Dawn of the Predacus

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It is being brought.
It is being brought.
Oh, he's doin' somethin'...

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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. Supposedly.
Chronology Circa 2035

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

Synopsis

In the final days of the Great War, Prowl, Silverbolt, and Ironhide watch Blades' live feed of the last major battle, a massive hole in place of the city that was once there. Prowl, horrified by the images he receives, asks Blades if he has a status update on Optimus Prime. The news isn't good: Prime is dead once more. The dour Autobots are silent for a moment, and Prowl confirms to Blades he's received his report.

Elsewhere, in a secret base, three high-ranking Decepticons-Cicadacon, Sea Clamp, and Ram Horn, have been experimenting with transmatter, a material that fluctuates between reality, derived from the Swarm. Having successfully evolved themselves with it in conjunction with the reformatting technology they've found in their secret base, the three have begun trying to evolve other Decepticons. Cicadacon breaks up an argument over between his fellow generals, reminding them that their "host" reacts negatively to anger. Their conversation is cut short anyway, when Tarantulas arrives with news: Galvatron is dead! The generals, nonplussed at their "beloved" leader's death, check in with the young Decepticon Megatron, the namesake of Galvatron's former self. Megatron is eager to take the advantage with Prime dead, but the generals order him to stand down, with more pressing concerns ahead. Megatron ends the transmissions...and tells his troops to fight until there are no more Autobots. The generals return to their experiment, and one Decepticon has been successfully reformatted! The generals explain to their new brother their plan: using transmatter, they will restore the Cybertronian race to their truest form, long lost over the successive generations of Transformers. The process, however, will not work on the dead, and they'll need both Autobots and Decepticons for their plan to be successful. Not trusting Megatron, the generals send Tarantulas to make sure a ceasefire comes to pass.

At Nova Plenum, the highest ranking Autobots confer. With Prime dead, Prowl is the highest ranking Autobot...but he feels unworthy to lead. Instead, he proposes the Autobots form a Primal Council, each of them leading the Autobots together. Silverbolt and Ironhide debate on what to do now; Silverbolt feels that they need time to recover, but Ironhide feels like going after the Decepticons now that they're down. Prowl suggests a compromise; with Galvatron dead, the Decepticons will be directionless, and so, he suggests that each Decepticon unit be reached out to for a chance to stand down. The others agree, but note that they'll need to send out updates to everyone. Silverbolt informs them that he's contacted most of them, but still hasn't reached Perceptor, who was leading Unit-3. Just then, an Autobot enters, informing them that Perceptor and the other members of Unit-3 are dead; now, he is Unit-3. Unit-3 demands to hunt down the Decepticons, but Prowl has already made up his mind; he has sent Tigatron out with Unit-2, hoping that Tigatron's respectability will aid in a ceasefire. Ironhide strikes up a conversation with the angry Autobot, impressed by his bearings, and asks Unit-3 if he wants to take Perceptor's place in their contingency plan. Prowl and Perceptor go over Unit-3's report, noting that Perceptor detected readings of transwarp energy, which they suspect is linked to the Decepticons. Silverbolt consoles Prowl, distraught over all the death, assuring him that they will finish what the others started. They send the exploration ship, the Axalon, to investigate the strange readings. The ship's captain, Optimus Primal, explains that they've been chosen, although one of his crew members, pessimistic as ever, figures they've only been sent because there was no one else available.

At Omega Spaceport, one of Megatron's soldiers alerts him to the approaching Autobot, but Megatron simply tells him to let them come. Tigatron, leading Unit-2, lets the Decepticons know of the Autobots offer of peace, putting and end to the war. But Megatron has already made up his mind-and his holding base falls apart as the Predacon combiner, Predaking, emerges, along with Megatron's other Decepticons! Predaking quickly tears through many of the Autobot; Tigatron takes on Megatron, believing him a fool for continuing the madness, Meanwhile, the flying Autobot Airazor takes on Terrorsaur and Waspinator, though the latter, unlucky as always, is accidentally crushed underneath Predaking's foot. Megatron pontificates, believing that even if Cybertron is razed, the Transformers will rebuild it to be better-and do so to other worlds as well. Predaking interrupts his speech when he grabs Tigatron, however, and, knowing that he cannot allow the Autobots to rally behind a new leader, heads off with his troops, telling Predaking to finish off the Autobots. Airazor saves Tigatron from Predaking's grasp, but, knowing that the Decepticons are headed for the Primal Council, tells Tigatron to go help the others. Tigatron is reluctant at first, but Airazor insists, knowing that he is important to the contingency plan. Tigatron promises her that he will see her again and heads off, Airazor watching sadly as he goes.

Out in space, the Axalon nears closer to the source of the transwarp signals. Unfortunately, the signals are coming not from Cybertron...but from the disembodied head of Unicron! The generals realized their secret base has been located, but are unconcerned; Unicron is too drained of energon to react, and the transmatter bomb is prepped to go off in 20 cycles. Cicadacon, pleased that everything is going to plan, quotes a passage from the Covenant of Primus, declaring that the last generation will become the first. Back on the Axalon, the ship's science officer detects a build up of energy, unsure of its source. Ships are detected evacuating Unicron's head, and Primal, realizing what's about to happen, orders the ship's shields up, as the transmatter bomb explodes, destroying Unicron's head. Tarantulas declares their plan ruined, as the shields of the Axalon have altered the trajectory of the bomb's fallout, preventing it from reaching most of Cybertron. Cicadacon simply states that it'll only take a bit longer than they had planned for. And Predaking, with Airazor grasped in his hands, watches as the transmatter falls to Cybertron...

In Nova Plenum, Megatron and his soldiers break through the Primal Council's tower. Megatron lets his name be heard...but he is confronted by an unafraid Ironhide, who has faced the "real" Megatron, and roughs up the Decepticon. Megatron quickly regains his bearings, however, and knocks the Autobot back. He, Silverbolt, Prowl, and Unit-3 are quickly surrounded by the Decepticons...but the Autobots reveal they've planned for this! As Tigatron arrives, the five activate their contingency plan-and combine into Magnaboss! Knocking Megatron back, the Decepticon orders his troops to hold Magnaboss off until Predaking can arrive. Meanwhile, Predaking watches as both Autobots and Decepticons are affected by the transmatter bomb, including Airazor, becoming featureless liquid-metal robots. As the generals arrive, Predaking inquires them into what's happening to them. Cicadacon simply explains that they're heading towards "greatness", evolving into "protoforms." Predaking is confused, and Cicadacon merges with his fellow generals, Tarantulas, and Ravage into a combiner of their own, Predacus! Predacus apologizes to Predaking, wanting him to be remade too...but all good peacetimes need a martyr, and so Predacus knocks Predaking back, stabbing and killing him.

The bombs begin to reach Nova Plenum, causing much distress amongst both sides. As Magnaboss finds Airazor, Tarantulas rushes to Megatron. Tarantulas lies to his leader, claiming that the transmatter was part of a "doomsday device" created by Galvatron in the event of his death, and that when Predaking learned of this, the shameful combiner took his own life. Megatron doesn't believe Tarantulas, however, and pushes forward to take out the Autobots while he still can. Tarantulas radios Ravage that Megatron hasn't fallen for the bait, and so, Ravage snipes Megatron with a stun blast. Cicadacon steps forth, addressing the Autobots, declaring that the Decepticons have surrendered.

In the following days, the Autobot and Decepticon leaders meet together to discuss peace, signing the Pax Cybertronia. Prowl declares that the Autobots and Decepticons are no more, those being the names of warriors. The Autobots become Maximals, while the Decepticons, using the example of Predaking, become the Predacons. Though they are not yet one race, in time, they will forge forth a new path as Cybertronians. Optimus Primal takes up guardianship of the transmatter victims on the Axalon, promising to do what they can for them. Many come to visit their fallen friends; a heartbrokern Tigatron watches over Airazor, a grim Prowl over Inferno, and a young, respectful Predacon over Grimlock. Those who have worked hard for peace on either side, like Ravage and Tarantulas, are given amnesty, while those who have prolonged the war, like Megatron, will be imprisoned and downgraded. Elsewhere, on Predacon Command Outpost One, the generals, now the Tripredacus Council, look over their continued experiments into weaponizing protoform technology. As he listens to his scientists' reports, Cicadacon smiles, looking over their plans for new ships and warriors, preparing to make all one...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots / Maximals Decepticons / Predacons Others

Quotes

Blades: —ime is dead. I rekkkkrr— —Optimus Prime is dead.
Silverbolt: No...
Ironhide: RAGH! (punches wall)
Blades:—zzt—Do you copy? Kkkkkrt—
Prowl: Yes...we copy...

—The Autobots react to Optimus Prime's death.


Tarantulas: Generals! Galvatron is dead!
Ram Horn: Oh... How awful.
Cicadacon: Mmm.

—The Decepticons react to Galvatron's death.


"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


Terrorsaur: You're mine!
Waspinator: Wing-lady not stop Waspinator!
Airazor: Firstly, I belong to no one. Secondly, talking in the third person is not a healthy thing. You should look into doing something about that. Third—
Waspinator: Eep. (gets stepped on by Predaking)
Airazor: —Never mind.

—Thus began Waspinator's memorable career.


"You're right, of course, it is the end. The end of your insipid red badges and your pointless nobility. The old ways! So what if our cities fall down? We will build better ones. We will go to other worlds and we will build over theirs. Accept your fate. Before the end of this day, your line, your entire pathetic race will be—"
(Predaking grabs Tigatron.)
"ARRRGH!"
"—I... I wasn't finished and I do so enjoy a speech... Never mind."

—Megatron's speech to Tigatron is interrupted.


"... 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

Continuity notes

  • Bove notes this story takes place some time after "The Rebirth", the three part finale of the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, with Optimus Prime and Galvatron in command of the Decepticons, respectively. Notably, Fortress Maximus is mentioned as one of the many fallen Autobots.
  • Optimus Prime was claimed to fallen in the "final battle" between Autobots and Decepticons in the Beast Machines episode, "Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search".
  • Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt begin here their transformation to their Maximal selves, with them being shown to be in charge of the Maximals in both The Ascending and the Beast Wars Sourcebook, the latter of which explicitly retconned the Beast Wars toys who formed Magnaboss into being the same characters as their Generation 1 namesakes.
  • Unicron's head is shown orbiting Cybertron, having fallen into the planet's orbit after his destruction in The Transformers: The Movie However, see "continuity errors" below.
  • Part of the transmatter evolution process uses the reformatting technology of Unicron, seen most prominently in The Transformers: The Movie
  • 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.
  • 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".
  • 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.

Transformers references

  • Part of the transmatter process includes energy from the Swarm, the entity that served as the main antagonist for the last few issues of the Marvel Generation 2 comic. Sea Clamp's comments seem to imply that they're using it for it's life-giving powers, which it gained after it had consumed Optimus Prime and the Creation Matrix, having gained the life it lacked, in the final issue of the series. This connection seems inspired by Larry DiTillio's desire to make the Vok an evolved form of the Swarm, who would have gave Cybertron protoforming technology. However, see "continuity errors" below.
  • 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
  • One of the first victims of Predaking is coloured like the G1 Laser Rod, Volt.

Real-life references

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

Continuity errors

  • 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, the story in general actively contradicts major pieces of lore from the the Beast Wars cartoon. 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. However, many of his clarifications, based on his own authorial intent, cause even further confusion. The story draws upon four major sources: the Beast Wars cartoon, the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, the BotCon 2006 "Dawn of Future's Past" comic, and the various IDW Publishing Beast Wars comics. For organization's sake, we have divided each continuity error by which story they contradict, along with a section for other general errors below.

Beast Wars cartoon errors

  • In the Beast Wars cartoon itself, the Autobots and Decepticons were treated as "Arthurian"-style figures, having long descended into legend by the time of the cartoon. This story chooses to brazenly ignore that, depicting a good majority of the Beast Wars cast having existed at the end of the Great War. While some stories have done this before-both Megatron and Optimus Primal's BotCon 2006 toy bio cards and their profiles in the retail edition of "Dawn of Future's Past" claimed they served in the Great War-those that have depicted them as extremely minor figures in the war, only serving for the first few years of their lives at most.
  • A particularly bad example of this is Tripredacus Council: in "The Agenda (Part 1)", Ram Horn recounts how their "Decepticon ancestors" were defeated in battle, but this story decides to depict them as the ones who have surrendered. Bove claims that he ignored this line in favor of one from "Other Victories", where Tarantulas revealed that he and the Tripredacus Council were unconnected to either Autobot or Decepticon, and there's some vague lip service paid to this, with Sea Clamp notes that as far as the other Decepticons know, the generals are "as Decepticon as they are." However, even then, it's clear that Ram Horn and the others weren't literally meant to be the ones who surrendered to the Autobots. Even more baffling is Bove's choice to retcon Cicadacon and Sea Clamp (via their toy bios, and admittedly only implied) into being reformatted versions of Shockwave and Soundwave; the latter particularly stands out, as it would have meant that Tarantulas would have been fine with killing one of his masters by blowing up the Ark in "Master Blaster".
  • Megatron is depicted as high-ranking enough to lead large forces of Decepticons and command the Predacons-but in the cartoon itself, he was originally a lowly gangster and trouble maker. Bove notes that he didn't intend for this...but even then, the fact that the Tripredacus council consider him a threat to peace is questionable, when in the cartoon they considered him a minor annoyance to their plans until they detected the transwarp wavefront in "The Agenda (Part 1)", only then sending Ravage after him.
  • The idea of protoforming being a new technology isn't new-the Japanese guidebook Beast Wars Universe noted it was a new development in the Pax Cybertronia era, based on notes from show runners Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward, but the depiction of it as a Decepticon superweapon that caused pre-existing Transformers to turn into protoforms, and the depiction of stasis pods as life support systems are...dubious decisions, at best. Admittedly, the cartoon itself was never quite clear as to whether or not the Maximal protoforms were newly-brought online; the events of "The Spark" treated Airazor as part of a "newborn" metaphor, while both Tigatron's debut in "Fallen Comrades" and Silverbolt and Quickstrike's debut in "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1)" depicted them as having had been damaged when their stasis pods' crashed, resulting in their inability to recall their identities. Still, the decision to make Tigatron and Airazor as prominent Autobots at the end of the war, with Tigatron serving as one of the Autobot/Maximal leaders on the Primal Council feels contradictory, at the very least. See more below in "Dawn of Future's Past errors" for more on the specifics of Tigatron and Airazor, and "IDW Beast Wars" errors for more on the protoforms in general.
  • Both Rhinox and Rattrap are depicted as crew members on the Axalon long before the start of the cartoon. With Rhinox, this isn't so unbelievable; Primal treats him as an old friend, and he's privy to secrets such as Protoform X being onboard the Axalon. However, the opening episodes of Beast Wars made it clear that Rattrap had only recently start serving under Primal's command at the beginning of the cartoon, consistently questioning Primal's decisions, only warming up to him as time goes on. The story additionally suggests that Rattrap gave Optimus Primal his name, which, aside from the aforementioned issues with Rattrap's time on the Axalon, is an utterly baffling idea.

Sunbow The Transformers errors

  • Of note, the original Beast Wars cartoon was written to be in a vague, unspecified Generation 1 continuity, drawing on both elements of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon and the Marvel The Transformers comics. However, as with the majority of post-cartoon Beast Wars stories, the comic opts to make it a continuation of the cartoon, with elements that couldn't have happened in a comic based continuity being incorporated (Unicron's head orbiting Cybertron, Ironhide and Prowl's death at the hands of Megatron, Megatron's transformation into Galvatron). However, this doesn't prevent from continuity errors arising from the cartoon, some of which are the results of kind-of sort-of trying to include elements of Marvel continuity that simply just don't work with the cartoon.
  • Unicron's head is shown to be orbiting Cybertron, as it famously was at the end of The Transformers: The Movie after his destruction. However, in the subsequent third season of the cartoon, Unicron's head was blasted out of orbit in "Ghost in the Machine", and was last seen floating in empty space in "Call of the Primitives".
  • Cicadacon claims that the earliest generations of Cybertronians were forged from the "primordial metals" of Cybertron, similar to the origin given to the Transformer race by Simon Furman in both the Marvel US and UK The Transformers comics, and the Generation 2 comic that served as a sequel to the former. However, this just straight up isn't true for cartoon continuity; the "Five Faces of Darkness" mini-series that served as the premier for the third season of the cartoon revealed that the Cybertronians were mechanically manufactured by the Quintessons, who used Cybertron as a factory world.
  • Similarly, the Swarm connection is hard to reconcile with the cartoon continuity. There, the Swarm was the result of continued using of the "budding" method of creating new Transformers, which obviously doesn't exist in the cartoon continuity. Additionally, the Swarm's recreation by Optimus Prime by using the Matrix couldn't have happened in this version, with the Matrix having been drained eradicating the Hate Plague in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2". Again, the Beast Wars cartoon incorporated several Marvel continuity concepts, and any encounter with the Swarm almost certainly wouldn't have happened the same way it did in the comic, but the use of it with the rest of the comic being almost entirely Sunbow cartoon-based is certainly strange at the very least.

"Dawn of Future's Past" errors

  • This story follows on with the retcon that Tigatron and Airazor existed before the events of the Beast Wars cartoon. However, in that story, Tigatron was a Maximal beat cop, only known as "Unit-2" and not having enough clearance to know about the Golden Disk, while Airazor was the pilot of the ship Chromia 10, who didn't know each other prior to meeting in "Dawn of Future's Past". What's especially strange is the decision to have Airazor one of those affected by the transmatter bomb-meaning at some point she was cured and released from the Axalon, only to have her spark transported into a blank protoform after her ship was heavily damaged saving the Axalon from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw.
  • The original Predacons being the source for the Beast Wars faction comes from "Dawn of Future's Past" and Razorclaw's subsequent BotCon 2009 toy bio card. However, them being the source of the name is about the only thing this story shares with those two sources. In Razorclaw's profile, it claimed that at the end of the war, Razorclaw rose to power after most of the Decepticons were destroyed, forming the Predacons, and nearly leading them to victory, only to be assassinated by the Tripredacus Council as part of their machinations. Here, the Predacons are killed before the Predacon faction is created, and are just random Decepticons whose deaths are used by the Tripredacus Council as propaganda, killed while they were combined together. Additionally, Divebomb was shown to still be alive in "Dawn of Future's Past", aiding Megatron's theft of the Golden Disk with his agents, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. The bio of Laserbeak even stated that Divebomb was the one who gave both them and Ravage their new Predacon forms, with Ravage only later defecting to the Tripredacus Council's side.

IDW Publishing Beast Wars errors

  • In general, the only continuity errors that pop up are those that contradict the events given in the Beast Wars Sourcebook, and given that the guidebook also contradicted both The Gathering and The Ascending, it's not quite as egregious as some of the other errors. Still:
  • Galvatron is depicted here as having fallen in his final battle with Optimus Prime. However, the glossary published in the trade version of the Beast Wars Sourcebook claimed that Galvatron's fate was unknown, the subject of legend and conjecture.
  • What does contradict The Gathering and The Ascending is the depiction of many of the Predacons from that series-reprogrammed from Maximal protoforms-are seen active as Decepticons on Cybertron, along with a few of the Maximals from said series, including Retrax, Buzz Saw, Manta Ray, Snapper, and Air Hammer. It falls under the same error with protoforms mentioned above, but in what are definitely errors is the depiction of Retrax as the first successful experiment of the generals (he was depicted as a Maximal protoform reprogrammed by Magmatron's Predacons) and the depiction of Snapper as a Decepticon (his profile in the Beast Wars Sourcebook depicted him as a former Maximal who joined the crew of the Axalon, before being reprogrammed on Earth into a Predacon).

Other continuity errors

  • 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 placed inside a 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.
  • Protoform technology is implied to be the byproduct of a Decepticon bioweapon, with its victims placed into life support pods that, while eerily similar to the stasis pods from the cartoon, aren't supposed to be the same devices as Bove claims. 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. Nevertheless, regardless of the Council's true heritage, Ram Horn was still unambiguously referring to a group of individuals separate from that of himself and his fellow generals, which this story instead depicts as being one and the same as Ram Horn, Sea Clamp, and Cicadacon themselves.
  • 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 is 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 Glossary of the Beast Wars Sourcebook:

  • According to the Glossary, "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 Glossary 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 Glossary lays out the timeline of this continuity quite differently than what is seen in this comic. For one, the Glossary 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 Glossary states that the Pax Cybertronia was then signed after this second conflict had ended, making the timeline be "Autobot/Decepticon Great War → Great Upgrade (ages pass between the two wars) → Maximal/Predacon Great War → Pax Cybertronia". All of that is completely thrown out the window by this comic instead depicting the Pax Cybertronia as being signed on the same day as the end of the Autobot/Decepticon Great War, thereby moving the Great Upgrade to come after the Pax Cybertronia's beginning, and seemingly preventing the Maximal/Predacon Great War from ever existing in this timeline, despite the Glossary having already stated otherwise.
  • In the Glossary, the Pax Cybertronia was "signed and sealed by both the Predacon Alliance and the Maximal Imperium". While the individuals who would later come to govern each of those entities did sign the treaty in this comic, the signing occurred in this comic at a point in time before either of those entities would come to exist, as the Maximal and Predacon factions themselves only just start to come about after the treaty is signed in this comic's timeframe. As a result, the comic inadvertently retcons this claim from the Glossary to be only true on a technical level instead of the likely-intended literal one.
  • The Glossary 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.
  • Outside of the Glossary, the Sourcebook profile for Magnaboss states that he was created in response to the introduction of Tripredacus. In this story, it is Predacus, rather than Tripredacus, who exists, and from whom Magnaboss seems to exist completely independently, with his components displaying seemingly no awareness of Predacus's existence.
  • 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".

Art and technical errors

  • Sea Clamp and Ram Horn's names are consistently spelt as "Seaclamp" and "Ramhorn."
  • Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt have their combiner modes (and in Ironhide's case, his vehicle mode) of their Combiner Wars toys, but their robots modes are depicted as mostly being modified versions of their classic character models, with Prowl having his hood chest and Ironhide his windshield chest.

Other trivia

  • 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 Sunbow The Transformers cartoon and/or the Marvel The Transformers 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,[2]. pushing it closer towards the ever-popular "Generation 1 cartoon as background" route that most other Beast Wars tie-ins have utilized. Other interviews and statements from Bove note that, in his mind, the events of "The Rebirth" also happened, furthering the idea that it was meant to take place in the cartoon continuity.
  • 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" [3] - 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.
  • Before it was given to IDW, Jim Sorenson was asked to write a pitch for this as a Beast Wars: Uprising story. He briefly mentioned "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.[4] Sorenson and Jesse Wittenrich later added more detail: that Magnaboss was created after the Tripredacus Council and Predacon Secret Police had started investigating combiners, and the plot would have also had Megatron creating the beast mode upgrade (a plot later done in the prose fiction). Prowl had left behind a "Prowl 2.0" backup copy with a plan for a last-ditch weapon and when Tigatron, Airazor, and Tarantulas try to stop it, Tigatron just becomes part of the Magna-beast. "Predacus rises to (more-or-less) heroically battle Magnaboss to the death." The ending would have Megatron's beasties (who'd have just saved Airazor) taking advantage of the power vaccuum created after the combiners died trashing the Predacus and Maximal Command Security Force armies, with Tarantulas and his combiner knowledge now working for Megs...[5][6]
    • Sorenson warned us too that all of this (and anything else demanded) would have to fit into 22 pages "and FP or Hasbro might have said no. So, don't romanticize it too much."[7]
  • An early plan was to have Optimus on the Primal Council as Head of Science but that was dropped as "making him too prominent".
  • 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."
  • This story treats "Transmatter" as something the readers are already supposed to be familiar with, but this was the first time the term had ever been used in Transformers fiction.

Covers

Reprints

References

  1. ↑ The BotCon 2016 script reading, "The Hot Rod" established this name as Blackarachia's pre-Earth name in this continuity.
  2. ↑ Tweet by John-Paul Bove, 2016/04/02
  3. ↑ http://wordmongerer.tumblr.com/post/142758963250/this-past-weekend-my-first-transformers-story
  4. ↑ Beast Wars Uprising AMA at Allspark
  5. ↑ Wittenrich at Allspark
  6. ↑ Sorenson at Allspark
  7. ↑ https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/140167-ama-bish-jesse-jim/?p=3517483
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