Transformers: Beast Wars: The Revisiting

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Transformers: Beast Wars: The Revisiting is an unproduced mini-series from IDW Publishing, meant to follow up from The Gathering and The Ascending. It was to be written by Simon Furman. What is known about the story comes from an outline by Furman that was printed in Hachette's trade collection for The Ascending. Its plot was to have featured the Vok rewriting history, creating an alternate version of the Beast Wars in hopes of furthering their own goals for the Transformer race.

Overview

The impetus for the story would have been the Vok altering history so that Megatron's theft of the Golden Disk would have failed and thus the events of the Beast Wars cartoon would never have taken place, with several characters now being in different roles with history altered so drastically. In this new timeline, Big Convoy would have led a team of Maximals to close the temporal anomaly that would lead to prehistoric Earth. However, their ship would be intercepted by the Predacon ship The Razor's Edge, captained by Magmatron, with Megatron being his second in command. Both factions would crash land on Earth and Megatron would trick Magmatron and his elite warriors into exposing themselves to unstable Energon radiation, putting them in stasis lock. Megatron and his warriors, Dinobot, Guiledart, Inferno, Waspinator, Onyx Primal and Rampage would have then scanned beast modes based on the local creatures before setting out to plunder the planet's Energon, to not only empower their forces to retake Cybertron but to also repair the Razor's Edge.

Meanwhile, Big Convoy and his crew, consisting of Rhinox, Panther, Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, Bonecrusher, and Airazor, aboard their ship, the Gung-Ho, plan to guard the site of the Ark until reinforcements arrive as well as repair their own ship. Unknown to both factions, the Vok have already put a contingency plan in place to destroy both factions in case neither learn to work together. A large artificial asteroid dubbed a Planet Buster which, if their plans have failed, will crash into Earth and destroy the Transformers with the resulting Quantum surge.

The first battle between the Predacons and Maximals begins, but during the battle a Vok pyramid trap captures some of the Maximal and Predacon troops, forcing them to work together. However, the trap seems to have a mind of its own. The Vok try to disable the trap, but it seems someone else has taken over their schemes. Not only that, but they have also taken control of the Planet Buster as well, accelerating its course towards Earth!

At the same time, the Planet Buster, which is travelling through time and space, catches the attention of Optimus Primal and his crew, Rattrap Tigatron, Cheetor, Bump, and Heinrad. Detecting it approaching Earth in their ship, the Axalon, Optimus and his crew use their transwarp drive to race ahead of the Planet Buster in hopes of averting the catastrophe.

On Earth, Big Convoy tries to broker a truce with Megatron to free their captured comrades. Megatron appears to agree, but only to get his opponent within range of a Vok weapon he’s discovered. Within the alien pyramid, the Maximals and Predacons are brainwashed into a berserker rage, with Blackarachnia in particular having something… sinister awakened inside of her, something ancient and evil, from a savage era of Cybertron’s past.

Outside, Megatron succeeds in luring Big Convoy into his trap, blasting him at close range and seemingly sending him into a deep ravine. It all seems hopeless, until the Axalon arrives and blasts the Predacons, but not before Megatron uses his new weapon to shoot the ship down, stranding it on Earth as well. After Megatron flees, Optimus and his crew solve the riddle of the alien pyramid, freeing those inside. Back with the Predacons, Megatron’s troops are convinced more Maximals will soon arrive and they will be outnumbered, but Megatron reassures his men that they still have the advantage. For he has a traitor among the Maximals… who has prevented any distress signal from leaving the planet!

With Big Convoy seemingly gone, the remaining Maximals turn to the unsure Optimus for leadership, or merely want to escape the planet themselves. Rhinox manages to restore some order and Optimus briefs the Maximals on the Planet Buster, how that if it crashes into Earth, the slumbering Autobots and Decepticons will be destroyed and all of them might be erased from existence. To add to their problems, Blackarachnia has become increasingly unstable, talking about "ancient ones" and the "coming inferno."

Tigatron then comes up with a plan. If the asteroid is locked onto a target on Earth, then if they destroy that target, Earth might be saved. While the Axalon was damaged in the recent battle, only its transwarp drive was completely destroyed, meaning the ship is still spaceworthy. Optimus decides to take a team into orbit to scan for any anomalous energy signatures, while Rhinox decides to take a team of his own to the site of the Ark, dubbed Alpha-Prime, to set up a force bubble around the area in the hopes of protecting themselves and the Autobots and Decepticons. The teams split up, with Panther and Airazor, along with a now-catatonic Blackarachnia, staying to guard the Gung-Ho.

Meanwhile, Megatron has observed the Maximals' movements and is planning his next attack… but it will not be a frontal assault. Instead, he merely sends a squad to monitor the Maximals at Alpha-Prime and waits. While biding his time, he decides to go out to gloat at the stasis-locked Magmatron and his troops, Archadis, Hardhead, Killer Punch, and Saberback. He knows full well Magmatron can hear everything he says and remarks how long he’d coveted power and how he hated having to follow Magmatron’s every order. But soon all of Cybertron will know the name of Megatron and Magmatron will be merely a forgotten relic of the past.

After finishing their scanning mission in orbit, Optimus and his team return to the Gung-Ho’s crash site, having found the location of the Planet Buster’s homing beacon, in an area of molten Energon ore that they’ll need special equipment to reach. However, as they arrive, the Gung-Ho’s weapons turn on the Axalon, sending it crashing down in a fiery explosion, seemingly killing all aboard.

And inside the Gung-Ho, with an unconscious Panther at his feet, with Airazor now revealed to be the traitor among the Maximal ranks, Megatron watches with glee, knowing that victory will soon be his. As Megatron then prepares to launch the Gung-Ho, having learned of the Planet Buster from Airazor, he spares a passing thought to his remaining troops, who he has deemed expendable. Blackarachnia is still unresponsive, occasionally uttering a word that sounds like "mach-mo".

However, Optimus Primal and his team have survived the crash of the Axalon, having secured themselves inside the ship’s sample isolation chamber. However, they know that Megatron has taken control of the Gung-Ho, the only ship capable of getting them off the planet. At that moment, Optimus has an idea, an idea that makes his crew think he’s gone crazy, but they don’t have much choice. After dispatching Cheetor on a special mission, Optimus and his troops lay siege to the Gung-Ho, hoping to stall Megatron long enough.

At Alpha-Prime, the remaining Predacons prepare to attack Rhinox’s team, who are making preparations at four sites around the peak. The Predacons think they are easy pickings, but the Maximals aren’t so easily caught by surprise, having already set up sensors around the area. A large battle soon ensues.

Back at the battle with the Gung-Ho, Megatron prepares to launch the ship, aiming to destroy the Maximals with a barrage from the ship’s weapons. At the same time, Airazor considers her former comrades, having long ago renounced the Maximal way in the hopes of returning Cybertron to glory. But still, it pains her to watch so many noble souls die for that cause.

With Rhinox and his team, the big green bot knows time is running out, with the Planet Buster now visible to the naked eye as it streaks ever close to the planet. He knows now that this force bubble is now their only hope.

Over with Optimus and his team, just as Megatron finally begins to take off in the Gung-Ho, reinforcements arrive… from Magmatron and his troops, having been freed from stasis lock by Cheetor. With their combined forces, the Maximals and Predacons destroy the Gung-Ho’s gyro controls, sending the ship spiralling down. Megatron prepares one last-ditch effort to destroy his enemies with the ship’s weapons… only for him and Airazor to be struck down by a now-recovered Blackarachnia. Taking the controls, Blackarachnia makes a rough landing in the ship and with the rest of the Maximals and Predacons, limps to Alpha-Prime, all hope now resting in Rhinox’s shields as the Planet Buster crashes into Earth.

Thankfully, the shields hold, despite a secondary energy wave hitting the Transformers regardless, though it is not fatal. In the aftermath, Magmatron and his Predacons decide to withdraw, taking Megatron with them, leaving Airazor to the Maximals. At the same time, the Vok are still trying to figure out what went wrong with their plans, trying to make sense of what has happened. It is only when they tune in on Blackarachnia that the truth is revealed and for the first time, the Vok experience true terror as Blackarachnia loudly warns the other Maximals… that the Liege Maximo is coming!

Notes

This comic was intended to have been written with the "Swarm" origin story proposed for the Vok by Larry DiTillio in mind, with their goals having been to bring Cybertron into a new Golden Age.
It's worth noting that the Predacon Guiledart appears listed as both a member of Megatron's splinter group and Magmatron's loyalists in the story outline written by Furman. Guiledart does fit best with his fellow Beast Wars Neo Predacons, but his profile in the Beast Wars Sourcebook describes him as a chaotic double-crosser so make that what you will.
It is quite clear from the ending that this story was meant to lead into a sequel of some kind, with the Liege Maximo no doubt as the main antagonist. However, what this would have entailed or what it was to have been called remains unknown.

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Transformers: Beast Wars: The Revisiting

Overview

Notes