Beast Wars: The Gathering # 1
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Don Figueroa

Note:  To save me some time and typing, I'm not going to be generous with a summary of the Beast Wars TV show's plot except where it specifically pertains to this story.  I'm writing this assuming that you, the reader, have seen all or most of Beast Wars.  This series takes place at most a few weeks after the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda, Part 3" and probably in the neighborhood of the episode "Changing of the Guard" according to Simon Furman.


Summary:  We open up with a little expositional flashback by Predacon general Magmatron, who explains most of the major happenings of the Beast Wars TV series.  He explains about the Maximal stasis pods dropped by the Axalon and how some were reprogrammed into Predacons over the course of these "Beast Wars".  Magmatron also explains that the Tripredacus Council sent a covert agent (Ravage) to Earth to apprehend the rogue Megatron, but he failed.  And this is where our story begins; Magmatron and a troop of loyal Predacons teleport in, arriving on a beach on the prehistoric Earth that currently is the staging ground for the Beast Wars.  While the Tripredacus Council has ordered Magmatron's team to finish Ravage's job and capture the renegade Megatron, Magmatron has a very different scheme in mind.  He plans to locate all the stasis pods on the planet that haven't been activated yet and convert them all to Predacons for a new army loyal to him.  Magmatron gets right to work, ordering his troops about.  Razorbeast is to set up the transmitter array that will mass-convert all the stasis pods it reaches, while Manterror, Transquito, Iguanus, and Spittor are to locate as many stasis pods as they can and monitor the conversion process.  Drill Bit is ordered to stay at Magmatron's side, as the others set about their work.  Suddenly, Drill Bit notices that they are not alone on the beach they have set up camp at; as the Maximal Depthcharge rises from the water right in front of them.  Drill Bit panics, but Magmatron calms him as Depthcharge simply walks by, seemingly unnoticing of the Predacons' presence.  Magmatron reminds his lackey that they are "chronally displaced", meaning that Optimus Primal and Megatron's respective groups of Maximals and Predacons cannot register or interact with Magmatron's group.  Satisfied that all is in order, Magmatron indulges in a personal little flashback to Cybertron, probably a short time ago.  He is giving a speech to a small but dedicated cell of Predacons who disagree with the Tripredacus Council.  Magmatron feels that the Council is too weak and that their promises of "some distant uprising" are just hollow words to calm those Predacons who seek conquest.  He declares that a more proactive stance must be taken against the Maximals and soon.  Later on, Magmatron is in session with the Tripredacus Council, who order him to monitor Maximal communications planet side and beyond.  They inform him about the crisis on Earth and how the transwarp wave has been diverted and an agent sent to remedy the situation (The Agenda, Part 1).  The Council feels that Magmatron understands what Megatron didn't; that the Predacons must bide their time and strike against the Maximals when their power base is more secure.  Magmatron seemingly agrees, but when we cut back to him some time later at his base on Cybertron, his mindset is shown as clearly similar to Megatron.  He feels the Tripredacus Council will act too late and the Maximals will gain an unrecoverable amount of control over the Predacons, as they've steadily grown stronger since the Pax-Cybertronia.  Suddenly, he receives a communication from the Tripredacus agent Ravage; who is apparently feeding him information on the side.  Ravage has arrived in Earth orbit, and Magmatron orders tactical views of the planet sent to him at once.  Cut back to present time on prehistoric Earth; Magmatron inquires of Razorbeast as to when the transmitter array will be functional.  Razorbeast gives his estimate of twenty-one minutes or so, as he has to compensate for each individual stasis pod's environment and also align them to the same chronal phase that Magmatron's crew is function on.  Magmatron is a bit impatient and asks to be notified as soon as possible so he can greet his new troops before wandering off.  We then get a little flashback from Razorbeast where it is revealed that (GASP!) he is actually a Maximal double-agent implanted in Magmatron's inner circle.  Razorbeast's commander gives him the standard deniability rap about taking this job (i.e. this conversation didn't take place, can't be discovered or you're on your own, etc.).  The commander feels that Magmatron is the greatest threat to the stability of the Maximal/Predacon alliance; he knows that the Predacon general has been recruiting of late and is likely planning something big.  Razorbeast's job will be to discover what that is, and if he can't report back in time, to put a stop to it.  Back to present time on Earth, time is up and Magmatron wants the transmitter array online now; he's getting anxious about the Tripredacus Council checking in and finding out that they aren't doing their assigned mission.  Razorbeast complies and the array begins to send a "shell signal" that will reprogram the Maximal protoforms in stasis pods it reaches into Predacons.  Magmatron orders his field agents to report in on the status of the pods they have been monitoring.  Iguanus, Transquito, and Manterror's pods all activate and birth new Predacons, but there's something wrong on Spittor's end; the pod he has found has activated as a Maximal!  Magmatron knows this is impossible, unless there has been some kind of sabotage.  On cue, Drill Bit turns to see Razorbeast transforming to his warthog mode and trampling the hapless Predacon on his way to escape.  Razorbeast promises he'll be back to stop them as he flees in beast mode with an angered Magmatron watching.  Meanwhile, Spittor is having problems with the new, giant Maximal that he's encountered; Polar Claw.  The smaller Predacon frog doesn't back down and spits some acid on his opponent, but the Maximal transforms to a polar bear mode and begins to tear into the little guy as Magmatron hears Spittor's screams of pain over his com-link.  Quickly, Magmatron radios Transquito and asks for a wide sensor sweep to ascertain how many protoforms have awakened.  He then radios Iguanus and the others, telling them to return to base camp and bring any stray Predacons they find with them, including what's left of Spittor.  His rage barely concealed, Magmatron orders Drill Bit to get up and adds to Iguanus that if they encounter Razorbeast, he is to be taken in alive.  Some distance away, Razorbeast comes to a halt on the edge of a cliff.  Knowing he won't last on his own, he produces a signal emitter from his beast mode mouth and sounds a call which alerts all protoforms that awoke as Maximals to converge on him.  Around the planet, newly-awoken Maximals hear the call and respond, moving towards their comrade.  Magmatron also hears the call and radios Transquito for a status report.  Transquito reports that there are enough Maximals detected to qualify them as a "militia in the making".  The Predacon mosquito asks his commander how they should respond to this, and Magmatron's answer is to transform to his beast modes and declare; "Unleash the BEAST WARS."  TO BE CONTINUED!


Slagged!:

-Beast mode Razorbeast skewers Drill Bit in the chest with his tusks and tramples him.

-Spittor's got more than he can handle when he goes up against Polar Claw; he manages to singe the bear a bit with some acid, but the larger Maximal apparently tears him a new one off-panel.


Sightings:

-The opening flashback is a collage of major events happening in the Beast Wars TV show.  Starting with the first page of the Axalon and Predacon ship exchanging fire, then moving on to a full two-page spread, we see the events leading up to this comic series.  Moving from left to right horizontally in (makeshift) rows, we see-

*The Axalon falling into Earth orbit, jettisoning stasis pods.  You might notice one stasis pod is marked with a giant red "X", designating the occupant as Protoform X or as we better know him, Rampage! 

*Megatron in beast mode, Rattrap in robot mode.

*Optimus Primal and Dinobot fighting from the episode "Beast Wars, Part 2".

*Terrorsaur firing upon a fleeing beast mode Cheetor.

*Tigatron and Airazor.

*Waspinator with the specter of Starscream behind him from the episode "Possession".

*Tarantulas beholding a Golden Disk.

*Rhinox examining a stasis pod.

*Inferno awakening from his stasis pod from the episode "Spider's Game".

*Blackarachnia reaching for.something.

*The destruction of the Planetbuster from "Other Voices, Part 2".

*Megatron with Silverbolt and Quickstrike from "Coming of the Fuzors, Part 1"

*A profile shot of Dinobot.

*Ravage speaking to an imprisoned Megatron from "The Agenda, Part 2".

*Megatron blasting Optimus Prime's head from "The Agenda, Part 3".

And finally-

*Optimus Primal in both his first Transmetal form, and his "Optimal Optimus" body.

-Ironically, Magmatron was never released as a Beast Wars toy here in the US, but rather in the Beast Machines sub-line "Dinobots".  Although his tech specs and the Botcon "Wreckers" comics portrayed him as working with the Maximals in that continuity, the character described on the back of the box was consistent with his portrayal as Destron commander in the Japanese Beast Wars Neo series where he originated from.  Here, Simon Furman hijacks him for use as a Predacon commander, which is pretty consistent with Japanese continuity, if anything.

-Depthcharge emerging from the water would seem to be from the episode "Changing of the Guard", but I'm hesitant to place it there since Depthcharge wasn't alone on that beach in that episode.  Shouldn't Rattrap, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Rampage all be close by too if this scene was taking place during that episode?  Still, easy enough to just say this is "between episodes" and Depthcharge is simply coming back from a swim.

-In Magmatron's flashback, the Predacons that he addresses in his base include all the ones present on his team at the beginning of the issue (including double-agent Razorbeast), and from the Beast Wars Neo series, Killerpunch and Dead End (who also served under Magmatron in that series).  All of them, including Magmatron, have been given Cybertronian redesigns by Don Figueroa.  Obviously, they later took beast modes to better adapt to the environment of prehistoric Earth, or maybe for Energon shielding.

-The Tripredacus Council maintain their appearance from the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda, Part 1".  These three are supposed to represent Predacons Sea Clamp, Cicadacon, and Ram Horn from the Beast Wars toy line.  Those three toys combined into a gestalt called Tripredacus, and the original plan for the TV series was for the three Council members to resemble their toys, but three new CGI designs weren't in the budget.  So we are left with three designs that don't much resemble the toys, but the original script for "The Agenda, Part 1" does in fact refer to them by name as Sea Clamp, Cicadacon, and Ram Horn.

-The Predacon covert agent Ravage is shown here as giving Magmatron the coordinates for prehistoric Earth to teleport in.  His communication to Magmatron probably took place right before heading into Earth orbit in "The Agenda, Part 1".  Interesting that Ravage is giving Magmatron the coordinates BEFORE the Pred general has received any orders to go to Earth.  Ravage probably shares Magmatron's views and is secretly working behind the Tripredacus Council's back with him. 

-The Maximal commander that Razorbeast receives his marching orders from is clearly Lio Convoy from the Japanese Beast Wars II series.  He's been given a Cybertron redesign by Don Figueroa as well, with a little bit of a Zoids homage.  Lio Convoy has only been used in Japan continuity up until this point, and his name isn't given here.  But he clearly fulfils a similar role as Lio Convoy did in Japan, same as Magmatron. 

-When "Lio Convoy" refers to Magmatron being on the "bi-partate committee for state affairs", we see an image of Magmatron sitting alongside who appears to be Big Convoy and Heinlad, both from Beast Wars Neo.  Both of them also have "Cybertronized" robot modes, although you can't see it too well.  Neither Heinlad nor Big have been used other than in Japanese continuity, but again, you can assume here that they are the same characters or very similar.

-When the stasis pods are activating, the Predacon that Iguanus observes is Retrax, the one Manterror finds is Snapper, and the one Transquito finds is Jetstorm.  Spittor isn't so fortunate, however and is stuck with the Maximal Polar Claw.  You also might note that Don drew Polar Claw using his alternate "mutant" head.  Personal preference I'd assume and I agree that Polar Claw's alternate head looks much cooler.

-The Maximals shown to be hearing Razorbeast's call are from left to right; Ramulus, Snarl, Bonecrusher, B'Boom, Cybershark, and Optimus Minor (eating a banana, ha!).

-Transquito observes Maximal Wolfang attacking Predacon Insecticon, and also sees a group of Maximals that comprises Bantor, Torca, Armordillo, Noctorro, Stinkbomb, and K9 all responding to Razorbeast's signal.


Hearings:

-As explained, the shell signal mentioned here is a program that rewrites a Maximal protoform into a Predacon one.  While Tarantulas needed to manually insert the programming into each pod in the TV show, Magmatron obviously has brought the capability to remotely install a shell program with him to Earth.  A shell program is pretty much a brainwashing/spark-rewriting job that turns a Maximal's mindset, motivations, and even body structure into one more suited for a Predacon.  The Dreamwave continuity loosely established that the basis for the shell program was Generation 1 Insecticon Bombshell's signature "cerebro-shells", which could exert mind-control on a victim.  While the Dreamwave continuity is largely defunct now, some ideas are good enough to be used cross-canon, so I'd imagine the same is true here of the shell program's origins.

-Magmatron's speech to his followers on Cybertron lays down the current Predacon condition on Cybertron and blames their "forefathers", the Decepticons, for their current pathetic state.  The Tripredacus Council's stance is apparently to lie in wait and reserve resources until the time is right to strike.  I'd like to point out something neat; this philosophy of the Tripredacus Council, to lie and wait for an opportune moment, is exactly the same as is described in the tech specs of Generation 1 Decepticon Razorclaw, the leader of the original Predacons.  Is it possible that the original Predacons were the "founders" of the current, Beast Wars era Predacon faction?  I don't think this was intentional, but it's a neat connection to make.

-Magmatron mentions the Pax-Cybertronia, the treaty that undoubtedly ended the hostilities between Maximals and Predacons (And obviously was drawn up on Maximal terms).  This is mentioned by Ravage in the Beast Wars TV show, and is obviously a point of much disgust amongst many Predacons.

-Magmatron also mentions the Maximals "tossing us conciliatory crumbs we scrabble over like starving Scraplets."  If anyone remembers, Scraplets were first mentioned and shown in the original Marvel comic.  They were little metallic creatures that transformed into nuts and bolts and burrowed into a Transformer's metal skin like ticks and caused disease.  Eventually, it was discovered that they were killed by water, and it all went downhill from there, as that story was around the time Bob Budiansky stopped caring about the Transformers comic.

-Magmatron's final declaration; "Unleash the Beast Wars!" is probably a homage to Optimus Primal's cry at the end of the episode "Beast Wars, Part 2"- "And let it be called BEAST WARS!"  It's still pretty cheesy too.


Wreck and RULE!:

-It's been far too long since I've gushed over comic book art, so I gotta say; Don's stuff simply rocks!  All the characters look exactly like you'd expect them to look, and sometimes even better!  And of course, Don gets to show off some of his original designs for the Cybertronian modes of the Maximals and Predacons.  A round of applause to IDW for getting Don to do this series (Although I don't think he needed much persuading; the guy's as much a Transfan as the readers!).

-While the decision not to focus on the show's cast might be disappointing to some, I think it's a breath of fresh air.  After all, Primal, Megatron, and the like had three seasons of a TV show to shine (five if you count Beast Machines), it's nice to see characters that had no representation other than a toy get some spotlight time.  We get a feel for our two main characters this issue; Razorbeast and Magmatron.  Magmatron is your standard proud general, quite similar in mindset to Megatron, although it seems as if he takes a more proactive part in his schemes.  And I think it's kind of quirky that the main good guy in this series, Razorbeast, turns into a pig.

-Aside from Magmatron and Razorbeast, Polar Claw makes a great debut here (not so great for Spittor, though).  I can't wait to see what other previously toy-only characters get memorable moments.  If only we could get some spotlight time for characters like Stinkbomb, Injector, and Optimus Minor (ha, no seriously, they rock).

-A question that came up initially was, if all these stasis pods were activating behind the scenes of the TV show, how could the show cast miss all this?  Well, Mr. Furman comes up with an explanation for that; "chronal displacement".  I mean, it's no wackier than some other sci-fi stuff I've read and it gets the story moving without possibly violating the continuity of the TV show.  One wonders how much interaction with the landscape (scorch marks, explosions and such) is detectable by the show cast though.

-Another issue that might be raised is how Magmatron and crew can just "teleport" to prehistoric Earth when Primal and Megs' respective crews seem to be stranded there.  But remember, the transwarp wave only reached the Predacons in the TV show; and according to this issue the only Maximal that has ever effectively located where the Axalon crash-landed is Razorbeast (Depthcharge found it on a fluke) thanks to his double-agent status, and now he's stranded here on Earth too.  He's unable to report back, so he has to make do with sabotage and rounding up what Maximals he can from the stasis pods.  So no inconsistency issues here.  Furman did his research.  

-We actually get a bit of further development about Ravage, despite his tiny role in this issue.  He's a covert agent for the Tripredacus Council, but he's feeding Magmatron information behind their backs.  In the TV show, when Megatron shows him the message from Gen 1 Megs (The Agenda, Part 2), Ravage decides to side with him.  This is probably because Ravage saw that Magmatron and (BW) Megatron's views are similar.  For convenience's sake, here's how I see the timeline for this scenario is supposed to go-

*Transwarp wave hits Predacon satellite.  Tripredacus Council acts to block it from Maximal sensors and uses it to locate Primal and Megs' crews on Earth.  (The Agenda, Part 1)

*Council sends Ravage to Earth to eliminate Megatron and probably everyone.  Ravage, sends Magmatron the coordinates and planetary scans of Earth, likely behind the Council's back.  Magmatron plans to go there and steal the stasis pods to create an army.

*There are stirrings that Magmatron is planning something big, so Razorbeast is assigned to deep-cover in Magmatron's personal unit.

*Ravage fails in his mission, so the Council assigns Magmatron to go to Earth anyway.  Under the perfect cover of a sanctioned mission, Magmatron is free to undertake his own agenda.  Razorbeast cannot contact his superiors and is forced to act to stop Magmatron's plot.  

-Using some of the Japanese characters as cameos like Big Convoy and Lio Convoy is a nice touch by Mr. Figueroa, and he seems to do that a lot.  In fact, Don is the king when it comes to easter eggs in his art; his War Within, Armada, and Gen 1 work for Dreamwave attests to that.  Makes my job a lot harder though, agh!


Wreck and ROT!:

-Don Figueroa's last name is misspelled on the inside cover.  Normally I don't catalogue spelling errors, but man, how'd they miss THAT?  Okay, I'm just being petty, because there isn't much wrong with this issue.

-While Infiltration is geared to capture both newcomers to Transformers and fans equally, Beast Wars is more of a diehard's fare.  You can read this issue without knowing much about Beast Wars, but you are going to be royally confused about several issues.

-Since Maximals tend to lean towards mammal beast modes and Predacons tend to lean towards reptilian or insect beast modes, shouldn't it be obvious to Magmatron or anyone that Razorbeast is a double-agent?  Well, I guess it's more of a toy line thing, and less of a story thing, so this can slide; there are Maximals than aren't mammals after all (Grimlock and Cybershark).

-A word bubble is apparently misattributed when Razorbeast has his flashback.  The line "you're on your own" probably should have come off-panel from the Lio Convoy-esque commander, not from Razorbeast.  I suppose you could take it as Razorbeast finishing the sentence his commander started, but it's more likely just an error.

-The TV show more or less established that Transmetal 2 Transformers came about by being directly altered somehow by Megatron's slapped-together Cybertronian/Vok technology.  The Vok datasphere facilitated Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and Dinobot's mutations into Transmetal 2 forms, Tigerhawk was mutated by the Vok themselves, and I guess Megatron's previous exposure to the datasphere pushed his mutation into a Transmetal 2 when he absorbed Gen 1 Megatron's spark.  So how are there Transmetal 2 Maximals like Stinkbomb, Optimus Minor, and Ramulus walking around?  According to the TV show, exposure to the quantum surge would make them either Transmetals or Fuzors, but according to this comic not all the stasis pods were affected by it (since there are "normals" like Wolfang and Polar Claw walking around).  I guess a bot can become Transmetal 2 "naturally" too.


Final Judgment:

This is the one most of us have been waiting for.  The most popular Transformers' writer teamed with the most popular Transformers' artist on what some believe is the best Transformers property ever.  Okay, granted, we aren't dealing with the usual characters here, and some people just plain don't like beast Transformers, but still this is some darned good stuff here.  The love and care put in is evident in Don Figueroa's art, and Simon Furman's script is solid as well.  I especially enjoyed the layers of deceit and scheming inherent in the Predacon hierarchy.  If you are any kind of Beast Wars fan, you need to pick this book up now.  And let IDW know that a Beast Wars book will sell.  As mentioned before, if you aren't a Beast Wars fan but still want in on this story, you might be a little lost.  Hell, I am a huge Beast Wars fan, and look at all the untangling of threads I had to do in this review (I hope I'm right, most of it seemed to be speculation)!  But this series is pretty much a letter of appreciation and love for the fans from all corners of production, and I wouldn't have any other way.  Peace.


A Thunderwing review