Comics Bon-Bon Beast Wars Metals Manga Summaries - March 2000 Reminder to those coming in late, the manga storylines are inspired by the show (in this case, dubbing of the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Beast Wars), but often go off on their own tangents to explain things, since they only have 7-10 installments to work with. New elements here may reflect aspects of the show in Japan, or may be completely new to the manga. The manga kicks ahead to the Ark big-time this issue, so a lot of character name variants will appear. Here's a key to who I will be calling what: Convoy - Original G1 Optimus Prime Metal Convoy - Transmetal Optimus Primal Megatron - Original G1 Megatron Megarex - Transmetal Megatron Megadrac - Transmetal II Megatron Page 1: Open on a wind-swept, snowy plain. Tigatron is in a bad way, having killed his beloved while under the control of Tarantulas. He cannot bear to ever see those hands again, hands that killed Airazor. So he comes to a momentous decision, and picks up his sword... Page 2: ...and runs himself through, committing suicide. Pages 2-3: Page and a half splash. Blackarachnia has found the unconscious form of Convoy, who dwarfs her quite easily. Having found this, she knows where and when this battle took place...they're on prehistoric Earth. Page 4: Megarex's head appears, confirming BA's hypothesis. As he comes into view, we see his head is being carried by Waspinator (who, in an ironic turn of events, is the only one who HASN'T been blown all to pieces so far, it seems). Turns out Megarex knew all along where his war had taken them all. Page 5: Megarex recounts the story of the old Cybertron and Destron battle over this planet. In flashback, we see Convoy kicking Megatron while Blaster looks on. Then the Ark crashes on Earth and lands in what is either lava, tar, or boiling water. Now Convoy sleeps... Page 6: And Megarex will make that sleep eternal! At his command, a number of weapons surround Convoy's body, although it's not clear if this is an Ark system Megarex is tapping into, or if they're flunkies that had been hiding out of sight. BA protests that if Megarex kills Convoy, Bad Things will happen. Page 7: BA leaps to try and stop Megarex, but finds out that his eyebeams still work, and she takes a pretty solid hit. Megarex returns to the gloating at hand, when suddenly... Page 8: ...he's snared in one of BA's webs! Turns out she wasn't as toasted as he thought. She then hurls his head into the lava or whatever while Waspinator just sort of stands there like a putz. BA comments that this should do the job of finally getting rid of Megarex. So he sinks into the inky darkness...and spots something! Page 9: Megarex's head is drifting down towards Megatron's body, which had been thrown out of the Ark when it crashed. He shouts a command of some sort, and a light comes on in Megatron's eyes...Megatron's chest opens up and Megarex's head enters it. Then there's a brilliant flare of light. Page 10: Up in orbit, Rampage drifts in the vacuum of space. A brilliant flare is visible on Earth below, and suddenly a beam lances upward and strikes crabcakes, blasting him to smithereens. This releases all the sparks Rampage has eaten, and is apparently part of Megarex's plan. Page 11: As sparks rain down, we see a silhouette, which is vaguely recognizable as Megadrac's robot mode (which has been altered some for the manga). Rather than return to their original Cybertron hosts, the sparks enter the bodies of fallen Destron warriors, bringing them back to a sort of zombie-like life. Terrorsaur, Quickstrike and Tarantulas rise.... Page 12: Back at the Cybertron base, which is near or inside an Easter Island style head, Rhinox and Rattrap have tapped into the security cameras aboard the Ark, and see Waspinator standing there. This is Bad. Metal Convoy is alerted and speeds towards the Ark. Page 13: Metal Convoy is attacked in quick succession by the revived Destron generals, who seem pretty hard to kill now. Where once he one-punched Terrorsaur, the Destron now takes a blow to the head with only cosmetic damage. Page 14-15: Two page spread. Metal Convoy struggles in a murky bog as the revived Destrons (the three generals and all the no-name gumbies) pile on. Page 16: A disembodied voice starts to speak. I'm going to guess here and say it's Megadrac telling Metal Convoy how doomed he is as all the Destrons attack. Whatever the words are, they serve to rev up Metal Convoy's fighting spirit, and he starts to seriously dismantle the revived troops. Page 17: Metal Convoy kicks skidplate. Page 18: Multi-Ape Fist Attack! Or something like that. Page 19: Whatever it was that Metal Convoy did on page 18, it's letting him launch giant fists to totally smash everyone. In seconds he's surrounded by falling Destron pieces. But there's another revived Destron approaching.... Page 20: Jaguar is back from the dead, and ready to rumble! Half his face is peeled away, but he doesn't seem to mind. And he has some new Big Frelling Guns, which he cha-CHUNKs dramatically. Page 21: Jaguar savors the moment, he has the momentarily drained Metal Convoy right where he wants him, and a contingient of gumbies backing him up. But...what's this he sees behind Metal Convoy? Page 22: Looks like Megadrac's plan had a hole in it, because it's not just Destrons being revived! Tigatron, sword still rammed through his gut, strides onto the scene! Page 23: Tigatron stands next to Metal Convoy. I'm guessing here, but I bet he says something like, "I do not know what has happened, but I have been given a second chance to redeem myself and my honor. Allow me to fight this one...it will bring either honor or death, and I welcome both." Then he "draws" his sword. Page 24: In his second full page spread in three pages, Tigatron poses dramatically with sword drawn and "blood" (oil) running down his body. Page 25: Jaguar opens up with Both Guns Blazing. Tigatron focuses his Chi and invokes a Whirlwind of Blades, his sword dancing through the air like a thing alive. Page 26: The bullets, all sliced neatly in half, fall to the ground. Jaguar looks down at them in disbelief. This is a fatal mistake, for when he looks back up it is to see Tigatron leaping at him, kicking both guns aside with a splits-kick. Then the sword comes down. Page 27: Jaguar is sliced in half, joining his bullets on the ground. Then, a figure we see only the foot of speaks, probably something to the effect of "Impressive, but you didn't really need to do that for me." Tigatron reacts with shock, because it's... Page 28: Airazor! The sword cut through her body is still there, but it looks like Megadrac's Spark-Rain brought her back too. Page 29: No time to waste, though, and Metal Convoy races into the Ark. To his great relief, Convoy is still intact, sleeping as history said he must. Page 30: Or not. BOOM. Convoy explodes into pieces, at the hands of one who was merely waiting for Metal Convoy to arrive so that his hopes could be dashed. From the wreckage strides... Page 31: Megadrac, the fusion of Megarex's mind and Megatron's body, in a new draconic form! Metal Convoy gets the last panel, with a "We're all gonna die" sort of look on his face. Dave Van Domelen, if ever a fight was meant for the Feng Shui Transformers crossover rules, Jaguar versus Tigatron (extended version, of course) is it....