Vector Prime: In the Beginning

Vector Prime remembers his life...and prepares for a new threat, bigger than ever before.

Synopsis

Cybertron: birthplace of the thirteen original Transformers, and the body of Primus, the creator of all Transformers. The Thirteen are assigned individual duties, ensuring the multiverse's ongoing survival. Millennia after their creation, many of the Thirteen have left Cybertron, some forgetting their names and histories. Vector Prime, however, remains. Guardian of all space and time, he ensures the balance stays in check and records everything he observes, from Cybertronians, to ancient humans, to one of the greatest threats of casualty, and his creator's brother: Unicron.

Unicron creates ripples in the ocean of time, destroying worlds in his endless hunger, an eternal darkness to balance against Primus' light. For a long time, the brothers remain dormant, and Vector leaves his home, watching, waiting, until he would be needed again. He witnesses great triumphs in the multiverse, such as when Optimus Prime unleashes the Matrix of Leadership's power against the Hate Plague. He witnesses their darkest hours, watching as Shockwave taunts Optimus Prime's disembodied head. At times, he even intervenes, notably when Megatron's attempted assassination of Optimus threatens the timestream. But when a battle in the core of Cybertron accidentally reawakens Primus and Unicron, Vector rushes back to the fold in an attempt to save galaxies from Unicron's quantum energies, and mourns when he fails. Eventually, his descendants, the modern day Cybertronians, unite to fight back against Unicron, as Vector repairs the damage from behind the scenes. However, exhausted by his duties, he doesn't realize Unicron's destruction will have dire consequences in one universe until it is too late. Alerted by Vector Sigma, he realizes the balance has been upset, and returns to his home for the first time in centuries, near which Unicron has collapsed into an ominous black hole....

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• The concept of the Thirteen was originally introduced in Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, and Hasbro's intent to have Vector Prime as one of its members is established here.
• This comic makes explicit for the first time that there is one Unicron, one Primus, and one version of the Thirteen across the multiverse, after certain stories (such as Universe and the "Worlds Collide" arc of the Dreamwave Armada comic) showed Unicron's trans-dimensional nature. While later retcons would slightly modify and eventually get rid of this concept, the idea would remain in place for 10 years.
• One of the silhouettes of the first 13 Transformers that stands behind Vector Prime in his first panel appears to be that of The Fallen, the evil member of the Thirteen introduced in Dreamwave's The Dark Ages mini-series.
• Vector remembers events from the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2", issue #10 and issue #61 of the Marvel The Transformers comic, and the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part III)".

Transformers references

• In the scenes of early Cybertron, one of the generic Transformers seen is an unnamed Autobot seen in the first issue of the Marvel series, given the nickname "Big Red" by fans due to his large stature. He appears to be normal-sized here.
• Unicron is initially drawn with his original design as seen in The Transformers: The Movie. On the final page, meanwhile, he is drawn with his "Unicron Trilogy" design seen in Armada and Energon.

Errors

• Vector's face is miscolored as gold with blue eyes this issue, as opposed to the correct blue with red eyes. Safeguard, too, is miscolored, with a maroon red replacing his blue wing engines and faceplate.
• Jazz is depicted with his toy-based door wings, which his Marvel character model didn't have.

Other notes

• The retelling of The Transformers issue #61 depicts Primus as a ball of energy with his face in it, rather than his face physically built into the wall.
• Despite the comic being in-continuity with the Cybertron cartoon, the scene of Vector Prime returning to normal space is different from his arrival in "Fallen". In this issue, Vector enters normal space in robot mode with Cybertron in the background, but in the cartoon, Vector is in vehicle mode when he enters normal space just above ground level on Cybertron.

Reprints

• 2007 — Transformers: Cybertron: Balancing Act