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Biography of Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, a faction of heroic robots from the planet Cybertron who wage their battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons, for control of their homeworld, and by extension, peace in the universe. The immensely kind and compassionate Prime puts all his talent to use to improve the world around him, and has dedicated himself to the protection of all life, particularly the inhabitants of Earth; he will battle his foes with unyielding resolve to uphold this belief. In power and intelligence, Optimus Prime has no equal, known as one of the greatest heroes on both Cybertron and Earth.

The original Optimus Prime transforms into a cab over flat-nose truck. The truck's cab transforms into the robot mode of Prime himself, with vast strength and armed with a laser rifle. Within his chest is contained the mystic talisman known as the Autobot Matrix of Leadership (or Creation Matrix), carried by all Autobot leaders and passed down through the ages. The truck's trailer disconnects and transforms into the Combat Deck, a mobile battle-station/command headquarters with an "Auto-Launcher" robot armed with assorted artillery and beam weapons. It can also serve as radio antenna for battlefield communications between the Autobots. The Combat Deck can launch Prime's third component, Roller, a mobile scout buggy that can easily slip behind enemy lines; when Roller is present somewhere, it is as if Prime is there himself. Injury to one component is felt by each of the others, and while Prime could survive the destruction of either, despite the slight degree of autonomy they possess, the Combat Deck and Roller would not be able to survive without him.

Additional powers included (somewhat inconsistently) in the animated series and comics are short-range optic blasts, holographic map projections, and deployable hydro-foils designed by Wheeljack which allowed Prime and the other Autobots to traverse bodies of water with ease. One of Prime's more memorable abilities from the animated series was the ability to retract his right hand and replace it with a glowing energon axe; although used only once, the axe proved popular enough to be rendered in toy form several times in recent years, and made further appearances in both the Dreamwave Productions and the Devil's Due Publishing comic series.

Across the assorted continuities of the original Transformers universe, there have been various interpretations of Optimus Prime. One of Prime's most notable characteristics in any form was his adamant commitment to leadership by example, and avoidance of any hypocrisy in his command, but beyond this, the animated series leant towards Optimus Prime as a straightforward, wise and essentially upbeat battlefield general. The Marvel Comics series, on the other hand, in addition to these more obvious characteristics, suggested a Prime secretly plagued by self-doubt and, more importantly, a conflicted sense of pacifism that often made him an extremely reluctant warrior, and it was occasionally implied that the conflict with the Decepticons lasted as long as it did primarily due to his unwillingness to take a more aggressive stance.

A tragic constant of the character is his predilection for self-sacrifice - across several continuities, Prime (and later, his modern namesakes) is almost sure to meet his end and later return to life (sometimes more than once). This trend was even the victim of a bit of gentle spoofing in the Beast Wars animated series, when the Megatron of that universe noted that Optimuses "do love to sacrifice" themselves. His death in Transformers: The Movie was not in the original script, but was subsequently ordered by Hasbro after approving the death of the character Duke in G.I. Joe: The Movie and feeling that it would be good for the Transformers franchise to kill off a major character as well.

According to

Animated series

Optimus Prime began his life as a robot named Orion Pax, a dock worker during the Golden Age of Cybertron nine million years ago, with a girlfriend named Ariel, and a best friend named Dion. At the time, a new breed of robot had recently appeared on the planet with new flight capabilities in robot mode that made Orion idolize them. Unfortunately for Orion, when Megatron, the leader of these robots, approached him with inquiries about using one of the dock warehouses, Orion was swayed by Megatron. Orion and Ariel were severely wounded when Megatron and his forces then attacked in order to claim the energy stored there. Searching for someone to help them, the time-displaced Aerialbots took Orion and Ariel to the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, who used them as the first subjects for the new reconstruction process he had developed - rebuilding the frail Autobot frames into battle-hardy configurations. With this reconstruction, Orion Pax became Optimus Prime, the first of the Autobot warriors, who took the mantle of leadership as the civil war against the Decepticons erupted, and would remain in that position for the next four million years. Ariel was rebuilt into Elita One, the commander of the Autobot resistance on Cybertron.

As leader of the Autobots, Prime headed up the Autobots' mission to search out new worlds with new sources of energy to revitalise the depleted Cybertron. Optimus vowed to Elita that he would return from his mission for her, but just before the launch of the Ark Optimus was mistakenly led to believe Elita was killed. Shortly after its launch, the Autobots' craft was attacked by the Decepticons' space cruiser, and boarded by Megatron and the Decepticons. In the ensuing struggle, the G-forces of a nearby planet pulled both craft down, and the Autobots' ship crashed into a volcano, thrusting all the occupants into emergency stasis. Four million years later, in the Earth year A.D. 1984, a volcanic eruption jarred the ship's computer, Teletraan I back to life, and it reactivated the Decepticons, programming them with new Earth-based disguise modes. As a petty parting gesture, Starscream fired upon the Autobot ship, creating a landslide that knocked Prime into the path of the computer's restoration beam, restoring him to life, and beginning the war anew on Earth.

Prime was perpetually at the forefront of the action throughout the early years of the war on Earth, usually confronting Megatron, and, in some rare instances, being forced to team up with him for the greater good (or the lesser evil) - such as against the Insecticon controlled Decepticons or the Combaticons. He has suffered his fair share of battlefield scrapes, almost meeting his end when his vital cosmotron component was critically damaged by the Decepticon jets and Laserbeak, having his body be disassembled and turned into Decepticon trophies (such as turning much of his body into a pet "alligaticon" and one of his arms into a defense laser), and suffering a severe - though unfair - defeat when Megatron challenged him to one-on-one combat while imbued with the different abilities of all the Decepticons. The loser would leave Earth. However, Teletraan I discovered the deception in time and the Autobots were able to drive the Decepticons off.

Generally, Prime acted in a commanding role as part of larger battles and events, but played prominent and solo roles in a few, also. In 1985, Megatron created a virtually perfect duplicate of him, leaving the Autobots unable to differentiate between the two until the clone disregarded the safety of their human companion, Spike Witwicky, exposing the deception.

One of Prime's most prominent appearances came in the episode Prime Target, where the big game hunter Lord Chumley captured a secret Soviet jet, leading to panic of possibly war. Chumley then set his sights on the ultimate trophy, the head of Optimus Prime. In order to lure Optimus in Chumley captured the Autobots Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Blaster and Inferno. Windcharger and Huffer were able to avoid being trapped. When Cosmos learned of the location Chumley was keeping the captured Autobots Optimus Prime accepted Chumley's challenge to meet him alone. Although interrupted by the Decepticons Astrotrain and Blitzwing's attempt to ally the Decepticons with Chumley, Optimus defeated the big game hunter and freed the Autobots. Chumley and the stolen jet were given over to the Soviets by the Autobots as punishment for his actions.

The same year also saw Elita One captured by the Decepticons on Cybertron and used to lure Prime there alone; although knowing it was a trap, he ventured in solo and was defeated by the Decepticons and nearly destroyed, until Elita's stasis-field abilities froze time long enough for them to escape. Prime was forced to seek out Alpha Trion to save the wounded Elita's life, and in the process, rediscovered his forgotten connection to his creator. In the episode Starscream's Brigade' the Autobots were honored when a memorial statue of Optimus Prime was unveiled. Cliffjumper and Jazz attended the ceremony, but it was interrupted by Starscream and the Combaticons. Swindle shot up the statue.

In the episode Masquerade, towards the end of the year, Prime was among the team of five Autobots who disguised themselves as the Stunticons, with Prime’s alternate mode making him the perfect choice to masquerade as Motormaster. Penetrating the Decepticons’ camp, the Autobots ran into trouble when the real Stunticons arrived, trying to prove their identities by forming Menasor. With a combination of Windcharger’s magnetic powers and Mirage’s illusion-creating ability, the Autobots were able to appear as Menasor too, but the deception was soon revealed, though they were still able to thwart the Decepticons’ plans.

Over the course of the next twenty years, the Decepticons succeeded in seizing control of all of Cybertron, forcing the Autobots to operate from their new city on Earth, and from two bases on Cybertron's moons. In the Earth year A.D. 2005, Prime was stationed on Moonbase One, and dispatched troops to Earth to acquire energy for an upcoming strike on Cybertron. The Decepticons, however, got wind of the plan and used the shuttle run to attack Autobot City; a distress call summoned Prime and support troops to Earth, and in the fearsome ensuing fight with Megatron, Optimus Prime sustained fatal injuries, but not before turning the tide of battle and forcing the Decepticons to flee. Despite the efforts of Perceptor, Optimus Prime died. The Matrix, and with it leadership of the Autobots, fell into the hands of Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, and subsequently to Rodimus Prime. His last words were "Until that day...'til all are one."

Prime's body was entombed in a massive deep-space mausoleum with the many other fallen Autobots, but his corpse was desecrated by the Quintessons in 2006, when they reanimated it as part of an attempt to destroy the Autobots by using Prime to lure their space fleet into a trap. However, the Matrix was able to purify Prime of the Quintesson influence, and he ordered the other Autobots clear while he piloted his flagship into the Quintessons' detonator, triggering the explosion of a nearby sun.

Prime was believed to have been destroyed in the explosion, but in reality, before the flagship impacted with the detonator, his body was recovered from the craft by two human scientists, Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford. However, as their ship departed, it was coated in solar spores released by the explosion of the sun. Jessica's father, Mark Morgan, loathed the Transformers (both Autobot and Decepticon), and his hatred only grew when an attempt by the Decepticons to steal a heat-resistant alloy he had developed resulted in Jessica being paralyzed. Swofford and Morgan reconstructed Optimus Prime's body in an attempt to use it as a delivery system for the spores, which induces enmity and madness with every sentient being they come contact with, in order to destroy the Transformers. However, when they could not reanimate him, they used his body as a lure instead, bringing the Autobots to their lab, where they were infected. As this "Hate Plague" proceeded to spread across the galaxy, Sky Lynx retrieved a Quintesson, who fully restored Optimus Prime to life. Coating himself in Morgan's heat-resistant alloy, Prime reclaimed the Matrix from Rodimus and unleashed its concentrated wisdom to destroy the Hate Plague.

In 2007, Prime began to suffer visions following the release of the Matrix's energy, which foretold a great transformation for Cybertron. Events began with the Decepticons' theft of the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber, which forced Prime to consult Alpha Trion within Vector Sigma, learning that the mega-computer had orchestrated events in order to restore Cybertron's Golden Age. When the Plasma Energy Chamber was opened and threatened to drive Earth's Sun supernova, Spike Witwicky and the Nebulans who had become involved in the conflict as a result of these events were able to drain off the excess solar energy and revitalize Cybertron.

The seldom-seen fifth season of the show featured previous episodes' stories retold by a stop-motion Powermaster Optimus Prime to the live-action youngster Tommy Kennedy. No real back story was ever established for Prime becoming a Powermaster, but the new sequences were said to take place after the four previous seasons, indicating that in the original Sunbow continuity at least, Prime became a Powermaster at some point.

Although the animated series ended in the U.S. after The Rebirth Optimus Prime continued to appear in animated sequences in the Transformers toy commercials, progressing from Powermaster to Action Master, and even appearing as a CGI Combat Hero Optimus Prime.

According to

Marvel Comics

In Marvel Comics' comic series, before the Great War broke out on Cybertron, the robot who would be Optimus Prime (his name before becoming the Prime Autobot remains unknown) was a Transformer of note, displaying his skills in the Infraformers Sharpshooting Competition. Subsequently, when the war began, Prime quickly made a name for himself as a combat leader. On a mission with the Triggerbots to stop Megatron from claiming the Underbase, Prime was forced to jettison the massive databank into space to prevent anyone acquiring its power, but with this action, proved his wisdom and skill to the Autobot Council of Elders; this led to even more rapid advancement, eventually leading him to field command over the Autobot armies. The outbreak of the Great War saw Autobot territories falling under Decepticon dominion, one City-State at a time. The last City-State to be taken was the Autobot capital of Iacon. As Decepticons besieged Iacon, the Council of Elders prepared to surrender. Councillor Xaaron suggested that High Councillor Traachon step down and allow a military officer to assume Autobot leadership. Traachon then used his powers of veto and effectively elected himself out of office, allowing Optimus Prime to assume supreme command of the Autobots, becoming the first soldier to ever hold the mantle of Autobot leadership. Following this Optimus Prime gradually halted the Decepticon advance turning the Autobots into a force that could realistically resist the Decepticons.

Four million years ago, Cybertron - shaken from its orbit and drifting through space - came under threat when it floated into the path of a massive asteroid swarm that could potentially devastate the planet. Prime led a group of elite Autobot warriors on the Autobot starship, the Ark, on a mission to destroy the asteroids, and although successful, in the aftermath of this mission the Ark was attacked by Decepticons, hoping to overcome their weakened foes. Intent on keeping the secrets of the Ark from the Decepticons, Prime set the craft on a suicide course, crashing it into the prehistoric planet Earth.

In 1984 A.D., a volcanic eruption reactivated the Ark, which in turn brought the Transformers back on-line. Prime led the Autobots in their opening battles to prevent the Decepticons from plundering Earth's resources, but following their initial victory, the Autobots were all deactivated by Shockwave. Prime was decapitated by Shockwave, and had the energy of the Creation Matrix leeched from his mind to give life to Shockwave's creations, the Constructicons (although Shockwave was unaware that the Matrix was not merely a program in Prime's mind, but a physical object in his chest). Before Shockwave could give life to his next Decepticon, Jetfire, Prime transferred the Matrix energy into the mind of Buster Witwicky, who used the energy to turn Jetfire on Shockwave, allowing Prime to reclaim his body and retake leadership of the Autobots, giving Jetfire true life as a reward.

Meanwhile, however, on the other side of the Atlantic, the UK offices of Marvel Comics were producing their own storylines which were interspliced throughout the US material. Here, writer Simon Furman offered a different take on Prime, one that was weary of the war he had been forced to fight. In the "Prey" storyline beginning in UK #96 Prime arranged for a Wheeljack built copy of himself to be destroyed to see how the Autobots could cope without him. Unfortunately the plan was derailed by Megatron and the Predacons, who attacked him. In the ensuing chaos the Predacons, in reality working for Shockwave, also tried to kill Megatron. The two leaders were then transported to Cybertron. Thanks to misinformation spread by Megatron and the local Decepticon leader Straxus Prime was targeted as a Decepticon spy and hunted down by Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers. Eventually convincing them he was the real thing due to his compassion towards an injured Autobot, Prime then led the Autobots against Megatron - now in the throes of possession by Straxus, who threatened to blow them all up with his anti-matter powered fusion cannon. Prime, Megatron and Magnus were transported to Earth - with Prime accidentally interrupting his own funeral service. This theme of war-weariness would again come to the fore in the UK strips detailing Prime's US death.

After a period of effective leadership which saw the activation of several new Autobots including the Aerialbots, who Prime infused with life using the Matrix, Prime engaged Megatron in a video game duel for possession of a super fuel. Prime was victorious, but Megatron implemented a cheat code, allowing him to re-enter the game. Prime was able to defeat him yet again, but in doing so, he also destroyed several of the game sprites, and refused to accept his victory, as he had performed an action that compromised his beliefs about the preservation of life, which he would never have done, had the duel been real. In accordance with the rules of the game, Prime's body exploded and he died. Autobot surgeon Ratchet's subsequent efforts to restore him were unsuccessful, and his body was launched into space, the Autobots unaware of the presence of the physical Matrix object within the corpse. The funeral barge eventually crashed on a giant moon; as it lay there for an untold time, the Matrix reached out to nearby living organisms, studying and recreating them. One such recreated being became known as Death Bringer.

Prime's personality had been copied onto a floppy disk by the technician running the game, Ethan Zachary, who employed him in various video game scenarios he developed. Prime's damaged mind led him to believe that he himself was a video game character, and in an attempt to bring him back to life, Goldbug, Joyride, Slapdash and Getaway took the disk to the planet Nebulos. They built a new body for Optimus Prime, and even upgraded it with the ability to combine with the trailer to form a larger robot. In an effort to keep Transformers off their planet, however, the Nebulans had poisoned their fuel, and the sensation of dying convinced Prime that he was truly alive, and not a game character. To save his life, the Nebulan scientist Hi-Q bonded with him, creating Powermaster Optimus Prime. A UK story set around this time in UK #198 would see Prime as the star of his own Christmas special, as he returned to Earth and tried to rekindle his feeling for the planet. After a battle between his own forces and an advance force from Cybertron ruined a small town's Christmas festivities he realised bringing the Autobots to Earth was far worse than anything his troops could have done and vowed to protect its inhabitants from Decepticon aggression.

Optimus Prime's first actions as leader were to ally the Autobots with Scorponok's Decepticons in defeating Starscream when the later gained the power of the Underbase. When Starscream gained cosmic power from a brief exposure to the Underbase, it was Optimus Prime's idea to let Starscream absorb so much power from the Underbase that it destroyed him. However, the casualties were immense, with most of the Autobots who had come to Earth with Prime being deactivated. His guilt over this was only heightened when his friend Ratchet sacrificed himself to stop a returned Megatron from escaping once again.

In the U.K. Transformers stories Prime and his Autobots later battled a murderous mechanoid named Death Bringer, which Prime recognised as a creation of the Matrix. When Death Bringer proved invulnerable to conventional attack, Prime was able to convince it to self-destruct in accordance with its primary function. Prime salvaged a sliver of Matrix energy from Death Bringer's remains, which he later used to restore a rainforest destroyed during a battle between the Autobot Rescue Patrol and the Decepticon Air Strike Patrol member Whisper. But most importantly, the battle alerted Prime to the fact that his old body was still out there somewhere in space, and more importantly, that the Matrix that it carried was also with it. With a war to win, the location of the Matrix was not a high priority.

With the subsequent threat of Unicron looming, priorities quickly changed and Prime began a quest to locate his old body and the physical Matrix object within it. After losing the Matrix to Thunderwing Prime began to make a series of questionable decisions, including ordering the separation of the recovered Ratchet/Megatron hybrid monstrosity, even though it would mean that Megatron would be saved as well. Shortly after this Prime would surrender to Scorponok in a bid to convince him of the threat of Unicron, an action that dented his troops faith in him. When the Transformers were all transported to Cybertron by Primus to battle Unicron, Prime managed to successfully reacquire and purify the Matrix after Unicron killed Thunderwing and his taint upon it. Prime then sacrificed his life one more time to destroy Unicron by plunging the Matrix into his maw. However, the Powermaster process had been working to fully bond Prime and Hi-Q, and with Prime now destroyed, the process completed itself in Hi-Q's body, and the two minds and souls became one. Hi-Q's biomechanical body was stripped down and reconstructed by the Last Autobot, resurrecting Optimus Prime once more with the two minds now one. Prime joined with the other Autobots on the planet Klo and routed Bludgeon's Decepticons.

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Some parts of it uses material from the Wikipedia article "Optimus Prime".