Demolish the Superdreadnought Tank!
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| Publisher | Comic Bom Bom | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Shōji Imaki | ||||||||||||
| Art | Shōji Imaki | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars manga continuity | ||||||||||||
Galvatron shows the Maximals how to get ahead in life.
Ho ho ho.
Summary
All across the universe, the forces of the Maximals and Predacons are at war... and the Maximals are on the losing end! At the central headquarters of their army, a Convoy receives report after disastrous report from the battlefield, and thinks of the small team of warriors led by Lio Convoy, fighting to keep the Angolmois energy of the planet Gaea out of the hands of Galvatron...
On Gaea, the rainy season has settled in, and the Maximals are using it as an excuse not to go out on patrol, since the naturally damaging effects of Gaea's atmosphere on their robot modes is only worsened by the monsoon. Apache is none too impressed his his teammates laziness, and even opens fire to scare them when they openly ignore his orders. When Lio Convoy arrives, however, everyone snaps to attention... except for Diver, who, it turns out, is actually out enjoying the rain in his frog mode. His happy singing attracts the amorous attentions of a swarm of female frogs, forcing him to transform to robot mode to scare them off, after which he decides to head back to base. While on the way, he comes upon a most bizarre and terrifying sight: the Predacons have constructed a massive tank, sculpted in the image of Galvatron's head! Thankfully, Thrust and Dirge are so busy arguing as they try to drive the tank that Diver is able to sprint ahead and warn all the other Maximals, who rush to meet the tank in battle. They are aided in the fight by the Insectrons Tonbot and Bigmos, who carry Lio Convoy and Tasmania Kid into the air so they can attack the tank from above. Everything the Maximals throw at the tank fails to do even the slightest damage, however, and Lio Convoy gets shot out of the sky. Bighorn and Apache's rage at the sight of their commander being injured almost gets the better of them, but they get ahold of themselves and decide to try luring the tank into a nearby river.
Tasmania Kid, meanwhile, is dropped onto the top of the tank by Tonbot, and manages to sneak his way inside, following a strange noise to the engine room. The noise, it turns out, is Galvatron grinding his teeth in his sleep, as the tank is being run off the Angolmois energy in his unconscious body! It also turns out that the tank has no problem ploughing into the river and continuing to pursue the Maximals, but in doing so, Megastorm actually plays right into Apache's hands: Diver and Scuba are waiting in the river to plant bombs on the tank's vulnerable underbelly! The bombs blow the tank open and it begins to sink into the river, as Kid quickly escapes from within, and Lio Convoy reappears just in time to clobber Megastorm and make him accidentally bump the tank's self-destruct switch! The tank explodes dramatically, but everyone is okay, naturally.
Tasmania Kid congratulates Apache on saving the day with his plan, telling him he has really changed his opinion of him, but Apache is quick to order the Maximals to give him a hundred push-ups, as he doesn't want to seem soft. And elsewhere, Megastorm tries to tell a confused and annoyed Galvatron that he must have dreamed the whole experience...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
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Notes
- The Beast Wars II manga occupies a different continuity to the animated series, which it shares with the Beast Wars Neo and Beast Wars Metals manga. However, you wouldn't be able to tell that from this issue alone, which begins with Lio Convoy and Galvatron's forces already entrenched on Gaea, having already met the Insectrons, and indulging in inconsequential wacky japes that could easily occur anywhere in the second quarter of the show.
- Among the reports that come in from the front include one of a Maximal survey team who have travelled to the remains of Unicron, but turned up nothing.
- Gaea is identified as the third planet in its solar system; another vague hint towards its true nature as Earth in the far future.
