Still not up? C'mon!

In any case, nice! I am almost positive Josh did colors for this one, but it still lists Mark Bristow as the colors. What the?

But a good issue.

My favorite bit was Lio Convoy's "I can do traditional, too". Ace.

Good cliffhanger too. Not on Devastation # 1's level, but still rather effective.

Released Wednesday, October 17th.

some awesome stuff in this issue. here's what i thought of it:

first off, the messed up word bubbles when wolfang and bonecrusher are talking. or is wolfang just talkin to himself?

break and stampy's bits in the ship were awesome. i liked the whole bugs bunny look to stampy and the line about break and snowballs was pure gold

i wonder how many agents shokaract has employed or if the blentrons and the 4 agents already revealed in a spoiler cover are it

ravage seemed to turn to magmatron's plan awfully quick. cybertron's fate must be really awful or he's got yet another trick up his sleeve

when did terrorgator turn purple?

still no jawbreaker? we get one of the mcdonald's guy and now the magnaboss team plus japanese guys, but no jawbreaker yet? and btw, loved the magnaboss team's scene, even though it gave off a tripredacus council feel to me with the way they were set up in such a small space all together and alone

how bout a new line of bw figures? all cybertronian molds and a magmatron/ravage 2pack with both in the translucent chronolly displaced look

can't wait for issue 3. this whole story is awesome and should only get better

The story is gaining a good pace. There are times I think Ravage's dialogue should have been a little more proper.... it just seemed a little out of character (BW continuity). I'm assuming in the flash of light that was shown to Ravage by Magmatron that Ravage saw some of the future carnage. That's the only thing that could have turned him so quickly.... plus the fact that Magmatron was wanting to help Razorbeast instead of kill him.

Overall, this issue didn't feel rushed. You had the time to explore the story, and character's more.

yeah :\

thats unfortunate

seems like im getting mis-credited a lot here recently xD

lol welcome to my world... i do anything halfway decent people think you did it

and i looooove the fact that i get to see sneak peaks of these

Definately enjoying this series more so far than the Gathering.

The Blentrons were just about the only thing I really enjoyed when I sat through Beast Wars Neo, so I was all giddy seeing them show up in #2. Rartorarta was always my favorite, too, so watching him **** up Razorbeast was a treat.

I expect that Furman has depowered the Blentrons for the Ascending, since they were freaking INVINCIBLE in Beast Wars Neo. A fight with them wouldn't really last long.

I liked, I liked.

The only thing that irked me was that it just didn't seem like the Preds were overwhelming the Maximals in that battle and there was any "tide to be turned".

The Maximals outnumbered the Preds and there were just smaller, "Basic" Preds in most shots of the ground forces. It just didn't sell it enough that Grimlock and the Pack's arrivals swung the battle in the Maximals' favor.

The Pack descending from their ship is one of my favorite Don panels of all time now, though.

I hate to throw in some negativity here but.....

I'm really not digging this crossover with the Japanese stuff. The names bug me (why didn't they go with Leo Primal, or Maximus Primal instead of Big Convoy??).

The Angolmois energy stuff seems bizarre and weird too.

But the thing that's really hurting my like of this series is the re-use of Japanese characters that are identical to their US versions. I just cannot buy it, i'm sorry. I can't buy the idea that there are two light blue Mandrills, identical in almost every way, that are running around (Apache and B'Boom). I can't buy the idea that there exist identical versions of Fuzors (who were supposed to be scanning flukes), i'm sorry. And before people raise the point of the Seekers and other remolds in G1, remember, these guys are all based on organics - and organics are always different to some degree - you can't cookie-cutter a cat or a dog or whatever.

There are already so many characters in the US version of Beast Wars that bringing in their identical counterparts from Japan makes it all seem incredibly redundant and confusing (not to mention alienating new readers who are trying to figure out why one monkey is on the planet while the exact same one is on a spaceship in the following panel).

This has really killed my enjoyment of the series. I can respect what Furman and the IDW people were trying to do, but it's not working for me.

I understand what you're trying to say. To a certain extent, I kind of agree. Having characters that are as closely similar as Armordillo and Bump, and the ever-present example of B'Boom and Apache is a little distracting and confusing. Using the Neo characters who wre unique (Break, Stampy, mach Kick, Longrack) is excellent. Even using a character like Survive, who though sharing a mold with Polar claw is SO drastically different color-wise as well as face-wise (thanks to Don's use of the mutant face for Polar Claw) wouldn't be confusing at all.

But, as a general whole, I'm really liking this series so far. Quite frankly, just getting SOME kind of Beast Wars series is thrilling me to no end. I'm absolutely loving the stuff we're seeing on Cybertron. Getting a glimpse into the Maximal-Predacon society is something that I've been dying to see for years. Plus, Don's Cybertronian modes rock beyond measure, as always.

I agree with you 100%. I dont know anything about the Japanese BW continuity, have never seen an episode, or read anything about them, so this series is almost unbearable. It's almost like bad fanfic. (sorry)

Anyone catch the mispelled "Predacon" in the "Last time...." section? They spelt it Predacan.

And who the hell is Shockaract? Is he from the Japanese BW universe>

he was a botcon exclusive and had the story "reaching the omega point" based around him

Lio Convoy and Big Convoy are their names. Who are IDW to say what should be changed and what shouldn't if they started changing names on a whim? Best to keep the characters names to what we are most familar with - the ones they've always had. Want to blame someone, blame Hasbro of the mid nineties for not bringing those characters to America and giving them an Americanised name.

The Japanese stuff is cool because many of us are familar with the series.



Whether you buy the idea or not, thats how it happened back in the nineties and so thats how it has to be now. Of course, back then the two characters didn't exist in each other's world - so just take it as you would Crisis what with its two Supermans running around. It wouldn't be right to drop one of the Mandrills - B'Boom was released in the U.S. and Apache was a prominent character in the anime and they both had different personalities to each other (so its not like Cheetor and Cheetas being the same character).

Okay, I meant to address this but I forgot.

This can actually be explained fairly easily. Either before the Blendtrons went back to the Beast Wars, or when they got there, rather than seeking out a unique form to template they just took a form that they...

a) ...found appealing.

b) ...would inspire the kind of psychological terror they aspire to.

c) ...just happen to be closest to when they 'phased in'.

Or a combination of all the above.

Just one way of looking at it.

So not only is Furman using characters from Japanese cartoons, but Botcon recolours? Okay.

there's no problem with that.

its not like the american beast wars toy series alone has many characters for a series' "big bad".

i was a little skeptical about shoky, but i like how they're re-invented him. can't wait to see antagony. just wish they would've used catacyslm as well, but ben yee said he was gonna be left out due to not having a toy. does make me wonder if they'll also try to use sandstorm and windrazor as well

how long should it be before idw has this up for order on their site? there aren't any comic shops in my area and thats the only way i can get these comics.

huh. i rarely go to comic stores to get comics now, i almost always order them from ebay. i only had problems when this month's comics came out because of a postal strike.

normally, i get them within a week of release.

Not a bad issue, overall. If I'd had any complaints at all with this series thus far they'd be:

- Too much going on for Simon to tie together or resolve in a satisfactory manner. If this were an ongoing series, this might not be as big a complaint. As a mini-series... well, I pity those who might be "waiting for the trade" expecting something other than a collection of well-rendered Beast Wars action scenes.

- Unicron again? Really?

- How many original Go-Bots will have to die before this little visual "joke" isn't even funny or cute to those who make the comic any more? I mean, I'll give them credit for (at least this once) refraining from dragging out Cy-Kill's corpse for comedic effect, but what did poor Pincher do to anyone to derserve dying in a dismembered drug-addled heap? :-P

And though it isn't really a complaint of mine, I can see how the first meeting between the U.S. characters and their Japanese counterparts will be a pretty confusing one for readers. Especially in the case of B'Boom and Apache, who are two characters that were built off of a single toy that underwent not even a single color or mold change when released in Japan. Both characters are identical in every way but name.

I'll probably keep supporting this series, if just because I never tire of seeing Don draw Beast-era characters, but after almost ten years of wishing for a Beast Wars comic book I really wish there was more to enjoy than just the art.

That sucks about Cataclysm, he might not have a toy but he's obliviously based on one of my favorite TransMetals.

Since this is set after BW2 and BW Neo, I guess Shokaract is the next sucker after Galvatron2 with the angolmois energy.

Still loving the Blentron's Cybertron forms, and I'm liking the colors on Shokaract. As well as the Maximal Imperium Elders and Big Convoy, I hope near the end we get to see Magnaboss and Tripredacus fighting in there Cybertron forms.

And I like seeing the damage they're taking on Earth, it shows to me that they've been in a rather tough battle, and the only time I can think of them taking damage in the cartoon is in Spider's Game and Coming of the Fuzors, but no one in the comic is as bad as they were in those episodes.

Love seeing Claw Jaw use his tentacles the same as the spiders machine-gun legs, I always did that when I used to play with him.

Magmatron must have shown Ravage something really horrible to convince him that fast or the kitty has a big soft spot for Cybertron. (but don't all Transformers how a giant soft spot for there home planet.)

I enjoyed seeing the Pack joke around, Stampy and Mach Kick, Apache and Break.

LOVED how Ravage just walked out and watched the fighting out of phase for the whole page, I guess thats where he finally made his decision.

I liked Lio and the Packs arrival and then beating on all the Preds, the ship flying over head reminded me of Ravage coming in his own ship.

Rartorata looks very scary, I mean his beast mode is freaky enough but look at his size when he stabs Razorbeast, he's huge!

That's very weird about Terrorgator, how does a bot who's mostly green and blue end up completely purple?

One thing REALLY irks me, I cannot picture Ravage with his Russian BW voice, or at all actually, calling someone who threatens Cybertron a "Big bad".


Thanks to Agent X for suggesting Nathan Fillion's voice for Razorbeast, it fits very well this issue.

One thing it seems a bunch of posters don't like that they're including the Japanese series, but it's making me want to see them more than before, and if they're Canon for IDW, they're Canon for Hasbro and maybe we'll see some more of the Japanese exclusive figures, which is fine with me.

Well, I loved this one and more Beast Wars is great for me, I'm really looking forward to next issue.


Finally check out Rartorata's Wiki page, and read it. Out loud. It's great for a laugh.

Now, don't get me wrong: i'm very happy that Furman has included all these original japanese characters in this comic. Additions like Long Rack, Stampy and Mach Kick I have absolutely no problem with and welcome. Regardless of the fact that they chose to use their japanese names, i'm very happy we're seeing Lio Convoy and Big Convoy in this series. I even have no issue with characters like Survive. The characters I DO have problems with are the straight-up repaint characters being introduced as entirely new ones, as well as the use of nonsensical japanese names like "Tazmania Kid" and such.




So in a similar vein, who were Hasbro in the first place to change Convoy's name to Optimus? Come on, Mister Inflexible, IDW won the license, and I have no doubt they could've gotten Hasbro to sign off on a name change of these TAKARA characters. They were never introduced in the U.S. as you said, so why NOT change their names to something more recognizable to an audience that maybe hasn't gone and downloaded the fansubbed Neo episodes? I'd also wager that the bulk of Beast Wars fans aren't as nerdcore as we are and in fact aren't that familiar with the downright lunacy of the japanese BW stuff (whether it's even good enough to be brought into US BW continuity is another matter entirely).



It just HAS to be like that eh? IDW couldn't possibly have done anything differently? Give me a break So, it also wouldn't be right to drop one of the Mandrills? Excuse me? Right for whom, the japanese audience that isn't even reading this book? Again, just because you and 30 others watched all of the BW Japanese stuff doesn't mean that the rest of North America has. In an age where one of the chief criticisms of comic books is their inaccessibility for new readers, throwing in a mess of identical-looking-but-different robots in a series *already* overflowing with characters is neither "right" nor a good thing.

That doesn't even make sense. Crisis's two Supermans work because they're actually, you know, CONVERGING MULTIPLE RELALTIES. Here we're supposed to accept that there are two completely different characters that look exactly the same. The only people who ever look exactly the same are identical twins. So unless Apache and B'Boom are identical twins, it makes NO SENSE AT ALL.

I agree. I don't mind the repainted Japanese figures being in the book, but the same figure with a different name? Not so much. There are MORE than enough characters in these book having 2 that look exactly alike is not needed.
It is a bit of overkill IMO. Also with SOOO many bots running around focusing on one for more than 3 panels will be too hard.

Would you rather Furman go back to killing Dropshot?

And Pincher deserved to die. Once, I didn't pull his beast head out far enough before flipping it around, and decapitated the robot in one smooth motion. That guy broke into so many pieces on me, it wasn't even funny. I got shards.

Just finished reading the issue.

I'm definitely glad to see the storyline picking up...I actually feel like it's going somewhere. That said...I have to agree with Air Hunter, UNICRON AGAIN? I guess if this is the price we have to pay to not have Unicron in the IDW G1 universe...

Still too many characters, so whenever we introduce new ones, I wince a bit. The Blentrons work well - they're very similar to Furman's use of Bludgeon/Bugly/Mindwipe in War Within, but since I liked that, it still works well. And I do like most of the new mold characters in the Pack, but...still...too many characters. Its just getting ridiculous and eliminating any chance of character development. At least Furman was smart in slipping in the "patience is a virtue" line with Armordillo (though the "Like I always say..." almost ruined it).

Heh, I really like what we've seen of Lio Convoy so far. "No good? I can do traditional, too!" cracked me up. Always nice to see a Prime-like character who isn't stoic all the time. He's also proof that the beasts have more personality when Don doesn't draw 'em with black or glowing eyes. Actually, I really like the humor injected into most of his group. To my relief, I didn't have trouble telling B'boom and Apache apart, either, thanks to the somewhat more...I dunno, animated (?) look they've given the latter.

This series feels better-paced to me than the original; I guess you could say that it doesn't feel as if it's getting ahead of itself, but rather, we've moving smoothly along toward a clearly defined confrontation. I chalk it up to it being designed to be four issues long. Since I hadn't said much about the last issue, either, I also like that it follows up pretty quickly on The Gathering, what with addressing the fate of Magmatron and the transwarp signal in short order.

I really find myself liking Razorbeast more and more; the toy just might earn a place on my shelf if I can get ahold of one...and that's a Beast Wars shelf which doesn't have a huge number of characters who weren't either in the Beast Wars show or the II/Neo anime series. (I'm more of a character fan when it comes to toys than a pure collector.) Heck, Op Minor made it in after The Gathering.

So
The first season of the Beast Wars got rolling with five predacons and five Maximals.
Right now the comics has:
1. Primal's Maximals
2. Razorbeast's Maximals.
3. Lio's Maximal's
5. Big Convoy's police.
6. Megatron's Predacons.
7. Ravage's Predacons.
8. The Mutants (who have a policy against doing anything)
9. The Vok (who apparently don't have chronal-phasing technology and thus only interact with the primary Beast Wars)
10. Whatever group Tarantulas works for.

So this comic now has more seperate teams in play than "Beast Wars, part 1" had characters.
And somehow I'm actually able to keep track of them all.

that's not true. the show maximals and predacons (with the exception of ravage) are not involved in the story anymore. the vok haven't shown up. tarantulas hasn't snuck into the story, and neither has the tripredacus council. the mutants had 1 scene in the gathering and could very well not even be seen until the end of the series if they're seen at all

they dont look exactly the same, b'boom is a lot bigger and when you see them together youll notice it more.

personally i dont see the big deal, we had brawn and outback, swerve and gears and THUNDERCRACKER and SKYWARP who are diffent just because of a colour scheme.

im sorry but i see verrrry little difference here.

Two guys from Polyhex having a similar body type and both choosing to scan Datsun 280ZXs or F-15 Eagles when they come to Earth together is one thing. Skipping everyone's favorite mandrill example for the moment, consider:

Many years ago, before the Pax Cybertronia, three agents of Unicron called Blentrons assume unique Fuzor animal forms while battling Big Convoy. In the "present", three Maximal protoforms are born on ancient Earth and, through a randomly-occurring problem with their genetic scanners, just happen to become perfectly identical animal fusion forms to the Blentrons. The cross-temporal mechanics of how a programming glitch could create three Fuzors that exactly mirror the Blentrons under entirely separate circumstances would give Stephen Hawking a headache.

but at least 2 of them have completely different color schemes

The difference Limabean is that the robots you quoted were all purely mechanical, while the BW characters are organic. And as was mentioned above, no two organics are ever the same.

There really was no need to introduce these redundant characters, and it's hampering my enjoyment of this otherwise good series. I loved the first BW mini, but am not that happy with this one. It really does read like a bad fanfic at times.

Also, i'd imagine that the Unicron in this series is based on the BW Neo Unicron figure.

huh. and there was me thinking B'Boom and Apache both had mechanical forms before coming to Earth.

They did. And then Apache went to the planet Gaia and picked up a mandrill beast mode that is somehow perfectly identical to one B'Boom picked up on ancient Earth, right down to the transformation sequence (which is relevant, as Breakdown/Sideswipe and Air Raid/Seekers show up that having an identical alt mode doesn't mean you'll transform the same into robot mode).

Um, the fact that the color schemes are COMPLETELY different is a HUGE difference. I'm not complaining about guys like Armordillo/Bump (whose orange/red color schemes are basically Bumblebee/Cliffjumper) or Double Punch, or Bighorn, etc...but Apache and B'Boom have EXACTLY the same color scheme. They look exactly the same.

As far as size...Apache and Razorbeast seem to be of roughly equal height (comparing Razorbeast with Lio Convoy in Gathering #1 and Apache with Lio Convoy in Ascending #2). Razorbeast seems to be about equal in size to Snarl, who seems to be much smaller than B'Boom, which would make Apache smaller than B'Boom, but it's hard to tell. Not to mention it doesn't make much sense if they both have the same beast mode.

Brawn/Outback and Gears/Swerve are *completely* different outside of general body shape and alt-mode. They even have different faces in addition to different color schemes.

Of course had IDW left out the Apache/Tazmanian Kid/Scissor Boy characters that are IDENTICAL as their US counterparts, there'd be posts from the J-Beast fans bitching about the above's exclusion.

Transformers fandom=Kobayashi Maru

Seems to me that those who don't mind B'Boom and Apache sharing the same mold will always be able to find reasons to defend it, and those who are against will always be able to find reasons to attack it.

I don't know that that many people would care about Apache et al's exclusions. Someone in this thread pointed out that Jawbreaker still hasn't shown up and no one seems to care (though I would love to have him, he's one of my favorite molds).

i wanna see jawbreaker, damn it! he should've been in before the manta ray from the mcdonald's line!

b'bom is waaaaaaay bigger then apache, wait till you see them standing next to each other
and there are also a lot of physical differnces as well as colour/

way i see it is i think some folks are taking this waaaaaaay to seriously. which takes the fun out of it. and i used the outback-brawn examples as the idea of repaints and remolds etc.

and as for the two mandrills looking completly the same.... hands up here if anyone can tell two mandrill's apart? or two beetles? or two lionfish/wasp monster?

you raise a very good point that I had thought of. Most of us actually. I guess they could have 2 or 3 bots look alike in the general sceme of things. But I still think they have too many bots in the comic

I was actually a bit disappointed with this one. fight fight fight....torca shows up again.....fight fight fight.....grimlock does some funnies......fight fight.......enough already. I know it's a war of beasts, but I've been watching this massive group of combatants go at eachother since gathering 4 now. Just when you think it's finally over, reinforcement from the future #117 shows up...

I agree with those having a hard time accepting JP/US twins running around next to eachother. It's one thing to do it in the profile books (if you must), but here it just seems too odd for me.

There is a lot of good stuff in here as well though. I always like seeing a bit more of the political climate on future Cybertron and Furman is doing a good job with characters like Magmatron etc.
The overall story arc is still interesting to me, despite being tired of both Unicron and time travel stories....go figure.

I LOVE THIS... it reminds me of one of my Universe battles...

Fight fight fight... fight fight fight....Rid Prime shows up again.....fight fight fight.....grimlock does some funnies......fight fight.......

lol appologies StarscreamZX

I have absolutely no problem with the japanese/northamerican mixes... the B'Boom Apatche thing..not a problem..

I mean we're the same group that's figured out why Cryotek has TM2 Megatron's dragon mode...ON CYBERTRON... why we can't "canon...or CANNON" our way around this one is weird.

here are a few examples

a), as mentioned above they are twins.. problem solved how... mention in passing when the two meet up, that "hey we're twins I scanned you on the way down" ... differances can them be explained by the lows of copy... slight flaws are inharent in every copy.

b) Since B'boom really hasn't moved that far from where the story began, its likely the same monkey is still nearby... mandrils are crazy..I doubt an intertempral alien deathmatch would cause one to leave HIS tree -there fore Apatche could have scanned the same monkey

c) If the Pack's ship has a Skyspy unit used for form gathering... it would use the same logic the one on the ark did... find forms that best match the current robot mode configuration... which i) either was a monkey or ii) was B'boom

d) the transwarp Signal didn't go to the right time, and B'boom IS Apatche..dun dun duhhhhn..

okay D is a longshot.. but I wrote it to prove a point... this is a story about timetraveling alien robots from the future... a little imagination may be required

haha very true dude, very true.

some folk take it to seriosuly... yah dont wanna hurt dons feelings now do you

Uh . . . yes? Primatologists and zookeepers do it all the time.

Also, how bloody clueless about animal anatomy does one have to be in order to put nostrils on a killer whale?

Heh, well sure Furman & Co. can do whatever they want to. I've been through enough weird TF stories to know that you're not supposed to think about these things too much.

In this case though I just don't really see the need to do things this way. We already have a massive cast so are these specific characters like Apache really necessary? If Apache is so vital, did B'Boom really have to be there then? (I think he should, but still). Ehhh, I never watched any of the JP BW shows (I'm sure I'm not the only one on this) so these characters still don't mean anything to me. Mach Kick, Stampy, Break, Longrack and Lio Convoy all have visually interesting looks that make them great additions to the cast, but Apache.....

It's no BIG deal or nothing to me, just one of those things that I don't really care for. It looked odd in the profile book and it will look even weirder seeing identical TFs standing next to each other (though if Apache is much bigger like you all say, at least there will be enough difference to tell them easily apart)

well in g1 -or with any vehicle based series, you had an unlimited range of alt modes... on Earth, with animals..the number is somewhat more limited.

sure Hastak got around that with everything beyond Transmetal 1... but the basic animal list isn't as vast as the list of imaginary space car/plane ting maybes out there.

you have your generalizations and then you get your spesifics.

Monkey, Ape, Frog, lizard, snake, shark... and so on... then you get your specifics like say Hammerhead, cobra, geko, poison arrowhead, Gorilla, Resis... in reverse order respectively

But I can see where you guys're coming from too, I hated Reflector in g1... and we all know what trouble the insecticon clones were on the movie... Cyclonus anyone...

its all a matter of where your disbelief bridge is suspended... as it were

Y'know, the really obnoxious thing is that they have to bring in all these new characters at all. The previous series has already thrown, what, 30? 40? 50? new characters into the mix, and done nothing with any of them. And now, hey, we need some dudes on the Cybertron end of things! Crap, we already shot our American toy load on prehistoric Earth! Um... quick, Japanese guys, yeah! Now we've got SEVENTY new characters to not do anything with!