Liege Maximo
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The Liege Maximo is a fictional character in the Transformers series. He was the overall ruler of the Generation 2 Transformers in the Marvel Transformers series, and a member of the Thirteen Primes in several continuities.
Contents
History
Generation 2
Not much is known about the Liege Maximo's history. At this point, the Transformers reproduced in a similar manner to cell division, and it seems that those produced by the Liege were the beginnings of those who would become the Decepticons - including their most famous leader Megatron. It is implied he was created evil in Alignment and he is known to have killed at least one of the Prime line, namely Primon, not only killing him but stripping all knowledge of him from the Matrix (as it listed the first prime as Prima) in a short story produced by Furman for BotCon. From this revelation, it can be implied that he took part in at least the early part of the civil war between Decepticons and Autobots. In fact, he himself indicates that he was a natural counter to the Prime line in the conclusion of the Generation 2 comic.
At some point, to prevent the vision of their creator from becoming too corrupted, a race-wide memory loss activated, preventing the Transformers from remembering their reproduction process and at least some of their history (Megatron, for example, seems to have no knowledge of the Liege Maximo). After the crash and entombment of the Ark with Megatron and Optimus Prime onboard, at some unspecified point in their history the Transformers (or at least the Decepticons) began spawning again, and a massive fleet of the strongest and most ruthless Decepticons left Cybertron, apparently under the command of the Liege Maximo. These Decepticons spread out, colonising worlds by coldly obliterating all life on them, and the makings of a vast empire began to take shape (at least seventeen worlds fell this way, discovered by Grimlock). And then came the events of the Generation 2 comic.
Comics
The Liege Maximo's only official appearance, to date, is on the last page of the final issue of the Transformers: Generation 2 comic, although he was mentioned by Jhiaxus as early as Issue #4. The Decepticons (now calling themselves Cybertronians, believing the concepts of Autobot and Decepticon to be outdated) had come under attack by the Autobots, who believed they were striking at the "real" Decepticons under Bludgeon. Their forces, under Jhiaxus, soon retaliated and a brief truce was called after an encounter with a parasitic organism in a nebula. The Cybertronians would then come under attack by the original Decepticons, now led once again by Megatron, after the Cybertronians slaughtered their advance party. The main force fared little better and was decimated by the Cybertronians, with Jhiaxus personally besting Megatron and hurling him into Earth's atmosphere.
To defeat Jhiaxus, the Autobots and Decepticons combined their forces, decimating the elite of Jhiaxus' forces. However, the traitorous Starscream would then betray them, leading Jhiaxus to their hide-out, before taking the power of the Matrix (stolen by Megatron in a previous encounter) and using it to fuse with the Warworld. It took Optimus Prime and Megatron uniting to stop him, before the arrival of the Swarm decimated Jhiaxus' fleet and killed Jhiaxus himself. Prime used the power of the Matrix to convince it to become good. The tale ended with the Autobots and Decepticons uniting - and it would be here that the Liege Maximo would be seen, dismissing the losses of Jhiaxus and his force as insignificant and vowing vengeance. The page strongly implies that Megatron is in fact the offspring of the Liege Maximo through the earlier described spawning process.
Alignment
The ultimate plans and fate of the Liege Maximo would be detailed in "Transformers: Alignment", Simon Furman's take on what happened after the Generation 2 comic. In this story the Autobot-Decepticon alliance didn't last, as Galvatron 2 (the U.S comics version) had defeated and nearly killed Megatron before going on the rampage with a fleet of Warworlds and being killed by Optimus Prime, although Prime fell himself. The Decepticons retreated to New Cybertron, a conquered planet remade as their old homeworld. It was then that the Liege Maximo struck. His plan was ambitious in the extreme - he planned to use the power of the Hub, a massive network of planets to turn himself into a god like his old master Primus - or his dark rival Unicron - by ascending to another realm altogether. He sent massive forces to wipe out the Autobots on Cybertron and the Decepticons on New Cybertron, before turning his attention to his ascenscion. His plans were hindered by a small group of Autobots led by Grimlock, who forced the Liege to divert his attention to hunting them down. Meanwhile his forces failed on both fronts - the Autobots, led by Ultra Magnus, used an array of hidden asteroid lasers to decimate the Cybertronian fleet (a tactic referred to by Prowl as "almost Decepticon-like"). The Decepticons went even further. Led once again by Megatron, resurrected again through Unicron-inspired dark science, they detonated the planet's fusion reactors, blowing it apart, and taking most of the enemy fleet with it. Autobots and Decepticons united again and backtracked to the Hub, but even their combined firepower was not enough. As the Liege Maximo prepared to ascend, extracting his forces' sparks, he was finally beaten by the noble sacrifices of Grimlock, who was killed distracting him, and Megatron, who actually managed to wound the Liege with a massive energon fuelled blast before getting obliterated himself by the Maximo's arm cannon. Panicking, the Maximo attempted to ascend through his energy gateway, but it was too soon and it collapsed on him, shredding him between the physical realm and the higher dimension he wanted to ascend to. The threat of the Liege Maximo was over. This sets up the Pax Cybertronia and the evolution of the Autobots and Decepticons into Maximals and Predacons. Whether this story is even part of the Transformers canon is unknown.
The full novello can be downloaded courtesy of the producers Transforce at Transforce Website Creator Simon Furman has stated in an interview that he considers Alignment to be the conclusion to the Liege Maximo's arc, making future appearances outside of fan fiction unlikely.[1]
Fun Publications
Liege Maximo was later identified as a member of the Thirteen Primes, though one who turned against his brethren; "Ask Vector Prime" featured him in a number of accounts, in which he either recounted or fabricated the history of the Covenant of Primus and Primon, as well as brought havoc to Axiom Nexus through his personification there. Along with others of the Thirteen he is known to have communicated with primitive humanity using a holographic avatar, with his interactions and manipulative behavior inspiring the legend of Aphrodite. While generally remembered as a monster in all realities, at least one version of Maximo took a more heroic path after Galvatron was snatched from his reality. An attack by Unicron resulted in Primus' essence being dispersed throughout his "children", the Transformer race, and his influence brought about a reformation in the Cybertronian Empire. After Unicron was devastated by an onslaught of legions of Cybertronians who attacked en masse, Liege Maximo engaged him in a battle of minds, and eventually drove him from that reality though at the cost of his Spark. [2]
Aligned Continuity
Books
The Liege Maximo is listed as one of the Thirteen Primes created by Primus in order to battle Unicron. Scheming and treacherous, he was more dangerous with his words than with his Liegian Darts, artifacts that contained a number of deadly poisons. Though he joined his brothers in battling the Chaos Bringer, he later began his own schemes involving Megatronus and Quintus Prime, all the while harboring jealousy towards Prima and Nexus Prime. According to Transformers: The Covenant of Primus, he was killed at the conclusion of the War of the Primes. In Transformers: Exodus Liege Maximo is mentioned in a conversation between Orion Pax and Megatron; in Transformers: Exiles he is mentioned by Alpha Trion as having fled Cybertron only to be pursued by Alchemist Prime.
Generation 1
IDW Publishing
The Liege Maximo was also introduced as a member of the Thirteen in The Transformers from IDW Publishing, in which he instigated a war between the thirteen tribes of Transformers led by each Prime. He and his surviving fellows later departed Cybertron after they were defeated by Nova Prime.
References
- Furman, Simon (2004). Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. DK Publishing Inc.. p. 74. ISBN 1405304618.
