Scorponok was very blatently going for his BW:U personality of 'Programmer falls into criminal underworld and just keeps going along with it', I couldn't see him tear a man in half even with that

Because the existing characters didn't fit the story they wanted to tell. This franchise has invented new characters ever since day 1, either pick from Man of Iron (yes I know those were retconned into existing characters) or when they needed more background Decepticons, so they just recoloured the toy that was already being sold in 3 colour schemes.

I mean, I'm pretty sure a bunch of people would have much preferred IDW Star Saber was an original character rather than take the name of the original and act nothing like him, and this is the opposite effect. Like, the comics were far from perfect, but including new characters in this franchise is hardly anything new or to blame someone for

 

That's what character arcs are for. Though this series obviously didn't have enough time to give anyone character arcs, so I won't hold it against the writers.

 

"Stubborn, aggressive and always eager to fight, [REDACTED] battles with the ferocity of a starving pit bull!"

Whose tech spec is that from?

Just because a character was given a simple, tech spec personality 25 years ago doesn't mean they're stuck with it. Beast Wars has a wealth of pre-existing characters that are essentially blank slates, ready for a writer to take them and make them their own, as was the case with the mysterious character above.

 

What does that matter? Scorponok in this book didn't do anything, why did he have to follow his Uprising personality? This isn't Beast Wars Uprising, it's a separate story.

They absolutely did. Nyx just took Cheetor's initial role. Skold literally take Scorponok's place as the unappreciated bootlicker.

And that;s assuming these characters absolutely had to fill these specific roles and carry out these specific actions. They didn't. That's the entire point. The new characters, their roles, and the existing characters alterations didn't work.

That makes no sense. The character of Star Saber in IDW was a deliberate antithesis of the original. Skold is functionally similar to Scorponok, and Nyx literally just fills Cheetor's original role.

You're right, it is the opposite effect, and it's the opposite problem. Star Saber was a poor choice to fill a role that needed to still exist. The new characters didn't serve a purpose aside from distracting from the original existing cast. Had the existing cast been fully fleshed out and functional in the story new characters wouldn't be such an issue. It's that they are unnecessary creations for this story, and that their roles were be better filled by either the remaining cast or reused non-show characters.

If you're going to introduce new characters, especially in addition to a returning cast as popular and well-established as the Beast Wars characters, make sure the original cast members are fulfilled first. Otherwise you end up with newcomers that feel like they're taking the spotlight away from the ones who were here first. It' why I think an all new cast would've avoided this issue. Similar or redundant roles compared to the original cast would be a non-issue if there's no original cast present.

Remember the original tech specs for the TV show characters? Ninja Tarantulas? Terrifying warrior Waspinator? Even the original show used the tech specs as a framework only. Easily could've done the same with Snapper and Sonar. (though I'm of the mind that, again, their roles were better filled by the existing cast)

 

Snapper and Sonar aren't those characters though. They have fictional appearances. Not much (Like, Sonar just gets blown up), but Snapper's got enough behind him. Plus, per the comic using Labrat of all characters, they were aware of BW:U and, if using Snapper, would have probably done along similar lines to his portrayal there

Yeah, could have just picked anyone, but, they werent with new characters and... Well, okay, Nyx did basically nothing outside of "hey can we get a new convoybat, she'd be a built in remold" but Skold's story was at least generally appreciated. Plenty of stuff to complain about with the comic, but throwing in new characters is hardly

I'd say Skold was more "Character seen as dumb muscle isn't such, has sensative side, harshness of reality pushes down dark path" side of things moreso than unappreciated bootlicker. You got to have a character built a certain way to have that promise of redemption working to them

 

The vast majority of characters in this book were not the characters they were before. You keep acting like these were iron-clad roles they had to fill when they really weren't.

I'm assuming what was cut off was more or less "not a big deal." (I do that all the time when replying, BTW) The reason the new characters stand out as a problem is because they are emblematic of the lack of planning and forethought that went into this book, and the lack of proper prioritization. New characters were given roles and functions in the story over the returning cast. That's not the sole fault of the new characters, but it shows how poorly realized this story was that existing material was not considered.

The whole point of this book was to cash in on nostalgia. That's the whole reason they brought the old cast back. (well, and undoubtedly cashing in on Kingdom, though how effective that was...)

Aside form being "muscle," (which hardly factored into her actual personality) that could've still be filled by Scorponok. (hell, why couldn't Scorps be muscle anyway? Not like the Preds have a dedicated weightlifter otherwise)

In fact I'd argue the redemption arc would've been more effective using someone like Scorponok, who was 100% loyal in the original despite his constant abuse and neglect, because it would've be surprising to see him turn. It would've taken arguably the blankest slate character of the cartoon and given him something unique, congruous, yet totally creative. Also how often do you see creepy crawlies like scorpions portrayed favourably?

This is all an example, using the existing story and beats that were there, but honestly there's so much that could've been done better. I try not to think about nebulous ideas of a better direction and try to critique what was "available." You don't besmirch and artist for only using three colours if that's all he's given, but if he only uses one of those three that's a fair criticism. The story mishandled its assets and characters, it wasn't thought through well enough IMO, and the actual writing being so poor really compounded these errors. If Skold and Nyx were really well-written among a cast a of really well-written characters, I doubt as many would be complaining. But they're not. They stand out, and while far from the biggest failing of the book I think they are the most glaring in that they do stick out among the old faces and this only brings to attention the issues overall.

 

In this comic, Rattrap was a tech whiz (instead of Rhinox) and Waspinator had two degrees in astromechanics or some rubbish. They are not their previous selves. Therefore, whatever brief instances of story Sonar and Snapper have appeared in previously is moot. The writer could have done anything with them, as well as the wealth of other non-show characters that have been dying for some attention in the last 25 years.

And look at Skold. Takes abuse on all fronts, then snaps. Having the name Snapper would have made all the sense in the world. But instead of some brief time in the spotlight, Snapper has to wait, again, because his moment, along with his alt-mode, was needlessly stolen.

There are Vintage Beast Wars figures on toy store shelves right at this very moment. Among them, Wolfang and Cybershark, and soon to be joined by Iguanus and K-9. Non-show characters. Part of their appeal is that for a lot of people that grew up with Beast Wars, these characters were their first Beast Wars toys. Seeing them on shelves again, in that wonderful packaging, is just incredible. We should be getting that feeling when we open a Beast Wars comic book. Names and faces we know, not inserts with no history in the franchise, especially in a comic book released to coincide with the 25th Anniversary.

Inventing characters was the wrong decision.

 

Yup, you know how it be. Sometimes just farting out words.

Frankly I think moreso my point is, Skold, in being a new character, was probably the best handled part of the story. Could it have been done with another character? Would it have been as effective? Or, in being a blank slate, does she offer a look at what may drive the Predacon and Maximal sentiment on Cybertron and duck a bit into something we haven't seen explored previously? Not nearly as deeply as it should be, of course, but at least taking a momentary dive into that was worthwhile. Plus, remember the old fandom joke of "Predacon, Loyal, Competant, pick two (Except for Vice Grip, the only loyal, competant Predacon in existence)"? That's also probably why they went with that

Mind, we've had the "Should this new character exist?" thing for years. Should have Drift been invented to get his own miniseries back in the day rather than look into any of the various other Decepticon turncoats? Or give it to another underused character? Keeping in mind Drift's more well received stuff later, would it have been preferable to just, never have Drift exist and therefore the later stuff not come in turn? Mind a slightly moot point given the cancellation, but I reckon there's promise there with Skold being a more re-occurring character. Joining the Predacons

(plus, well, two characters coming from the mold makes it more likely we'll get a Snapper in the future)

While surprising, Scorponok's pretty much, number one most consistent character trait is being loyal to Megatron. Its the ony constant in his portrayals. Waspinator bumbles, Terrorsaur gets caught by his own karma, Tarantulas schemes, Dinobot leaves the Predacons, and Scorponok is loyal to Megatron

 

And then Inferno comes along and does it better.

 

Inferno's trait is being Way Too Loyal, compared to Scorponok's just loyal  

 

Interesting choice for an ending. I think it might have been theoretically possible to completely end the BW in these past few issues. Not doing so when continuation is unlikely is a choice. This isn't meant either negative or positive.

This issue looked fantastic at least. (Waspinator looked to happy with his fruit)

I can't really judge the story. I think we can glimpse some of the general ideas they had and honestly they looked interesting enough. I would've liked to see it have a normal runtime.
Pacing wasn't particularly good though.

Thanks for the good times.

 

At least Josh seems to have had a good enough time working on the art for this book judging by the sheer energy of the output, and I don't think that's anything any of us can take away from him. All the power to him, at any rate.

 

I would have loved to see some of those possible story lines to the series.
Saving Rattrap from himself would've been funny to see.
Also Scorpinok and Quickstrike rivalry sounds pretty funny too.


jD001

 

I know I sure as Hell would've preferred that.

 

So this was the final issue to this disappointing series? The Vok as a final villain? Who are super easily destroyed despite being energy beings on the level of Star Trek's omnipotent aliens?
And somehow, Rattrap suddenly takes over Rhinox's job as engineer and scientist to develop a weapon against them?
And somehow they managed to make the finale less epic than the show did, because here the sterilization device is just a mountain, not a moon?
Also what a waste of Tigatron and the others, guess they will just go back and live like animals?
The two new characters have barely done anything in this issue, further proving they were not really needed.
And they end this on a teaser for a future storyline that will never happen.

I still do not understand why they needed these fan-made OCs in this comic that basically retells the same origin story. They wanted female characters, that's easy, turn Snapper into a femmebot, it's not like that has not been done before (see Animated Red Alert).
Instead we got these two newbies who likely will never have toys of their own.

Which was quite annoying, here was the golden opportunity to finally do something with him - he was a fairly simple character on the show - and the guy has like how many toys out on the shelves now from Kingdom to Buzzworthy to the reissue? And he gets pushed in the background for some OC who does not even have a toy.

 

Yep. It was simply the wrong decision; exacerbated by the series being cut short, but the wrong decision nonetheless.

I understand that the writer would want to bring something new to the series. It's a natural instinct to want to give things your own spin. But such are the blanks slates of a lot of these characters that the potential to leave your mark was already present. New characters didn't need to be invented to do it.

It's just all a bit of a shame.

 

A good summary of this comic, indeed. As in, "This was certainly a comic that... existed."
It's like say, Dreamwave's ongoing, or IDW's Ironhide miniseries or Prime: Rage of the Dinobots. They exist, we are not sure why, and we will quickly forget them. They were not monumentally stupid and terrible written like Micromasters, or terrible drawn like any of the "...ity" series from Ramondelli... Or Micromasters. But they were also not astounding or memorable, they were just... there. Certainly I cannot mention them on the same level as The Gathering, which I remember and revisit to this day - and it even made me buy Tripredacus Agent so I can mistransform him and put him among my Ravage collection.

Yeah, the BW toy universe is huge and there are a lot of characters to choose from. It is the series least in need for inventing new characters out of nowhere. Even the TV show used existing toy characters for the Tripredacus council when they needed some new ones to throw in (and even though they could not reproduce them properly with that budget).

Thing is, that is exactly what Beast Wars II did with the Insectrons. They have a Maximal/Cybertron logo, and they sometimes help them out, but overall they are their own faction who basically quit the war, and came to Gaia to escape fighting and be left alone. Initially they are hostile to both groups and were even tricked into fighting the Maximals by Starscream. So, they could have been used for this role easily.

I don't think Gathering was rushed. Magmatron's defeat was quick, yes, but it had to be, none of the Maximals was on the same power level as this guy and they had to "cheat" and use their brains to beat him. And we all knew he would be back.
Agreed that the many new characters often were same-y, but even so, guys like Razorbeast, Snarl, Grimlock, Ravage, B'Boom and Drill Bit stand out and got their own voice.
I feel we lost out by this comic not having been followed by an ongoing BW comic right away, which I feel was the original plan. But likely by then Chris Ryall decided to axe all of Furman's comics so like the 4th '...ion" arc of the main G1 comics was split and condensed into 4 Spotlights, so was Ascending, trying to quickly wrap up a world- ending threat that was likely supposed to be the very end of an ongoing comic.

 

Does this take place before, during or after the current TF run?

 

Most likely a different universe entirely.

 

Damn.