I can across this name a couple of times in my Transformers universe research and I have no idea who or what this thing is? Can anyone help me out?
He's one of the original 13 transformers created by Primus, and was evil before the Fallen was for some... odd reason.
He first appeared at the very end (cliffhanger actually) of the Marvel G2 comics. At least I think that was his first appearence anyway... But yeah, big bad evil dude. There have been a couple other stories with him in it, I think by Simon Furiman but they aren't comics, just fiction. Can't recall the title of them though, I read one a really long time ago and wasn't too impressed with it. I'm sure Google or Wikipedia can help you too. Edit: Spiderus gets a gold star.
He's a gigantic, ancient Transformer who rules over Jhiaxus' Imperial Decepticons from a cluster of worlds known as "The Hub". Recently confirmed as one of the first 13, his only fictional appearances to date were the cliffhanger at the end of the Generation 2 series and the Simon Furman text story Alignment. Although Hasbro confirmed he was one of the 13, that's all they did - we still know nothing about him. Still, with The Hub name-dropped in Exodus and a new design for him shown at Botcon, it seems likely we're going to see him again sooner or later.
Until BotCon, I was under the impression that Leige Maximo might have been the same guy as the Fallen, what with the link they have to the Decepticon race/faction.
In the Liege Maximo's brief appearance on the last page of G2, he claims that evil can't be eliminated because it has to exist in a counterbalance with good, and thus he was created when the first Prime was created (Prima). So basically, even though he was one the First 13, created from Primus himself, he was made evil for some universal balance, much like Primus and Unicron themselves. He then went on to say that Megatron, and the entire Decepticon race, descended from himself. Later, Furman made The Fallen, another evil member of the 13 who became Unicron's henchman. The Fallen was brought in to the Movieverse, and in that continuity he said that HE was the ancestor of the Decepticons. Since the 13 are supposedly the same characters no matter what continuity they show up in, this would sound like they retconned the Fallen to take the Liege's position (as Wheeljack Prime said above, he thought they were the same guy). Furthermore, we now know the Fallen's original name was "Megatronus Prime" and that Megatron (at least the Megatron of the Exodus continuity, no idea if this retcon applies to all Megatrons) took his name from that, thus again putting Megatron closer to The Fallen than to the Liege. On the other hand, it's not as if the Liege seems to care about being related to the Decepticons, so the retcon might mean little to him. Furman later wrote a story that expanded on what the Liege is, but this story was not licensed by Hasbro, and thus is not canon. In that story, the Liege was noted as being the member of the 13 who divided his essence less than any of the others (when the others split themselves to give birth to the later generations), this meant his connection to Primus' godhood was more intact, thus he himself was something of a demigod. But he wanted to be a true god, and so his whole scheme was developing enough energy to ascend to godhood. So, as he seems to be more of a self-serving character, then his connection to the Decepticons might be irrelevant, and thus it's just as well that The Fallen has taken his place.
Wow I have a lot of catching up to do ... I blame High School for keeping me so occupied through the early 90's! *Shakes Cybertronian Fist* ty Abrogate for the thorough input.
So far as the Liege and the Fallen and the Decepticons go, the way I see it is that the Liege Maximo created the taint of evil in the Transformers that ultimately flowered with the birth of the Decepticons, but it was the Fallen who was actually responsible for cultivating said taint and *causing* the Decepticons to come about (and not even in every universe, just in some of them, like the movie universe). The Thirteen were created to be stewards of various aspects of reality: we know for sure that Vector Prime was the guardian of space and time, that Nexus Prime guarded rarefied Energon, and that the Fallen watched over entropy, which is not *evil*, just a natural process with dark connotations that ultimately warped his mind. We also know from BotCon that Prima was the warrior of Light, or "good", so it's a logical step to see the Liege Maximo as the overseer of Darkness, or "evil", which is in line with what he said of his nature back in his G2 cameo.
But didn't he become obsessed with the darker side of chaos and gave absolute loyalty to his evil lord Unicron?
Oh, yes, he did - The FALLEN became evil, yes, but I'm just saying that entropy itself isn't evil, it just LED him to evil places.
Except at Botcon it was stated that Megatronus / Fallen is the counterpoint of Prima, not the Liege Maximo. And they explicitly said that Megatronus would be the warrior of darkness, so almost a shift away from the whole Entropy thing. Or maybe not - perhaps Warrior of Darkness directly refers to that? I know I once said I took some of the reveals in Alignment as canon until proven otherwise, but I think that the Liege Maximo might actually be very different to the one we have known once he shows up. What we know of Hasbro's take on Megatronus / Fallen is that he is very much taking over Liege Maximo's position, so we have pretty much proven that Alignment isn't going to be the full characterisation of the Liege that Hasbro is reaching for, in my eyes at least.
Come to think of it, remember that the Covenant of Primus verse "I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I am that which is, which was, and is yet to come...and you will know my name is Megatron when I lay my vengeance upon you!"? I'm starting to wonder if that passage originally applied to The Fallen, and that BOTH Megatrons took their name from this passage instead of just the BW one.
Yeah, kind of throws a few spanners in the works. Worst part really was they basically said nothing about Liege Maximo at all other than he's part of the plans. So at once denying just about everything we know but confirming he's in!
I suppose, ruminating on it, the idea that the Liege Maximo was "evil" by nature of cosmic balance, and yet remained loyal to Primus when the Fallen switched sides for Unicron, the *embodiment* of all dang evil, doesn't make much sense, does it?
