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

     This issue is the final installment of Metals, and there's lots of
splosions!  

Page 1: We open with quick checks on three parts of the plot.  First,
     Megadrac makes some kind of "I have won!" proclamation.  Then we see
     that not all is right with Tigatron and Airazor...her eyes have an
     "evil" look to them suggesting that somehow she's under the control
     of Megadrac or something.  Then we see Rattrap and Rhinox speeding to
     the scene of the action (yes, speeding...this is Transmetal Rhinox, so
     he has his halftrack mode).  Then back to Convoy with a "oh, slag"
     expression on his face.

Page 2-3: And the reason for that expression is that Megadrac is HUGE. 
     Convoy is leaping to attack, but he's barely the size of one of Megs's
     hands.

Page 4: As he gets slapped around, Convoy spots his namesake's spark breaking
     free of its Matrix housing.  Then Megadrac stomps it and crows about
     utterly annihilating the original Convoy.  But something is amiss....

Page 5: There's no splattered spark under Megs's foot!  It's Cheetor, who
     has finally found his way to the main action after stopping off to get
     his head inflated (he looked normal in his cameo in the first 
     installment, now he's practically chibi).  He's lightly tossing the 
     spark in his hand, which draws the attention of Megadrac, who attacks.
     The spark is knocked towards the lava pit.

Page 6: Convoy dives after the spark but can't turn around in time to avoid
     the lava.  To protect the spark from destruction...he eats it.  Foom.

Page 7: Meanwhile, Airazor looked very annoyed and evil.  Tigatron cannot
     bring himself to fight her and risk killing her again, so he slams his
     sword into the ground and offers his neck to Airazor.  Better to die
     than kill her again.

Page 8: Her features shrouded in evil darkness, Airazor picks up the sword
     and swings.  Just as it's hitting Tigatron's helmet, we ping over into
     cyberspace....

Page 9: Airazor's true spirit emerges through the blade in a rather symbolic
     scene and enters Tigatron's body.

Page 10: Airazor's spark becomes united with Tigatron's.

Page 11: Inside the shared spark, Airazor and Tigatron embrace and swear 
     to never be parted again.  Then we cut back to harsh reality.

Page 12: The evil sparkless Airazor body cleaves through Tigatron's helmet,
     but the blade stops after a few centimeters.  Then Tigatron's head
     starts to shatter like a broken shell, and his entire body breaks away
     like glass, revealing....

Page 13: Tigerhawk!  The manga makes him look appropriately androgynous, and
     he carries four katana just in case he wasn't already overly powerful. 
     His helmet is more samurai-like and his face human but with tiger 
     stripes.  Basically, where the U.S. Tigerhawk was something of a 
     monster, this is obviously a hero.

Page 14: Back at the Ark, Convoy emerges from the lava.  And emerges.  And
     emerges.  He's now New Convoy, and he's as huge as Megadrac.

Page 14-15: One and a half page spread of the giants facing each other.
     New Convoy is in gorilla mode.

Page 16: Split page, showing each leader's face as they issue new opening
     threats and stuff.

Page 17: The titans clash.

Page 18-19: Two-page spread of New Convoy punching Megadrac in the chest.

Page 20: Megadrac trips up New Convoy, who then answers with a head butt
     that cracks both of their heads.  It's not clear until later, but
     Megadrac's robot head is totally destroyed by this.

Page 21: Megadrac leaps back and uses his dragon arm to tear off New Convoy's
     right arm.

Page 22: Meanwhile, Tigerhawk is facing down the hordes of nameless Destron
     drones that were also revived last issue.  He creates a maelstrom that
     sweeps up most of them, then draws one of his swords and slashes at
     the ground to create an earthquake that shatters the rest.

Page 23: New Convoy is missing an arm.  Megadrac is missing a head.  Both
     have exposed sparks.  They charge at each other in rage, their fists
     meeting in a titanic explosion.

Page 24: New Convoy's other arm is destroyed.  Megadrac sees an opening and
     lunges for New Convoy's exposed spark....

Page 25: Fake out!  New Convoy manages to kick through Megadrac's chest 
     before the dragon arm can reach his own spark.  He now holds the 
     Destron leader's spark in his prehensile foot.

Page 26: Megadrac's last words, which are in a different font than anything
     else this issue.  Perhaps he's speaking in archaic language.  New
     Convoy says something pithy and unyielding, then crushes the spark.
     BOOM.

Page 27: All that's left of Megadrac is a cloud of sparklies.  Wipe yourself
     off, you're dead.  Then New Convoy looks up to see a bunch of newcomers
     streaking across the sky.

Page 28: It's Tigerhawk, leading an army.  I don't know if these are
     surviving Cybertrons we haven't seen before or if he somehow converted
     the Destron drones.

Page 29: Aftermath.  New Convoy's still huge and still pretty beat up.
     Blackarachnia and Silverbolt show up almost as an afterthought and seem
     to be cuddling.  Rhinox asks New Convoy what they'll do next.  I have
     no idea what the reply is.

Page 30: Closeup on New Convoy's face (he's been in gorilla mode the whole
     time) as he ponders the future.  THE END.

     Dave Van Domelen, notes that it's a real pain keeping the book open when
the manga is as close to the end as it is this issue.  Hadda clip a heavy
object to the final few pages to keep it open while still being able to
type....