Dawn of the Predacus

Prime Wars Trilogy « Combiner Wars » Toyline Retail Comic Convention Comic Cartoon Video game

« BotCon comic Combiner Wars
I've got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown...
"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 (see Notes)
Chronology	Circa 2035

At the end of an era, a huge fight ends in disaster for many of our heroes...

Synopsis

In the last days of the Great War, Blades hovers next to a big hole and reports to the Autobot High Council at the Nova Plenum with shocking news: Optimus Prime is dead.

Meanwhile, Cicadacon, Sea Clamp, and Ramhorn are in the middle of infodumping discussing the transmatter experiment they have been performing on Decepticons when Tarantulas rushes in to report that Galvatron is dead. The group are immediately contacted by Megatron, who delivers the same news, then ignores Cicadacon's orders to stand down, instead claiming that he and his troops have orders to keep fighting... which is an inconvenience to Cicadacon's group, who need a ceasefire so they can reformat as many living Autobots and Decepticons as possible into a new form!

Back at Nova Plenum, the Autobot High Council--now Optimus Prime's collective successor, the Primal Council--discuss next steps. Silverbolt advises caution and Ironhide demands immediate action, but Prowl insists that the Decepticons be given the chance to surrender. The last survivor of Perceptor's Unit-3 objects, wanting to avenge his teammates, but the like-minded Ironhide calms him down and offers him a part in a contingency plan, leaving Prowl and Silverbolt to ponder what Perceptor had found: signs of transwarp reactions. They send the Axalon to investigate...

At the former site of Omega Spaceport, Tigatron leads Unit-2 as a peace envoy, and are rewarded with an attack by Megatron's Decepticons, including the massive Predaking. Tigatron engages Megatron in swordplay while Airazor, beset by Waspinator and Terrorsaur, defeats them both handily, in particular throwing Waspinator under Predaking's foot. But then, while the Autobots are occupied with Predaking, Megatron and his soldiers escape... headed for the Primal Council.

Now, several things happen at once. Airazor insists that Tigatron hurry to the council, and he arrives shortly after Megatron's troops, and combines with Ironhide, Silverbolt, Prowl, and Unit-3 into Magnaboss. Meanwhile in orbit, the Axalon has found the location of the transwarp signature: Unicron's head, where Cicadacon's group has finished their transmatter bomb. The Axalon partially deflects the blast with its shields, but streaks of light still rain down onto Cybertron, causing combatants to "melt" into protoforms. Cicadacon's group arrives at the former Omega Spaceport and combines to form Predacus, who kills Predaking with his own sword.

As Magnaboss and Megatron stare at the transmatter bomb's victims in confusion, Tarantulas arrives to blame the effect on a supposed doomsday device left behind by Galvatron, and falsely presents Predaking's death as suicide committed out of guilt. Megatron's attempt to press on anyway is cut short when he is shot down by Ravage, and Cicadacon ends the Great War with the Decepticons' surrender.

With the war over, the Autobots and Decepticons agree to set aside those factions in favor of Maximals and Predacons, the latter named in honor of Predaking. Those turned into protoforms by the transmatter bomb, Airazor among them, are placed in life support pods, to hopefully be reconstituted at a later date. Ravage and Tarantulas are granted amnesty because they "took great risks for peace," and laugh all the way to the proverbial bank, while those who can be connected directly to the worst atrocities are punished.

And Cicadacon begins work on his next project...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots / Maximals	Decepticons / Predacons	Others
Blades (1) Prowl (2) Silverbolt (3) Ironhide (4) Tigatron (13) Hot Spot (14) Lio Convoy (15) Big Convoy (16) Unit-3 (17) "Rattrap" (18) Optimus Primal (19) Fourth Axalon crew member (20) "Rhinox" (21) Airazor (23) Mainframe (28) Razorbeast (29) Magnaboss (35) Inferno (37) Air Hammer (39) White Propionica (40) Grimlock (42)	Cicadacon (5) Sea Clamp (6) Decepticon experiments (7/8) Ramhorn (9) Tarantulas (10) Megatron (11) Retrax (12) "Scorponok" (22) Predaking (24) Waspinator (25) Terrorsaur (26) Buzz Saw (29) Drill Bit (31) Manta Ray (32) Beetle (33) Snapper (34) Predacus (36) Ravage (38) "Dinobot" (41) Magmatron (43)	Unicron's head (30)

Quotes

"He was a smart old son of a glitch, wasn't he?
"That he was."
"And he had quite the mouth on him, right?"
"That he did."

—Prowl and Silverbolt eulogize Perceptor

"Our world is deeply scarred. Its surface runs black with the blood of our fallen brothers. It need not continue. No more need perish, no more need be lost."

-Tigatron

"... I fought Megatron. He killed me. And I came back. What makes you think you can frighten me, you cheap, third-rate knock-off?!"

—Ironhide threatens Megatron

Notes

• We're going to remind you now that the Beast Wars cartoon did not establish a definitive in-universe history for itself, merely making it highly plausible that events closely resembling (but not precisely matching) the original cartoon and/or the Marvel comic happened offscreen. While "Dawn of the Predacus" is likewise light on details about the precise details of the Great War, the author notes that this story takes place thirty years after The Transformers: The Movie, pushing it closer towards the ever-popular "Generation 1 cartoon as background" route that most other Beast Wars tie-ins have utilized.
• This book was produced by IDW Publishing instead of Fun Publications. As such, it was promoted as being in continuity with IDW's other Beast Wars books as well as Fun Publications' "Dawn of Future's Past" - although it doesn't slot in perfectly into that chronology either (see "Continuity errors" below).
• Several background characters were initially going to be pre-existing characters, only for the author to change his mind about including them. Among these was Cheetor, whose appearance on the Axalon was deliberately modified because it was decided he wouldn't be part of the crew quite yet. Another generic is noticeably based off of Terradive from the live-action movie franchise.
• Before it was given to IDW, Jim Sorenson was asked to write a pitch for this as a Beast Wars: Uprising story. It would have involved "the ghost of Prowl (Prowl II maybe)" working to create Magnaboss as a Builder weapon. In the end, the Tripredacus Council would have to stop its rampage by forming Predacus.

Continuity notes

• Ironhide references having been killed by Generation 1 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. However, see Continuity errors below.
• 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. However, see Continuity errors below.
• The death of Optimus Prime in the final battle of the Great War was alluded to in "The Search".
• The presence of Lio Convoy and Big Convoy on the Primal Council is thematically appropriate given their later roles in The Gathering and The Ascending.
• Unicron's head is still in orbit of Cybertron following the events of The Transformers: The Movie.
• The destruction of Unicron's head explains its absence by the time we see Cybertron in Beast Machines.
• Some trends that would be in evidence in the Beast Wars—Tarantulas's manipulation of Megatron, Waspinator's terrible luck—are seen here for the "first" time.
• Megatron is seen reading a Covenant of Primus shortly before announcing his name; Megatron taking his name from the Covenant was established in "Nemesis Part 2".
• Many of the characters are not wearing faction symbols. The author has stated that clear factions (especially on the Decepticon side) had fallen down after the events of "The Rebirth" and Autobots and Decepticons at the time of the story do not necessarily correspond to future Maximals and Predacons.
• Rattrap seems to give Optimus Primal his name here, as a mocking nickname in reference to his resemblance to Optimus Prime and their mission from the Primal Council. This isn't just a cute bit: on his tumblr, Bove stated that he'd found it a "contradiction" that Primal had Prime's face and name despite being low-ranked, and he wanted to make it "less of a stretch" by saying Rattrap stuck the guy with it.
• Dinobot is seen standing over Grimlock's stasis pod, implying that he got the idea for his Beast Wars name from the Autobot subgroup. This made even more apparent in the accompanying BotCon 2016 script reading "The Hot Rod", in which the yet-not named as such Dinobot was presented as an admirer of Grimlock.
• Tarantulas is already named "Tarantulas" 300 years before he ever gets a spidery beast mode. Surprisingly, that's technically not an error or dramatic conceit (at least not by Bove): in "The Agenda (Part 2)", Tarantulas is introduced by Ravage as "Lieutenant Tarantulas of the Predacon Secret Police", suggesting this may have always been his name, despite all reason.

Transformers references

• Magnaboss references the "such heroic nonsense" line from The Movie.
• The Swarm is mentioned.
• One of the Decepticons under Megatron's command very strongly resembles the 2010 Transformers toyline character Terradive.
• The universal greeting is referenced.
• Cicadacon laying down the Decepticon sigil echoes Optimus Prime's surrender in "Surrender!".
• Ramhorn mocks the inconsistent units of time used in the Generation 1 and Beast Wars cartoons.
• Optimus Primal tells the yet-unnamed Rattrap to shut his "trap."
• This would not be the last time Primal would have an encounter with Unicron's head.
• Plans for Magmatron's body and Ravage's transwarp cruiser are seen.
• Unnamed 'bots who resemble pre-beast forms of Air Hammer and Blackarachnia are seen walking around in the epilogue. Additionally, the accompanying BotCon 2016 script reading, "The Hot Rod", featured a pre-beast Blackarachnia named "White Propionica". It is likely safe to say that this is her.
• Tigatron's team is Unit-2. In "Dawn of Future's Past," Tigatron himself was known as Unit 2

Real-life references

• Ironhide refers to Megatron as a "knock-off."

Continuity errors

• The profile card for the "Dawn of Future's Past" version of Generation 1 Razorclaw says that after the defeat of the Decepticons in the Great War, he led the nascent Predacon faction against the Autobots until the Tripredacus Council seemingly assassinated him. In addition, Divebomb appears alive in "Dawn of Future's Past", and the profile card for "Dawn of Future's Past" Laserbeak says that Divebomb recruited Ravage to the Predacons. Here, however, Razorclaw's entire team is killed off by Predacus in the final battle of the Great War before any of that can happen.
• The profiles in "Dawn of Future's Past" for Optimus Primal and Megatron state that the Maximals defeated the Predacons in the "last" Great War; the Beast Wars Sourcebook established that there was another war between the Maximals and Predacons between the end of this comic and the start of Beast Wars. In that case, Megatron is now going to be a known warmonger but nobody brings it up or acts like he's a big noise in either "Dawn" or Beast Wars.
• Waspinator is already named "Waspinator" in his pre-beast mode and, unlike Tarantulas, it conflicts with his 2011 Hall of Fame bio that declared his pre-Earth name to be just "Wasp".

Contentious continuity

To put it very mildly, this story was quite controversial within the fandom—aside from the admittedly subjective "Beast Wars isn't supposed to be all about Generation 1" complaints, many fans perceived it as stomping all over the continuity it was supposed to fit into like, well, a combiner stomping on Waspinator. Some of these issues have their origins in plot points that author John-Paul Bove had in mind but either didn't have time for or didn't realize were unclear, which he has gone on to clarify on his Tumblr. Bove has stated that the story was originally meant to be part of a miniseries set after "The Rebirth", which would have expanded on the political scene following the end of the Great War and explained some of the developments behind beast mode technology. It's possible some or all of these points would have been clearer in that context, but...

• In the cartoon, characters treated the ancient Autobot-Decepticon war in the same way we discuss Arthurian legend - characters spoke reverently of their "ancestors" with the implicit acknowledgement that a great deal of time had passed between their heyday and the current state of affairs on modern Cybertron. Dawn of the Predacus made the controversial decision to depict Maximals and Predacons co-existing with their legendary "ancient ancestors", fighting alongside their respective progenitor factions in the twilight of the Great War. Bove tries to explain this by pointing out that most of them aren't seen to interact with any Autobots or Decepticons, but they're still shown to have existed in the same time frame as characters who were supposedly part of the distant past. Indeed, many major participants in the Beast Wars played very crucial roles during the war's end:
  • Beast Wars Megatron seizes a role of authority following Galvatron's demise, commanding Predaking and organizing the final charge against the Autobots. When the Autobots want to negotiate an end to the war, Tigatron and Airazor are sent to him. Bove would clarify that he hadn't intended that, and that Megatron isn't a big player yet but just a chancer with big ambitions.
  • Tigatron is an incredibly important Autobot, to the point that he's not only a seating member of the Primal Council, described by Prowl as being "respected by all sides for his desire for peace", but is also sent as an emissary to the Decepticons due to his widespread reputation. "Dawn of Future's Past", which takes place after this comic, depicts him as a low-ranking beat cop of no significant recognition or reputation, and nobody will recognize him when he takes on a beast mode after waking up on prehistoric Earth.
  • Airazor is a close associate of Tigatron's and ends up in a stasis pod, which makes the status quo of "Dawn of Future's Past" - where she's an unnamed mid-ranking pilot - difficult to extrapolate. Clearly, at some point Airazor was brought back, but without any of her memories (or possibly even her name, —despite it having been written on her pod)... and by all indications Tigatron doesn't recognize her when they meet up again in "Dawn of Future's Past". Which isn't impossible, but wow she has the worst luck.
  • While Bove has declared Optimus Primal to be an unimportant, low-ranking ship captain in this comic (as he was in the Beast Wars cartoon) Primal is shown here to have the authority to take possession of the new protoforms and assume the responsibility of caring for them. Who is he to do this if he's supposed to be this "nobody" that Bove claims him to be? Wouldn't it make more sense for an actual authority figure, like any of the Primal Council members, to do this, or to at least give Primal the authority to do this, instead?
• This story predates the Great Upgrade. There is no indication that any sort of downsizing has taken place yet, yet the Axalon is already in service, apparently scaled to the comparatively massive Autobots and Decepticons. Bove argues that ships and buildings were retrofitted to accommodate smaller inhabitants - although he does note that the Axalon, even taking an empty lower deck into account, would have been fairly cramped for a G1 crew. "Optimal Situation" has a cross section of the Axalon's bridge moved into the Ark, and we can see how big Optimal Optimus—who was larger than his fellow Maximals but much smaller than Optimus Prime - is in relation to the inside of the ship, which already housed a grand total of two levels of Maximal-sized decks. As Optimal Optimus is tall enough to span the height of the entire hull (which is why the cross-sectioning happened for out-of-universe reasons), that the ship could have once housed Generation 1-sized guys is essentially impossible, unless they were scooting around inside it on their butts within the space of a single deck spanning the entire volume of the ship's hull.
• Protoforming technology is implied to be the byproduct of a Decepticon bioweapon, with its victims placed into life support pods that, while identical to the stasis pods from the cartoon, aren't supposed to be the same devices. Optimus Primal takes possession of some of the protoforms, noting that he'll "do what he can" for the fallen Transformers inside. Taking the comic at its word, it sounds as though Primal is going to carry them around in the Axalon until the ship's infamous transwarp voyage, at which point they'll become the future Earth-born Maximals and Predacons. Bove later clarified that this sequence was meant to show the beginning of protoform technology; by the time of Beast Wars it would have evolved into the less disturbing concept we see presented on the show.
• One victim of transmatter is none other than Inferno, who's placed into a life-support pod (naturally) labeled "Inferno". Taking the aforementioned note into account, the comic seems to imply that he'll become Beast Wars Inferno - this wouldn't really be a continuity error, but it would be incredibly stupid. Bove stated at BotCon 2016 that this cameo was deliberately left open to the reader's interpretation; he hasn't ruled out Generation 1 Inferno's return if the story were to be continued. He later noted that some of the Axalon's pods would still contain ex-Autobots and Decepticons - this isn't an idea that started with him, as Grimlock made an appearance in The Gathering as one of the many characters aboard the Axalon.
• There appears to be a ship identical to Ravage's transwarp cruiser, which will be considered "experimental" 300 years later, flying around. Bove explained that it's just a similar design, similar to the various Enterprises.
• In "The Agenda (Part 1)", General Ram Horn pontificates that "ever since the Autobots defeated our Decepticon ancestors, we Predacons have worked secretly towards the day where we might rise up and take what is rightfully ours,". In this story, we learn that the Tripredacus Council WERE those Decepticon ancestors and that they defeated themselves... on purpose. Bove admits that he ignored that line in favour of the episode "Other Victories", where we learn from Tarantulas that the Council are not Decepticon descendants - and let's be honest, Beast Wars gave no craps about "Victories" clashing with Ram Horn's line.
• Rattrap really shouldn't be working with Optimus Primal yet. Bove defends this by saying nobody ever said how long they'd been serving together, but while nobody establishes a precise timeframe, "Beast Wars (Part 1)" makes it abundantly clear that Rattrap is new to Primal's command, unfamiliar with Primal on a personal level, and on top of that strongly suggests that Primal himself is new to command Making them former comrades 300 years earlier weakens the backbone of Rattrap's entire first-season character development, as it's grounded in him learning to know and trust Primal as a friend and commander. (Bove propses that Rattrap is learning to respect his commander as a military tactician rather than as a scientist, but this is an iffy workaround at best.) There's some wiggle room, but it's hard to argue that there are three centuries of it.
• The death of Predaking, a being composed of mammals and birds, is commemorated with... an insect face?

Although this comic is meant to be in continuity with IDW's Beast Wars comics, there are several points of conflict between this comic and those comics, particularly the Beast Wars Sourcebook:

• According to the Sourcebook, "Galvatron's eventual fate is the stuff of legend and conjecture." Yet, in this comic, his fate is anything but legend or conjecture - he died in battle. Case closed.
• The Sourcebook states that the Axalon was one of many space exploration vessels whose construction was commissioned by the Maximals in "the age of the Pax Cybertronia". Yet, it is seen here already built and in service (of the Autobots, even) during the end of the Great War prior to the signing of the Pax Cybertronia.
• The Sourcebook lays out the timeline of this continuity quite differently than what is seen in this comic. For one, the Sourcebook refers to a second conflict after the Great War that was also known as the "Great War", in which the Predacons tried to renew the "age-old" Autobot/Decepticon conflict between themselves and the Maximals at a point after the Great Upgrade. Furthermore, the Sourcebook states that the Pax Cybertronia was then signed after this second conflict had ended, making the timeline be "First Great War --> Great Upgrade (ages pass between the two wars) --> Second Great War --> Pax Cybertronia". This is all completely contradicted by this comic instead depicting the Pax Cybertronia as being signed on the same day as the end of the first Great War, thereby moving the Great Upgrade to come after the Pax Cybertronia's beginning, and seemingly preventing the second Great War from ever existing in this timeline, despite the Sourcebook saying otherwise.
• In the Sourcebook, the Pax Cybertronia was "signed and sealed by both the Predacon Alliance and the Maximal Imperium." While the members of the latter group did sign the document in this comic, they weren't members of the Maximal Imperium yet as neither of these groups exist yet in this comic's timeframe, as the Maximal and Predacon factions don't yet come about until after the treaty is signed.
• The Sourcebook strongly implies that the three members of the Tripredacus Council only rose to power after the Predacon Alliance was formed and after the signing of the Pax Cybertronia, yet here the three are already in power as high-ranking authority figures in the Decepticon faction during the Great War, and even personally sign the peace treaty with the Autobots.
• The Sourcebook states that Magnaboss was created in response to the introduction of Tripredacus. In this story, Tripredacus does not appear to exist, and Magnaboss's components do not even appear to be aware of Predacus's existence.

Other notes

• An early plan was to have Optimus on the Primal Council as Head of Science but that was dropped as "making him too prominent".
• Unit-3 is asked to "fill some big shoes" and later becomes a leg (and foot) for Magnaboss. Ahaha. Haha. Ha.
• This was originally planned as a miniseries. Cut bits would include:
  • An explicit canonization of the fan theory that Pretender and Micromaster tech had been the starting point for the Beasties (half of this longstanding theory appeared in 2013 in Beast Wars Shattered Glass).
  • The Golden Age, as established in "The Rebirth, Part 3", had indeed happened with just pockets of Decepticon rebellion but Galvatron blew it all up. It would've been more clearly established that there were many fighters who weren't in either main faction but were allied to them (Bove comparing this to how in the Second World War, there were multiple countries, groups, and sympathizers attached to the Allies and Axis).
  • There would have been material on "the status of a number of Autobots before DotP and the some of the Cold War events after to properly begin to fill in some of the picture of a post-war world."

Covers

• BotCon Attendee Edition:
• BotCon Vendor Edition:
• Diamond Edition: