Beast Wars - The Ascending trade paperback

[138 Scourge]

That virus did act awfully fast, for what that's worth. The Maximals had just gotten it in the first episode of BM and they were close to stasis lock by halfway through the episode.

And if Megatron made that stuff using the Transmetal Driver, or maybe outta his own body that had been altered by said driver (maybe, I forget if that was official or fanwank), then that's some technology that Cybertron hadn't seen before, maybe making it harder to come up with a defense against it?

[Dominic]

I had always assumed Tarantulas used his spider-lights to build the track. In theory, he could have started in season 1.

Dom
-really likes the image of the spider-lights working non-stop around the clock.

[andersonh1]

Given our recent discussion about Beast Wars comics, I've gone back and re-read this storyline in the last few days. I still think it's too much story in too few pages, but that aside, I generally enjoy this story. And I certainly enjoyed the Gathering.

So, question: if IDW decided to jump in and do a third Beast Wars mini-series, would that be something that you look forward to or not? Would that depend on the writer or artist? Do you think it would be worthwhile to explore what happens to the surviving Maximals and Predacons after the Ascending? Perhaps by setting the story during Megatron's takeover of Cybertron prior to Beast Machines?

It's interesting to me that the Ascending ends on such a definitive note rather than being open-ended like the Gathering, as if IDW had no real plans to go forward after the second mini, no matter what the fan reaction was.

[Dominic]

It would all come down to who was writing and (to a lesser degree) drawing the next series. At this point, I am close to actively disliking the beast years, even though I admit it was objectively a good time for the hobby, to say nothing of it saving the hobby.

Furman is nearly on my "avoid" list at this point. The only thing keeping him off it is the fact that he tends to write titles I read as much out of habit as anything else. I would not add a title, even a TF title, with his name on it though. "Nefarious" was his last chance to wow me.

Mowry, Roche or Costa would make me to commit to picking the book up. Gage or some no namer would be enough to get me to flip through the first issue, if not commit to buying the run. The artist could make or break that second scenario. And even then, I would want the high concept to be more than "IDW does more BW", or even a fix story.

Perhaps by setting the story during Megatron's takeover of Cybertron prior to Beast Machines?

No. This would make me avoid the series, as the idea is a recipe for disaster. There would be all kinds of "they were there for the take over, but they find a way to survive somehow......" kind of bad writing. This might be enough to actually make me put a writer on the "no go" list, even a guy like Roche.

It's interesting to me that the Ascending ends on such a definitive note rather than being open-ended like the Gathering, as if IDW had no real plans to go forward after the second mini, no matter what the fan reaction was.

We do not know what the original ending was planned to be, or how much editing was done before it was released. Given the mixed reaction to the first series, and the (well deserved) panning the sourcebook got, I can see IDW just giving up on "Beast Wars". Their run with that sub-franchise made me say "Trukk Not Munky".


Dom
-would be happier to see "Beast Wars" dead and buried.

[Shockwave]

Not to beat a dead horse, but wanted a reboot. I wanted to see BW be as epic as it could have been with a bigger cast of characters than what we had in the show. Instead we got Gathering and Ascending and yet another rehash of "OMFG! Is tEh YOONicROn!!" story. Barring that, if IDW were to continue this, I would actually like to see something that takes place after the show character got back. If it's handled correctly, it could be quite awesome, but I don't think Furman would do it very well if his shoehorning of the toys into the show was any indication. At this point, I really think Furman's main problem is that he just needs to let Unicron go.

And Dom, don't hate BW on account of the fandom. Synjo was one random toyhack and you shouldn't let him have that power over you.

[Dominic]

He is not the only one with an obsessive devotion to a cartoon that is ~10 years old. And, there is the fact that since BW/BMac ended, there has been nothing good from that part of the franchise. Official content, that people pay for, reads like the damned fanfics of the 90s.

The BWX toys were awful, using old moulds and really tacky paint jobs. IDW "Beast Wars" was just the last straw.


Dom
-assumes the same will happen with the "Unicron Trilogy".

[Onslaught Six]

Hey, those Primal and Megs repaints were good, at least. Primal improves on the original toy in every way, even if I don't like his face as much. But I never liked Show Primal's face.

[andersonh1]

The BWX toys were awful, using old moulds and really tacky paint jobs.

Well to be fair, except for Primal and Megatron they were essentially reissues, even if we did get new paint jobs. I bought three of them: Rhinox, Cheetor and Waspinator. All three look good, even if Cheetor and Rhinox are both pretty flawed figures. So I can't agree that the paint jobs were tacky.

[Onslaught Six]

Mind, the Japanese repaints were worlds better. That Goddamn Cheetor makes me not hate Cheetor a little bit. And Volfang!

[Dominic]

The gaudy sigils on the US toys pretty well ruined them for me.

Dom
-and some of the moulds were terrible.