The History of Nemesis Prime
In every Transformers universe there is the heroic and beloved leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime. And in every universe there is his evil and hated counterpart, Nemesis Prime. It’s a very obvious concept to make an evil, black repaint of Optimus Prime, but it works very effectively. And whether you love it or hate it, Nemesis Prime will return again and again.
To see the complete history of Nemesis Prime, one must first look at Guiltor. In a Japanese manga, the Quintessons stole the bodies of Optimus Prime and Megatron and fused them together as a new body for Starscream. Guiltor infiltrated, and quickly rose through, the Decepticon ranks. During a 1-on-1 battle between Rodimus Prime and Galvatron, Guiltor snuck up behind the victorious Rodimus and savagely attacked him. While Galvatron was gloating about his new ultimate living weapon, Guiltor snuck up behind him an equally vicious beat down. Guiltors true intentions were then revealed; to take over as leader of the Decepticon. Rodimus and Galvatron had no choice but to team up, and defeated Guiltor with a devastating double kick. The kick destroyed Guiltor’s body and revealed Starscream’s ghost who promptly fled.
The next step in the evolution of Nemesis Prime is the one that kicked off the whole trend. Ironically, the characters is not named Nemesis Prime. Scourge from the Robots in Disguise(RiD) series is the meter stick that all Nemesis Primes are measured against. Scourge had all the strength and skill of Optimus Prime, but with the evil and cruelty on Megatron. During the series, Megatron captures some Autobot protoforms. He takes them to a military base to scan vehical modes while he infuses part of his spark into them to make them evil. The first 5 new Decepticons become repaints of G1 Bruticus. Megatron then goes to scan the final protoform, a tanker truck, when Optimus gets in the way while trying to save the trucks driver. The result is a black repaint of G2 Laser Optimus Prime that has part of Megatrons spark and part of Primes spark. This does lead to questioning of whether he is an Autobot or Decepticon. It turns out he is a Decepticon, but is very treacherous. Scourge is anointed the leader of Megatrons new Decepticons. Later, Scourge and his Decepticons betrayed and defeated Megatron only to have him return as Galvatron. Who then basically lobotomized them to make them totally loyal to him. Megatron, Scourge and the rest are eventually defeated and sent to Cybertron to be imprisoned. Scourge proved to be such a popular character that he received 3 toys. The original Toys R Us exclusive repaint of G2 Laser Optimus Prime, an original “Spychangers” version, and a KB exclusive “Destructicon” version repainted from G2 Hero Optimus Prime.
Finally, we come to the first character to be called Nemesis Prime. During the Armada series, Hot Shot and Red Alert are pulled through a wormhole to a strange, dead, alien world made of salt with only bare techno-organic trees for scenery. Red Alert sends a distress signal to the other Autobots which is also picked up by the Decepticons. The lone Autobots are then ambushed by Nemesis Prime. Meanwhile, Megatron , Starscream, and Demolisher arrive on the planet and locate the Autobots. Hot Shot and Red Alert retreat only to be intercepted by the Decepticons. Megatron fires the Requiem Blaster(the most powerful gun in this universe) at Nemesis Prime. Thus blowing him to bits, only for him to put himself back together “T-1000“-style. The Decepticons prove to be no match for the clone. But just when he’s about to finish them off, he is destroyed again by the minicons. The minicons then reformat the 5 fallen Transformers into their “powerlinx” forms. The real Optimus Prime finally joins the battle just as Nemesis returns again super-sized. It takes a combined effort from both Optimus Prime and the newly christened Galvatron to finally defeat the monster, revealing a ghostly image of the treacherous Sideways. Sound familiar? Though Nemesis Prime only appeared in one episode, he got a toy in the form of a black repaint of Optimus Prime from the same line. And thus began the Nemesis Prime tradition.
The next Nemesis Prime would be in the old, ill-fated Universe line. This repaint of Big Convoy was a clone of an Optimus Prime from an alternate universe. The Prime was tortured by the dark god Unicron until all he knew was pain and suffering. The new herald was given the Dead Matrix, the only thing that could kill the benevolent Primus. Nemesis Prime was set upon his mission and nearly accomplished it. He was defeated in Primus’ spark chamber by Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, ironically from the RiD universe.
The final incarnation of the character worth discussing is also the most recent. And if you haven’t read “Revelations”, skip this paragraph. Nova Prime of the IDW-verse was a Transformers that believed greatly in the evolution of all Cybertronians through immoral science experiments. Such experiments resulted in the first gestalt Monstructor and the transgendered Arcee, the first “female” Transformer. Nova Prime set out with his associates on the first Ark spacecraft to explore the galaxy, but were became lost in the Dead Universe. When Nova Prime is found by Optimus Prime, he has renamed himself Nemesis Prime and cares a power known only as “The Darkness”. Nemesis Prime is, again, defeated by Galvatron. Unfortunately, Nova Prime has yet to receive an official toy.
There have been other Nemesis Primes, but none of them have any real fiction that they‘re tied into. An Alternators/Binaltech version and a Universe version were made, but the Titanium series one was cancelled when the line was. It could be assumed, like all other Nemesis Primes, that he would have been an exclusive. And of course, he’d have been a Optimus Prime repainted black with red windows and eyes and teal details. Cause that’s Nemesis Prime. Love it or hate it, he‘ll be back. At least he’s better than “naked” Magnus.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article. I hope you guys liked it.
Thx for the info and nice pics
