Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering

"I vill break you..."

Transformers: Beast Wars: The Gathering is a comic miniseries published in 2006 by IDW Publishing featuring characters from Beast Wars. It is the first major comic to feature Beast Wars characters. It was followed by The Ascending.

	Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering issues:	»
#1 #2 #3 #4

Overview

Predacon general Magmatron travels back to the era of the Beast Wars on prehistoric Earth. He's supposed to pick up where Ravage failed and retrieve the rogue Megatron, but his actual plan is to gather an army from the Axalon's stasis pods and return home to conquer Cybertron. However, Lio Convoy has inserted Razorbeast into the Predacon forces to stop him. Razorbeast manages to keep some of the awakened protoforms as Maximals and then stalls for time and tries to contact Cybertron. Finally, the new Maximals arrive in the nick of time and defeat the Predacon forces. Magmatron is trapped in a timeless void, while Razorbeast and all the other characters settle down in the past to wait and see if Cybertron got their call and will send help.

Errors

• The cartoon suggests that most of the stasis pods were either damaged or destroyed, so their undamaged status is something of a minor retcon.
• The writers of the series, in explaining Depth Charge as a Transmetal, said the Earth's atmosphere was permanently charged by the Planet Buster explosion, causing the process. In light of this (and even regardless of it) how the pods spew forth "standard", Transmetal and Transmetal 2 Transformers is a mystery.
• K-9 is featured in his German Shepherd (Alsatian) altmode. In the real life continuity, that breed will not exist until AD 1899, created through selective breeding in Germany.

Notes

• The story for this series was a significant revamp of the scripts which Furman previously submitted to Dreamwave Productions for what was to be titled Shell Game. Selected artwork that Figueroa submitted for these original scripts was reused in the rewritten issues. Originally the plot was to tie into "Ain't No Rat".
• This series takes place during the third season of the Beast Wars cartoon and disregards the finished and unfinished 3H Productions' Botcon/OTFCC comics. Both comics play around with this era and the non-show Beast Wars characters.
  • In fact, The Gathering features appearances from almost every Hasbro toy-only Beast Wars character aside from Jawbreaker (who was still featured on one cover), Razor Claw, Magnaboss, the BotCon exclusives, the McDonald's toys, and the MicroVerse playsets. The Ascending went on to include Shokaract, Antagony, Manta Ray, and a ton more Japan-exclusive characters.
• Razorbeast's decision not to fool with the timestream by eliminating Megatron is questionable at best, since Megatron was originally from his era and was himself interfering with time. However, it might be argued that any changes that Megatron was going to make in the past were already (from Razorbeast's perspective) part of history, so when Razorbeast went back, stopping Megatron then could theoretically have affected the specific future from which Razorbeast came. (Neither Ravage nor Depth Charge, who both traveled back in time shortly before Razorbeast did so, seemed to be concerned about this.) Yeah, time travel gives us a headache too.
• The control art for the robot mode of the 6" Titanium Series Optimal Optimus can be found among Don Figueroa's concept work in the back of the collected volume.
• The Gathering and The Ascending both feature numerous characters who were previously exclusive to Japan, including Halfshell, Magmatron, and both Big Convoy and Lio Convoy.
• The miniseries was reprinted in Titan's UK Transformers comic.
• North American direct market sales were an impressive 34,057 for #1, descending to 22,590 for #4. [1] Sales on the Titan reprint were higher [2].

Creative team

The Gathering was penned by Simon Furman and penciled by Don Figueroa, the same team that was due to produce the stillborn Beast Wars series for Dreamwave Productions.

Collections

• Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering TPB (August 16, 2006) ISBN 1600100066 / ISBN 978-1600100062

• Collects issues 1–4.
• Bonus content includes alternate covers from all issues and sketch art.

• Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering Manga (March 14, 2007) ISBN 1600100252 / ISBN 978-1600100253

• Collects issues 1–4 in a small-size B&W format.
• Contains sketch art.

• Transformers Comic issues #1–3 (July–September 2007)

• Reprinted The Gathering issue 1 over the space of 3 issues.
• Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie.

• The Transformers: The Best of Simon Furman (July 25, 2007) ISBN 1600100589 / ISBN 978-1600100581

• Collects this issue and 13 other tales from Marvel Comics, Dreamwave Productions and IDW Publishing, spanning over 20 years.

• The Transformers: The Best of Don Figueroa (August 1, 2007) ISBN 1600100813 / ISBN 978-1600100819

• Collects The War Within #1, Armada #17: "Worlds Collide, Part 4 of 4", Generation One #3: "Skyfire", 20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special: "Ain't No Rat", The Gathering #4, Stormbringer #4, Transformers: The Animated Movie #1: "The Gathering Storm" and Transformers: Movie Prequel #2.
• Bonus material includes extra sketch art and deleted scenes.

• Transformers Comic issues #4–6 (October–December 2007)

• Reprinted The Gathering issue 2 over the space of 3 issues.
• Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie.

• 
  Beast Wars: The Gathering; cover art by Don Figueroa and ???
• 
  Beast Wars: The Gathering Manga edition; cover art by Don Figueroa and Josh Perez
• 
  Transformers Comic #1
• 
  Transformers Comic #2
• 
  Transformers Comic #3

• 
  The Best of Simon Furman; cover art by Don Figueroa
• 
  Best of Don Figueroa; cover art by Don Figueroa (duh) and Alan Wang
• 
  Transformers Comic #4
• 
  Transformers Comic #5
• 
  Transformers Comic #6

• Transformers Comic issues #7–9 (January–February 2008)

• Reprinted The Gathering issue 3 over the space of 3 issues.
• Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie.

• Transformers Comic issues #10–13 (March–June 2008)

• Reprinted The Gathering issue 4 over the space of 4 issues.
• Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie.

• Transformers: Beast Wars Omnibus (March 25, 2009) ISBN 1600103901 / ISBN 978-1600103902

• Collects The Gathering, as well as followup series Beast Wars: The Ascending and the supplemental Beast Wars Sourcebook.

• Transformers 100-Page Giant: Power of the Predacons (February 19, 2020)

• Collection includes "Spotlight: Jazz", "Dawn of the Predacus", The Gathering issue #1, "What's in a Name?", and "Grudge Match!"

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 93: Beast Wars: The Gathering (June 17, 2020)

• Collects The Gathering and material from the Beast Wars Sourcebook.
• Bonus content is extensive. In additional to the normal Furman introduction and cover gallery, included is an introduction by Ben Yee, a 2-page "Unleash the Beast Wars" feature detailing the origins of the show and toyline, a 3-page "Creating the BW-Verse" interview with Bob Forward, a 2-page "The (G1) roots of the Beast Wars" feature detailing the G1 elements in the show, 4 pages of Don Figueroa's design sketches, and a reprint of the "Optimus Primal vs Megatron!" toy pack-in comic.

• Transformers: Best of the Beasts (July 13, 2022)

• Reprints The Gathering #4, The Transformers: Windblade (vol.2) #6, "Of Flying and Falling" (from the Synergy anthology), Transformers: Beast Wars #9: "Thicker Skin", and The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers #3.
• Also includes a reprint of the "Optimus Primal vs Megatron!" toy pack-in comic.

• 
  Transformers Comic #7
• 
  Transformers Comic #8; cover art possibly by Staz
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  Transformers Comic #9; cover art by Gary Erskine and Chris Sotomayor
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  Transformers Comic #10; cover art by Nick Roche and Kris Carter
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  Transformers Comic #11; cover art by Gary Erskine and Chris Sotomayor
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  Transformers Comic #12; cover art by Barry Spiers and Jason Cardy

• 
  Transformers Comic #13; cover art by Gary Erskine and Jason Cardy
• 
  Beast Wars Omnibus; cover art by Don Figueroa and Josh Burcham
• 
  Power of the Predacons; cover art by Don Figueroa and Josh Burcham
• 
  Definitive G1 Collection Volume 93: Beast Wars: The Gathering; cover art by Don Figueroa
• 
  Transformers: Best of the Beasts; cover art by James Biggie