I really liked art. It was great. The story however, was kind of complicated, at least I think. But maybe that's because I'm 12. Anyway though, this is kind of random I realize, but I just wanted to talk about the comic with someone who's read it.

 

Complicated? That's one way to put it, because that's definitely what they were shooting for, to me it came off as decent in many ways, too convoluted in others.

Still overall, definitely worth a read. The character cast, and nods to certain things from other series was absolutely awesome. Art was fantastic.

 

I read this before I saw Beast Wars and it made SO much more sense when I saw Beast Wars on youtube. I thought it was cool how they said they were the pods they had to abandon so I'm glad they continued that.

 

Yuppers, that's the best thing about fiction like that. It fills up the plot holes of a series nicely...

...

..most of the time.

 

YouTube - War of the Worlds set to the Benny Hill Theme Song Click that if you want to see something stupid yet funny at the same time.

 

It wasn't really that complicated. The Maximal Razorbeast infiltrates Magmatron's group and travels back to the past to recruit an Predacon army. Razorbeast slips in some Maximals while making Magmatron's army then reveals his true allegiance and goes off to find the new Maximals. Both sides fight each other, Razorbeast manages to use Magmatron's technology against him and sends Magmatron into limbo. The end.

People don't like this because they forced too many characters into the storyline and neglected to give many characterisation. I see this story more of a larger war with a small main cast being surrounded by a number of allies. The only difference between this and other war stories is that in other war stories the characters tend to be in identical uniform and are indistinguishable to each other whereas The Gathering is full of recognisable faces who each have individuality.

I also liken The Gathering to the major battles from Marvel's Civil War in that there was a small cast on each side surrounded by a large number of familar faces that had no or little characterisation. Yet the difference here is that The Gathering only had four issues to tell its story in from beginning to end.

Would a much smaller cast of characters with no uncharacterised 'soldiers' being present? Yes it probably would but then we would still have a large number of Beast Wars toys who have made no appearances in a comic at all. For me, the toyline and the fiction go hand in hand. I quite like seeing toys becoming proper characters in the fiction.

 

Yeah, I just didn't know who anybody was half the time.

 

You need the Beast Wars "source book", "more than meets the eye", guide thingy.

 

I found both "The Gathering" and "The Ascending" severely lacking. Specifically, lacking pretty much anything that made Beast Wars enjoyable. Too many characters, too little focus on any of them, too little solid characterization for anyone beyond a brief packaging description, and a severely lackluster plot. And even worse, just when you thought the next story after "The Gathering" would focus more on the established characters, "The Ascending" introduced even MORE new characters and brought them all back to Cybertron. Essentially, it was as if Beast Wars had turned into Beast Machines right after the pilot.

And the profile books... URGH. Don't even get me started. Art style all over the place, gross coloring errors, numerous editorial errors, misspelled names, deliberately changed mottos because "I never understood the point of this motto" and a severe removal of humor from ANY character that wasn't Waspinator. GEEZ.

 

Remember his point of view. He'd not seen Beast Wars yet.

 

No he doesn't. That book is terrible  

 

Yeah, I agree with that. Art was pretty cool, but unlike the DW Generation 1 sourcebook, the bios weren't interesting at all. But still. Pretty pictures.


I loved the gathering. I have the pocket version that I keep with me at all times, just in case I end up randomly in court, I will swear on the Gathering instead of the Bible.

I liked the Ascending too, but mostly for the art. I mean, I have NEVER wanted toys based on comic characters so much. That Mammoth Prime...I would do things to get a toy of him.

Gay things.

 

IDW's Beast Wars books have always felt a little...dry storywise.

Sourcebook only gets points from me for dealing with the McDonalds stuff.

 

I didn't mind The Gathering, although it had way too many damn characters for it's own good. And, of course, Furman needed to bring in Grimlock as an important player again. The Ascending had it's moments but brought in even more characters, Unicron yet again, Grimlock yet again, and then the art shift which virtually ruined the last issue. The Sourcebooks I liked, despite their flaws, but then I mainly read them for the technical information (character's basic personality, weapons, weaknesses) rather than anything else.

 

The Gathering I thought was okay, just like many of you said, too many characters to give proper focus to most of them. Plus it was just a four issue series and a lot of time got spent on the set up, so not many of them had a chance to truly shine.

The Ascending was better, though I'll admit, again it didn't have a lot of time to fit in a very full story in just four issues.

I think both would have worked nicely if they'd been six issues each, with more time to develop characters at no expense to the plot.

The Sourcebooks were a nice read, if you take them outside of continuity as a different take on the characters. The liberties were a bit grating, but the way characters were inserted into continuity was pretty good. I especially did like the reconciliation of the Beast Wars Second cast and Galvatron.

You mean Big Convoy? Takara made a toy of him as a part of the Beast Wars Neo line, IDW just used the character for the comic.

In fact, none of the characters in the comics were 100% "created" for the comic. They're all based on toys from the US line that didn't get used in the TV show, or toys made by Takara for their Japanese lines, Beast Wars Second and Beast Wars Neo. Granted, IDW did create a lot of the characterisations though, altering and changing the official bios and backstories. Mostly in order to retcon in Beast Wars Second as a prequel, rather than running side by side with the first Beast Wars, and to eliminate Beast Wars Neo more or less entirely from their continuity.

The few exceptions to this are characters like Shokaract and Antagony, who were Botcon exclusives in the late 90s. Shokaract's story in The Gathering is a combination of elements from Reaching the Omega Point and Beast Wars Neo, but I would argue, losing a lot of the coolness that both plots included individually.

 

I really enjoyed the Ascending and the Gathering. Particularly following BWII and BW Neo it really brought alot of the ideas done there to a more realized and entertaining light. Plus having Lio Convoy actually being more of a bad ass was very nice!

Though the Ascending really doesn't come off as a sequel to the Gathering... since most of the Gathering characters really weren't featured.

Victory Leo

 

Somehow I don't think the guys below will ever get much individual characterisation either but they serve a purpose in their story. Same purpose the characters who don't get much charactersation has in The Gathering. The only difference being is that the Beast Wars characters don't wear a uniform.





All three pics show an army with many individuals in each of the pics barely getting any characterisation.