Liege Maximo

Here I go again on my throne.

Evil is infinite, a natural counterforce to good in the universe that cannot be truly defeated. So when the first Primes were created, so was, necessarily, the Liege Maximo, the robot who now considers himself their opposite, the ultimate evil.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel Generation 2 comics

From the Liege Maximo were Megatron and the Decepticons descended. The Liege Maximo's throne sat at the Hub, a network of planetoids created by the Cybertronian Empire that existed in the outer fringes of known space.

With the Liege Centuro Jhiaxus destroyed, Jhiaxus's fleet wiped out by The Swarm, and the Autobots and Decepticons united in peace under one banner, Rook reported to the Liege Maximo on the day's devastating events. The Liege Maximo, an ancient and monumental titan, accepted the destruction of Jhiaxus's forces as merely a minor disruption. Sneering at the Transformers' alliance as a fragile thing, the Liege Maximo promised a day of reckoning. A Rage in Heaven!

Alignment

"Alignment" was written by Simon Furman without permission of Hasbro and is included here as pseudocanon to provide insight into authorial intent.

Liege Maximo was one of the thirteen original Transformers created by Primus. Unlike his fellows, he had chosen not to subdivide repeatedly, doing so only selectively. This created a small taint in the Transformer race which spread through subsequent generations, ultimately flowering with the rise of the Decepticons. Because of this sparse sub-division, the Liege Maximo's connection to the divine origins of the Transformer race was comparatively undiluted, and he sought to embrace it. To this end, he instructed Jhiaxus and the Cybertronian Empire to subject various planets to eco-structuring. These planets were steadily woven together to form the Hub, a massive, resonating structure that would allow him to ascend to the realm of the gods. Two Transformer groups, one led by Grimlock and one by Ultra Magnus and Megatron, disrupted this process by forcing the Liege to leave his corporeal body, then destroying both it and his portal. Left with nowhere to go, the Liege Maximo's essence dissipated, and he was destroyed. Alignment

3H comics

The Covenant witnessed a vision of the ancient past, in which the Liege Maximo tore the Matrix of Leadership from the defeated Primon. When and why this happened remain unanswered questions. Covenant

TransTech

The peaceful universe of Axiom Nexus was able to achieve unimaginable feats in technology and scientific discovery, but these were secretly possible by the amoral experiments of Shockwave and his master Jhiaxus under a secret government partnership with the Liege Maximo. An archivist named Optimus and the military professional Megatron exposed Sentinel Prime's ties with the Liege Maximo. After a dramatic, violent battle with the Liege Maximo, much of the government was caught in this controversy, and as a result, few were left standing when the legal proceedings ended. Optimus became the new Prime, and Cybertron entered a new Golden Age, but it was not a complete fresh start, as Megatron convinced the High Senate to allow Shockwave to continue performing experiments under his guidance, and Starscream miraculously emerged unscathed from the incident despite his heavy involvement.

Aligned continuity

Aligned novels

Megatronus and the Liege Maximo disliked Nexus Prime due to his favor in the eyes of Solus Prime. After the betrayal of the Fallen and defeat of Unicron the Liege Maximo plotted against his brothers and made his own play for power. He was defeated and fled to a far galaxy. His premeditated betrayal broke the spirit of Vector Prime. In the end, he was hunted down in that far galaxy by Alchemist Prime. Though he had no firm information, Alpha Trion believed Alchemist had succeeded in imprisoning the Liege. Exiles

Like the other members of the Thirteen, Liege Maximo was considered a myth. Megatron proclaimed Transformers were free to do as they pleased, without pondering what the long-gone Liege Maximo or his treacherous brother would think. The Hub once became a part of the space bridge network during the Golden Age. Exodus

Prime cartoon

According to legend, at the beginning of time, Unicron and Primus battled each other for eons, with neither side remaining victorious for long. Till, that is, Primus created the Thirteen. These Thirteen defeated Unicron and cast him into space. One Shall Rise, Part 1

Liege Maximo eventually died and was placed in a tomb. The tomb was later visited by Megatron and Dreadwing, who took Maximo's arm so that Megatron could use the Forge of Solus Prime. Alpha/Omega

The Covenant of Primus

Liege Maximo was one of the original thirteen transformers created by Primus to fight against Unicron and was a master manipulator. His artifiact was the Legian Darts. Maximo was a one of the Strategists of the Thirteen alongside Trion, Quintus and Micronus.

After the defeat of Unicron, Maximo focused on the mining, storage and refining of Energon but grew resentful of Prima and his faction of the Thirteen's interference. However Maximo acted as an emissary for the different factions through the use of his natural beguiling charm.

Maximo was ultimately the one who led to the group fracturing by revealing to the rest that Prima had plotted which of the Primes where the most like Unicron. It was also around this time that is was revealed that Maximo had been experimenting with creating new robotic beasts when he requested a powerful armor suit to deal with them. Prima ordered Maximo to shut down his "Farm" and it was further revealed by Alpha Trion that Maximo had been pitting the beasts against each other.

Whether Maximo had the right to experiment with the beasts was a source of conflict among the Thirteen and was later resolved by a vote which decided the he did not have the right to do so. However Maximo convinced Megatronus to try and retrieve the armor from Solus -an action that led to Solus' demise and the creation of The Well of All Sparks.

Maximo was revealed have placed a device on a "pet", that he had given to her, that had he been monitoring her through. This "pet" tried to attack Megatronus and he reacted by blasting it -leading to Solus attacking him.

When he was confronted at the "Farm" Maximo tried to accuse Megatronus of being the true mastermind behind the war beasts by claiming it was all part of Megatronus' need to test himself against them. When Megatronus realized that Maximo had been manipulating and using the Thirteen the whole time and was trying to blame him, a conflict broke out that led to the Primes being set upon by three massive war beasts.

Once the conflict was over Maximo was found torn to pieces with his head destroyed by the Requiem Blaster. Maximo was buried in a tomb where his arm would eventually be taken by Megatron to allow him to use the Forge of Solus Prime The Covenant of Primus

Notes

• "Liege Maximo" was likely meant to be this character's title or rank, while his proper name remained unknown. Whether this holds true with the current interpretation of the character is uncertain. Jhiaxus has a similar title, Liege Centuro.
• Liege Maximo's name was frequently misspelled as "Leige Maximo" in the Generation 2 comics. Sometimes, both versions were even used on the same page, and once, even in the same sentence.
• Simon Furman cryptically hinted in comments on his blog that the Liege Maximo would make a return in 2008 in IDW's comics. It didn't happen.
• A faithful design for Liege Maximo was shown by Hasbro at BotCon 2010, and like all the original Primes, the look was guided by Eric Siebenaler.
• The dead Prime seen in the Transformers: Prime episode "Alpha/Omega" was identified as the Liege Maximo in The Covenant of Primus. The concurrently published Art of Prime claimed that it was Sentinel Prime, but that doesn't make sense, since Sentinel was not a true Prime and as such his limb would not have conveyed the power to use the Forge on Megatron.