Nova Prime's History
ong ago in Cybertron's past, there was a great war (no, not that one) and Nova Major fought for his tribe's leader Prima. Ten million years ago, Prima flew the coop and Nova was left as the last soldier standing at the Siege of the Citadel of Light until Galvatron arrived out of the wilderness. The two fought against the beast hordes and drove them back, turning the siege into a by-word for courage. Alpha Trion, the last Prime on the planet, was the one who brought them together in the hope that they could end the war.
Realizing the Primes were gone, Nova went out and united the tribes (starting with the beasts) to create a unified Cybertronian society, one for all Cybertronians and where everyone would be "in their place." Trion later claimed that this did not sound sinister at the time.
With Trion's blessing, Nova took the mantle of Prime. The Crucible With the war over, he and his closest friends and advisors Galvatron, Jhiaxus, Cyclonus, and Dai Atlas went on a quest in Cybertron's underground, hoping to rediscover the lost principles of their gods, the Guiding Hand. Nova found the Hand's old home: Crystal City, with its guardian Omega Supreme. Omega joined Nova's crew and they worked to bring about the legendary Golden Age. All Good Things
Soon, Nova's ambition grew and he secretly began planning the Expansion, the Cybertronian conquest of the universe. Obsessed with the Hand's prophecy that "all shall be one", he intended to enslave all other lifeforms in order to "free" them from their individual wills and make them part of something greater—Nova's empire. He formed the Primal Vanguard for off-world peacekeeping and began work on the first Ark, claiming it was meant for trade and exploration when it was in truth the first step of the Expansion. Hangers On All Good Things However, his plans hit a snag when Vector Sigma's flow of new sparks began to cease. Fearing that his Expansion would be impossible with a limited population of Cybertronians at his disposal, Nova had a team of scientists led by Tyrest tap into the Matrix of Leadership and use its power to create new life, a process that was covered up as a "population augmentation program" that made use of "spark splicing". Patternism The Divided Self Nova Prime also wished to evolve Cybertronians in preparation for their destiny as rulers of the universe, and against Omega's wishes, he had Jhiaxus re-engineer six Transformers to be able to combine into a being of higher intellect and strength, in hopes of uncovering the secret of Nexus Prime's Enigma of Combination. However they were driven mad by the merging, and they devolved into a monster that tore through Crystal City before they were stopped. Nova didn't care about the destruction though, feeling the city had outlived its usefulness. Spotlight: Optimus Prime All Good Things The Crucible
Nova Prime and his closest comrades boarded the Ark to enact the Expansion, making their way to the Benzuli Expanse where they discovered a portal to the Dead Universe. Seeing it as just another universe to conquer, Nova ordered the ship to pass through, not worried at all by the fact that the portal itself was pulling them in. Dark Dawn The ship never reappeared and the crew was presumed dead, but Nova's aggressive intentions never came to light, and the Transformers honored his memory with a statue. Megatron Origin #3 The Matrix he once carried remained on Cybertron, hidden in the Undergrid Transformation, with a fake one (that everyone believed was real) left behind for his successor, Nominus Prime. Post Hoc Meanwhile, his population expansion had left Cybertron with energon shortages and caused an outburst of racism, complete with a period of apartheid, against the constructed Transformers created by his spark splicing program. Patternism
The Prime was thought dead but countless years later, when Optimus Prime downloaded himself into infraspace to survive an attack from Megatron, he sensed the presence of Nova Prime... and was filled with an incredible sense of dread. Escalation #6 These feelings led Optimus Prime to seek information from Omega Supreme, and shared with him his belief that Nova might still be alive, and his feelings of dread. In turn, Omega told Optimus of Nova's story, and later learned of Monstructor. Optimus was left with the knowledge that the Prime lineage had been corrupt from the start, and it gave the Autobot leader something to ponder about. Spotlight: Optimus Prime
It was later learned that Optimus Prime's assessment was right: Nova Prime was still functioning, though in a strange half-dead state in the Dead Universe, and was now the fearsome figure known as Nemesis Prime, powered by the almighty mind-altering anti-Matrix, the Darkness, which ruled the Dead Universe. His grand plan, the Expansion, was now intended to merge the Dead Universe with the real one, allowing him to both return home at long last and direct the merged universe into a new, more ordered era.
He already had an outpost and minions on Gorlam Prime, ready to direct his coming Expansion. He had Nightbeat captured by some of his minions and programmed Spotlight: Nightbeat to assassinate Optimus Prime at a set time, Spotlight: Hardhead as he subconsciously knew the Darkness would behave like the Matrix and jump from him to Optimus if given the chance. Spotlight: Sideswipe
With that secured, Nemesis Prime decided that the Expansion was ready to begin. He dispatched Galvatron to Cybertron in a mission to secure Thunderwing, kill the Autobots guarding him, and bring the Pretender to the Dead Universe. Galvatron secured Thunderwing, but spared the Autobots, viewing it as a small rebellion against Nova. Spotlight: Galvatron After observing the Reapers about to destroy Earth, he ordered Galvatron there to stop them, since the Earth was part of their expansion plan. Devastation #3 Galvatron performed his task well, but Prime remarked to Jhiaxus that he was aware that Galvatron had his own agendas and secrets. Devastation #6
After Cyclonus secured the Nega-Core and activated its guardian, Nemesis Prime initiated the Expansion with the rest of the Dead Universe crew. Spotlight: Cyclonus
Nemesis Prime was found by Jhiaxus on the remains of the Ark, thinking back on old times and planning for the future. Upon receiving the latest intelligence on both Cyclonus and Nightbeat, he dismissed the former and requested Jhiaxus take care of the Nightbeat situation personally. When Jhiaxus reported Nightbeat's death, Nemesis was unmoved, deciding he would take over Nightbeat's mission and deal with Optimus Prime himself. Spotlight: Hardhead
Nemesis Prime attacked the prison facility on Garrus-9 while Optimus Prime was inspecting it. The Autobot defense forces were helpless against him: Nemesis was immune to all their firepower and used his deadly decaying touch to instantly snuff out their lives. Seeing that conflict was futile, Optimus Prime ordered all the defenders to retreat, then faced Nemesis Prime directly. Nemesis gloated about the upcoming Expansion, then revealed to Optimus Prime the nature of the Darkness and channeled it as a weapon against Optimus Prime. Spotlight: Doubledealer
Unfortunately for Nemesis, the Darkness did want to leap to Optimus as he had feared, and it would do so if he either used it or touched Optimus. Enraged, Nemesis backed off and resorted to firing a torrent of normal energy. Optimus was able to withstand the blast however, but their fight ended abruptly when Nemesis, distracted by the battle, was shot in the back and killed by Galvatron, as part of his plan to claim the Darkness for himself. Though Optimus Prime soon destroyed the Darkness-infused Galvatron (or so he thought), Optimus remarked that he could not mourn his predecessor, noting that Nova Prime was long dead. Spotlight: Sideswipe
Nemesis's body was taken back to Cybertron, where Brainstorm took custody of it and began studying it in his lab in hopes of finding out more about the Dead Universe. He eventually came to speculate that Nemesis had not actually perished, but rather, that his life-essence had returned to the Dead Universe. What Brainstorm was not aware of, however, was the bolt of energy that had leapt from Nemesis's corpse to his own body, leaving him in a living-dead state of his own. Black Planet
Brainstorm's supposition was proven correct when Nemesis Prime reappeared on the planet Dykayra, emerging from a portal to the Dead Universe to confront Galvatron. His wounds pulsating with dark energy, he now served the greater being of which the Darkness had always been but a small part: the D-Void. Heart of Darkness #3 Apparently seeking to retake the Darkness from Galvatron, Nemesis briefly battled him and his army, brushing off their firepower and destroyed several of Galvatron's minions by devouring their energy. He then mutated into a gigantic, horrible monster, seemingly falling under the D-Void's direct control in the process, and continued the fight against Galvatron. In the end, Galvatron was able to summon his army and force the malformed Nemesis Prime back through the portal, which he then destroyed. Heart of Darkness
As it transpired, however, Nemesis had not sought to reclaim the Darkness, but had rather only been used a pawn by D-Void in its attempts to motivate Galvatron into using the Darkness to destroy Cybertron. Following the D-Void's destruction and Galvatron's own consignment to the Dead Universe, Nemesis was at last free of its influence, and reverted to being "Nova Prime" in name and appearance once more. Working with Galvatron, he made contact with Jhiaxus and his old pupil Shockwave in the living universe, and began an apparent plot to conquer Cybertron and return it to Nova's leadership. Dark Dawn Initially hoping to use the space bridge of Shockwave's Necrotitan as transport out of the Dead Universe, Black Metal Nova and Galvatron were forced to use Megatron's personal space bridge when that plan faltered. Into the Abyss However, as Nova was about to emerge in the living universe, the united forces of Bumblebee's Autobots and Soundwave's Decepticons attacked Shockwave's lair, and in the chaos, Nova was punched by Ironhide back into the Dead Universe.
Trapped yet again, Nova Prime directed his rage upon a group of intruders who had entered the Dead Universe while he had been occupied: Orion Pax and his band. Finest Hour Amused with Orion's choice to no longer call himself a Prime, Nova proceeded to mock Cyclonus, claiming that his former crewmate had been nothing but a hanger-on. After Hardhead broke out of the containment field Nova had sealed the group in, Nova destroyed his protective forcefield generator, allowing the Autobot to be consumed and disintegrated by the Dead Universe. No Exit Demonstrating his growing ability to manipulate the energies of the Dead Universe, Nova took the remainder of the group to his citadel, where he kept Kup, whom he had been attempting to convert into a living spacebridge. In the energy of his captives' sparks, Nova Prime finally saw a chance to escape the universe. The Dead Are Not Enough
However, the prisoners were able to liberate Nightbeat, still under Nova's control after all these years, and he then helped them escape their cage. Confronting them, Nova Prime took the opportunity to challenge his successor to battle once more. Burning Bright Nova employed some psychological warfare on Pax, using his control of the Dead Universe to make himself shape-shift into each member of the Prime lineage to mock Orion with its tainted legacy. After Nova became a mirror image of him, Pax sank into temporary despair as Nova began gaining the upper hand. However, Rodimus delivered a pep talk that got Pax back on his feet, just before being blasted by Nova. Re-accepting his role as Prime and his duty to brighten that dark lineage, Optimus promptly tore Nova's arm off and finally slew his evil predecessor with a punch clear through the villain's chest. Upon expiring, Nova Prime's crumbling body reverted to its natural appearance. Finis Temporis
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Orion, this was exactly what Shockwave had wanted all along; with Nova dead, the Dead Universe's energies were now Shockwave's to control as part of his true plan to end all life in the universe. The Becoming Nova's corpse had one final use to serve, though: when Optimus's team heard singing emanating from it, they realized that it contained a link back to the living universe, and used the technology of his citadel to convert his body into a space bridge home. They emerged through a portal in Brainstorm's own chest, thanks to his own living-dead link to the Dead Universe
