WHEN I WAS

In themultiverse at large, the mysteriousBlack Parade (ブラックパレードBurakku Parēdo)^[1] are known as a band of dimension-hopping mercenaries. In theirhome universe, however, they show their true colors:

They are the guardians of theBlack Light and one of seven colored organizations in thePrimus Vanguard. They are led byBlack Go Prime, who carries theBlack Legendisc, also known as the Black Matrix. Their base is theBlack Planet.

(Black, their colors are black.)

Fiction

Precursor World

The Black Parade defended the universe ofBlack Star Power.

TheBlue Order'sStraxus once called out for the aid of Black Go Prime and theThree Musketeers while fleeing theSpecters, but the Black Parade were busy with their own Specter problems.

When Black Go Prime and the rest of Primus Vanguard command pooled their Star Powers to annihilate the Specters in their final battle, the seven universes of thePrecursor World were merged into one. The Black Parade was thus brought into the same plane as the other six organizations, where they continued to operate out of the Black Planet.Finale Prelude

Deadlock was inducted into the Black Parade by Black Go Prime, where he was taught to temper his rage into a more refined fighting style.Transformers Character Card

The Black Parade were brooding in a city on the Black Planet whenPrimus put the word out that theBlue Order had been destroyed byMegatron Omega and theStraxuses. Deadlock immediately took a battle pose and shouted into the shadows for his enemy, but Black Go Prime told him to knock it off, since he was familiar with the coming foe and knew the as-yet-untrained Deadlock couldn't handle him. Sure enough,Coelagon showed up and greeted Black Go Prime, one old codger to another, before entering battle for the Black Legendisc. They failed, and Coelagon absconded with the relic.God Neptune comic 1

Go gave chase, ultimately fighting to the last flicker of his spark alongside his fellow commanders to defend the Precursor World fromPrimacron and his colossalNeo Primus mech.God Neptune comic 2

Black Megatron sought to usurp the Black Parade as bearers of the Black Light, but he and hiscadre of like-minded Megatrons were defeated. Much later, student would become teacher as Deadlock came to lead the Black Parade inMagna Convoy's reconstituted Primus Vanguard.Finale

Notes

• The Black Parade's membership is made up of black redecos, with three out of five beingNemesis Primes.
• The conceptual history of the Black Parade is a bit fiddlier than that of your averagePrimus Vanguard subgroup. While they were first formally introduced in theninth installment of theGenerations Selects Special Comic along with most of the others in2020, their origins can be traced back to the recruitment of theCloud incarnation ofDeadlock into the service ofGo Prime inDeadlock's solo comic in2016. The group finally received a name when boutique Japanese publishere-HOBBY revisited the events of Deadlock's comic in its "Transformers Character Card" series of profiles in2022 and placed Go Prime at the head of a "mercenary group" not depicted in the original story. Whether the bounty hunters ofCloud and the Green Lantern types ofGenerations Selects are intended to be one and the same in a single continuous narrative is somewhat ambiguous, but they fulfill the same role so we've elected to present them together here.
• The Black Parade are pretty transparently a riff on the all-black fictional band from the2006 concept album of the same name by immortalemo iconsMy Chemical Romance, with Deadlock dimly resembling the album's protagonist. Yes, they have MCR in Japan too.

References