Beast Wars: The Ascending # 1
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Don Figueroa
Colors by Mark Bristow

Summary:

In the near-future of Cybertron, temporally-displaced, incorporeal Predacon general Magmatron watches the final moments of the planet as it is consumed by an unknown cataclysm.  Ever since Razorbeast sabotaged his transwarp shunt to Cybertron (The Gathering # 4), Magmatron has been consigned to this immaterial limbo, able to traverse time and space, but unable to affect anything.  He watches as a remaining few Transformers violently fight to the death, all consumed by a primal rage.  Magmatron notes that he has seen this moment over and over again and turns his attention away to the focal point of the planet-wide collapse.  A mysterious being wreathed in strange energy, with a dark source of power emanating from its chest, brings forth a final apocalypse on the planet by summoning Unicron to consume it.  Magmatron leaves this moment in time, as we cut to Earth.  It has been a short time since Razorbeast’s Maximals sent a distress signal to Cybertron (The Gathering # 4) and Razorbeast himself starts to believe that it was never received.  The message was directed to Razorbeast’s superior, Lio Convoy, and his elite unit designated “The Pack”.  But Razorbeast thinks that help would have been sent already if the message was received.  Prowl and Wolfang offer him encouragement and tell him not to give up on that hope yet, but Razorbeast simply can’t shake the feeling that they are sitting on their laurels and someone out there is waiting for them to be proactive.  Prowl reminds Razorbeast that Ravage’s Predacons are still out there and seeking something that the Maximals have.  But Wolfang also brings up the point that they have the legendary Autobot Grimlock in their ranks.  Speaking of said-legend, Grimlock is stalking around the Maximal’s territory perimeter in beast mode.  Nearby, Predacons Manterror, Retrax, and Snapper also scout the area in beast modes, being extra-careful.  Retrax complains that he’s always used as a distraction and wishes he was back with the bulk of the Predacon forces.  Manterror reprimands Retrax with a poke to the head and points out that Snapper is being more professional about this operation at the moment.  However, the reason Snapper is being silent is because Grimlock has stepped on him.  The former Autobot apologizes with a smirk and moves in on the remaining two Predacons.  Retrax panics, rolls up in his pill-bug mode, and bounces away as fast as he can muster.  As Grimlock bites his wing off, Manterror yells after Retrax to “blow the tunnels”.  Several yards away, Retrax manages to pull it together and activates explosives mined under the Maximals’ base.  As the ground breaks up around them, the Maximals exit their makeshift base-camp and prepare to repel a Predacon assault.  As the Maximals muster their counterattack, Razorbeast notices that this isn’t a standard hit-and-run attack; the Predacons are going all-or-nothing this time around.  Predacon ground forces charge in, only to be thrown in all directions as the massive Torca erupts from the ground underneath them.  Fighting back-to-back, Bonecrusher notes to Razorbeast that current Predacon commander Ravage seems to be missing from this full-on attack.  Sure enough, Ravage has infiltrated the Maximal base, searching for something.  He finds what he was looking for; the chronal-phase armbands that allow one to interact with the “other” Beast Wars (the TV show) raging on Earth.  The armbands are suspended in a force-field and Ravage moves to seize them.  But as he touches them, they turn out to be only holograms.  Razorbeast appears behind Ravage, asking him if he really thought it would be that easy to find them.  Ravage demands to know where the real ones are, but Razorbeast won’t allow Ravage to ruin the time-stream anymore that it already has been.  Ravage slashes at Razorbeast and pins him to the wall, knocking the Maximal’s gun away.  Razorbeast notes Ravage’s desperation and realizes that something has changed to make the Predacon want the armbands so badly.  Ravage explains that Optimus Primal’s crew has defeated Megatron (the Beast Wars TV show series finale, “Nemesis Part 2”) and are in the process of preparing to return to Cybertron.  Ravage wants to free Megatron and join him in killing every Maximal on the planet.  But before Ravage can harm Razorbeast, Snarl de-cloaks behind him and bites down on the Predacon’s tail.  Using the distraction, Razorbeast manages to kick the off-balance Ravage against the far wall, which collapses on him.  With the Predacon seemingly unconscious, Razorbeast tells Snarl to get back to the fight outside as he handles Ravage.  Snarl asks where the actual chronal-phase devices are and Razorbeast replies that Ravage was close, looking at a nearby crack in the wall in which the armbands are currently resting.  Unbeknownst to either of the Maximals, Magmatron watches them from limbo, acknowledging Razorbeast as a resourceful and worthy foe.  Knowing that he needs Razorbeast to help him halt the coming apocalypse he has seen, Magmatron slides backwards in time, to nearly a month earlier when the Maximals were trying to get a transwarp signal back to Cybertron (The Gathering # 4).  Knowing that this signal degraded and failed to reach the proper ears, Magmatron alters fate and ensures that the signal reaches Razorbeast’s unit on Cybertron; the Pack.  On said-planet Cybertron, in the Pack’s secret headquarters, Mach Kick receives the Maximal distress call from Earth and immediately informs the Pack’s commander- Lio Convoy.  Lio orders the Pack to prepare to travel to Earth to go to Razorbeast’s aid.  Magmatron watches, filled with a sense of hope, but still wonders if they can make a difference in time as he knows that a chaotic force is rising somewhere on the planet.  Meanwhile in a dark part of Cybertron, within a large tower structure, three mysterious Transformers enter a large chamber.  They bear a gift for their master.  The gift?  Angolmois capsules.  The master?  SHOKARACT.  TO BE CONTINUED!


Slagged!:

-We see a hint of the apocalypse to come, as Magmatron witnesses Cybertron’s final moments.  Transformers fight each other to the death, regardless of allegiance, as the planet is consumed by Unicron.

-Grimlock treads on Snapper and tears Manterror’s wing off as Retrax flees in terror.

-Torca sends a mass of Predacons flying when he erupts from underground.

-Razorbeast and Snarl, working together, manage to apparently knock Ravage off-line, although how final that victory is might remain to be seen.


Sightings:

-The Predacons (Destrons, really) gripped by a primal fury and fighting to the death that Magmatron sees at the beginning include Killerpunch, Dirgegun, Saberback, Halfshell, and Guiledart.  A few panels later we can see Halfshell lying dead on  a field of corpses, a sword impaled in his chest.

-The being glowing with green energy and summoning Unicron is Shokaract.  First released as a Botcon 2000 exclusive toy, his original back-story was that he was from a future where he ruled Cybertron and carried Unicron’s essence within a “Matrix of Conquest” held in his chest.  Simon Furman is somewhat re-inventing him for IDW Beast Wars continuity, but the Unicron-connection is at least still evident.

-The Earthbound Predacon air forces swooping in to attack the Maximals include Sky Shadow, Transquito, Scourge, Buzz Saw, Lazorbeak, Buzzclaw, Jetstorm, and Injector.

-The Maximals seen responding to the Predacon airborne attack include Optimus Minor, Wolfang, Bonecrusher, Bantor, Polar Claw (launching his “Cyberbat”), Stinkbomb (mis-colored), Snarl, Air Hammer, and Cybershark.

-The Predacon ground forces attacking include Powerpinch, Terragator, Spittor, Insecticon, Iguanus, Drill Bit, and Manta Ray.  Manta Ray, previously unseen in The Gathering, was released as a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy during one of their Beast Wars promotions.

-When Ravage is explaining his reasons for wanting the chronal-phase devices, we see an image of Optimus Primal overlooking Megatron, who is clamped to the hull of an Autobot shuttle, just as seen in the last episode of Beast Wars.

-Lio Convoy’s unit, the Pack, includes Maximals (Cybertrons, really) Apache, Longrack, Stampy, Mach Kick, and Drill Nuts.  The cover for the next issue also shows that Break is a member.  All of them have been given re-designed Cybertronian forms by Don Figueroa.  Amusingly, Longrack’s Cybertronian robot mode is a homage to Cybertron/Galaxy Force Longrack, who in turn was initially a homage to Beast Wars Neo Longrack.  The circle is complete.

-The three Transformers who bring Shokaract the Angolmois capsules at the end are the Blentrons- Elphaorpha, Rartorata, and Drancron.  All three appeared in Beast Wars Neo as emissaries of Unicron and here they appear to be servants of Shokaract.  All three have been given new Cybertronian forms by Don Figueroa.

-Shokaract appears in full at the end, apparently given a newly-designed Cybertronian body-form by Don Figueroa.  Noticing a trend?

-Angolmois energy as seen in Beast Wars II and Neo turned out to be the life-force of Unicron.  That green stuff spilling out of Unicron’s chest at the end of Transformers The Movie?  That was Angolmois energy.  It has pretty random properties in the anime, but upgrading/empowering a Transformer was one ability clearly evident.  That is probably what Shokaract is using them for, as Magmatron deems him as “one ascending to demi-godhood”.


Hearings:

-Ravage still apparently feels some loyalty to Megatron (BW) from their brief time working together (The Agenda), wanting to free him and join him in slaughtering all the Maximals on Earth.  I guess he just wants to follow A Megatron, no matter which one.

-Magmatron refers to Angolmois, Shokaract, and Unicron as a “trinity of chaos”.  This is likely a somewhat twisted reference/take on the human religion of Christianity, and the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Unicron would be the “father”, Shokaract the “son”, and the Angolmois energy the “Holy Spirit”.


Wreck and RULE!:

-Beast Wars is back!  It’s been far too long.  There’s so much material and potential to be mined here that IDW should have really made this an ongoing, but nada.  Oh well, we’ll have to enjoy it while we have it.  Furman expands the universe a great deal more after expanding it a lot in The Gathering.  It remains to be seen if this will be a good move or not, but so far, this issue was pretty good.  The focus on the Earthbound Maximals and Predacons was still apparent, even though events on Cybertron are about to take a major role in the proceedings.  Furman gets to roll out Unicron-related stuff here, whereas he promised not to touch his favorite Chaos-bringer in the Gen 1 stuff.  He has a knack for writing epic Unicron stuff, though, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

-Don’s art shines as always, and his design work is always a treat to behold.  I laughed out loud at Longrack’s Cybertronian robot mode (just one of those ideas that are so right that they are funny) and Shokaract is rather impressive to behold as well.  For a bot without a mouth, Don gives Razorbeast quite the range of emotion through body language and panel-framing.  And Ravage’s desperation and anger is evident throughout that entire scene.

-Our two “main” characters, Razorbeast and Magmatron get ample spotlight and Magmatron is shown to have noble interests at heart here.  Although he hates Razorbeast for defeating him, he also realizes that the resourceful little Maximal is one of the best hopes to stop what will happen to Cybertron.  And Razorbeast is doubtful while stood down, needing assurance from Prowl and Wolfang, but cool and collected under pressure when facing down a full Predacon offensive and Ravage.  If you told me a few years ago that Razorbeast would eventually be one of my favorite Transformers characters, I would have laughed, but he is certainly starting to grow on me.


Wreck and ROT!:

-The colors do not compliment Don’s art as well as they could.  In fact, some pages look downright flat and sloppy.  This was only a fill-in issue for Mark Bristow though, and Josh Burcham will be back for next issue.  And as I’ve gushed often about, Burcham’s colors compliment Don’s pencils incredibly well.  So while the colors in this issue merely did at best an adequate job, we should see some better stuff forthcoming.

-Furman expands the cast AGAIN, after piling a large number of characters into The Gathering.  Although he manages to keep the focus tight this issue, it could easily go off the rails.  Plus, dozens of characters probably won’t get any time to shine in four issues, which is liable to tick someone off (Powerpinch’s lone fan, I mean YOU).  Let’s hope Furman can juggle the inordinate amount of characters he’s force-fed into this series so far.

-Despite claiming he cannot affect anything in his current state as a incorporeal time-displaced “limbo-ghost”, Magmatron is able to make it so the Earthbound Maximals’ transwarp distress signal reaches Cybertron and the Pack.  The method by which he accomplishes this is never explained.


Final Judgment:

A decent start, although nothing particularly ground-breaking.  Furman is building something epic and it likely has to conclude in three more issues.  Based on his track record, I’m not so sure this will go well, as Furman often rushes his endings.  But we’ll see, won’t we?  Don’s art is still Prime, and like pizza, even when Beast Wars is bad, it’s still pretty good.  Peace.


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