Beast Wars Issue 4

 

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for this issue of IDW's Beast Wars comic

Issue 3 was a pretty big turning point in this version of Beast Wars - depicting the inevitable defection of former Predacon Dinobot. Rather than him defecting due to the percieved incompetence of Megatron (as was the case in the initial series), here, tired with the lack of honour displayed by his comrades, Dinobot steps in to put a halt to their cruel torture of new character Nyx. Issue 4 is a much quieter in comparison, mostly dealing with the fallout of Dinobot's decision.

We begin the issue with Nyx, alone in the jungle after escaping from the Predacons. She's in pretty bad shape, and her weapons are offline. After nearly meeting a grizzly fate at the hands of one of the planet's native creatures, she is saved by Dinobot, who then proceeds on a journey to bring the Maximal back to her base so she can recover from her injuries.

As stated in the opening paragraph, this issue mostly deals with the aftermath of the events of Issue 3 with Nyx now stranded after fleeing the capture of the Predacons and Dinobot now effectively a traitor. This issue does a good job of showing this through the perspectives of Nyx and Dinobot as well as the Predacons, now trapped in their own base thanks to Dinobot.

The opening scene in the jungle does a good job of showing the toll the events of the previous issue have had on both Nyx and Dinobot. We open with Nyx attempting to get back to base, but thanks to the injuries sustained during the torture (as well as Tarantulas locking her weapons), she doesn't quite have the strength to fly in her animal mode, and she is unable to fend off a fearsome predator who encounters her. One thing I think is a cool character trait is that, in spite of the situation she appears to be in, Nyx is trying her best to stay positive and even makes light hearted comments about her situation such as saying 'this will make for a great story'. We even see her trying to fend off the predator with a makeshift club she's made out of a branch. 

The predator she encounters is an interesting one since it's a green cat with red spikes protruding from it's back. This is something that contrasts heavily from the other creatures we see as it's clearly more alien to the other creatures seen in Beast Wars which are all relatively based in reality. Without getting into spoilers (due to the fact we haven't reached that point in the retrospective of the show), this could mean that the prehistoric planet the characters have found themselves on could have different origins to what was depicted in the show.

The big character this issue, much like the last issue, is Dinobot. Here, he finds himself on the run after turning his back on the Predacons. He finds Nyx and saves her, and then rushes her back to the Maximal base once she gets completely incapacitated due to staying in her robot mode for too long. We end the issue with him bringing Nyx to the Maximals with the two parties meating on a chasm which looks identical to where Dinobot met the Maximals in the TV series. Of course, the Maximals are initially hostile, but we end the issue with Dinobot offering to join the Maximals. How they'll react to that is something we shall have to wait until next issue to see, but I do think it's interesting how this heavily differs from what was depicted in the show.

In the series, Dinobot's wish to join the Maximals was more out of a want to destroy Megatron. His initial wish was to command the Maximals after defeating Optimus Primal in a fight to the death. Here, this is not the case, as Dinobot is not after leadership - he just feels that the Predacons lack honour and fighting alongside them no longer sits right with him. Feeling that a war is on the horizon, Dinobot merely wishes to fight alongside the side which has honour.

We get a great scene before this with the Maximals explaining the relationship between the Maximals and the Predacons. Here Rhinox states that the two sides are at peace and maintain peaceful relations with each other to ensure that no one gets left behind. Cheetor is distressed when he picks up a Predacon signal that instantly deletes itself, and Rattrap expresses his distrust at all Predacons. This is great at establishing the character's views towards Predacons, hinting at how they might feel about one of them joining their ranks.

Speaking of the Predacons, they start the issue stuck inside their own base. Here we see that Tarantulas is arrogant as he brands himself as the 'greatest genius Cybertron has ever known' which is a neat character trait. They are all furious about Dinobot's betrayal, and after they escape their base, Megatron states they have a score to settle with their former ally, and all six Predacons head off after him.

While this issue is quieter than the previous one, it still manages to do an excellent job at pushing the story forward and setting the stage for what's coming next. As always, I'm excited to see where things are going to go from here.