Comics Bon-Bon Beast Wars Metals Manga Summaries - February 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. Page 1: Tigatron walks through the snows, his cloak fluttering in the chill wind. Then, out of the blizzard comes Airazor, who has at last found her lost love! But Tigatron's not currently in control of his own body...and he starts to draw his sword. Page 2: Title page, Airazor throws her arms out in joy to embrace her beloved. Page 3: Only a quick application of reverse thrust saves Airazor from an unexpected and vicious slash from Tigatron! What's wrong? She's shocked that he'd attack her. Page 4: Airazor dodges numerous attacks while shouting at Tigatron to come to his senses. Page 5: There's something wrong with Tigatron's eyes...he doesn't seem to be himself. Airazor drops her visor (which seems to function in a way similar to that of Beast Machine Rattrap's) and checks Tigatron's "aura" out. She spots the faint spark of Tarantulas's control bug in Tigatron's head. Page 6: Zooming in, Airazor positively ID's the cyberspider as being of Destron make. "So, darling is not in control of his body?" (Sorry, brief Urutsei Yatsura flashback there.) Airazor assumes an attack stance. Page 7: Tigatron mutters to himself (well, to Tarantulas's self), realizing that Airazor has found him out. Now she really needs to die, if the subterfuge is to have any chance of success. He leaps savagely, and then is surprised when Airazor relaxes her pose and flips her jets around to face him. Page 8: In an astonishing demonstration of not being utterly useless (face it, folks, Airazor's been a load from the get-go in this series), she lets Tigatron have it with both jets, stunning him long enough to fire one of her claws at him. It catches on Tigatron's little finger and wraps around a few times before imbedding in his hand. Airazor takes the other end of the cable that the claw paid out and coils it around her own little finger. Page 9: Airazor explains that she has now forged a cybernetic link between the two of them (and she may make some sort of comment to the effect that if he really WAS Tigatron in mind, he'd know what it was). BLAM! She sends a virtual avatar of herself in beast mode down the line (in a rather nice bit of visual storytelling) and into Tigatron. Page 10: Meanwhile, safely out of range of stray shots, Tarantulas controls his puppet while Blackarachnia stands around looking peeved. She asks what's going on, and when told, she doesn't seem to like the answer. Perhaps she's just not cool with the whole idea of mind control. Tarant notices the intrusion from the net cable, and cackles that Airazor won't stand a chance against his devious defenses. Page 11: (Inside Tigatron's Brain, henceforth to be noted as ITB) Airazor's avatar flies through the corridors of Tigatron's mind, which are all covered in webbing. She has to find his core personality and free it, or all will be lost! In the background, Tarantuloids lurk and cackle. Page 12: (ITB) A horde of Tarantuloids leap out and spit webbing at Airazor's avatar, binding the bird in a layer of "silk." (Outside) Airazor snarls in frustration. Page 13: (Outside) Airazor barely notices in time to avoid another sword strike from Tigatron. Using some jet judo she's able to avoid being impaled. Page 14: Airazor blasts free, but she's connected by unbreakable monowire to Tigatron, and he uses this to yank her back towards his sword point. She manages to kick the sword aside as she falls back towards him. Page 15: Airazor loops the wire several times around Tigatron's neck and gets him in a strangle hold. It hurts her to do this, but the pain manages to weaken Tarantulas's control. (ITB) Airazor's avatar starts to struggle free. Page 16: (ITB) Airazor's avatar breaks free of the silken wrappings and then goes into a whirlwind wing blade attack, scattering the Tarantuloids. Page 17: (ITB) Airazor's avatar streaks away into the depths of Tigatron's brain. (Outside) Tarantulas reacts with pain to the destruction of his own avatars, and generally seems distracted. Blackarachnia takes advantage of this and gets Tarant's head in a hold. With her leg. Kinky. Page 18: BA applies pressure to her neck-hold. Meanwhile, back at the Cybertron base, Rattrap is able to get one of the remote sensors working, and he's shocked by what he sees. Page 19: The sensor shows Airazor strangling Tigatron with her monowire. Rhinox looks vaguely embarrassed as he makes some comment. If this wasn't aimed at kids, I'd swear he's saying that Airazor and Tigatron always DID like it rough. Meanwhile, by wrapping her leg around Tarantulas's neck, BA's managed to get his head to pop off, which makes this page just a little too rife with potential innuendo. Anyway, BA then runs off to put an end to this whole mind-mucking business. Page 20: Obviously being decaptitated doesn't affect Tarant's control of his puppets, as Tigatron manages to use his tail to grab Airazor around the neck and throw her down. He raises his sword and is about to administer the death blow when a strand of webbing stays his hand. It's Blackarachnia to the rescue?! Page 21: BA shouts to Airazor to finish what she started and get the bug out of Tigatron's mind. Airazor asks why a Destron is helping her (that much is obvious), and BA either just says "I have my reasons" or gives a brief explanation. Possibly because she has one of them tongue bugs in her head too. (ITB) Airazor's avatar finds Tigatron's essence bound by webbing and flies in to cut his bonds with her wings. Page 22: Tigatron chuckles and pulls out Tarantulas's gun, shooting Airazor's avatar fatally (as in, the blast comes out through the back) in a splash page. Page 23: (Outside) Simultaneously, in another splash page, Tigatron uses his sword to savagely cross-cut Airazor. As we see later, the cut goes all the way through. Page 24: Blackarachnia has just enough time to be surprised and horrified before being shot in the back by a headless Tarantulas, who is carrying his head in one hand and his gun in the other. Page 25: Tarantulas screws his head back on. (ITB) "Tigatron" removes a mask, revealing himself to be another Tarantulas avatar. He laughs maniacally, then notices a strange glow. Page 26: Suffused with an unearthly glow, Airazor's fallen avatar rises, then transforms to robot mode. Like a grim and avenging ghost, Airazor swears that Tarantulas will pay for what he did to Tigatron. Tarant shouts something, probably "I don't know how you survived, but I'll make sure you're dead this time!" Page 27: Airazor's avatar slices Tarantulas's avatar in half with a single savage wing sweep. (Outside) Tigatron's dark eyes turn normal again. Page 28: This one is split side to side, with parallel action both inside Tigatron's brain and outside. In the top pair, both Airazor and her avatar look tired and relieved, pained but happy. In the second pair, Airazor stumbles into Tigatron's arms, energy streaming out the huge gash in her body, while her avatar closes its eyes and starts to fall. In the final pair, Tigatron catches Airazor's lifeless body while the avatar fades away. In an inset panel, Tigatron realizes just what has happened...being freed from Tarantulas also seems to have restored his lost memories. Page 29: This may not be a deliberate homage, but this panel is very much like the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths where Superman holds Supergirl's body and weeps. Page 30: Tarantulas recovers from having his prime avatar destroyed, and is about to take advantage of Tigatron's grief, when a foot comes down. It's Convoy, and he's torqued. Page 30-31: Splash page across the center of two pages. Using his mace, Convoy smashes Tarantulas into a thousand bits, then stands there as Destron confetti rains down. I think this death's gonna stick. Page 31: Convoy stands in shadowy silhouette over a symbolically tiny Blackarachnia (actually, it looks more like a shadow of the original semitractor Convoy). Time for her to make a decision...run or join the Cybertrons? Dave Van Domelen, notes that in the fishing manga that follows this, the first page has a fishing lure that transforms into a spider and seeks out fish....