The Gathering issue 4

	; Me Grimlock star in musical called life is pain. Percussions: Predacons.
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 10, 2006
Cover date	May 2006
Written by	Simon Furman
Sript [sic] consultant	Ben Yee
Art by	Don Figueroa
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Edits by	Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Continuity	Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Magmatron's plans go awry when Grimlock attacks! Ravage's troops locate the Maximals' base.

Synopsis

Sky Shadow locates the Maximals' base, and Ravage moves in.

Grimlock tears through Drill Bit and Iguanus, then engages Magmatron. Optimus Minor takes advantage of the distraction and steals a chronal phase armband.

Snarl fixes the transwarp signal amplifier, using the spare parts he gathered from the Ark.

Magmatron's triple dinosaur modes finally overpower Grimlock, knocking him unconscious. Magmatron returns his attention to sending Megatron through the transwarp shunt back to Cybertron.

Ravage and the Predacons have gathered outside the Maximals' cave. As the Maximals finally prepare to send a warning signal to Cybertron, the Predacons attack. Bonecrusher, B'Boom, Ramulus, and Wolfang rush off to face the threat while Snarl tries to get the signal off.

Razorbeast, meanwhile, reveals himself to Magmatron. The smaller Maximal quickly gains the upper hand by altering his chronal placement.

The Predacons outnumber the small band of Maximals, and round them up. But just in time, Torca and the rest of the wayward Maximals arrive and battle the Predacons.

Back at Magmatron's camp, Razorbeast's scuffle is the perfect distraction for Optimus Minor to reach the prone Megatron and attach the device, shifting the rogue Predacon back into his native chronal phase. Magmatron is outraged and reaches for Minor, who is sitting on the Transwarp device. The agile Maximal avoids Magmatron's advance, and Razorbeast sends Magmatron through the shunt.

At the Maximals' cave, the Predacons have been beaten, and they retreat. Torca assists in freeing Snarl from the collapsed cave. Snarl has managed to send off the signal, but there's no way of knowing if it was received. While Ravage and the Predacons regroup, the Maximals settle in, building a new base. Razorbeast mulls over his decision to "rescue" Megatron, but Prowl insists that they must concentrate on their own Beast Wars.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Razorbeast (3) Optimus Minor (4) Grimlock (7) B'Boom (10) Snarl (11) Bonecrusher (12) Wolfang (13) Ramulus (22) Night Glider (29) Sonar (30) Armordillo (31) Torca (32) Prowl (33) Air Hammer (34) Claw Jaw (35) Bantor (36) Noctorro (37) Cybershark (38) Stinkbomb (39) Polar Claw (40) K-9 (41) Cheetor (42) Optimus Primal (43) Rhinox (44)	Sky Shadow (1) Ravage (2) Magmatron (5) Drill Bit (6) Iguanus (8) Megatron (9) Buzzclaw (14) Scourge (15) Manterror (16) Scavenger (17) Snapper (18) Terragator (19) Insecticon (20) Spittor (21) Buzz Saw (23) Lazorbeak (24) Injector (25) Jetstorm (26) Scarem (27) Razorclaw (28)

Quotes

"Always the same. Go into stasis, wake up grouchy. Nothing personal, just got to work it out of system!"

—Grimlock

"After all we've been through, you don't have time to say goodbye?"
"Razorbeast, for you... I'll make time!"

—Razorbeast challenges Magmatron

"I had him [Megatron] at my mercy, Prowl, I could have ended his threat forever. I was taught to respect the timeline, not to tamper. But I was sorely tempted."

—Razorbeast

Notes

Production notes

Obviously Furman's going to bring in Grimlock if you give him the chance!
The "Maxi-Mail" section featured mail answered by Chris Ryall and short ads for next month's issues: Infiltration #6, Hearts of Steel #1, and Generations #4.

Continuity notes

It's quite abrupt that the other Maximals just happen to show up in time but we had seen a "Maximal militia" gathering in #1 and #2.
Torca reveals the Maximals have been gathering "for days now", confirming how long this story's been going on for. This also means that Issue #1 began a few days before "Changing of the Guard", since the bulk of this issue's story takes place between the last two scenes of that episode.
The final page is set "two weeks later" and shows that Megatron is now in dragon form, which places everything between "Changing of the Guard" and "Master Blaster" into a two-week timeframe. That seems a bit short but that's what the comic says!
Razorbeast being assured he did the right thing in sparing Megatron is dripping with dramatic irony.

Errors

Grimlock was part of the Axalon crew manifest, which means the Beast Wars cast had a famous historical figure somewhere out there in a statis pod and never at any point mentioned it?
Razorbeast's decision not to destroy the hapless Megatron because of "respect [for] the timeline" makes more sense from a real-world perspective than in-fiction. When the comic was published, the Beast Wars cartoon had ended seven years earlier. Razorbeast's comment seems in line with the writer's desire to leave the original continuity unaffected by his new story. However, within the fiction, Razorbeast was Megatron's contemporary; when Razorbeast left his future Cybertron, the Beast Warriors had not yet returned. Megatron was still as much in the process of "tampering" with the timestream as Razorbeast was. The logic of time-travel is dicey at best in the Transformers multiverse, but this situation would seem to afford Razorbeast a lot more leeway than he gave himself.