IDW - Transformers: Beast Wars #14

Title: Primal Rage

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

Waspinator and Scorponok locate some strange Energon, and fight off some aggressive beasts in the process.

When the Energon is brought back to the Darksyde, Tarantulas discovers that the Energon itself is what caused the aggression in the beasts, but for some reason it doesn't seem to affect the Predacons, giving Megatron an idea...

Later, Optimus and Dinobot are out positioning some new sensors, when Tarantulas and Blackarachnia attack, placing a strange device on Dinobot's beast mode back, and leave. Optimus tries to remove the device, but it detonates, knocking him out.

Later still, Optimus wakes up on the Axalon, but is shown to have become exceptionally aggressive to everyone, which Rhinox and Dinobot quickly realize must be an effect of the device, with Dinobot even suggesting that his Predacon heritage, and constant suppression of hatred for his past crew has just made him resistant to the effects.

Optimus stomps through the halls of the ship, and assaults the rest of the crew for their past failures and personality faults. Soon, Dinobot breaks up the fight, and suggests to Optimus to use his current rage to go after Megatron and take him out, rather than going after his own crew, which he agrees to, and leaves to kill the Predacon leader, with the Maximals just hoping he recovers from his affliction before he goes too far.

At the Darksyde, Megatron is trying to repair the engine damage caused during the Maximal's recent attack, when Waspinator appears and tells him that he has captured a Maximal, and wants Megatron to come to it, in order to kill him himself. Megatron follows, but finds no Maximals, then realizes that Waspinator's voice sounds different. "Waspinator" attacks Megatron, and knocks him out, revealing himself to be Saberback, and reports to his bosses that Megatron has been captured.

Elsewhere, Optimus is on his way to kill Megatron, when he is attacked by Polar Claw, who manages to knock him out too, capturing him for his leaders too...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla Captured by Polar Claw

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Rhinox - Rhino 

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat 

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex Captured by Saberback

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Scorponok - Scorpion

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Children of the Vok

Polar Claw - Polar Bear

Saberback - Stegosaurus

Other

Hammerhead Cats Defeated by Scorponok and Waspinator

"Gods" (Mentioned, very likely the Vok)

Notes

• Though not outright named here, the "god's" Polar Claw references are most likely the Vok, who have managed to figure out how to rewrite the Protoform Pods to serve them.
• The strange Energon found found this issue somewhat resembles red Kryptonite, in both effect and appearance.
• Saberback was one of the Predacons introduced in the Beast Wars Neo cartoon and toyline. Whilst probably just a coincidence, one of the sub gimmicks of that line's Predacons, was a "trap" or disguise mode, which Saberback does both this issue, he disguises as Waspinator, and traps Megatron.
• Polar Claw's appearance here could be a major holdover of the early plan for the Kingdom toyline, which originally featured Polar Claw as one of the seemingly planned figures.
• Polar Claw's speech patterns somewhat resembles Death's Head's speech, a character partly created by Simon Furman, who is known for loving Polar Bears, and being the writer for the previous IDW Beast Wars comic series.