Beast Wars - The Ascending trade paperback

[andersonh1]

-and some of the moulds were terrible.

The majority of them were. Or if not terrible, at least had significant flaws. Cheetor is the deformed cat, Rhinox is a major shellformer, Dinobot has robot legs stuck on the dino belly, etc.

[138 Scourge]

It would really take something special to get me to look at another BW series from IDW. Like, if they got Nick Roche or Geoff Senior to draw it, and then managed to get Bob and Larry to write it, I would be willing to at least flip through the first issue. Otherwise, I'd just say "Oh, BW volume three, huh?" and spend my money on something else.

Also, it'd help if it had a real title, "The Gathering", "The Ascending"...these just sound pretentious and annoying to me. Maybe it's only me, too, but those just bother me to no end.

[Sparky Prime]

Despite the problems of The Ascending, I probably would still look forward to another BW mini-series if IDW ever decided to do third one. Artists, honestly I think IDW has several that can draw the Beast Wars characters quite well: Don Figueroa, Dan Khanna, Marcelo Matere, Robby Musso, Guido Guidi, Nick Roche. Any of them I wouldn't mind seeing as the artists, although I'd prefer some of them over others... Writers; Furman, I think could still do a good job with it, assuming he learned from his mistakes but I have to admit, I'm hesitant about his writing after The Ascending. Otherwise, Nick Roche and Costa I'd say have proven themselves capable writers with the G1 books, I'd curious to see how each of them might handle a Beast Wars plot.

As for the plot, I suppose they could always do a 'reboot' type of a thing, but honestly, I don't think that'd be the best move to make. Of course there are two things The Ascending left open between the group of Maximals and Predacons on Earth, as well as Megatron being on Cybertron. With Lio Convoy knowing about those left on Earth though, I can't see them leaving them there for long, and I have to say, setting the story during Megatron's takeover of Cybertron appeals to me a bit more. There's such a gap between his BW portrayal and BM, it would be nice to have that filled in, as well as how exactly he engineers the takeover seemingly on his own. It'd be nice if they could give us more of a look at a populated Cybertron during the Beast-era as well with out all the epic 'Unicron resurrection plot to destroy the planet' stuff.

[andersonh1]

I have to say, setting the story during Megatron's takeover of Cybertron appeals to me a bit more. There's such a gap between his BW portrayal and BM, it would be nice to have that filled in, as well as how exactly he engineers the takeover seemingly on his own. It'd be nice if they could give us more of a look at a populated Cybertron during the Beast-era as well with out all the epic 'Unicron resurrection plot to destroy the planet' stuff.

I think there's plenty of room for a good story set on Cybertron as a lead-up to Beast Machines, and it might be even more interesting if we knew for certain that no one escapes Megatron in the end. The story then becomes about how each of the characters deals with the disaster and how that affects them personally as Cybertron succumbs to the virus all around them.

And it would be a refreshing change to see BW Megatron fighting against someone other than Primal and his crew. There's room to develop his character as well, and make that bridge from BW to BMac. Who knows just how long he was on Cybertron? Could have been years between the time he fell out of transwarp and when Primal showed up.

[BWprowl]

I think there's plenty of room for a good story set on Cybertron as a lead-up to Beast Machines, and it might be even more interesting if we knew for certain that no one escapes Megatron in the end. The story then becomes about how each of the characters deals with the disaster and how that affects them personally as Cybertron succumbs to the virus all around them.

Y'know, I could actually get behind this. I've got a big thing for apocalypse-setting stories, and to me, this sounds kind of like that awesome 'Last Will and Testament' one-shot that DC put out during Final Crisis. Just a one or two issue miniseries showing all the bots on Cybertron dealing with Megatron's takeover. That could be really something. I could also totally see McCarthy writing something like that, and I'd be really down for it then.

[Dominic]

The biggest problem with a pre-BMac series would be that the writers would pander to the most demanding fans, and the comics would real like the most self-indulgent of fanfics. (Yes, I know, "self indulgent fanfic" is a redundant term.)

I can easily see this proposed series going the route of the Dark Horse "Star Wars" comics circa 2006. When the "Republic" series caught up to Episode 3, you would have thought Order 66 was little more than an annoyance for the Jedi. Even assuming that the killings depicted in the movie were statistically representative, (with about 1/3 of the Jedi outside the temple surviving), there was a whole lot of "Ostrander characters miraculously surivive"....for no other reason than they were characgter who needed to survive because they were characters in the comics......

How many other Cybertronians would survive Megatron's purge?

I might be able to get behind "characters return to Cybertron post-reformatting". But, even then, it would have to be a better writer than Furman for me to have any faith in the series.


Dom
-is one bad series away from burning all his "Beast Wars" toys.

[Shockwave]

That was one thing that did feel a little redundant about BW and BMAC, when ever new characters showed up, it was always "Look, new bot falls from the sky" with both factions racing to claim it's allegience.

[Onslaught Six]

I always did love the whole guys-return-to-post-reformatting Cybertron idea. But then, that's because it was the basis of Transtech.

[138 Scourge]

I'm sure there could be an interesting story to be told about Megatron's rise to power in Beast Machines, but I don't know if I trust a BW comic to be able to tell it. Unless they had a really damn good writer to handle that, and went with a strict "nobody gets out alive" policy. Which would provide the downbeat ending of all downbeat endings, wouldn't it? I wonder if that would sell.

Hey Anderson, you ever have a hankering to do this kind of story? Because, if you don't mind my saying so, you did a bang-up job with Cybertron after "Beast Machines".

[andersonh1]

I'm sure there could be an interesting story to be told about Megatron's rise to power in Beast Machines, but I don't know if I trust a BW comic to be able to tell it. Unless they had a really damn good writer to handle that, and went with a strict "nobody gets out alive" policy. Which would provide the downbeat ending of all downbeat endings, wouldn't it? I wonder if that would sell.

Hey Anderson, you ever have a hankering to do this kind of story? Because, if you don't mind my saying so, you did a bang-up job with Cybertron after "Beast Machines".

Thanks for the compliment. That would be an interesting story to write, and I agree that it would have to be a "nobody gets out alive" downer type of ending so that it wouldn't feel like a cheat. I may have to brainstorm and see what I can come up with.