Domitius Major

Domitius Major is a Maximal-turned-Autobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Warp factor four, Mr. Centurion—engage!

A keen and capable commander, Domitius Major and his crew were boldly going where no beast-former had gone before until extenuating circumstances saw their vessel stranded on a frigid alien planet. All memories of his past life gone, Domitius became Optimus Prime, adopting his namesake's trademark heroism and determination. Though clad in the trappings of someone else's life, "Optimus" remained a heroic force for good on Earth until his final passing.

He also punched out Cthulhu.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Revolutionaries #4

Ten million years ago, during the reign of the Thirteen, Domitius Major was one of the many Maximals who followed "Onyx Prime": in reality, an alias assumed by Shockwave. Following the end of the First Cybertronian Civil War, Onyx and his followers departed Cybertron for good; as part of Onyx's innermost retinue, Domitius and the other Maximals accompanied Onyx when he set a course for the dead world of Antilla. There, Domitius and his comrades watched as Onyx uncovered the "Talisman", the remains of an ancient superweapon and the device that would become an instrumental part of his future schemes. Our Finest

Twenty thousand years ago, Shockwave—acting on his knowledge of history, and seeking to advance his ultimate goal—decided that the Talisman would need to be moved to Earth for safekeeping, Ghost in the Machine and entrusted it to Domitius, who carried it offworld aboard the starship Axalon. Domitius and his crew were evidently kept in the dark about the true nature of their mission; by the time that they arrived over Earth after a ten-thousand year voyage, they were drawn to the planet by its supplies of Ore-13, searching for energon to refuel their vessel. While preparing to land, their vessel accidentally received a transmission of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee... a transmission that belonged to the younger Shockwave, who had arrived on Earth to investigate the progress of his Regenesis project.

Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse!

The Axalon crashed on a glacier in the land that would one day be Brasnya; though physically unharmed, the Talisman their vessel carried had scrambled the minds of their crew and left them with no trace of their memories. When Shockwave came to investigate their ship, Centurion had recovered, and his confusion over his lost identity inspired Shockwave to use the amnesiac Transformers in a twisted experiment of his own devising. By overwriting their missing memories with data from the Cybertronian Great War, the amoral scientist was able to convince the stranded explorers that they were the Autobots and Decepticons; Domitius himself came to believe that he was Optimus Prime. The two factions battled one another for a century in a series of simulated war games while Shockwave observed their tactics. When Shockwave left, the Axalon crew fought until they ran low on energy, and entered stasis lock underground. Strange Visitors

In the 19th century, nearby human activity prompted a handful of Maximals to awaken, though "Optimus Prime" was not one of them. Several of the ersatz Autobots mulled over the possibility of reactivating their commander during the brief conflict between the "Autobots" and "Decepticons", though they ultimately decided against it. Hearts of Steel #1 Hearts of Steel #2

GIVE ME YOUR F...er, tentacles.

Several years later, however, the forces of the Elder Gods manifested themselves, threatening both humans and Transformers. With the help of Tobias Muldoon and Nikola Tesla, the "Autobots" were able to reactivate their commander, who had been buried beneath the Mare Rurek Glacier. "Optimus" battled the Elder God in Nova Scotia, and eventually drove it and its followers back to the depths of the ocean. In the aftermath, he pledged to defend Earth if the abomination ever resurfaced. Infestation 2: The Transformers #2

Domitius, still believing himself to be Optimus Prime, survived until World War I, when he and "Bumblebee" were caught in a European battlefield. Faced with a real war, their artificial memories of the Cybertronian war swiftly unraveled and Domitius perished that day. His death was enough to shake "Bumblebee" from his conditioning.

He's got the (bad) touch.

By the end of World War II, Centurion returned to the crash site of the Axalon, where he discovered that the IRON Troopers that the Talisman created had banded together to puppeteer Domitius's dead body like a suit. Centurion—by this time, the last surviving member of the Axalon crew—battled his old commander for the last time and eventually managed to tear his body apart. Strange Visitors In the decades that followed, Garrison Kreiger recovered Domitius' body as part of his quest to unlock the secrets of the Talisman and relocated it to a secure facility beneath the crater left by the Axalon. The Iron Klaw Strange Visitors

By studying Atomic Man's reverse-engineered cybernetics, Kreiger eventually discovered a way to command the IRON Troopers to once more animate Domitius's dead body. Alongside "Shockwave", the "I.R.O.N. Cybertronians" were deployed to stop Action Man after he and his compatriots broke into the base. Action Man briefly tangled with them before he managed to flood a tunnel and wash them away. They recovered just in time to briefly battle Matt Trakker in the Thunderhawk before Atomic Man committed suicide, severing the link between himself and the IRON Troopers to permanently take them offline. Power and Glory

Following his fusion with Mike Power, Centurion would mourn both Domitius and Smarts as friends that he had betrayed and lost. Unification Day: Dusk

Toys

Generations Comic Edition

Domitius Major, comin' down the track, comin' down the track, with his smokey stack...

• Timelines Optimus Prime / Timelines Starscream (2025)

• Accessories: Smokestack/blaster

Timelines Comic Edition Optimus Prime is based on Guido Guidi's unused design for the character in Hearts of Steel, which would later make its first on-panel appearance in Infestation 2. Optimus Prime transforms from a robot into a steam locomotive of original design, and comes packaged with Starscream.

Notes

• Domitius Major's original beast mode goes unseen on panel, but his beast body was designed to transform into some sort of sauropod dinosaur.
• Domitius's original body is based on Big Convoy's design, with the split dinosaur neck taking the place of the mammoth tusks.