Transformers: Beast Wars: The Gathering #1

Credits

Writer - Simon Furman / Art - Don Figuroa / Letters - Tom B. Long / Colors - Josh Burcham

Story

Recapping the events of the first two seasons of the Beast Wars television show, Magmatron leads a Predacon strike team to prehistoric Earth via a Trans-warp portal. Ordering Razorbeast to prepare a transmitter array, Magmatron sends his other Predacons to find unopened stasis pods for observation. Drill Bit panics at the appearance of Depth Charge, but Magmatron waves him down; the new arrivals are temporally-shifted, rendering them invisible to the other Transformers on the planet.

"The Maximals will disavow any knowledge of your mission, but you're not Tom Cruise!"

In flashback, we see Magmatron as he was on Cybertron, building dissent among the Predacon ranks against the overcautious leadership of the Tri-Predacus Council. Though the Council has assigned Magmatron to monitor Maximal communications, they are unaware that he is secretly in league with Ravage on his mission to capture Megatron. And as Razorbeast fends off Magmatron's impatience, we learn that he is actually an undercover Maximal agent, sent by Lioconvoy on an unsanctioned mission to discover what the Predacon's plans are...

On Magmatron's order, Razorbeast activates a pan-global activation pulse that blankets the planet, and the other Predacon spotters report in -- the planet's remaining stasis pods are being activated, and their protoform passengers are being reprogramming them into Predacons! Magmatron's victory is short-lived, however, as Spittor reports that his subject has awakened as an irate Maximal! His subterfuge revealed, Razorbeast immediately transforms and runs off, while the other Predacons react to the sudden influx of newly-formed Maximals.

From a nearby clifftop, Razorbeast releases a thunderous roar to rally the new Maximals to his side. In response, Magmatron transforms into his own triple-dinosaur form, and orders his Predacons to retaliate in kind...

Notes and Comments

• The text of the inside front cover reads:

The Beast Wars:

A time-lost series of conflicts on prehistoric day Earth, heroic Maximals pitted against evil Predacons. Now, as one strand of the Beast Wars rages on, another is just beginning. Anxious to curtail the chaotic machinations of rogue Predacon Megatron, the Tri-Predacus Council on Cybertron undertakes to return him to the fold. But their field agent of choice, Magmatron, hasother [sic] ideas.

The gathering has begun...