IDW - Beast Wars #3

Title: Savage Landing, Part 3

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: David Mariotte

Supervising Editor: Tom Waltz

Plot

Nyx has been brought to the Predacon's crashed ship, the Darksyde, and is strapped to an interrogation table, where she is grilled for information on the Maximal ship and how many there are on the planet. During the interrogation, Dinobot gets distressed, and even forces them to stop when they almost kill her by putting the electrical charge to maximum. However, Tarantulas deduces through her silence that there must be more Maximals, or she wouldn't be trying so hard to protect them.

On the Axalon, Cheetor is getting worried about Nyx still being missing, but Primal says that she probably got lost, and they should wait until the morning to find her, so they don't get lost too. They also start making plans to use the stasis pods in orbit to help enhance their scanning and communications feed across the planet.

As a reward for his interrogation, Megatron allows Tarantulas to experiment on Nyx, and he uses an experimental device in her, that forces her to stay in robot mode, which will slowly kill her, due to the planet's Energon radiation. The Predacons shoot at her to toy with her, but Dinobot betrays them, but destroying the device, allowing the weakened Nyx to finally transform.

The Predacons turn on Dinobot, and he manages to knock them all back, and traps them in the Darksyde using a lockdown program, which the Predacons will need to reset the computers to reverse...

Megatron however is impressed by how flawless Dinobot's betrayal was...but, he promises to kill him for his actions...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Rhinox - Rhino

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat Injured by the Predacons

Maximal Protoforms (Mentioned) In Orbit

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dinobot - Velociraptor On Run, after betraying Predacons

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Waspinator - Wasp

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon 

Scorponok - Scorpion

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Decepticon

Megatron (Mentioned)

Notes

• The Darksyde is finally named on panel this issue. It's still unclear if that is the ship's official name, or one renamed by the Predacons who stole it.
• Nyx mentions that the original Megatron is mostly forgotten to history, something that was shown a lot in the original cartoon, where most of the G1 characters were considered legends, even to the point that the Predacons didn't know about Starscream's traitorous nature.
• The device used by Tarantulas to mode-lock Nyx is based on the Transformation Lock Lens from the original cartoon, however that version forced the victim into their beast mode, the exact opposite of this version.
• Dinobot's betrayal of the Predacons is a little more pronounced in this version of the story, in the cartoon he basically just tried to revolt against Megatron because he thought they were brought to the wrong planet, here, he outright attacks the other Predacons and frees their Maximal prisoner.
• Nyx's alternate mode is constantly referee to as "alt-mode" here, rather than "Beast mode" like in the cartoon and previous comics, this is most likely due to trademarking reasons.
• Skold is mentioned as being "young" this issue, possibly a reference to her being created for this series, much like Nyx.