Dawn of Future's Past

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"Dawn of Future's Past"
Publisher	Fun Publications
First published	September 28, 2006 (BotCon 2006)
Cover date	Fall '06
Story	Pete Sinclair
Story consultants	Bob Forward and Benson Yee
Writers	Forest Lee, Pete Sinclair
Pencils	Dan Khanna, Alex Milne, and Marcelo Matere
Inks	Jake Isenberg and Terry Pallot
Color	Drew Eiden, Josh Perez, and Thomas Deer
Letters	Junemoon Studio
Continuity	Beast Wars cartoon continuity

A rogue Predacon steals a Maximal relic. A group of Maximal explorers must pursue.

Synopsis

Unit 1 and Unit 2 speed to intercept Megatron, who is in the process of stealing the Golden Disk. Unit 1 is incapacitated. After a disagreement with one of his troops about honor, Megatron and his forces retreat with their prize.

In the shadows of Cybertropolis, a mysterious figure orders Buzzsaw and Laserbeak to assist Megatron secretly in his escape. Meanwhile, Megatron's troops have succeeded in heisting a ship, the Darksyde. This forces Unit 2 to commandeer his own, the Chromia 10, although her pilot insists on doing the flying.

Inside the Maximal Defense Command Center, three Maximals meet to discuss the situation. After a briefing, they decide to send the Axalon after Megatron. On a space station, one of the Axalon's crew complains to another about delays. Yet another scolds them. Optimus Primal sees to his cargo.

After the Axalon departs, she receives her mission to stop Megatron. Just then, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw attack in their ship. The Chromia 10 arrives to help, but both of these ships are destroyed. Unit 2 and the pilot, however, are brought aboard the Axalon by remote spark core transfer.

A crew member of the Darksyde secretly transmits data from the Golden Disk to an unseen recipient. As the Axalon closes in, Megatron again flogs his honor-bound subordinate before greeting the Maximals with an array of ammunition. The Darksyde escapes into a transwarp portal, followed closely by the Axalon. To be continued!

Much later, after Megatron's techo-superiority reign, Razorclaw vows that the Predacons will defeat the Maximals.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Unit 1 (1) Unit 2 (2) Chromia 10 pilot (10) Maximal Command Security Force officers (11) "Cheetor" (12) Optimus Primal (13) "Rattrap" (14) "Rhinox" (15)	"Dinobot" (3) Megatron (4) "Scorponok" (5) Divebomb (6) Laserbeak (7) Buzzsaw (8) Ravage (9) "Tarantulas" (16) Cicadacon (17) "Terrorsaur" (18) "Waspinator" (19) Headstrong (20) Rampage (21) Razorclaw (22) Tantrum (23)

Notes

• The mass-retail release of this comic featured several pages of bonus material: some sketches by Marcelo Matere, and profiles for Optimus, Megatron, Cheetor, and the Maximal Command Security Force.

Errors

• Early in the comic, it is established Terrorsaur gave the Darksyde its name. Divebomb is seen referring to the ship by that name too not much later, despite that he can not know it.

Transformers references

• Rattrap calls Rhinox a "rhinoceros". In "Beast Wars (Part 1)", he calls Rhinox a "bulldozer".

• On the space station, Rhinox and a group of armed guards can be seen loading Protoform X's stasis pod onto the Axalon.

• One of the Maximals in the Defense Command Center has the head of Armada Blurr.

• Cicadacon can be seen in the reflection on Tarantulas's head.

• The Timelines Megatron toy is a redeco/retool of Cybertron Red Alert, but here it is revealed that that body is actually a suit of armor, accounting for why the BotCon toy looks different from the pre-beast Megatron seen in "Beast Wars (Part 1)". This could also explain why Megatron's Tail Weapon was removable.

• Razorclaw's appearance is based on the Leobreaker toy with a new head. He also sports a new Predacon symbol. The Transformers standing behind Razorclaw seem to be based on Transmetal 2 Cheetor, Longhorn, and Backstop, though artist Dan Khanna says these resemblances were not intentional. This scene was said by Pete Sinclair to take place 50–100 years after Beast Machines. He also stated that the original Rampage, Tantrum, and Headstrong died at the end of the Great War, and the guys standing behind Razorclaw are their descendants.

• Waspinator wants to call the ship Buzzer-Bot.

Covers

• BotCon Edition: Pre-beast mode Maximals versus Predacons; art by Joe Ng.
• Shout! Factory DVD Edition: The Maximals have Megatron surrounded; by Makoto Ono.

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Trivia

• The title is similar to Marvel's "Days of Future Past".
• The comic was re-released in 2011 as part of the Shout! Factory Beast Wars online exclusive complete series box set. The comic itself measures a measly 4.75" x 7.125".