Beast Wars - The Ascending trade paperback

[Mako Crab]

...So, did they ever show Cohrada's pre-Beast mode?

The only plan with the "Beast Wars" comics was to show a bunch of characters. Furman had nothing to say, nor any plan to set up anything beyond yet another faux-epic.

Absolutely agreed. The Gathering and The Ascending were riding on the coattails of Beast Wars' popularity while bringing absolutely nothing worthwhile of their own to the fray. Nothing. The BW sourcebook is just as shoddy and half-hearted, if not more so. As far as I'm concerned, Beast Wars ended with "Nemesis part 2" and picked up in Beast Machines. When it's so blatantly obvious that the people responsible for the comics don't give one damn about the material they're working with, then I see no reason why I should either. Far from being worth my contempt (though they have that too), the comics aren't worth my acknowledgment. But I have to acknowledge them, obviously, because here we are talking about them. But at a mere 8 issues, the comics are easily dismissed and swept under the rug, having attempted nothing and accomplished nothing of any lasting worth.

[andersonh1]

I don't really agree when it comes to The Gathering. I enjoyed that particular story quite a bit. If nothing else, it showed us a glimpse at other characters and other locations in the Beast Wars timeframe, and it fit in well with the TV series. And at least the Ascending gave us a reason why Megatron could conquer Cybertron prior to Beast Machines... the planet was already in shambles. I've never found it credible that he took over the entire planet using a virus. If it were that easy, someone else would have done the same thing a long time ago.

The Ascending should have been better, and so should the sourcebook. But I don't think it's fair to say that IDW's attempt at Beast Wars comics was worthless.

[Mako Crab]

And at least the Ascending gave us a reason why Megatron could conquer Cybertron prior to Beast Machines... the planet was already in shambles. I've never found it credible that he took over the entire planet using a virus. If it were that easy, someone else would have done the same thing a long time ago.

The Hate Plague almost did the job, and going by "A Wolf in the Fold", we know that Megatron had access to a similar strand of that virus. Proof positive that Megatron was experimenting with many different viral strands before weaponizing a virus that caused transformation lock, temporary memory loss, and caused its victims to go offline within a very short span of time. In "Forbidden Fruit" we're shown how Megatron used high yield bombs to infect entire populations with his virus. The attack was too well coordinated and the virus too rapid for a concerted response. And who would the Maximals respond against? No doubt Megatron was in hiding while his virus took effect, giving the Maximals no target and no time to develop a counter-virus. And those that did escape the effects of the virus were swiftly dealt with by Vehicon patrols, which had been prepared well in advance before the virus had been dispersed across the globe.

The only thing "The Ascending" did was cheapen Megatron's victory by crippling the Maximal resistance. It makes Megatron less a calculating strategist that outhinks an enemy too vast to be beaten with mere brute force, and more an opportunist that kicks a dog while it's down.

[Sparky Prime]

The only thing "The Ascending" did was cheapen Megatron's victory by crippling the Maximal resistance. It makes Megatron less a calculating strategist that outhinks an enemy too vast to be beaten with mere brute force, and more an opportunist that kicks a dog while it's down.

I wouldn't say it cheapens Megatron's victory at all. Even taking into account Cybertron's defenses in a weakened state due to the events of The Ascending, conquering the entire planet all by himself is no small feat. And either way, the Maximals wouldn't have seen Megatron's attack coming given Nightscream's account of events, so I'd say it still shows him as a brilliant strategist.

And I'd really have to agree with andersonh1 that it isn't fair to say IDW's Beast Wars comics was worthless. Sure the Sourcebooks were terrible and The Ascending should have been better. The Gathering on the other hand I thought was great.

[Onslaught Six]

The only thing "The Ascending" did was cheapen Megatron's victory by crippling the Maximal resistance. It makes Megatron less a calculating strategist that outhinks an enemy too vast to be beaten with mere brute force, and more an opportunist that kicks a dog while it's down.

Maybe it's my slight dislike for BW (or its fandom) but isn't that...what Megatron is? I've always got the impression he was a cowardly opportunist asshat who put up this big master-strategist facade. After all, his Grand Master Plan was to...go back in time and kill Optimus Prime while he's sleeping.

[Mako Crab]

LOL! Well, maybe it's my hatred of the IDW BW comics clouding my judgment. I should point out that killing Prime while he slept was G1 Megatron's plan, which BW Megatron carried out only when things got desperate. BW Megatron's plan was merely to mine Earth for all the energon it was worth and return to his own time with the supplies necessary to fuel an all-out Predacon offensive.

And Sparky, that's a good point. I suppose the situation would have been the same had the Maximal forces been in place or crippled as we saw at the end of the Ascending. Okay, I'll drop that gripe.

[andersonh1]

See, the whole thing with Megatron using a virus to conquer the planet never has made a lot of sense. Wouldn't the first thing a government do when looking at an outbreak be to enforce a quarantine? Yeah, the flashbacks show a massive explosion that rapidly envelops the planet, but I assume we're talking artistic license there. Just think about how long it would take to spread an infection around the entire Earth, for example, and reach every person in every nook and cranny on every continent.

With a fully functioning government in place, and a society that's intact and whole, I just can't see Megatron's plan working, at all. However if society has already broken down, and the government has resources strained past the breaking point, then Megatron's plan becomes more feasible, if still an impossibly large task.

I'm a big fan of Beast Machines, but the premise has always required a pretty high level of suspension of disbelief.

[Mako Crab]

Yeah, the flashbacks show a massive explosion that rapidly envelops the planet, but I assume we're talking artistic license there. Just think about how long it would take to spread an infection around the entire Earth, for example, and reach every person in every nook and cranny on every continent.

You can never be too sure with those artistic licenses. Just look how often the G1 Decepticons put the entire planet in peril.

I will say one thing though- I find it highly coincidental that Cheetor and Rattrap just happened to wander into the lab where Megatron cooked up his virus. You might be right in that someone on the planet was able to develop a counter-virus but was discovered by the Vehicons before they could implement it on a planet-wide basis. Finding one random lab vs. finding *THE* lab Megatron used; the former seems more likely.

[Shockwave]

I think we're overlooking the even bigger unlikelyhood here: That if Megatron had the ability to implement a planet wide virus, why not do that before BW and avoid getting tracked down by the Maximals completely?

[Dominic]

I assumed Megatron did not have access to time travel gear at that point.

I always assumed the virus from BMac was deployed sneaky-like. And, there is nothing to say that Megatron did not have to hunt down, (using Vehicons), random survivors. If nothing else, the Tripredacus Council had a satellite HQ. Megatron probably had to shoot it down or otherwise deal with them.


Dom
-has soured on the Beast-Era over the years.