Comics Bon-Bon Beast Wars Metals Manga Summaries - January 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.

p1: Megatron is in flying T.rex mode and coming in for a landing.  He sees
     that a horde of his troops has been utterly destroyed, apparently by
     a cloaked figure standing amongst the bodies.

p2: Title page.  Jaguar (Ravage) stands behind a pile of destroyed Destrons,
     including Quickstrike.

p3: Megatron transforms and lands, and apparently recognizes Jaguar, since 
     most of the talking on this page is done by him.  I wouldn't be 
     surprised if he says something about General Jaguar and how little he
     thinks of the whold Jaguar family.  Jaguar says (I'm guessing) that 
     he's come to end the war here by killing everyone.  Megatron takes this
     as his cue to transform again and attack.  To his surprise, Jaguar
     actually leaps into his jaws!

p4: Jaguar manages to do the Van Damme splits and hold Megarex's mouth open.
     Then he pulls out his pistol and attaches the barrel extension.  Boom!

p5: Two big panels of Jaguar shooting the slag out of Megarex's head.

p6: Megarex's head is nothing but a tattered framework now, and his neck and
     chest are full of gaping holes.  Jaguar leaps off his now presumably
     dead target.

p7: Jaguar transforms to beast mode and engages his flight jets.  One thing
     to remember about the manga is that if the toy can do something, so 
     can the character.  This will come up again later.  Meanwhile, Metals
     Waspinator digs Megatron's robot head out of his shattered body, 
     probably commenting on how nice it is for Waspinator not to be the one
     blowing up this time.

p8: Back at the Cybertron base, they've established radio contact with 
     another survivor of the great space battle (aside: in this continuity,
     the Cybertrons and Destrons had a massive space battle over the planet
     first, which ended with the Cybertrons mostly losing, but the Destrons
     setting up shop on the surface.  Many Cybertrons were scattered about
     the planet.).  It's Dinobot, who has been taken in by a tribe of 
     small, childlike protohumans.  Or Hobbits.  Hard to tell.  He has a
     bandage over his right eye.

p9: Dinobot and Convoy talk, and the possibility is raised of other lone
     Cybertrons surviving the battle.  Airazor jumps to the conclusion that
     Tigatron survived, and runs off despite orders to the contrary.  She
     flies off to find her beloved.

     [Note from Michael Robinson: Tigatron has amnesia as a result of
injuries sustained in the battle and its aftermath.  He remembers Airazor,
but that's about it.  So he's not really sure that Tarantulas is an enemy.]

p10: Speaking of whom, Tigatron is approached once more by Tarantulas, who is
     TAPED together.  Tarant calls a truce, saying he has important
     information he wants to give the warrior...but he has to whisper it,
     since you never know who might be listening.  Skeptical but curious,
     Tigatron lets Tarant lean close...and then the evil spider sticks out
     his long fleshy tongue and drops a little spider onto Tigatron's 
     helmet.  The tiny spider burrows into Tigatron's head!

p11: Tigatron is now under the control of Tarantulas!  Meanwhile, back at the
     village of proto-Hobbits, an intruder comes diving out of the sun...

p12: It's Jaguar!  He deploys his robot arms (another thing the toy can do)
     and strafes the village from the air.  This does not sit well with
     Dinobot, needless to say.

p13: Dinobot, in full Mifune mode, grabs up his sword and attacks Jaguar as
     the murderous Destron lands.  But he misses...Jaguar had dropped to the
     ground and now points his guns up at Dinobot's chest.

p14: A great deal of shooting ensues, ending with Dinobot's head landing
     on the ground some distance from the remains of his body.

p15: The villagers sadly gather around Dinobot's head.  Jaguar tells them
     the need not worry about mourning, for they shall soon join him.  He
     puts his guns against the heads of the nearest hominids.  Then the
     ground under his feet starts to crack ominously....

p16: Convoy bursts out of the ground (apparently the area is riddled with 
     caves) and grabs both of Jaguar's forearms.  Jaguar manages to do a 
     kick flip and break free, skidding to a stop some distance from Convoy.

p17: Convoy picks up Dinobot's head, which speaks (although this may be a
     death rattle...Dinobot II is advertised this issue, as a Destron).
     Jaguar gloats a bit, and Convoy gives Dinobot's head to his native
     friends for burial or whatever.  Convoy swears to avenge his comrade.

p18-19: Several panels of Jaguar shooting up the place as Convoy dodges.
     Finally, Convoy summons up his skyboard and uses it to block the shots
     as he closes with Jaguar.

p20: Jaguar attaches his barrel extension (which has a jaguar imprinted on
     the side) and blasts through the skyboard in a blinding explosion.

p21: Where's the chunky Convoy-bits?  Jaguar decides to head into a nearby
     cave on the assumption that Convoy used the flash of the explosion to 
     get under cover in the cave.  And that is what happened.  Convoy drops
     from the ceiling behind Jaguar.

p22: Convoy kicks one gun and punches the other, leaving Jaguar open for a
     devastating uppercut.

p23: As he flies backwards, Jaguar takes aim again, but Convoy throws his
     maces so that the shafts plug up Jaguar's gun barrels.  No problem, 
     Jaguar just fires the maces, which strike the cave's ceiling and let 
     loose a lethal rain of stalactites.

p24: Convoy blocks his stalactites with a spinning kick, which Jaguar simply
     shoots any that come too near.  Then Convoy swings down his extra
     chest armor (the grey backpack piece) and charges straight at Jaguar.

p25: Jaguar puts on the gunbooster extension and blows a hole straight 
     through Convoy's torso.  He laughs maniacally, obviously not having
     seen Convoy's last fight.

p26: In one of those weird tactics only a mechanoid could try, Convoy lands
     so that Jaguar's arms are stuck through the hole in his torso, and
     thus pinned.  Then he calmly informs Jaguar that his own self-repair
     systems have engaged, and are closing the hole around Jaguar's arms.
     He follows this by repeated and savage headbutts.

p27: Convoy grabs Jaguar by the shoulders, lifts, twists and throws him down
     and away.  Jaguar staggers to his feet and swears he'll still kill
     Convoy.  Convoy asks, "With what?  You have no arms."  "WHAT?"

p28: Pull back to see that Jaguar's arms have been severed at the elbows, and
     are sparking.  Jaguar kinda loses it.  Then Convoy turns his back on
     Jaguar to reveal the gun with boosterpack sticking out of his body.
     A quick forearm transform, and now he can reach behind himself to grab
     the gun in both hands.

p29: His face betraying no emotion, Convoy fires the supergun directly into
     Jaguar.

p30: Jaguar stumbles back and then falls into a nearly bottomless pit (mind
     you, he could still potentially transform into his flying cat mode and
     survive this).  Convoy says that Dinobot has been avenged, and stalks
     out of the cave.

p31: Airazor continues her search, and below a cloaked figure stalks through
     the snow.  It's Tigatron, who sees Airazor...but he's a servant of
     Tarantulas now....

     Dave Van Domelen, notes there's really nothing to scan for this issue.