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STL
24th December 2008, 10:50 PM
Couldn't find a thread for this so :

I finished this early this week after I jarred my knee pretty badly and I had to say I really really liked it. Razorbeast is a favourite of mine now and I'm going to have to track down the toy. Drat. What I particularly like was how the story flowed so well and yet exposed us to the new BWs without dabbling in the little detail. It gave us new characters to care about and be interested in. Snarl and Optimus Minor are the two that come to mine. Oh and definitely Polar Claw too. I've put off getting him for a while and forgotten about BWs but he's most certainly on the to get list year.

Magmatron felt a bit straight forward. Another version of BW Megatron but I didn't mind. I think that they eventually clashed was nice to give a unique identity on them.

The art was great and Ioved the panel with Lio Convoy and Razorbeast on Cybertron especially. Its a very strong panel and it makes me want to dig out my Lio Convoy.

The plot and writing was well done too and I think it benefited greatly from just being written as a mini-series with a defined end but at least an opening for a sequel. There was a lot to like about it and a lot of moments that surprised and delighted like Grimlock suddenly appearing. Though the issue of scale comes to mind b/c Grimlock is based on the Dinobot mold iirc and he's massive compared to the others though if compared the toys that's not quite the case. Not that it bothered me though (other than wondering when I'd go and get one of them). ;)

My only misgiving was I was hoping for more of the BW characters we know and love from the cartoon. It would've been great to see more of them and the dialogue of BW Megatron was great too, I could hear him in my head saying those exact lines.

This was a winner for me and I really look forward to grabbing the Ascending trade in February when my financial position is a lot more rosy.

What were other people's thoughts? It hasn't been mentioned much and all I really recall is Paulbot telling me it was disappointing and trying not to spoil me for which I'm grateful for b/c it was a whole new discovery.

Golden Phoenix
24th December 2008, 11:09 PM
I loved it. I originally read it in the Manga form while in [stirke]a library[/strike] Borders
Went out and found the trade months ago, it was a good read. I did like it when they introduced Grimlock back into the story, and some of the Maximals were all like "The Grimlock?!?!" kind of gave the star shock. Also a nice link back to the G1 roots.

Oh and yeah, Leo Convoy looks great. Just wish they had some picks of his vehicle mode. That would have been cool.

As for the Ascending. I found it a little bit disappointing compared to the Gathering. I found the ending was as satisfying...

jacksplatt11
24th December 2008, 11:09 PM
I really enjoyed both Gathering and Ascending. Great story and great art from my fav of the modern TF artists, Fig...

What I really liked was that original Beast Wars characters were mostly ignored, apart from a few lines here and there. I like that it gave all those non-show toys some characterisation. The Beast Wars tv show, with its relatively small cast, had ample time to develop the main characters, which they did perfectly. Which is why I was glad that instead of just using that cast, as one would most likely expect, they went for something which I think is a bit out of left field and opted for the toy only characters.

Overall to be honest, I would go as far to say that I have liked it, and its sequel the most out of all the IDW stuff that I have read, apart from Stormbringer. Maybe because it did something out of the norm and didn't just use the characters we already know all too well. Fingers crossed for some more BW stories in the same vein but I don't like my chances with AHM, Max Dinos and all the movie stuff about to come out...

GoktimusPrime
25th December 2008, 03:36 PM
Magmatron felt a bit straight forward. Another version of BW Megatron but I didn't mind. I think that they eventually clashed was nice to give a unique identity on them.
Magmatron isn't quite as clever as Megatron, but he is still a pretty neat character. He's also inherently more morally ambiguous (as demonstrated in Beast Machines era). Too bad he didn't have D-Navi, hehehehe. ;)


Though the issue of scale comes to mind b/c Grimlock is based on the Dinobot mold iirc and he's massive compared to the others though if compared the toys that's not quite the case. Not that it bothered me though (other than wondering when I'd go and get one of them).
Grimlock is a repaint and slight retool (re: rub sticker square) of Dinobot. I think they beefed him up to:
1/ Make him look more distinct from Dinobot
2/ Make him look like a massive bad-donkey as he was in G1. ;)

Having said that, Dinobot himself was also oversized in the show. At 2.9m he's actually the tallest of the Beast Wars Transformers in Season 1 (S1 Optimus Primal and Megatron come in second at 2.8m). Magmatron is 4.5m though - he's a big boy. :)


My only misgiving was I was hoping for more of the BW characters we know and love from the cartoon.
Well we do see a lot of characters from the Japanese shows, like Magmatron, Lio Convoy, Stampy, Long Rack, Big Convoy, the Blentrons etc. - although these events would have occurred before BWII and BW Neo (BW Neo more or less leads straight into Beast Machines).

I agree with jacksplatt11's sentiment - I do like how a lot of characters who never appeared in the Canadian show get to have appearances here. There are a lot of great toys/characters in Beast Wars that never appeared in the Canadian series due to the expensive costs of CGI animation and I'm glad to see a lot of other figures like Razorbeast, Snarl, Grimlock, Wolfang, Buzz Saw etc. getting canonical appearances. It's also interesting how they've thrown in characters from Beast Wars II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juy0zUpoCAw) and Beast Wars Neo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPYLT9qzVFs&feature=related). It's not the first time that Hasbro and Takara BW characters have interacted - Optimus Primal did fight alongside Lio Convoy and his Maximals in the Beast Wars movie, and they team up again in Robot Masters - but it's neat to see it happening again (and on a much bigger scale).

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/BeastConvoys.jpg

Furthermore by doing so they're minimising the impact that they're making on the show, minimising chances of screwing up continuity.

I don't like how Snarl's beast mode looks nothing like a Tasmanian Devil though (looks more like a wolverine to me). :/


Oh and yeah, Leo Convoy looks great.
Sorry to nitpick but it's Lio Convoy (ライオコンボイ (http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/joyport/img10421284347.jpeg)) - pronounced the same as the word "lion" but without the "n." So you say "Lye-oh" Convoy, not "Lee-oh" Convoy. :) :)

Golden Phoenix
25th December 2008, 11:28 PM
Sorry to nitpick but it's Lio Convoy (ライオコンボイ (http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/joyport/img10421284347.jpeg)) - pronounced the same as the word "lion" but without the "n." So you say "Lye-oh" Convoy, not "Lee-oh" Convoy. :) :)

Meh. I types it how I says it, plus Leo Prime has been messing with my head. But you know who I mean.
Although I do prefer Leo over Lio. Lio just sounds like they have made a typo. Although I'm guessing it works better in Jap.
Leo I like because it refers to the Zodiac sign for Lion, so I think it is more fitting. Kind of like how Big Convoy is a big dude

Paulbot
26th December 2008, 01:44 PM
Although it was nice to get some Beast Wars characters getting a spotlight, in some ways this felt like the worse of G1 Marvel US in the way they tried to cram in an appearance from every single Beast Wars toy into a very short series. If I recall correctly most of them aren't even named (but it would have been worse if it had a two page spread of each character introducing themselves like the very first Transformers comic!).

But Don't art was great and the Cybertron Modes of the Beast Wars characters were very nice.

roller
26th December 2008, 04:08 PM
I like The Gathering better then its sequel

The art rocks and the story in mondo cool

but im still perplexed as to when they (Magamatron and Razorbeast) come from, Obviously they are from Pre Beast Machine Cybertron. But in some dialogue they make it sound like they already know the outcome of the Beast Wars.

GoktimusPrime
26th December 2008, 06:19 PM
in some ways this felt like the worse of G1 Marvel US in the way they tried to cram in an appearance from every single Beast Wars toy into a very short series. If I recall correctly most of them aren't even named (but it would have been worse if it had a two page spread of each character introducing themselves like the very first Transformers comic!).

True that - a lot of them were just "hi then bye" style red shirts! :D

kup
27th December 2008, 11:57 AM
I am also a big fan of The Gathering and that comic alone got me to want to buy the none show Beast Wars figures that I originally had no intention of getting.

Unfortunately I found the sequel, The Ascending, to be somewhat disappointing. Won't get into any details due to spoilers.

kup
27th December 2008, 12:01 PM
I like The Gathering better then its sequel

The art rocks and the story in mondo cool

but im still perplexed as to when they (Magamatron and Razorbeast) come from, Obviously they are from Pre Beast Machine Cybertron. But in some dialogue they make it sound like they already know the outcome of the Beast Wars.

It could be possible that there is a fair amount of time from the end of the Beast Wars to before the Maximals and Megatron arrives back on Cybertron, particularly when they are using a modified 4 million year old shuttle.

Golden Phoenix
27th December 2008, 12:33 PM
It could be possible that there is a fair amount of time from the end of the Beast Wars to before the Maximals and Megatron arrives back on Cybertron, particularly when they are using a modified 4 million year old shuttle.

The Predecons had some knowledge. They could be from after the Transwarp wave made it to them. Ravage could have also sent some kind of information back, although that's a maybe.
Magmatron may have also studied various time periods so he could see the best point to insert his team in.

roller
7th January 2009, 11:47 AM
im not a big fan of the first page of the gathering, why doesn't Magmatron just look into the future and see the outcome of The Gathering?

Yeah im getting into this a bit too much:D

My above statment would fit perfectly into The Ascending thread ;), if one ever gets made