Nominus Prime is an Autobot or unaligned Transformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Primes turn into trucks? What sort of lowborn commoner do you think I am?"

Not all Primes live up to the high expectations placed upon them, and Nominus Prime is one 'bot who failed to do so. More interested in social niceties and stoking irrational fears than enacting any positive change, his tenure as Autobot leader is marked by dissatisfaction and unrest, turning Cybertron into a powder keg of pent-up unease and anger—and a volatile explosive just needs someone to light the fuse.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: The Transformers vol. 1 #22 (mentioned); #23 (depicted)

Nominus Prime assumed office sometime after the disappearance of Nova Prime in the Benzuli Expanse. Under his rule, Cybertron was a planet full of corruption, social apartheid, and general oppression: a Cybertronian citizen's role in life was determined by the body he was built in, and the handful of elites (particularly the military) would step down on that citizen's face... forever.

A young, idealistic Megatron wrote a political tract advocating non-violent resistance: After the Ark: Nominus Prime and the Illusion of Progress. Chaos Theory Part 1 Meanwhile, Senator Shockwave disapproved of Nominus Prime's hold on the status quo and made plans to create a new Prime who could change Cybertron, fashioning Orion Pax and Zeta into viable candidates. Shockwaves A short time later, Nominus was attacked and seriously injured by a suicide bomber during the Primal Procession, leaving him in a critical condition. It was revealed afterward by Shockwave to Orion Pax that the organization responsible for sending the bomber was actually affiliated with the Cybertronian Senate itself. The corrupt Senate's intent was to obtain a valid excuse to give themselves "unfettered" access to the life-giving Matrix and also to become even more controlling and implement the Clampdown. Chaos Theory #2 While they told the public that Nominus had gone into hiding, the Senate actually kept the comatose Prime around so that their head of security Sentinel could tap into the power of the Matrix in his chest. Post Hoc The Chaos of Warm Things His attempts exposed a well-kept secret: Nominus Prime's "Matrix" was merely a fake. With this revelation, the Senate saw no more use in keeping Nominus around and had him killed, releasing a cover story claiming he passed away from a rust infection in his spark casing. They would go on to manipulate events so that Sentinel would succeed him as the next Prime. Post Hoc

As the body of Nominus lay in state at the Primal Basilica, Whirl tipped off Orion Pax about a planned bombing that would be blamed on the nascent Decepticon movement. Deducing that the bomb must be the fake Matrix that Nominus carried, Pax assembled a team of specialists to carry out the most audacious heist in Cybertronian history—to steal the Matrix! Patternism Despite the Primal Basilica's security measures, the Triorian Guard and the fact that the fake Matrix was wired into Nominus' chest like a 440 tamper-proof fuel pump, Pax was able to retrieve it thanks to help from Windcharger, Glitch, Skids, and Ratchet. An Intimate Beheading

Nominus Prime was the namesake of the Nominus Prize for Medicine. Life After the Big Bang Orion Pax later remembered the historical film The Birth of Cybertron as "Nominist propaganda". Dance Among the Shadows

The Functionist Universe

When I am king, you will be first against the wall...

In an alternate timeline where Megatron never came to exist, the Senate came into conflict with the Functionist Council over the use of constructed cold Cybertronians. When Nova Prime's stockpile of frozen sparks was found, it proved the last straw for the Functionists, who gathered an army and overthrew the Senate, with Twelve-of-Twelve personally executing Nominus Prime. The Matrix was stolen from him and wound up in the possession of Six-of-Twelve. A World Misplaced

2019 IDW continuity

First appearance: Transformers #2 (mentioned), Galaxies #3 (depicted)

'Thriftius Prime' just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Nominus Prime inherited the Matrix of Leadership from Zeta Prime. Prime A contemporary of Termagax, Nominus Prime bore witness to the rampage of the Abomination. The devastation wrought by the berserk combiner and the sheer amount of energon it consumed had a profound effect on Nominus, who sought to safeguard Cybertron's supply of the precious substance. Constructicons Rising, Part 3

Many cycles later, Nominus was leader of the Autobots during the war against the Threefold Spark. As Nominus oversaw the final push against Exarchon's forces, Highbrow informed him of the changes that had been wrought to Exarchon's very spark. Despite their pending victory, Nominus Prime saw the cost of the Cybertronians' war, the numberless dead and the unbearable burden of what they had unleashed on the universe. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon: Part One

Designing an even securer Money Bin to house his #1 Dime.

Once the war ended and reconstruction commenced, Wheeljack informed the Senate of an incident with the Constructicons combined form. While Termagax argued for her students, Nominus decided that the risk posed to the rest of Cybertron's citizenry was too great and, once the group had finished rebuilding Iacon, Nominus exiled reassigned them to the colony world of Mayalx so they could construct an energon processing and remote beaming facility. Constructicons Rising, Part 3 Sometime after this, Nominus passed a law known as the Nominus Edict in an attempt to ensure that the perils of the past would never again threaten Cybertron and ensure stability. Over time, however, this law would become increasingly unpopular with the common citizen. The World In Your Eyes Part Five Orion Pax: Free Fall Among his many resource saving initiatives was to obstruct the forging of new Titans, viewing the giants as too expensive to grow to term as well as encouraging expansion, ordering Perceptor to store any new Titansparks beneath the Pyramid. Titans At some point during his reign, Nominus Prime presided over Bumblebee's forging ceremony. Wannabee, Part 2

By the modern day, Nominus had been succeeded as Autobot leader by Sentinel Prime, The World In Your Eyes Part Three who supported his predecessor's laws. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four Titans An image of Nominus Prime appeared over the Senate as Termagax promoted her new Ascenticon political party, in opposition to his ideals. End of Time

Upon accepting the Matrix himself, Orion Pax glimpsed the spirit of Nominus and all of the other Matrix-bearers that had preceded him during his time in the Allspark. Prime

Notes

• Nominus's name likely derives from "nominal", effectively calling him a Prime in name only.
• Just like poor Zeta Prime, Nominus wasn't included in the lineage of Primes depicted in Spotlight: Optimus Prime. In real life, this is because he was created after Spotlight: Optimus Prime had been published. In that Spotlight, we hear that the Primes are ideals that embody the ages they reign in, which is probably an in-story reason for why Optimus doesn't want to visualize the bastard...
• Nominus was injured prior to Orion Pax giving his speech to the Senate where he first self-identified as an "Autobot" and he was killed soon after, so his reign predated the common usage of the term.
• The thinking by James Roberts is that by Nominus's time, the Primes had become a less powerful force absorbed into the Senate, rather like the British royal family.^[1]
• Nominus's alternate mode being an aircraft was a deliberate decision by Alex Milne, who expressed a desire to break the previous trend of IDWverse Primes having land-based altmodes.^[2]

Foreign names

• Japanese: Nominus Prime (ノミナス・プライム Nominasu Puraimu)

References

External links

• Colored concept art of Nominus Prime at Alex Milne's DeviantArt