Dawn of the Predacus

« Transformers Timelines #12 Combiner Wars
"Dawn of the Predacus"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 7, 2016 (BotCon 2016)
Writers	John-Paul Bove
Art	Corin Howell
Colors	John-Paul Bove
Color assists	Ed Pirrie
Letters	Chris Mowry
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	IDW Beast Wars continuity Ha ha ha ha ha ha what continuity?

Every Maximal and Predacon you know was actually an Autobot or Decepticon who fought in the Great War. Uh...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots / Maximals	Decepticons / Predacons	Others
Blades (1) Prowl (2) Silverbolt (3) Ironhide (4) Tigatron (13) Third Autobot High Councilmember (14) Lio Convoy (15) Big Convoy (16) Unit-3 (17) Rattrap (18) Optimus Primal (19) Depth Charge(?) (20) Rhinox (21) Airazor (22) Mainframe (26) Razorbeast (27) Magnaboss (32) Inferno (34) Air Hammer (35) Blackarachnia (36) Grimlock (38)	Cicadacon (5) Sea Clamp (6) Decepticon experiments (7/8) Ramhorn (9) Tarantulas (10) Megatron (11) Retrax (12) Predaking (23) Waspinator (24) Terrorsaur (25) Drill Bit (29) Manta Ray (30) Buzz Saw (31) Predacus (33) Dinobot (37) Magmatron (39)	Unicron (28)

Notes

• According to the author, this story takes place circa 2035, 30 years after The Transformers: The Movie and 300 years before Beast Wars. It also precedes "Dawn of Future's Past".

Continuity notes

• Ironhide references having been killed by a Megatron before.
• The profile card for Optimus Primal's BotCon 2006 toy stated that he was a veteran of the last Great War which resulted in the defeat of the Predacons.
• The profile card for Razorclaw's BotCon 2009 toy (tying into his appearance in "Dawn of Future's Past") stated that he was doublecrossed and assassinated by the Tripredacus Council.

Transformers references

• Magnaboss references the "such heroic nonsense" line from the movie.
• The Swarm is mentioned.

What the friggin' frick

• Three hundred years ago, Optimus Primal, Rhinox, and Rattrap (in their "Dawn of Future's Past" bodies) are flying around in the Axalon. Let's break this down:
  • Rattrap shouldn't know Primal yet. It's pretty clear, starting in "Beast Wars (Part 1)", that Rattrap is someone who is new to Optimus Primal's command, and also that Optimus Primal himself is new to command.
  • Rattrap seems to name Optimus Primal within a scene in this book. Because of how his face looks kinda like that of Optimus Prime.
  • As this story predates the existence of Maximals and Predacons, and there is no indication that any sort of downsizing has taken place yet, apparently in the past the Axalon was scaled to Generation 1-sized Transformers and... eventually shrunk after the war ended...? According to the author during BotCon, there was just "less room" on the Axalon during that scene.
• That's right, nearly every Maximal and Predacon from the cartoon, plus some who didn't appear in the cartoon, all existed concurrently with the Autobots and Decepticons of old, including several major Generation 1 characters, even! It's pretty weird that these characters would go on to regard their peers as not only their ancestors but as enigmatic legends, while dismissing them as "energon guzzlers" due to their relative size.
• Compounding this, nearly everyone who eventually ended up in the Beast Wars was present at the end of the Great War, with some playing rather prominent roles during the war's end:
  • Beast Wars Megatron seizes a role of authority following Galvatron's demise, bossing Predaking around.
  • Tigatron and Airazor are incredibly important Autobots, to the point that Prowl says that Tigatron is "respected by all sides for his desire for peace," sending him as an emissary to the Decepticons due to his widespread reputation. Apparently nobody recognized this critical historical figure when he was reborn later on Earth.
• Protoforms are no longer new members of Optimus Primal's exploration team in stasis for the journey to other planets. Stasis pods are now life support vessels for Autobots and Decepticons who were critically damaged by transmatter the Tripredacus Council members weaponized from Unicron, with "protoform" now describing a quantum state of being suspended between dimensions and realities. Optimus Primal takes possession of some of these stasis pods, stating that he'll "do what we can for them," implying that he'll carry these guys around in his ship for the following 300 years.
  • This also indicates that all the Decepticons who got protoformed were somehow converted to Maximals, since show-Predacons are Maximal protoforms with a Predacon shell program installed.
  • Also, this apparently means the blank, sparkless protoforms the Axalon carried are basically corpses, we guess? Which means that in season two of the show and beyond, Optimus Primal is wearing someone's skin!
• Airazor is in one of these stasis pods (labeled "Airazor") and Tigatron is not, which makes the events of "Dawn of Future's Past" pretty implausible.
• It is implied that Generation 1 Inferno becomes Beast Wars Inferno. He is hit by transmatter and loaded up onto the Axalon in a stasis pod labeled "Inferno." However, the author stated at BotCon 2016 that this is not necessarily a fact as it was delierately left open to be ignored to reader interpretation.
• Speaking of labeled pods, the pods in the show weren't labeled with who was inside them, aside from the obvious exception of Protoform X... who is mysteriously absent from the manifest.
• Pre-beast forms of Air Hammer and Blackarachnia are seen walking around.
  • This is awful.
• The death of Predaking, a being composed of black, yellow, and red mammals and birds, is commemorated with... a purple insect face?
  • Wouldn't be the least weird thing about Predaking death if we add that bit with him and the organic brain.

Other trivia

• This book was produced by IDW Publishing instead of Fun Publications.

Covers

• BotCon Edition:
• Diamond Edition: