IDW - Transformers: Beast Wars #17

Title: The End

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

Rhinox wakes up outside the Darksyde, where he finds the Maximals and Predacons fighting the Children of the Vok, with the latter clearly having the advantage due to their sheer numbers.

Through the battle, many personal battles and moments happen, until the Vok interrupt, and decide to kill all the Cybertronians due to their violent nature's (despite this battle being agreed to by them previously) and start disabling the Cybertronians, whilst preparing their reversion device to wipe out the planet's inhabitants, and start over again.

Meanwhile, Rattrap and Waspinator have been getting the Axalon's engines working, to enable it to fly at low heights, and Rattrap decides to weaponise the Transwarp engine since the Vok clearly seem to hate it.

Soon, the duo fly the Axalon to the battlefield and use their weaponised Transwarp engines to destabilise the Vok, seemingly destroying them.

In the aftermath, the Children of the Vok give up, seeing their gods as the monsters they truly were, and return to the wid, asking Optimus and the others to leave them alone.

Megatron takes the opportunity to attack Optimus from behind, but he gets blasted by Rattrap's Transwarp weapon. Since the Predacon isn't an energy monster though, he simply gets blasted a "few" cycles into the future, for them to deal with later.

Following the battle, Optimus offers the other Predacons amnesty and suggests they work together to get the Axalon working and return home to Cybertron, but they decline the offer, since without Megatron they would be used as scapegoats for his actions, since their crime was very public.

The Maximals leave to commence their repairs and to try and find Megatron, and the Predacons, now led by Blackarachnia, and joined by Inferno of the Children of the Vok, begin work on repairing the Darksyde, planning on using the Vok's weapon for spare parts...

114 cycles later, Megatron rematerialises in a cave, and begins plotting his revenge on the Maximals, and his plans to rule this world, now that the Vok are gone, and declares that the Beast Wars will not end until he wins, not noticing a large Protoform with an X on it in the cave too...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Rhinox - Rhino 

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Cheetor - Cheetah

Nyx - Bat

Rattrap - Rat

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex Exiled into near future by Rattrap

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Tarantulas - Tarantula On the Run from the Predacons

Zombie Terrorsaur - Pteranodon Destroyed by Rhinox 

Children of the Vok

Tigatron - White Tiger

Airazor - Falcon

Inferno - Fire Ant (Joins Predacons)

Polar Claw - Polar Bear

Saberback - Stegosaurus

Wolfang - Wolf

Cybershark - Hammerhead Shark

Armordillo - Armadillo

Snarl - Tasmanian Devil

Claw Jaw - Squid

Razorclaw - Fiddler Crab

Snapper - Snapping Turtle

Spittor - Frog

Transquito - Mosquito

Jetstorm - Dragonfly

Buzzsaw - Yellow Jacket 

Insecticon - Stag Beetle

Powerpinch - Earwig

Retrax - Pill Bug 

Vok

Pakak Destroyed by Transwarp Weapon

Tonrar Destroyed by Transwarp Weapon 

Tikaani Destroyed by Transwarp Weapon 

Other Cybertronian

Protoform X In statis Pod

Department of Justice (Mentioned)

Fallen Protoform Pods (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue marks the end of the IDW Beast Wars series. However the ending caption implies that the story may continue in the future, and even ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger...so...maybe the new publisher will be good to us?
• Dinobot mentions that the army gathered by the Vok are made from every other Protoform, but there doesn't seem to be enough for that to be the case, plus we clarly see the Protoform X pod in the cliffhanger.
• The new Children of the Vok we see this issue are made from the early figures of the original Beast Wars toyline.
• Polar Claw and Saberback are seen during the wide shots of the battle, but both of them died in issue 15...maybe they're just repaints?
• Something to note, the Children's eyes change from the green of the Vok to their normal colours after the Vok die, implying they may have been being mind controlled.
• We never learn who Tarantulas contacted on Cybertron...maybe it'll be picked up in a sequel series?
• Armordillo finally makes.his appearance, after being shown in the Beast Wars Annual...but he is just a one panel cameo, and possibly does offpanel from Megatron's blast.
• The floating islands around the planet are revealed to be weapons of the Vok's, the one shown here being a "reversion device", intended to wipe out all life from the planet, much like the Planet Buster from the cartoon. 
• This issue features a couple instances of fourth wall breaking, with the Vok wondering if another universe put their planet wiping devices on a moon and Waspinator commenting on how they can clearly hear the Vok, from outside the ship.
• Snapper appears in this issue, who was the basis for the new character for this series, Skold.
• Inferno joins the Predacons in the closing pages of this issue after losing his previous "queen's" (The Vok), much like he did in the cartoon, where he joined after his Pod was destroyed (he considered it his colony)
• Megatron got very lucky he wasn't transported a couple of cycles later, he may have rematerialized inside the wall of the cave he landed in. That would have been painful.
• The end of this issue includes letters from the main artist and writer for the series, which includes some hints at what plans for the series would have entailed, should it have had a longer life. (Though most of them honestly could still fit in a sequel series)

IDW - Transformers: Beast Wars #16

Title: The Beginning of the End

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Nathan Widick & Jake Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

The Maximals and Predacons work together to prepare for their upcoming battle with the Vok and their followers, with half of both crews being sent to the other ship to maximise their resources

On the Darksyde, Rhinox and Scorponok work together to attempt to repurpose the damaged Transwarp engine into a Transwarp communicator, but the engine's systems have been locked out, much to Scorponok's surprise.

Scorponok soon discovers that the lock-out is from Megatron's own codes, leading Megatron to realize that Tarantulas is behind this. The spider tries to deny it, but he quickly tries to escape, revealing that he betrayed them since the Vok promised all the secrets of the universe to him. Dinobot manages to skewer Tarantulas, but not kill him, so they can interrogate him...

At the Axalon, Cheetor and Blackarachnia work on preparing the weapons cache from the Axalon, with Blackarachnia wondering if they are in the wrong in thid situation, since they did technically invade the Vok's world, and they probably just lost patience with their interference.

Elsewhere on the ship, Nyx and Skold are working together to research weaponry that can disrupt energy-based creatures, like the Vok, when Skold realizes that unspace energies have been lingering in both ships, despite both engines being offline for some time now, giving them a clue.

Rattrap monitors Waspinator as he works on the Axalon's engines, and is astounded when the engine's reactivate. Waspinator admits that the engine's won't let them leave the atmosphere, but that they can take off now.

Nyx and Skold bring their discover to Optimus, which gives them a chance to take down the Vok. Optimus thanks Skold for her hard work, much to her shock, since the Predacons normally try to steal each others credit, but Nyx allows her to take her rightful credit.

The group are interrupted when a message comes from the Darksyde, through Unspace....

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron has repaired Tarantulas, and begins his interrogation of the traitor, but it is cut short, when Tarantulas triggers his newest project, the reanimated body of Terrorsaur, who quickly stuns Megatron, Rhinox and Dinobot, as Tarantulas intends to present them to the Vok.

Scorponok witnesses all of this on the security feed, and sends the message to the Axalon to warn them about what Tarantulas is doing.

After sending the message, Tarantulas sets Terrorsaur on the last Predacon, allowing him to devour him, to refuel himself.

Ignoring Scorponok's death screams, Tarantulas considers what to do now, and decides to send a message, using the new Unspace communicator to contact Cybertron, so they can send another Transwarp craft for him to escape on...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Dinobot - Velociraptor Captured by Tarantulas

Rhinox - Rhino Captured by Tarantulas

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

The Fallen Protoforms (Mentioned)

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex Captured by Tarantulas

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Scorponok - Scorpion Being Devoured by Terrorsaur

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Terrorsaur/Experiment ZT-Omega Zombified by Tarantulas

Tripredacus Council (Mentioned)

Other

Pakak (Image)

Tikaani (Image)

Tonrar (Image)

A Kremzeek (Mentioned) Dissected by Rhinox

Notes

• The first couple of pages of this comic were previewed in the Beast Wars annual.
• Despite being prominent on the cover, Tigatron doesn't appear in this issue.
• It's unclear how long Tarantulas has been working for the Vok, but it most likely started shortly after he saw their power readings, following Megatron's capture.
• Tarantulas being an agent of the Vok is an inversion of his role as a stark enemy of the Vok in the Beast Wars cartoon, which culminated in him being (seemingly) destroyed when he tried to steal their power from Tigerhawk.
• The restraining bolts used on the Predacons on the Axalon are pretty similar to the devices used to control droids from the Star Wars franchise.
• Skold is shown having a deductive mind this issue, being able to figure out how the Vok have been monitoring them, further showing that she is more than just muscle.
• Waspinator is revealed to actually have degrees in astromechanics, and even partially repairs the Axalon's engines within minutes, giving us an actual purpose to his role in Megatron's crew, rather than just being a bumbling soldier.
• Terrorsaur is revealed to have been turned into a zombie-like form, thanks to Tarantulas' experimentations.
• The message Scorponok sends to the Axalon was actually sent to the past, via unspace, so they would get a heads up for what Tarantulas is doing. This could explain the mystery Predacon message found in the Axalon's computers shortly after the ship crashed. Perhaps this message is the one that was being sent to Cybertron, but was sent to the Axalon pre-time travel in the past by accident?

IDW - Transformers: Beast Wars #15

Title: Children of the Vok

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Winston Chan

Colours by: Ellie Wright

Letters by: Nathan Widick & Jake Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

Optimus Primal and Megatron wake up in a cave, behind powerful forcefields, guarded by several unfamiliar Transformers, all of whom worship the Vok as god's, and order the other Transformers to either leave the planet, or go offline to stop tampering in the Vok's experiments.

After a while, Optimus figures out that the forcefields don't work when he is in beast mode, and manages to escape, forging a truce with Megatron to get to safety. The Vok witness this from subspace, and decide to test this new truce with an attack...

Outside, the two Transformers are ambushed by the Vok's followers, with Megatron quickly killing Polar Claw and Saberback in the process.

Soon, one of the Vok, Palak possesses the dead body of Polar Claw, and orders the fighting to stop, and demands for them to pay for all the damage they have done to the Vok's experiments. Optimus tries to explain what happened, and how they arrived on the planet by accident, but Megatron simply blasts the corpse of Polar Claw, to show that the Vok are not truly gods.

Unfortunately for Megatron, the Vok decide to reveal their true forms following this, terrifying the Predacon leader, and they proceed to attempt to snuff out Megatron's spark. Optimus stops them, stating that he needs to be tried for his crimes, and not just murdered, shocking the Vok.

Optimus suggests that they could learn more about the Transformers by having the Maximals and Predacons join forces to face off with their Children, which intrigues the curious gods, they give them seven cycles to prepare themselves, but neither group really believe the normal Transformers have a chance at defeating gods...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Tarantulas - Tarantula (Mentioned)

Children of the Vok

Tigatron - White Tiger

Airazor - Falcon

Inferno - Fire Ant

Polar Claw - Polar Bear Killed by Megatron

Saberback - Stegosaurus Killed by Megatron

Vok

Tonrar

Tikaani

Pakak

Notes

• Still no sign of Armordillo, who was revealed in the Annual special backmatter...maybe he's just another one of the Vok's many kids?
• Optimus is shown to still be under the effects of the Red Energon at the start of this issue, but quickly gets through its effects within a couple of pages...was there really no point to that plot line?
• On the subject of the red Energon, the Vok are angry that the Transformers tampered with it in the first place...but they clearly left it in an open field, which must have been relatively close to the Predacon base...what did they think would happen?
• Joining Polar Claw and Saberback as Children of the Vok are Tigatron, Airazor and Inferno, The remaining three major characters from the Beast Wars cartoon's Season One, who haven't otherwise appeared in the series yet.
• The forcefields not working on Transformers in their beast modes is quite similar to the Vehicon scanners not picking up on the Maximals in beast mode in the Beast Machines cartoon.
• The end of this issue, with the Maximals and Predacons being forced to join forces to face off against the Vok, was spoiled in the preview for issue 16 in the Annual, which was released before this issue came out.

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.

IDW - Transformers: Beast Wars #13

Title: The Speedway of Central Consciousness

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Winston Chan

Colours by: Sidvenblu

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

The Maximals and Predacons battle it out on an Energon crystal field, but at one point an errant blast hits one of the crystals, knocking out Cheetor...

Cheetor wakes up on Cybertron, before the launch of the Axalon, but still remembers the events of the Beast Wars. Upon waking up, he is asked by multiple people about how Protoforms are modified, confusing the former racer, but eventually he remembers the explosion, and thinks that he's just dreaming following the trauma.

Soon, one of the Vok, Pakak, appears before him in a dark version of his own form and tries to force him to give up the information for him to use on the Protoforms in the real world, since he cannot unlock the information, for now. During his torture, Cheetor realizes that Palak needs him to live to get the information, which further infuriates Pakak.

The Vok offers Cheetor a deal, if he can win in a race against him, he will be awoken, but if Cheetor loses, he has to give up the information. Cheetor agrees, but soon regrets it when Pakak changes his form to Blurr's, the greatest racer in history.

After a close race, Cheetor manages to win, but Pakak reveals that he didn't care, as their race was along circuitry inside of Cheetor's own mind, allowing him to access the information he wanted. Pakak still frees Cheetor from his mind as a reward to winning, but causes a hard reboot of his systems upon reawakening, just after Cheetor mentions the word "Vok" to Optimus Primal and Rhinox, before returning to Subspace for their master plan with the Protoforms...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Cheetor - Cheetah (Race Car in Dream)

Rhinox - Rhino

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Dinobot - Velociraptor

CatSCAN - Car (Dream Only)

Science Ministry (Mentioned)

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Skorponok - Scorpion

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Waspinator - Wasp 

Vok

Pakak - Cheetah (as Cheetor), Race Car (as Blurr)

Other Vok (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cheetor's Fans (Dream Only)

Random Cybertronians (Dream Only)

Blurr - Race Car (Disguise Used in Dream) Implied Dead

Other Racers (Flashback Only)

Afterburner - Speedbike (Mentioned) Implied Dead

Rev (Mentioned)

Crashed Protorform Pods (Mentioned)

Notes

• CatSCAN's design is based on a version of the Transtech version of Cheetor, rather than using Cheetor's Cybertronian node from this series, to better differentiate the characters this issue.
• The shorter of Cheetor's fans seems to use a modified version of Swerve's Titans Return design.
• I really hope we get a Pakak repaint of Cheetor from his appearance this issue... They could just call him Nemesis Cheetor for marketing if they need to!
• Pakak indirectly mentions that Blurr is dead by the present day in this issue. Similarly, an "Afterburner Memorial Speedway" implies that the Technobot is dead too.
• The "Tiwaz Maneuver" mentioned a few times this issue is just a red herring, from Cheetor's days as an athlete, but due to its repeated use, I'm going to guess it'll reappear later in the series.

IDW - Beast Wars #12

Title: Maximals Strike Back, Part 3

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

The Maximals and Predacons continue their fights inside and out of the Darksyde.

Nyx manages to disable the Transwarp engine, and also knock out Tarantulas. Rattrap calls her for help when Megatron's room locks itself up, with him on the inside, having stolen the Golden Disk.

Outside, Cheetor manages to knock out Scorponok and handles Blackarachnia.

Skold, angry that the Maximals brought Razorbeast here, leading to his death, fights with Rhinox, who refuses to fight back, seeing that she is upset.

Dinobot gets attacked by Waspinator, wanting revenge for Terrorsaur's death, but Dinobot blasts him away.

Optimus and Megatron continue their battle, but when Nyx requests assistance in freeing Rattrap, he gives up on the rise, and finishes off Megatron, leaving him beaten down on the ground in shock.

Blackarachnia abandons the battle seeing her leader was defeated, and Skold gives up on her one sided fight with Rhinox...

Inside the ship, Optimus manages to free Rattrap, and they, aloh with Nyx, try leavib this ship, only to encounter a forcefield.

Megatron gloats that he'll keep them there until he can be repaired in a CR Chamber, so he can kill them all.

Unfortunately for him though, Optimus threatens to destroy the disk if he doesn't let them go, and without their Transwarp drive they can't even leave the planet. 

Megatron is forced to let them go, but swears to not rest now until Optimus is dead...

The Maximals head into the shuttle, where Rattrap reveals he made a copy of the contents of the disk, so they can study it too.

Later, Tarantulas has collected Terrorsaur's corpse, and starts experimenting on it...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Rhinox - Rhino

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Razorbeast - Wild Boar (Mentioned) Dead

Maximal Command (Mentioned)

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Scorponok - Scorpion

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon Dead, Corpse being Experimented on

Rhinox's Old Friends (Mentioned) Some Dead

Other

"The Ones Before" (Mentioned)

Muhammad Ali (Mentioned)

Notes

• The roll call page this issue has been updated with crosses over the Terrorsaur and Razorbeast, due to their deaths last issue.
• Megatron's beast mode head gets stripped of its artificial skin, revealing a head based on Animated Grimlock's
• Blackarachnia  comments that she may have to switch allegiances after Megatron lost to Optimus. Her switching sides was one of her major plot lines in the original Beast Wars cartoon.
• Rhinox references that he had friends amongst the Predacons back on Cybertron, including some he even loved. We previously have heard from him that not all Predacons are evil, and that the two factions have had working relationships for centuries. It's even possible that he was the one to have that Predacon transmission that was briefly mentioned early in the series.
• Megatron had a forcefield generator set up inside the Darksyde, inspired by the Maximals using theirs to keep them at bay earlier.
• Rattrap is shown to have made a copy of the Golden Disk for them to analyse. This must have happened when he lingered in Megatron's room after retrieving it.
• Tarantulas previously told Terrorsaur that he wanted him to stay in one piece, so he had more parts for his experiments. My guess would be that we'll see something like his Transmetal form come from these experiments.
• Terrorsaur's spark isn't seen with his body during the end scene, implying it either was taken (possibly by the Vok) or just simply extinguished without a body to house it.

IDW - Beast War #11

Title: Maximals Strike Back, Part 2

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

Megatron is alerted to the Maximal's attack on the Darksyde, and leaves the ship to join the battle, only to get quickly ambushed by Dinobot, who wants revenge for his ambush and injuries in the past.

With most of the Predacons out, Rattrap, Cheetor and Nyx sneak into the Darksyde for their own missions.

Cheetor finds and attacks Blackarachnia, while Nyx makes her way to the engine room, to try and disable it, when Tarantulas attacks her, leading the two to fight again too.

Rattrap eventually finds Megatron's room, where he locates the Golden Disk, but thinks it might be trapped in some way, so he spends some time analysing the device holding it.

Outside, the other Maximals are fighting with the Predacons, with the Maximals only going for non-killing blows. Eventually, Razorbeast explains this to his Predacons friend, Skold, and says that they just want to recover the Golden Disk, when he is launched into the air by Terrorsaur, who leads him to one of the strange floating islands nearby, and drips him onto some volatile Energon crystals, causing them to detonate and seemingly kill the Maximal, devastating Skold.

Whilst fighting with Dinobot, Megatron notices that he's favouring his right side during their fight, meaning he's still injured from the previous fight, giving him the edge. Megatron prepares to kill his former soldier, when Optimus appears, and challenges Megatron himself.

Whilst everyone else continues their own fights, Terrorsaur reappears to Skold, and starts belittling Razorbeast and herself, causing Skold to snap. She tears Terrorsaur's spark out of his chest, leaving his body limp and turning grey, discarding the spark afterwards, simply saying that she always hated him...

Afterwards Skold finds an injured Waspinator, and says that they just lost Terrorsaur. Waspinator misunderstands that to mean that the Maximals killed him, and decalres that he'll avenge their friend, but Skold doesn't correct him, thinking about Razorbeast....

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Rhinox - Rhino

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Razorbeast - Wild Boar Seemingly Killed by Terrorsaur

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Scorponok - Scorpion

Waspinator - Wasp

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon Spark Torn from Body by Skold

Notes

• Megatron's rubber ducky appears to have regenerative powers, as it is shown healed from its destruction by the end of the issue.
• Okay, so after praising the series for not sidelining Razorbeast last issue, they seemingly kill him off this one...
• Terrorsaur's death is quite ironic too, since his new Kingdom toy is due out soon...I wonder if he'll come with a detachable Spark too?
• It's possible that Razorbeast and Terrorsaur could be revived in some way, since we've seen bots survive having their sparks removed in the past, and we never actually see Razorbeast getting killed, only an explosion...I think we may be looking at two of the Vok's future experiments...

IDW - Beast Wars #10

Title: Maximals Strike Back, Part 1

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

After being on the defensive since they crashed on this planet, the Maximals are preparing for their strike on the Predacons. 

Dinobot uses this opportunity to explain how the Predacons came into possession of the Golden Disk, after it was discovered by the Science Ministry from the abandoned Voyager probe, and somehow became irradiated with Unspace energy, scaring them, leading them to try and hide it, but one of their members, Reptilion, betrays them to Galavar, who now goes by the name Megatron...

Dinobot further explains that Megatron used the disk to find the coordinates to this planet, to collect its massive cache of Energon for his conquest plans, and now Dinobot is concerned that the other files on the disk may be true too...

The Maximals have refitted an escape pod so they can use it as a shuttle, so they can attack the Predacons from the air. Optimus give out the missions, Dinobot and Nux are to infiltrate the Darksyde to try and take out the Transwarp engines, to stop them from potentially escaping in the future, while Rattrap goes to steal the disk, the rest of the team are to distract the Predacons in battle from the outside.

The bulk of the Predacons are outside the Darksyde training, when Terrorsaur starts voicing his complaints about their methods, and wants to go after the Maximals, angering Megatron, who attempts to kill the treacherous Predacon, but is stopped by Tarantulas, who sees killing him as a waste of resources. They still need fliers after all, and he'd be no use as spare parts if he is destroyed! Megatron agrees, and skulks away...

The Maximals launch their missiles towards the Predacons, who are forced to duck by Waspinator, who hears the missiles approaching. Before they can arm up however, Optimus Primal arrives, ready to fight, and asking where Megatron is...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Rhinox - Rhino

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Razorbeast - Wild Boar

Botanica - Car (Flashback)

Labrat - Motorcycle (Flashback)

Ironhide - Treaded Vehicle (Mentioned)

Predacon

Megatron/Galavar - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Formerly Tank)

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Waspinator - Wasp

Scorponok - Scorpion

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Reptilion - Jet (Flashback)

Other Cybertronian

Wheeljack - Race Car (Flashback)

Landquake - Armoured Plough (Flashback)

Cybertronian Civilians (Flashback)

Box - Shuttle (Mentioned)

Primal's Old Commander (Mentioned)

Sharkticons (Mentioned)

Notes

• Oh...Razorbeast is up and about already! I guess his injuries weren't that serious after all! 
• The Wheeljack seen in the flashback seems to use the Animated character model of the character, but the statues seen in issue one were closer to his current G1 comic model. So maybe this is some new character who just resembles him, or has appropriated his name (like with Optimus and Megatron)
• Botanica appears to be using a modified version of the POTP female Autobot mould during her brief cameo.
• If the Wheeljack seen in the flashback IS the Autobot character, then either the Maximals are the same size as their predecessors (like in the Kingdom cartoon) or Wheeljack downgraded into a new, smaller body. I guess we'll see later down the line :) 
• The Maximals are shown to have mugshots of most of the Predacons on file (we don't see Scorponok, but he could be behind the speech bubble). Oddly though, they have one for Blackarachnia...when did they get this photo exactly?
• Waspinator being familiar with the sound of missiles, and panicking to protect his teammates from them is a nod to his usual date of blowing up in the original cartoon (though I'm assuming it'll have a bigger meaning later in the series too)

IDW - Beast Wars #8

Title: Pod, Part 2

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Winston Chan

Colours by: Sidvenblu

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

The Maximals receive an abruptly cut off message from Cheetor, calling for help, so they hunt him down in the halls of the Axalon, where they find him hung up in an Energon web, having been left there by Blackarachnia. 

The crew split up to hunt down the new Predacon, who is in the control room, trying to download the Axalon's database. Realizing that the Maximals are going to find her soon though, she cancels the download, and starts uploading a copy of her Predacon shell program to the still orbiting stasis pods.

Rhinox soon finds her, so she disconnects and starts the process to force the pods to descend, forcing Rhinox to stay behind to try and salvage their stranded crew members. He reports what's happened to the rest of the crew, who are still split up across the ship.

Eventually, Blackarachnia breaks out of the ship and tries to head to the Darksyde, but is attacked by Cheetor, though she tricks him into believing that she has set multiple traps in the Axalon, causing him to run back inside to try and save his friends...

Later, Rhinox reports that more than half of the pods have been affected by this code, which implants the most aggressive Predacon traits into the recipient, changing their loyalties in the process, and there is no way to know who is infected until they emerge from their pods, which are still descending.

Optimus now decides that this is too far, and declares that they are going to go after the Predacons more aggressively now...

Blackarachnia soon sneaks into the Darksyde, where she finds Tarantulas, who attempts to make her bow to him as his servant, but she states that command didn't go through on the code. Tarantulas still considers this a victory however, and plans to connect to the rest of the pods as soon as he can,but Blackarachnia simply tells him that she has wonderful news then....

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Cheetor - Cheetah

Rhinox - Rhino

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Orbiting Protoforms 51% affected by Predacon code, all pods Descending

Predacon

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Tarantulas - Tarantula

Waspinator - Wasp

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Mentioned)

Notes

• Rhinox reports that just over half of the orbiting pods have been affected by the Shell Program code. This is somewhat ironic since the Kingdom toyline, which most of the character models this issue are based on, has much less Predacon characters than Maximals.
• Blackarachnia's plan to send the code to all the inactive pods and half being converted into Predacons is actually pretty similar to the plot of the Gathering, the previous IDW Beast Wars comic series, where Razorbeast corrupted Magmatron's code, which kept half of the pods as Maximals instead of Predacons.
• Blackarachnia's code was supposed to be cause her to be subservient to Tarantulas, but that part of it failed to upload, most likely due to Rattrap interrupting the programming last issue.
• Waspinator has a teddy bear that he sleeps with, and much like Megatron's rubber ducky, it has metallic details.

IDW - Beast Wars #7

Title: Pod, Part 1

Written by: Erik Burnham

Art by: Winston Chan

Colours by: Sidvenblu

Letters by: Jake M. Wood

Assistant Editor: Riley Farmer

Editor: Jazmine Joyner

Supervising Editor: David Mariotte

Plot

Dinobot has been welcomed into the Maximals, and during his recovery time, following his previous beating from the Predacons, he is sparring with Optimus, and giving the crew intel on the other Predacons.

At the Darksyde, Megatron finally decrypts another part of the golden disk, but is shocked to see that it is part of a warning from himself, but it is corrupted before he can rewatch it.

The other Predacons go on an Energon run as their stores are running low, and they split up for the job.

In orbit, one of the stasis pods receives a signal, and begins falling to the planet's surface.

Blackarachnia soon wakes up from the pod, and starts exploring the area, after beginning a download of a code update that she has been sent.

The Maximal explorer manages to get away from a crocodile creature, and detects a Cybertonian ship's signal nearby, so she heads toward it. She soon finds the Axalon and walks right through the protective shields, and intends to introduce herself to her fellow Maximals...just as the update completes and she becomes a Predacon!

The new Predacon hides in the corridor, having heard the Maximals talking in a room, soon, she is encountered by Cheetor, who just thinks she is a confused Maximal, until she shoots him with cyber venom, paralyzing him as he tries to call for help...

Characters

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Dinobot - Velociraptor

Rhinox - Rhino

Cheetor - Cheetah Paralyzed by Blackarachnia

Rattrap - Rat

Nyx - Bat

Predacon

Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Blackarachnia - Black Widow Spider

Scorponok - Scorpion

Terrorsaur - Pteranodon

Waspinator - Wasp

Skold - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Taranulas - Tarantula (Mentioned)

Other

Crocodile Creature Killed by Blackarachnia

Notes

• This issue marks the start of this series' second storyarc. It features a new art style, but this style is only planned to last for this arc, and will return afterwards.
• The character models in this arc are much more based on their Kingdom character models, where available, rather than the hyper stylised versions before.
• Dinobot is still scarred from his back stabbing from Tarantulas last issue.
• Dinobot's been added to the Maximal's safe passage list for the Axalon's shields, allowing him to pass through it, unlike last issue.
• Megatron briefly sees a message from himself from the future commenting that something will doom them all, but that the transwarp drive can do something to save them.
• Taranulas' tampering last issue is explained here. He was sending an update program to the Stasis Pods that uploads a shell program that turns the Maximal Protoform into a Predacon. We can assume that others were also affected, but most likely not all of them, since Tarantulas bwas interrupted by Rattrap, plus some covers have shown at least Airazor as a character in the future.
• The only real difference between Maximal and Predacon Blackarachnia are the colours of her eyes, green for a Maximal and red for a Predacon. However, her eyes are supposed to be black...
• Despite being mentioned a few times, him stabbing Dinobot, and his tampering being a main plot this issue, Tarantulas doesn't actually appear in the story.