
It’s time for a Transformers review! This comic takes place during the Beast Wars saga, which is pretty interesting. The one downside is that I don’t know most of the characters and one comic isn’t enough to really learn all of their names to a great extent. Luckily, the wiki for Transformers is one of the best in the biz so they have my back. It’s a pretty fun comic and there’s a lot of action. It’s basically a collection that is made for popcorn fun!
The plot involves a new threat to the global peace that has enveloped the universe. His name is Magmatron and his power levels are pretty high. The Autobots and Decepticons have finally made peace and they are now known as Maximals and Predacons. They have a treaty and things are actually looking up for the heroes. The Predacons are too worried to actually launch an attack on the moment. Still, the Maximal leader suspects that Magmatron is up to something so he sends Razorbeast to be his spy on the inside. Razorbeast prevents Magmatron from turning every robot in the past into Predacons, but now the two groups are stuck in the past. They can watch the events of Beast Wars transpire, but those inhabitants cannot see or feel them unless these fighters wish it. The Predacons want to bring Megatron in and the Maximal group needs to stop them. Does Razorbeast really have what it takes to lead a group of newly formed heroes?
The premise of the story is interesting, but I don’t see how it could last a very long time. The villains and heroes can still mess around with the current Maximals and Predacons so all it would take is a single energy blast to rewrite time. Magmatron actually fights Megatron, which should affect the timeline a bit, even if nothing really major happened. That’s why working with time travel can be very risky. There are a lot of ways that you can definitely mess it up, but it also pays off in a big way when it works.
Magmatron is the main villain and he’s a pretty fun addition to the cast. This guy definitely looks very powerful and you get the feeling that he has the physical strength to back up his looks. He doesn’t get a lot of fights here, but he looks impressive for the most part. He takes on one of the legendary heroes and also puts up a good fight against Megatron. He definitely didn’t have the upper hand in that fight, but maybe he could have pulled out some kind of win. It would have been a pretty good fight. I hope he returns someday and I like to think that I’ll remember his design for a while. Maybe Transformers 5 will add him in for fun.
Razorbeast is basically the main character since it’s all up to him now. He’s the robot who quickly sabotages Magmatron’s plan and then scampers off to find the new Maximals. He’s not the strongest fighter and he’s more of a hit and run kind of guy. That’s still pretty handy in itself and I’m sure that the heroes were glad to have him. He has a pretty climatic fight towards the end and he definitely doesn’t back down from a fight. He’s all right and Razorbeast definitely beats the average side character, but I wouldn’t be adding him to my top 10 anytime soon. It’s pretty tough to get up there I suppose.
Grimlock is one of the few G1 characters to appear and it’s great to have him back in the ranks. He talks as tough as you may have expected and he puts up a pretty good fight. It’s a little disappointing to see him on the losing side, but it makes sense thanks to Grimlock’s fighting strategy. He launches into the brawl and that’s not a good idea against Magmatron. Magmatron’s body comes equipped with a dinosaur and a snake so it’s like fighting three opponents at once. That definitely gives close combat fighters a disadvantage. His role here is small, but I’m confident that he would appear more in the sequel. I hope they are able to squeeze in more G1 fighters.
Ravage is another fighter from the original series who is ready for some action. He also appeared in the TV show, which was pretty cool. He’s definitely powerful and he is a lot more experienced than most of the other villains. He doesn’t really feel like the real Ravage, but it has been a long time since the original series. As long as he’s still able to take out dozens of opponents in a short period of time, Ravage is good enough for me!
Megatron (The one from the show of course) looks pretty good since he takes the situation in stride. When Magmatron attacks, Megatron doesn’t miss a beat as he counters. He actually does very well against Magmatron and he seems to have the overwhelming advantage until he gets ganged up on by the other Predacons. This Megatron is the robot responsible for keeping up the Megatron name so you almost can’t help but root for him. It’s better that Megatron wins instead of Magmatron right? It also works as a nice guest star appearance for him as a Beast Wars TV show character.
There are other characters, but most of them are still waiting for their character development arcs to start. The shows come in handy for Transformers because it’s really hard to get to know them through comics. There are simply too many of them and you just end up losing track. Especially since the names are usually two words squeezed together. The names may not even make any sense until you see the character appear some more.
Luckily, this comic basically had everything that I could have wanted from Transformers. It’s a simple action story that has a lot of heart and it makes for a good read. I can’t say that I really had any negatives for it. Naturally, the comic didn’t exactly get a 10, but that just speaks to how difficult it is to get such a high rating. I think a 7 is fair for the collection because it didn’t make any mistakes, but it didn’t do anything so spectacular that I could give it anything higher. It’s pretty standard. That being said, it is still fairly difficult to make a comic without any real mistakes.
Longtime Transformer fans can probably appreciate a nice twist in the story. The Maximals finally have the overwhelming advantage in the present since the Dece-Predacons have basically given up. Of course, that becomes moot since the Maximals are on the run in the past, but it’s still pretty fun to see. It’s always the reverse in the other shows and movies as the Decepticons always outnumber the heroes.
We can’t forget that one of the big positives for the collection is the great artwork. It really shines in just about every page and especially for the character designs. Everyone looks like they’re ready to fight. It makes it tougher to discern who is an expendable character and who isn’t. These guys really look like brawlers and the fight scenes are pretty great as well.
Overall, This was a pretty fun comic for Beast Wars. The Gathering is an intriguing title and you’ll certainly get why it’s called that once you read the comic. Any Transformer fan should get a kick out of this title and I’d say the same thing about any action fan. Even if you don’t know the characters, you should still enjoy the fight scenes and the art. It’s a fairly engaging piece from start to finish and maybe it will make you a fan of the franchise if you aren’t already one. It’s time to step into the Beast Wars!
Overall 7/10
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