Released Wednesday, October 3rd.

This one felt a bit odd to me. I haven't read the 1st BW mini (just issue 1) so I'm probably just a bit out of the loop on what's been going on.
Definitely one of those Furman "epic" kinda stories which is fine I guess, but this 1st issue seemed a bit here, there and everywhere to me. All this back and forth going in time seemed to make the 1st part of the story kinda pointless.
I'll try #2 to see where this is going, but I can't say this issue really did much for me.

Bout what I expected. Enjoyable romp.

Liked that Ravage wanted to free Megatron, he probably figures that's as close to a "real" Megatron he'll get in this era.

I Razorbeast.

Furman getting Biblical there at the end with the reference to the "Unholy Trinity".

actually, i think ravage wants to free megatron as some part of deal they had when ravage agreed to help him during the agenda. love all the cybertron stuff and it makes me really wish they'd do a beast wars cybertron modes line! the longrack was pretty sweet with how close it was to the longrack from the cybertron line. and i was pleasantly surprised with the appearance of a certain mcdonald's figure during the battle

So . . . does Torca always lie buried in the earth like that?

How in the blue blazes did they ever fit him into the Axalon anyway? Was his stasis pod strapped to the bottom of the ship?

if i learned anything from beast wars, it was that it didn't really matter how big the transformer became. remember when inferno was rising out of his pod? he was so damn big that it was like he was crawling up through a secret compartment in the bottom

I'm surprised everyone is saying it gave as little characterization as the last series. I mean, it gave Prowl II, Wolfang, Refrax, Snapper, Manterror, Apache, and Mach Kick pretty decent voices in just the first issue. Plus there's the signs of BM Magmatron coming forward in his viewing of the time stream, putting his own problems behind those of his entire race.

Great opening issue I must say, although I know that I'm extremely confused by that opening battle shot....

you got the preds from both BW-II and BW Neo, all in Cybertronian form (Despite Diregun only existing as a modified Dirg) fighting each other, but you can see the Stegosaur getting punched by who I assume is the Styracosaur (Triceratops with both heads remolded) despide them both being from BW neo.

Now... what the slag is this.

About the only thing I can think of, taking into account the following pages, being this is some 'end times' scenario where rampant chaos has ensued, breaking out into mass rabid insanity and leading to everyone killing each other, giving Shocky the opportunity to reformat the world into his own body, IE the second coming of Unicron, to again begin killing everything.

sadly the colouring bothered me on this, i felt it lost some of the dynamics and the forest scenes it was just to hard to make out some of the characters

Agreed. If there's one thing about this that bothered me, it was the coloring. I really enjoyed the style Josh used on the Gathering much more than this.

The Cybetronian modes for the Neo crew were gorgeous. I wish to God IDW would put out a Don Sketchbook that has all those (and more) in it. *dreams*

So apparantly the events of BWII and Neo have already taken place?

Odd. I wonder how long its been, because you'd think they'd show a little more aftermath of Unicron possessing their entire planet if it had happened recently.

unfortuantly josh didnt do issue 1... now when i think about it i wish i'd know this so i could of tried to grab dibs on the issue

I feel this is a good improvement over the first mini.
Although possibly because I'm no longer expecting the real Beast Wars cast to show up.
I felt the colors/inks have been improved. This have a more "cartoon" feel (funny, since the original cartoon didn't).
Last time around, all the characters were hidden in the dullness of the background, now they... look better and generally more energetic. A heavier use of color-backgrounds and stronger shine on reflective surfaced really help things move.


I don't think the time travel is being executed especially clearly. Some kind of dates would help.


So does this mean Magmatron is IDW's Uatu?


Longrack... oh now Furman is just TRYING to make things hard on the TF wiki.


And personally, I felt the source book sucked.

Huh, wouldn't ya know it...Mark Bristow, the guy who did the colors for this issue, also is responsible for the colors for the funky pages of Megatron: Origin # 3. Y'know, with the miscolored Dinobots and Predacons and such...

Nope, not buying. Torca's at least five times Inferno's size.

Don't get me wrong, I've always liked Torca; I like the fact that he's a powerhouse, but come on. He could EAT all the Predacons.

D'OH! I stand corrected. Sorry Josh!

And as for you getting the issue, 'bean, I would have LOVED to see that.

I'm confused with BaBoom, is he on earth or part of the rescue group coming with Leo Convoy?

Is this just a error?

B'Boom's on Earth, and Apache is part of Lio Convoy's team. Ben Yee states in his review that he decided to retain Apache's second-in-command role from the BW2 show.

heh. time paradox!

Yeah, it isn't an error; they're just two virtually identical characters. (Perhaps that's where the confusion sprang from.) (At least they are in toy form; comparing B'boom's design in this issue to Apache's on the cover, I can see steps have been taken to differentiate them.(And since Don drew both the next issue cover and B'boom in this issue, I wouldn't chalk the difference up just to different artists' takes.))

Ooooooo Very cool.

main differnce colour wise is that b'bom has a silver face and is a darker shade of blue and dosent have the gold on the chest

Except that in the Sourcebook, Apache has the gold face and a blue chest, while B'Boom has the silver face and the gold chest.

In Ascending #1, they BOTH have gold chests, and might both have gold faces (the shade of B'Boom's is difficult to ascertain, he's in the dark).

I'm telling you.

Apache should have been in his special-prize green-and-red deco. Not only is it a canon coloration, but a green not-quite-mandrill is no more unrealistic than a blue one.



(Same deal with Scuba and Tasmania Kid. It's not like Bound Rogue is in this to confuse not-really-Tasmanian devils. Mind... Psycho-Orb SHOULD be in this, since he's apparently FROM the BW era and followed Megs TO the RM era...)


M "It's A Bad Idea To Presume The Mass Market Will Catch Exceedingly Minor Things Like That" Sipher

M "One Quick-And-Dirty Photoshop Later..." Sipher

well i know josh will have it the right way since it was his idea

Well this discussion solved my question of "Why is B'Boom in two places at once"...

But I just gotta ask... why does Grimlock keep getting drawn with what appeara to be fur??

Cuz they're feathers and dinosaurs had them.

I think it just last week that a report came out about raptors and feathers!

I'll try and find that.

Hell, I thought ALL the japanese characters should've been given different color schemes regardless. Having another canon coloration just backs it up.

'Course, I would've probably even gone so far as to get rid of stupid names like "Scissorboy", "Tasmania Kid" and "Drill Nuts". I don't know what we're going to do when we end up with both Tripredacus and Tripledacus. Probably cry.

Well it was pretty enjoyable but I do feel that it is too many characters all at once. At least they could have had less characters than this and explain that some of them come into the fray later on.

I mean now even lio Convoy and guys in almost the exact color scheme are getting involved?

I'm going to have to agree that Apache should be in his alternate color scheme.

I don't mind all the characters being in it but anyone else feel this is a little too quick?

Otherwise I liked the idea of Ravage trying to save Megatron, hints of Shockract starting his ascension and Magmatron being stuck in the timestream is interesting. Maybe this explains his becoming a dinobot leader later on. For this continuity I mean of course.

No.

Drillnuts can stay...it really fits the character.

I was always fond of shortening "Tasmania Kid" to "Tazkid".

Words fail in regards to "Randy", though...

M Sipher do you have a high res of that image?
Whats that from?

No. That was kiped from IDW's page... well, more accurately, a thread HERE, but I gather it was ORIGINALLY from IDW's webpage.

I'd give the Claw Jaw art the same treatment for Scuba, but that would involve scanning and frankly that's more effort than I feel like putting into it.


M "I Hope Scuba Has The Animation Eyes. He Won't, Though. I Know It, You Know It" Sipher

I think he's referring to the Comic Bom Bom scan, Siph.

Speaking of which, has anyone ever seen one of those pink Divers for sale? I'd pay an arm and a leg for one.

I found this and it solved my question as to where those came from.

http://www.luckydrawtransformers.com/index...8-Beast-Wars-II

Squee! Manta Ray!

No, but seriously, that was pretty good.

The coloring hacked me off, as Josh's colors just pop so right with Don's pencils, but I'm over it.

I didn't like how easily Razorbeast downed Ravage, but that might be addressed next issue.

I did love the panel with Razorbeast cocking his head and asking "Please?" to Ravage's demands. Little smartass warthog is growing on me...

Considering there's maybe one in existence?


M "Do You Really Need Your Kidneys?" Sipher

I do, but I'm sure I can find someone else who doesn't. That's where the limbs would be coming from.

Was it never said how many of these were made then? I'd have thought Buster or Hydra would've known.

Ehn. MOST of them are different enough... but not all, and not everyone has an official alternate coloration. Giving every Japanese character a brand-new coloration would be pointless and infuriating.

I would leave them in their actual colors when they're different enough... but... let's take, say, Scissor Boy, who is exactly the same as Powerpinch, and has no alternate coloration.

Did you know that toy is actually a superdark clear-green, not opaque black? Play THAT up. Color him forest green rather than black, and be SURE to use the animation model head with the "normal mouth through a hole in the mask" look rather than the grill.

Mantis? Make SURE the blue bits are VERY blue, keep away from the purple end of that spectrum. And alter the tone of the green significantly as well. And, again, animation-model head.


I wouldn't... and I say this as the guy who's officially renamed a buttload of Japanese Mini-Cons. But that wasn't the original plan, despite the sheer suck level of many of their original names. But when the project was in the works, it was suggested from above to change the names, so they were. Apparently IDW has a little more leeway on that matter.


M "Hmm. Telemocha Germanic-Pronunciation Predacon Wolfang Probably Isn't In This.... Is Moon? PLEASE Say He Is" Sipher

Well, at least he did improve a bit, since those pages in M:O #3 looked HORRID...

Overall, I found this issue dull. Not really a step up from "The Gathering" at all. Too many characters, too little characterization. I mean, even GRIMLOCK doesn't really get fleshed out. As with The Gathering, a significantly smaller cast would have served this format a lot better. It worked for -ation, after all.

Well, I enjoyed this.

Arts very nice, but common its Don, how can it not.

Colors are nice too, I like all the different greens on the jungle page, it could easily have been a mess, but I can point out all three of the Preds, I also like the page with Torca bursting out of the ground, and finally I love the lighting for Ravage in the cave.


Now the story, I enjoyed it (big surprise, I already said that ) I hope Wolfang and Prowl have more parts in the future, I was surprised that it's set after the last episode, I really enjoyed seeing parts from Magmatrons point of view, I didn't realize until my second read through, that the battle didn't end, we just shifted to Magmatron and Cybertron, I have high hopes for it since it's being written as four issues, unlike The Gathering's six cut to four. It looks like the Omega Point wasn't completely erased from time.


Also love seeing the Cybertronian forms, I especially liked Stampy, Apache and the Blendtrons, mainly Drancron (Sky Shadow's one of my favorite Fuzors)


Before I forget, does anyone know who that green bot is one the first two pages? I feel like I should know him based on the head, but I can't place him.


One more thing, I like to imagine voices when I read these comics, but I can't think of one for Razorbeast, I can't help but think of Scott McNeil's Trowa from Gundam Wing or Miroku from Inuyasha, but I also don't think it fits that well, so what do you guys (and girls) think, maybe deep and gruff, because of his beast mode, or maybe like a serious Pumba from Lion King again because of his BM or maybe a deeper Rattrap because of they're similar bot modes.

Halfshell, the Seacon Pirate leader.

Ah! That explains the nagging feeling I should know him, Snaptrap's one of my favorite toys and combiner leaders.

And the back cannons and shoulder design make sense now, thanks.

And, of course, Beast Wars NEVER resorted to cartoony physics. Torca's size is probably one of the few things these miniseries get right about the tone.

Torca's a fused killer whale and an elephant. Not exactly a pair of small animals there.


M "I Only Wish His Toy Was Bigger" Sipher

Er, yeah, I only meant the ones that had the same exact colorations. Heh.

As for the names, eh, I guess I've just never been big on any robots with "boy" or "kid" in the name.

The Beast Wars comic series is story driven rather than character driven.

Not exactly a war of beasts when there's only five members per side is it? Seeing dozens of Transformers fighting even if i don't particularly *know* many of them through the issues still makes it feel like it has significance.

But about five members per side? I wouldn't really feel it. It would feel like a unimportant epilogue to the beast wars tv show rather than the time and space spanning war that we are getting. we wouldn't have learned anything about whats happening on cybertron and we'd *still* be waiting for our favorite toy only characters to make their debut in a fiction. The -ation stories are becoming much more interesting as more characters are introduced into the continuity.


So no. I'm happy with what we're getting. Might not be the greatest Transformers mini-series ever but I still like it.



But I wouldn't say no to more regular beast wars mini series and/or Beast Wars Spotlights set in this continuity. Given the choice between Beast Wars and the mini-series that don't tie in to the main IDW G1 continuity, I'd choose to have more Beast Wars.

Testify, brother.

I tried mentioning this possibility to Ryall over at the IDW boards once, and he shot me down. He said that while BW fans are very vocal, there just isn't enough real demand for the extra product, so it wouldn't be financialy wise to produce more.

Load of bull, as far as I'm concerned, but what are ya gonna do.

so they really think Hearts of Steel and the Animated Movie Adaptation were more financially wise do they?

Primacron help us all.