"We’re not giving up on Prime, okay?(!)”

Submitted by fabail

GET TO THE CHOPPAH

Such a crossover never happened (unfortunately).

By the way, the Justice League trailer has been released if you haven’t seen it yet.

Transformers/JLA by Phil Jimenez   yes, i said Transformers/JLA by Phil Jimenez

I've kind of just taken it as a given that Optimus Prime's pre-Prime name is (usually) Orion Pax, but where does that actually originate from and are that any other cases of Primes who had names that weren't just their old name with Prime added to the end? Also, are there any other pre-Prime names for OP besides Optronix and Optimus? Thank you ^w^

“Orion Pax” originated in the 1985 Generation 1 cartoon episode “War Dawn,” in which the young dock worker Orion is gravely injured by Megatron, then taken to Alpha Trion by the time-travelilng Aerialbots, where he is rebuilt as Optimus Prime. This was the first real origin story for Optimus Prime. Up to that point, the closest he’d come to a backstory was the Marvel Comics establishing him a soldier who worked his way up through the ranks to become leader.

The reason for the entirely different name was because, at this point in history, “Prime” hadn’t actually been established as a title - it was essentially just Optimus’s “surname.” Over in the Marvel stories, he was “Prime” even back before he became a soldier, long before he was ever leader. It wouldn’t be until the introduction of Rodimus Prime the next year that the idea of “Prime” as a title that was passed along with leadership came to be, and even after that, it took until 1990 for more Primes to be named, when the Marvel Comic finally identified “Sentinel Prime” as Optimus’s predecessor (which, of course, thoroughly confused the continuity of those early Marvel stories where he was Prime long before becoming leader).

As such, the closest we have to a Prime changing their name when they become Prime is “Hot Rod” becoming “Rodimus Prime,” and that’s just sticking “imus Prime” on the back end of his name. Otherwise, as shows like Animated have shown us, “Prime” has just become a title that you put after your name (”Sentinel” becoming “Sentinel Prime,” Longarm becoming “Longarm Prime,” etc).

As a side note, “War Dawn” and Rodimus taken together are also responsible for the widely-perceived idea that you get “recreated” into a bigger, more powerful “Prime” form by the Matrix when you take it on, which is actually historically not true. Orion was actually physically rebuilt into a war-capable configuration by Alpha Trion (with it having to be implicitly retconned in by later episodes that Alpha Trion gave him the Matrix offscreen, as the Matrix did not exist in cartoon lore at the time “War Dawn” was written), while Rodimus was recreated because he was the Chosen One. This perception saw Dreamwave have Optronix be recreated by the Matrix upon gaining it, but that’s the exception.

And yep, those names you list are the totality of Optimus’s pre-Prime names - Orion Pax in G1 and Aligned, Optronix in Dreamwave and Shattered Glass (he’s actually not named in the DW comics, but one of the tie-in novels, which also says he’s ”Orion to his friends”), and just plain “Optimus” in Animated and the movieverse. War for Cybertron, as I recall, had him just going by “Optimus” too, ignoring the “Orion” aspect of the Aligned backstory.

Yeah Optimus! oh no...

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Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist

ROOK: Good evening, Axiom Nexus. We're back on the air after the temporary hiatus Directorate-General Starscream mandated for a thorough security review and audit. The good news is that ANN will be gloriously hack-free moving forward.

We begin tonight's coverage with the news that the last of the nine agents dispatched around the galaxy to monitor "foundational realities" has arrived safely.  Though the Ministry of Higher Dimensional Sciences won't disclose the identity of the agent, and Starscream has threatened dire consequences if I keep trying to discover them on my own, the Ministry will confirm that he or she is safely on colony on Pinea Omicron and reporting back what signals we can from Primax 496.22 Alpha.

In celebration of this, ahem, "momentous occasion", the Directorate-General thought it might be good for moral to begin a regular featuring, celebrating what we know of Primax 496.22 Alpha and what makes it special. As some of you may know, this reality is best known for the "Beast Wars" conflict, a war on prehistoric Earth between Optimus Primal's crew of Maximals and the Predacon Megatron's crew of criminals. Tonight's segment will focus on Optimus Primal. Andromeda, would you care to pander?

ANDROMEDA: Glad to, Rook! Optimus Primal was the captain of the Axalon, a small exploration ship with a hold full of stasis pods. Early into their mission, they were tasked with engaging Megatron and his stolen vessel. The followed him through a transwarp portal, only to end up on a mysterious world filled with potent raw energon and alien artifacts. The crews adopted alternate modes based on local life forms, powerful animals, and the Beast Wars were joined!

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Let’s get archival! Some rare documents for you today - the original audition sheets for Optimus Prime and Megatron from the Generation 1 cartoon, including early character descriptions, sample dialogue, and hand-written notes from series director Wally Burr! Based on the note written atop Megatron’s page, it looks like Frank Welker was always Burr’s first choice to play the Decepticon leader! 

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