Beast Wars (IDW Publishing)

Beast Wars is a comic book series by IDW Publishing, based upon Hasbro's toy line and the original television series. The series is set in-continuity with the television series, but also uses characters that were made into toys but not featured in the series.

The first miniseries, The Gathering, was released between February and May 2006. The second miniseries, The Ascending, was a direct sequel and debuted in October 2007.

Background
After Beast Machines finished airing in 2000, there was no official revisiting of the Transformers continuity established by the Beast Wars animated series until after publisher Dreamwave Productions acquired the rights to the Transformers comic franchise from Hasbro. Although the Transformers convention Botcon created several storylines external to the Beast Wars continuity (such as The Wreckers and a continuation of Beast Machines entitled Transformers: Universe) as various comic book miniseries, the canonicity of such stories is disputable. Dreamwave first touched on the Beast Wars series with a prequel in 2003's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. In 2004, the publisher's Transformers Summer Special featured Ain't No Rat, which was the first officially approved comic story to carry on directly from the events seen in the final Beast Wars cartoon. Dreamwave held a contest to select which Transformers continuity (Beast Wars or Robots in Disguise) would be the next to get its own book, and Beast Wars was the victor, with writers James McDonough and Adam Patyk and artist Don Figueroa as the initially planned creative team for the new series. However, despite several pieces of artwork being released (and according to those involved with the project some impressive pieces remaining unreleased), Dreamwave's bankruptcy caused the end of the series before it began.

The story Dreamwave tried to produce will most likely remain lost, and it wasn't until 2006, when IDW began publishing Beast Wars: The Gathering, that the Beast Wars continuity was again officially revisited.

Issues
"The Gathering, Part 1", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Feb 2006 "The Gathering, Part 2", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Mar 2006 "The Gathering, Part 3", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Apr 2006 "The Gathering, Part 4", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, May 2006 "The Ascending, Part 1", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Oct 2007 "The Ascending, Part 2", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Oct 2007 "The Ascending, Part 3", written by Simon Furman, art by Don Figueroa, Dec 2007 "The Ascending, Part 4", written by Simon Furman, art by Guido Guidi, Jan 2008

Special issues
"Sourcebook, Part 1", written by Simon Furman and Ben Yee, Oct 2007 "Sourcebook, Part 2", written by Simon Furman and Ben Yee, Oct 2007 "Sourcebook, Part 3", written by Simon Furman and Ben Yee, Jan 2008 "Sourcebook, Part 4", written by Simon Furman and Ben Yee, Feb 2008

Collections
"The Gathering" TPB, Aug 2006 "The Gathering" Manga TPB, Mar 2007 "The Ascending" TPB, Feb 2008 "Sourcebook" TPB, May 2008

The future
With the second series, The Ascending, climaxing with Megatron's return to Cybertron, it seems that further Beast Wars stories seem unlikely. However, writer Simon Furman has not ruled out a return, noting that stories could have taken place during Megatron's takeover, before Optimus Primal and the Maximals returned.