failed 90's Marvel team book wouldn't have done them any favours.

 

As a 4 issue miniseries or a short 10 issue series like Death's Head it might've been alright, but there's probably no way it would've hacked it as an ongoing. To begin with the core concept would've IP nightmare between Hasbro and Marvel.