Reaching the Omega Point

Homage to an homage

Reaching the Omega Point was a multi-year, convention-exclusive Transformers storyline released at BotCon and other related venues between 1998 and 2000. Produced by 3H Enterprises, it is part of the 3H Beast Era continuity, which serves an extension of both the Beast Wars and the Beast Machines cartoons.

Created as part of 1999's celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Transformers brand, Omega Point was notable for being the first really BIG Transformers event in several years to feature the return of the Dark God Unicron, who had been absent from Transformers fiction (barring a few cameos) since his last major appearance in 1990's "On the Edge of Extinction!" from Marvel Comics.

Omega Point also laid the groundwork for much more convention-based Transformers fiction to come, spreading its content across multiple forms of media that would see further use at many future BotCons to come, including comic books, satirical live script readings, lengthy prose stories, and online-based content.

It is alternately known as simply The Omega Point.

“	On the eve of their greatest battle, warriors from a distant planet fight to save their past, present, and future.	”
—Reaching the Omega Point description, from the original BotCon 1998 webpage

«	"Reaching the Omega Point	»
BotCon 1998 script reading "Visitations" BotCon Europe 1999 prose story Prologue: "Herald" BotCon 1999 prose stories Chapter One: "Covenant" Chapter Two: "Schism Chapter Three: "Paradox BotCon 2000 comic "Terminus" Apelinq's War Journals Journal 15 Journal 16 Journal 17 Journal 18 Journal 19 Journal 20

Overview

Prologues

The storyline began with two prologues that planted the seeds for what was to come in the storyline proper. The first of these was a satirical script reading presented at BotCon 1998. As the name Reaching the Omega Point was not yet christened until the following year, it was retroactively applied to the Botcon 1998 script. Titled "Visitations, the script reading told a rather tongue-in-cheek story about a small group of Maximals and Predacons fighting over a mysterious artifact that had crash-landed right in the middle of the Beast Wars, set during a time within the cartoon's second season. After the artifact was taken by an unknown shadowy figure, a new Predacon suddenly appears from a portal, demanding the artifact in question. The newcomer, Antagony, is directed into engaging first Megatron and then Optimus Primal before she is eventually defeated and ultimately captured by Megatron for interrogation.

The second prologue, a prose story titled "Herald", was originally released at the unofficial convention Transforce 1999, but saw its first official release at BotCon Europe 1999 (a month after the first three chapters of the main storyline proper, see below). Serving as a direct sequel to "Visitations", the story takes place shortly after the script reading's cliffhanger ending. Megatron has captured Antagony and, having determined that she has come from a future era far beyond his own, he attempts to pry any knowledge of that future that he can get from her by any means necessary. Antagony, however, puts up a firm resistance against all of Megatron's torture methods and flashes back to her own past, in which it is revealed that she is Herald to a Predacon tyrant named Shokaract, who has conquered Cybertron in the far future. Shokaract had sensed that a threat to his own existence had turned up in the distant past, and sent Antagony back in time to right this temporal wrong. In the end, however, Antagony had failed her mission and allows her mind to be wiped clean before Megatron could gain access to her memories.

Reaching the Omega Point

The main event of Reaching the Omega Point formally began with three prose story chapters released in 1999. Written for BotCon 1999, the first two chapters were released in registration materials mailed out to prereigstrants in the months ahead of the convention, while the third chapter was first released exclusively at that BotCon.

The first chapter, titled "Covenant", introduced a then-new concept to the Transformers lore: A group of twelve special Transformers called the Covenant, who were the first Transformers ever created by Primus. The Covenant had watched over Cybertron and the developmental growth of the Cybertronians, in anticipation of a final battle called Point Omega, or Shokaract, which would determine the fate of Primus's Grand Plan. After eons of waiting, by the time of the Maximal and Predacon rule of Cybertron, the Covenant receive a visit by another new addition to the mythos, the Chronarchitect, kin to Primus and Unicron. The Chronarchitect warns the Covenant of a disruption to the timestream with the cryptic entreaty of "Return to the beginning...", which spurs the Covenant to begin analyzing all of history to locate this distressing temporal event.

Chapter two, titled "Schism" shifted the setting centuries later into the future time of Shokaract's empire. The story focused on the birth of the hybrid Maximal Windrazor, who was created from the merged sparks of a dying Predacon cub and an aged Maximal veteran. Upon his creation, he provides the united Maximal/Predacon rebels with information on Shokaract's plans (as Windrazor's Predacon half had been an up-and-coming Herald) and goes to defeat Shokaract's other Herald, Cataclysm, who was set to travel back in time to continue Antagony's failed mission and locate something called the Dark Essence. Windrazor himself ends up flung to the past, arriving on ancient Earth near to the end of the Beast Wars. Back in the future, the Predacon resistance leader Sandstorm prepares to embark to a mysterious region of Cybertron known as J'nwan to seek help from the "Legends" who live there, while the Covenant continue searching through history for the temporal event, with one of their number now missing.

Chapter three, "Paradox" continues the three plot threads of "Schism" as well as touched upon a fourth: At a point following Megatron's takeover of Cybertron, a lone Predacon Hunter happens upon a cave in which he is drawn to a pit containing an evil presence that promises him great power. Back in the future, the Covenant determine Windrazor's time jump to the past to be the prelude of the event they seek, while Sandstorm's journey to J'nwan proves most rigorous as he struggles to overcome the treacherous, reality-warping nature of the area. After finally reaching J'nwan, his pleas for the Legends' help are unfortunately met with rejection. Back in the past, Windrazor searches for the Dark Essence in hopes that it may lead to his return to his home time. Once he finds it, however, he is attacked by Megatron, who had detected Windrazor's arrival. Megatron sees the Dark Essence and correctly identifies it as the lifeforce of Unicron, having been displaced from his destruction in 2005 via a rift in space-time. The Dark Essence possesses Windrazor and attacks friends and foes alike, before Windrazor's two inner halves unite to expel Unicron from their shared body. Before Windrazor can answer any questions, a portal opens up and Shokaract himself appears.

Cover to "Terminus", the finale of Omega Point

After the cliffhanger ending of the third chapter, the storyline was finally concluded a year later in a comic book released at BotCon 2000, which also contained illustrated recaps of all the preceding stories and an illustrated reprint of "Herald". The conclusion, titled "Terminus" wrapped up nearly every major plot thread from before, culminating in a final showdown--Point Omega itself--with Shokaract and the united forces of Optimus Primal, Windrazor, the Covenant, Sandstorm (revealed to be the Covenant's missing member), and more. Among their number is also a mysterious newcomer named Apelinq, a displaced Maximal who is revealed to have also been the shadowy figure who took the artifact back in "Visitations", and whose presence here also served as foreshadowing for the next big storyline to come after Omega Point. In the end, the Dark Essence is sent back into the timestream and Shokaract is destroyed.

Supplementary material

Outside of the primary venues for fiction, additional content for the storyline was produced both online and on the toys' packaging. While the convention-exclusive toys each received a bio that tied each character directly into the events of Omega Point, each of them (plus Cataclysm) also later received extended profiles that were originally posted on the (now defunct) BotCon: Beyond website, which were later moved to BotCon Online. Chief among these were those written for Shokaract, which revealed both himself and the Dark Essence, respectively, to have been the lone Hunter and the evil presence featured in the the opening scene of "Paradox", and that, after acquring the Dark Essence, Shokaract fashioned a housing to contain its power in the form of the Matrix of Conquest.

Furthermore, both Antagony and Sandstorm featured exclusive prose on their individual toys' packaging: Antagony's featured both a character roster and a brief summary of "Visitations", while Sandstorm's featured a Predacon War Journal that revealed how he had first learned of J'nwan's existence from an informat who nearly got him caught by Shokaract's sentries. And finally, a second, shortened version of "Herald" was created and first released on BotCon: Beyond, most likely written as a recap meant for inclusion in the BotCon 2000 comic book, but which instead featured the original full-length version.

Addendum and Aftermath

In the months leading up to BotCon 2001, an online series of short prose stories was released on BotCon: Beyond website as part of a weekly build up to that convention's new stories. Titled "Apelinq's War Journals", this series explored Apelinq's personal history in a pre-Beast Machines Cybertron setting. The final six of these War Journals, however, touched upon a few unresolved plot points from Omega Point by having Apelinq flung to the past in a transwarp accident, arriving on Earth right in the middle of the Beast Wars, to witness events that led up to Point Omega. It was during this time that Apelinq snatched up the artifact during the events of "Visitations", with said artifact revealed here to actually be one of Apelinq's personal belongings. Apelinq continued to observe the events of Beast Wars from afar, with his final three journal entries coming full circle with his previous appearance in "Terminus", placing him right at the start of Point Omega.

Following this, the next BotCon storyline, The Wreckers, wrapped up a few more loose ends from Omega Point. The first chapter, "Departure", saw Apelinq back on Cybertron during the second season events of Beast Machines, where he reveals to Optimus Primal (who had lost all memory of Point Omega) the outcomes of the battle. Shokaract and his dark future had both been erased from all time, and every time-displaced survivor of the battle (minus Primal himself) had escaped back to their respective eras via time portals. Windrazor, however, seemingly vanish at first, but whose true fate would later be revealed by the 2007 prose story "Wreckers: Finale Part II", published by Fun Publications. Rather than having been erased along with his home time, his life was saved and preserved by Primus to let him serve as a spirit guide for those in need.

Creative team

Simon Furman, author of the storyline's main chapters

"Visitations" was written by Beast Wars writer and editor Bob Forward, with acting performances provided by Garry Chalk, Scott McNeil, Doug Parker, Susan Blu, and David Kaye, with cameo appearances from Larry DiTillio and Ben Yee.

"Herald" (both versions), "Covenant", "Schism", "Paradox", "Terminus", and all of the BotCon 2000 recaps were written by acclaimed Transformers comic scribe Simon Furman, who had previously made his grand return to Transformers comics in his authoring the BotCon 1997 comic "Ground Zero". Glen Hallit of 3H Enterprises oversaw Furman's scripting of the prose stories and co-wrote "Terminus" with him.

Several fan-favorite British artists from the Marvel Comics days also made their return to Transformers in illustrating the BotCon 2000 comic. The normal convention cover featured computer-generated cover art and effects by Andrew Wildman (who has also previously made his return in illustrating "Ground Zero"), while a dinner variant cover was drawn by Geoff Senior. The illustrations included in the comic's four recaps and "Herald" reprint were done by Lee Sullivan. "Terminus" itself was penciled and inked by Senior, with lettering done by Richard Starkings and Comicraft (both having also previously lettered "Ground Zero").

"Apelinq's War Journals" was written for BotCon: Beyond by 3H member Rob Gerbracht, who also provided additional text and editing for the BotCon 2001 "Departure" comic written by Glen Hallit. Then-newcomer artist Dan Khanna illustrated "Departure", including the two pages that revealed the aftermath of Point Omega. He and Jon Hartman were also editors for the comic alongside Gerbracht. The main cover art for "Departure" was produced by Mainframe Entertainment, while a variant release included with that year's exclusive Tigatron toy feature different cover art by Khanna.

Artwork for the related toy bios and online profiles were provided by Andrew Wildman (Antagony, Vice Grip) and Mainframe Entertainment (Windrazor, Sandstorm, Shokaract, Apelinq).

Continuity

Though "Ground Zero" was the first story produced by 3H, it was Reaching this Omega Point that really attempted to built up and flesh out the universe of the 3H Beast Era, creating its own lore and laying the groundwork for further storylines to come.

While the Beast Wars cartoon alluded to, in the style of Arthurian legend, a Generation 1-based history that was a like a mixture of elements taken from both the cartoon and the Marvel Comics, it (and later Beast Machines) tended to borrow more elements from the G1 cartoon than from the G1 comics. However, Omega Point instead chooses to lean towards a more comic-based history, alluding to elements and events that more overtly stemmed from G1 comics, as well as the events of The Transformers: The Movie.

Author Simon Furman once stated at BotCon Europe 1999 that these stories were the first time that he attempted to weave together the histories of the G1 comics and cartoon together into one timeline, but would later state in a Transforce 2000 magazine interview that, at the time, he considered both the Omega Point storyline and the Beast Wars cartoon (but NOT the Beast Machines cartoon) to be specifically part of the comics universe, preferring to view Omega Point as his own post-Beast Wars storyline while disregarding Beast Machines altogether.

Additionally, at the time Furman was writing Omega Point for BotCon, he also wrote two other stories for the unofficial Transforce conventions: 2000's "The Last Days of Optimus Prime" and 2001/2002's "Alignment". Both of these served as extensions of the Marvel Comics continuity in Furman's eyes, much like Omega Point, and also contained certain elements that Furman tied in with Omega Point. "Last Days" both confirmed the Veteran's identity as the Dinobot Swoop and revisited J'nwan as a quasi-afterlife residence for the Generation 1 Autobots and Decepticons. It also first declared The Generation 1 Optimus Prime and Megatron to be residents of J'nwan's, three months before such would be reiterated by "Terminus". "Alignment", meanwhile, reintroduced the Liege Maximo--a plot point left dangling from the final issue of the Marvel Generation 2 comics--whom both "Covenant" and "Schism" namedropped rather overtly, with "Schism" even stating the Veteran to have been familiar with the Liege Maximo; said familiarity was fully disclosed by the events of "Alignment".

However, while Furman definitely gave off the impression of building his own personal canon with all of these then-new stories he was writing at the time, his authorial intent would officially hold little weight in the end, with the very next BotCon storyline, The Wreckers, leaning towards a more G1 cartoon-based universe while simultaneously serving as a direct follow-up to the more Marvel comic-based Omega Point storyline. Thus, while Omega Point, "Last Days", and "Alignment" could be viewed as an extension of the comics universe on their own, the larger continuity of all the 3H fiction disregards that intent in favor of a more blended universe that--much like the Beast Wars cartoon itself--borrowed more evenly from both the cartoon and the comics, favoring neither over the other. And as Omega Point was the only one of these three Furman-penned convention stories to be officially published under Hasbro's license, the other two fall into the realm of pseudocanon at best (see their respective pages for more on their relation to the canon).

Consequently, any potential continuity errors with the original Marvel G1 comics found in Omega Point (or any 3H fiction) would no longer necessarily be continuity errors due to the 3H Beast Era ultimately inhabiting its own unique continuity that only directly ties to the two Beast Era cartoons while merely indirectly tying to the G1 comics and cartoon.

Fan reception

Reaching the Omega Point has, to put it bluntly, received rather polarizing reception from the fandom since its original release.

As the fandom of the time was mostly starving for new comic material (as there hadn’t been any new Transformers comics since the abrupt end of the Generation 2 comics in 1994), the storyline was initially well-received and hailed as Simon Furman's grand return to form. Many fans took a liking to the backstory of the Covenant and what it added to the lore at the time. The Terminator-esque far future setting ruled by Shokaract also provided a new era to explore that fascinated many. And, of course, the surprise return of Unicron in a Beast Wars story was a move that pulled readers even further into the story, with many eager to read the BotCon 2000 conclusion following the BotCon 1999 prose chapters.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, Omega Point has also been the subject of much criticism from the fandom. Aside from being confined to such a limited release venue that not every fan had access to (a critique that would become common to most BotCon and related fiction in years to come), one of the biggest points of contention was the sheer complexity of the story making it very difficult for many readers to follow, particularly with how "Schism" and "Paradox" constantly jump the story around from setting to setting, even scene per scene in the latter's case. The overall paradoxical nature of the storyline left several readers finding the whole storyline to be a highly convoluted and needlessly overcomplicated mess. What's more is how the storyline evidently tried to recreate the scale and overall feel of the Marvel Comics "Unicron Saga" that ran from Issue #60 to Issue #75, but condensed down to just a small amount of prose stories and one comic, lacking the substance and breathing room of the sixteen issues that the original Marvel storyline had.

Unhelpful to these matters is how the storyline has (or rather hasn't) aged over time, with many readers looking back on it years later with less reverence, recognizing it more clearly as the product of a time when Transformers fiction was much less bountiful and ubiquitous. The inclusion of Unicron is no longer looked on with awe and wonderment, but instead presents Omega Point, in many fans' eyes, as "just another Unicron story", due to the enormous amount of exposure that the Chaos Bringer eventually received in the subsequent years of the Unicron Trilogy, the Dreamwave comics, the Fun Publications fiction, and much more.

In the end, like many other pieces of the Transformers fiction, the saga of Reaching the Omega Point served its purpose at the time, but with the rapid expansion of more Transformers fiction that has come about in recent years, the storyline has since faded into the backgrounds of obscurity, residing mostly in a state of indifference and neutral unawareness within the fandom.

Legacy

The Covenant would pave the way for the conception of the Thirteen.

Despite having been overtaken by more mainstream fiction,Reaching the Omega Point would go on to influence other works in the years to come. Most importantly, the concept of the Covenant as a special group of "original Transformers" created by Primus would be reinvented for the development of the Thirteen, another creation of Simon Furman, in the early-to-mid 2000s.

Shokaract's role as a Predacon overlord empowered by Unicron's lifeforce would also resurface in 2007-2008, with Shokaract serving as the primary antagonist of Furman's Beast Wars comic mini-series The Ascending, albeit with the Dark Essence replaced by the similar substance of Angolmois from the Japanese-original Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo series. Though, the Matrix of Conquest of this series was instead named the "Anti-Matrix" (or the "Matrix of Chaos", as noted by Shokaract's Beast Wars Sourcebook profile). Furthermore, among Shokaract's five Heralds in the story was Antagony.

The year 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of BotCon, which saw the release of a special new "Pirates vs. Knights" storyline that paid tribute to Reaching the Omega Point. Set in the far future of the Wings Universe, on a post-Beast Machines Technorganic Cybertron, the convention's "Hoist the Flag" comic story saw the rise of that universe's version of Shokaract, known originally as just "the Hunter", with the comic's final pages depicting this Shokaract's acquisition of the Matrix of Conquest from Unicron.

Additional build-up material was also produced online ahead of the convention, a prose series titled "Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur", which was released as the first of a new line of Facebook-based fiction for the Transformers Collectors' Club. In this series, the Decepticon-turned-pirate Tornado chronicled the adventures held by the Star Seeker space pirates before their arrival at the future era Cybertron of the BotCon 2014 comic. During these narratives, Tornado would compose personal journal logs in a vein similar to "Apelinq's War Journals". To further the homage, there were points in Tornado's writings where he would happen upon personal journal entries written by the Wings Universe version of Apelinq himself, in which Apelinq described moments where he would have brief visions of the events of Point Omega, albeit events that he did not remember but cryptically felt as though he had experienced them first hand in another time, in another life...

Finally, the last piece of fiction to be majorly influenced by Omega Point was the final installment for the "Pirates vs. Knights" storyline: A 2015 pack-in comic made for the "BotCon Legacy Collection". Simply titled "Legacy", this one-page comic was told from the point of view from the newly-arisen Shokaract, who waxed poetic about his destiny to conquer Cybertron, at a point when the planet was completely unprepared for his coming.

External links

• Reaching the Omega Point storyline at the BotCon Online archives