Dark Amber Leo Prime (First)

« The Transformers: End of G1 Universe#1 »
"Chapter One: Dark Amber Leo Prime (First) " Đệ nhất thoại ダークアンバーレオプライム ( trước ) (Daiichiwa Dark Amber Leo Prime (Zen))
Publisher	TakaraTomy
First published	July 6,2022
Manga	Hayato Sakamoto
Color	Lebanon Sugi(1.2.3.4.p), Gufu Kandagawa(4.6p), Josh Perez(5.9.10p), Tai Koshii(7.8p), Yuki Ohshima(13p)
Editor	Kouji Nimura
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

In the midst of a dying universe, does a new hero rise...?

Contents 1Synopsis 2Featured characters 3Notes 3.1Continuity notes 3.2Transformers references 4References 5External links

Synopsis

In the far-distant future, in a dying universe drained of its energy, a blue bird flees a fallen spaceship with a large container in tow to a wasteland of a planet. This world is known asEarth,and the bird isBluebolt,a youngMaximal.Bluebolt releases the container's cargo, which is the lifeless body of the Legendary Green Lion, the Great Convoy known asLeo Prime,savior of the Earth and the Universe. Bluebolt is desperate to save the universe from its encroaching death, and the only option left is to use the remnant ofUnicron'senergythat wasblocked by the Moonfrom escaping long ago to revive the leonine hero. As Bluebolt draws a magic circle, thePredaconhyena known asUntitearrives, attracted by the smell of Leo Prime's decaying corpse. Bluebolt immediately recognizes him as a fabled carrion-eater; the hyena notes that Earth has been the site of many a Transformer battle and is thus overflowing with corpses to consume and both understand that Leo Prime would be quite the meal for him.

With his powers over the dead, Untite summons a buriedSeeker—a giant compared to the Transformers of this era—to restrain Bluebolt as he approaches the green lion. However, Bluebolt notes the circle is already complete and it lights up... to reveal a living black lion! Bluebolt is elated at Leo Prime's apparent resurrection, but the black figure doesn't take well to being expected tohelpand sternly clarifies that his name isDark AmberLeo Prime. TheEnergon Matrixinside him, however, isn't as callous, and the pain it inflicts on this seemingly new being inducts Dark Amber to save the hapless Maximal from the undeadDecepticon,brushing it off as gratitude for bringing about his existence.

Untite has his own thoughts about Dark Amber Leo Prime's identity, believing him to be the one who made him aCyborg Beastthat can only consume the dead—Unicron. Dark Amber isn't too clear on the whos and whats of the past, so he just takes Untite at his word, but the hyena realizes that the being he's confronting is "incomplete". Reasoning that he can kill and consume Dark Amber to get his power, he attacks and leaves the newly born Dark Amber weakened by his wounds. Desperate to save the dark hero, Bluebolt gives an offer of self-sacrifice for Dark Amber to consume Bluebolt's body, so that Dark Amber may use Bluebolt's energy to heal. Dark Amber finds this a ridiculous proposition and something that his body's "conscience" refuses to allow to happen. Instead, the black robot transforms into beast mode and... digs into the ground?

Turns out that Dark Amber has carried over quite a bit from Unicron himself... including the ability to acquire energy from consuming planets, no matter how small a part of it he munches on. Revitalized, Dark Amber Leo Prime uses his mighty Angolmois Amber Claw to slice the Seeker into ribbons, to Bluebolt's delight and Untite's consternation.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• As per the title,End of G1 Universeseems to be the grand finale of the greatJapanese Generation 1 cartoon continuityin its entirety, somewhat fitting with the last installment,Generations Selects Special Comic,explaining the universe's origins.
• Leo Prime is referred to by his various appellations, including the "Legendary Green Lion" (established in "Legend! The Green Warrior"and explained infinaleofSelects) and "Great Convoy" (a title bestowed on Lio Convoy in "Graduation Ceremony!!"by the god ofCybertron,Vector Sigma). His name at this point is Leo Prime, not Lio Convoy, as this story takes place long after the character took up the latter name in the universe ofTransformers: Prime,as explained by the bio for hisArms Micron toy.He would continue using it during his adventures in theLegendscomic.Going by his appearance in this comic, it would seem that Leo Prime returned to his regularBeast Wars IIbody at some point afterLegends.
• Earth having remnants ofUnicron'sAngolmois Energyis the result of a long-running plot point originally established inBeast Wars Neo,where it was stated thatGaia's Angolmois Energy first shown inBeast Wars IIultimately originated from Unicron. At the end of that series, it was stated that all of the Angolmois Energy was extracted from the planet byNemesis,but it is explained here that a small portion was left on the planet due toArtemismoving theMoonto block the flow of Angolmois Energy to the artificial planet, as shown in "Farewell! Lio Convoy".
• What's more, Bluebolt states that the Earth has lost its power ever since the Angolmois Energy was released from the planet. Prior to the aforementioned Unicron origin,Beast Wars IIoriginally declared it to be the "sacred life energy" of the planet. Later retcons by theTransformers Legendsseries would suggest this to be the case for another substance known as Gaia Energy, which the Angolmois Energy had been merged with back when it was buried within the Earth, and that this composite Gaia/Angolmois Energy was also the same thing asChichōkon,the mystical power of the Earth from theSuper-God Masterforceseries.

Transformers references

• We'd be remiss if we didn't note the amazing similarity to the concurrently runningLast Bot Standingcomic byIDW Publishing.Both stories take place in a dying universe sapped of its resources, and the last remainingTransformersscrounging whatever energy they can find on a wasteland planet. Coincidence or inspiration?
• Bluebolt is avirtual redecoofKingdomDeluxe ClassMaximal Skywarp.Not made explicit in the comic, but originally in a rough draft, is Bluebolt being a future incarnation ofGod Magnus'sweapon.^[1]Traces of this intention made it to Dark Amber Leo Prime's profile, where Bluebolt is described as a "Universal Weaponizer", much like how the original device was a "universal weapon".
• The ship Bluebolt flees from is based on thePrime: Beast HuntersCyberverseVehicle toySky Claw.
• The white container housing the dead Leo Prime/Great Lio Convoy is taken fromReturn of ConvoyMicro Trailer(minus the tractor unit).
• Untite is a virtual redeco ofBeast WarsDeluxe ClassJawbreaker.The mold'sTransmetal 2design is used to establish him as aCyborg Beast,a team of machine/beast fusions fromBeast Wars IIthat were the result of imbuing vehicularPredaconswithAngolmois Energy.The Cyborg Beasts were not directly connected toUnicronin that cartoon, but Untite here recognizes Unicron as the reason for his conversion to a Cyborg Beast, seemingly reviving an unused concept fromBeast Wars Neowherein aservant of Unicronwas to have had a Cyborg Beast-styled design before being ultimately dropped and replaced by theBlentrons.
• The markings Bluebolt draws on the ground are the symbols of theThirteen,as established in thePower of the Primestoyline.
• Unusually for Japanese fiction, Bluebolt, Untite, and Dark Amber Leo Prime use the English-languageactivation codesof "Maximize" (マキシマイズ) and "Terrorize" (テラライズ), here referred to as "Henshin Codes" (変 thân コード). Traditionally, characters in theBeast Erawho had beast modes just usedhenshin(変 thân, "transform", unofficially localized as "metamorph" ) to call out their transformations—while vehicular Transformers used the English word "transform" (トランスフォーム).

References

External links

• Dark Amber Leo Prime (First) at theMasterpiecewebsite
• Dark Amber Leo Prime (First) translation
• Lettering of the translationby MrRald