| Beast Wars has a huge impact to the Transformers brand what made it relevant following the end of Generation One. It solidified in the collective consciousness that continues to evolve and cater to the next generation. The 1990s ushered something unexpected though for some G1 fans a bit controversial that became a heated debated in the online forums. But these days it’s all about adoration for the brand’s long standing history that propelled Transformers as a beloved franchise.
That doesn’t say there will be haters and those still have disdain for this part of the brand’s history, but without Beast Wars the techno babble and toy design won’t make the present toyline like the War for Cybertron Trilogy a popular product in the toy shelves. In hindsight after Beast Machines, the Beast Era never really disappeared as Hasbro slowly tested the waters of interest putting a 10th Anniversary re-release of popular classic characters from that series in 2005, and had produced one-off characters by some of the crew from Axalon with Cheetor in Transformers Universe 2.0 (2008), Rhinox and Rattrap in Generations (2013/2014), and representing Black Arachnia as a different character in TF Animated (2007/2008) show they were around in other shape of form. |
But by the late 2010s Hasbro and Takara Tomy slowy continue to include Optimus Primal in the Prime Wars Trilogy in the later part of the series shows there’s more to come. With War for Cybertron Trilogy’s Kingdom, the Beast Wars characters play a key part in this side of the narrative. In the comics, Beast Wars was around too as part of the TV series side stories in The Gathering and The Ascending written by Simon Furman and art by Don Figureroa.
After 25 years Beast Wars is still strong with the 1990s nostalgia and so IDW Publishing has rebooted it into a new series a fresh take retelling of the very first episode with a new creative and a couple of ‘exclusive only’ characters.
SPOILER WARNING: Some scenes and content of the comicbook will be revealed in this issue. If you haven’t picked a copy, the best advice is to avoid reading the complete article. But if you’re ‘okay’ with the revelations please proceed!
Erik Burnham and Josh Burcham lead the creative team with Letterer Jake M. Wood in the fresh take of the new Beast Wars series that was released recently. It takes you deep into the mythology about the familiar faces fleshed out with their backstories as well as their reason of becoming who they are. There are so much revelation unpacked in the first few pages that Burnham weaves into the narrative that wasn’t revealed in the original series.
The revelation of who was Megatron (yesss, that Beast Megatron) before and what his original name is revealed in this comicbook to be GALAVAR. It gets intense from the revelation and what he has in mind with the Golden Disk, which was the mysterious object that has been playing a big part of the series. Of course, long-time fans who have watched the entirety of the original broadcast of the show on television have shown what that artifact holds that connects Beast Wars to its predecessor.
Exclusive Comicbook Characters
Even prior to its publication release Beast Wars was already being teased with new characters that are based from pre-existing “non-show” toys represented or re-branded as new characters added to the narrative and what they’re role in this retelling of the Beast Wars. This was some of the highlights of the new series with renewed look on the story as well as adding two new characters.
Nyx and Scold obviously based on the Basic Class assortment of the “Bat” Optimus Primal (from the two-pack with “Crocodile” Megatron) and “Evil in a Half Shell” Snapper with designs by Josh Burcham.
Speaking of Josh Burcham, if you have come across his name before then you’d be surprised that he also had a hand in working with the previous Beast Wars titles (The Gathering/The Ascending) as its colorist to Don Fugueroa’s pencils. This time around he is the main artist and the take on his art style also has the “Transformers Animated” vibe with its teaser reveals prior to its release.
There are some deep cuts that takes you back to the very first episode of Beast Wars, but also adds more layers to the familiar characters like Megatron and who he was known before. It also gives you a look at his agenda and why he has gone rogue from the Tripredacus Council. Though this is just the first issue surely there’s more than meets the eye what to look forward to in the next few issues.
For now, this is something to look forward to those fans who have grown up watching the series, and for those just recently got into the toys via WFC Kingdom this is a good starting point to catch up on reading the series aside from re-watching the now-classic episodes that re-defined Transformers in a whole new way.
Overall Beast Wars #1 is something to look forward to about a retelling of the classic CG animated series in more detail that has more revelations of the familiar characters and who they were before. Beast Megatron was Galavar, hopefully there will be more back stories fleshed out on David Kaye’s character and yesss it is so good to terrorize!
NEXT: Beast Wars #2: Savage Landing Part 2
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