The Ascending issue 1

« Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending #1 »
...Is Lio Convoy wielding breadsticks there?
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 3, 2007
Cover date	August 2007
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Don Figueroa
Colors by	Mark Bristow
Colors assist by	Andrew Elder & Jeong Joo Park
Letters by	Robbie Robbins
Edits by	Chris Ryall, Dan Taylor
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

Behind the Beast Wars and between seconds, Razorbeast's Maximals fight Ravage's Predacons.

Synopsis

Beetlejuice—Beetlejuice—Beetlejuice!

Magmatron, shifted out of existence, monitors reality as a chronal ghost, able to access and witness all of time but interact with nothing. In his travels, two things stand out: the extinction of the Transformers, who destroy themselves in a feral rage, and the destruction of Cybertron by a familiar form. He's seen it many times, but there is no way for him to stop it. But there may be a way he can influence others to stop it...

In prehistoric times on Earth, Razorbeast, Prowl, and Wolfang consider their place on Earth, fighting Ravage, unsure if there's any chance of rescue.

Elsewhere, Grimlock gets into a battle with Retrax and Manterror, but the fight is just a diversion to draw Grimlock away from Razorbeast's Maximal base. Retrax detonates some explosives that signal the start to a large battle between the two armies.

While Torca kicks tons of ass outside, Ravage sneaks inside of the Maximal base to access the hardware that would allow himself to shift his place in time so that he might interact with Optimus Primal and Megatron's fight. Razorbeast stops Ravage and deduces from the desperation of the Predacon attack that Primal is close to winning conclusively. While Ravage explains, confirming the news and his intentions, Snarl slips into position to blast Ravage away from Razorbeast. The two Maximals knock the Predacon leader out.

Magmatron, watching the universe move forward, brings his attention back to the transwarp signal sent by the Maximals to request help from Cybertron. Although he's unable to interact with the physical world, he uses his temporal presence to escort the transwarp radio message though space to arrive at its intended destination. With his aid, the signal reaches Lio Convoy on Cybertron. The Prime decides to aid his agent on Earth.

In another location, the Blendtrons have unleashed Angolmois Energy and Shokaract lives. But unknown to Shokaract, he is but a pawn to bring about the return of Unicron!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"How come we're the distraction? Again!"

—Retrax

Notes

Production notes

• This issue would be reprinted from #14 to #17 of Titan's Transformers.

Continuity notes

• The scene of Razorbeast and Prowl at the river is a callback to the ending of The Gathering issue 4.
• Various battles have been fought in the deca-cycle between miniseries, a hit-and-run series based on attrition. Retrax's moan to Manterror is that they and Snapper have been the frontline team more than once.
• This issue takes place in between the ending scenes from "Nemesis Part 2". The Gathering ended with a depiction of "Master Blaster", which means a deca-cycle (as in a full thirty days) has taken place between then and Optimus Primal's team leaving Earth; this seems oddly long but to be fair, the Maximals surely had a lot of cleanup to do.
• Razorbeast, Wolfang, and Prowl's discussion about the current state of affairs and their overall destiny is fairly ironic, considering all three of them die by the end of the series.

Real-world references

• When Grimlock appears, a pair of kodama appear in the undergrowth, as a reference to Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke.

Errors

• When Ravage is describing how Optimus Primal has captured Megatron, the image of Primal is lacking both his forearm/shoulder armor, and all four wings.
• Wolfang doesn't have his usual glowing green eyes and mouth this issue.
• At the start of The Gathering, Lio Convoy told Razorbeast that if he was discovered he would be disavowed and left on his own as the mission was not sanctioned. Apparently, he changed his mind or didn't realize that Razorbeast had been caught.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: the left (Maximal) side of an image drawn by Don Figueroa and colored by Josh Burcham
• Cover B: the right (Predacon) side of the same images
• Cover RI A: Uncolored sketch cover by Magmatron watching Lio Convoy and Razorbeast by Nick Roche
• Cover RI B: Uncolored covers A and B combined into a single (wraparound) image

• 

  Da Good Guys

• 

  Da Bad Guys

• 

  Da B&W guys

• 

  All Da Guys

Advertisements

• Beast Wars: The Ascending #2
• CGC Grading, feat. Grimlock
• Transformers posters
• Transformers movie prequel comic
• Transformers 2007 movie adaptation
• Megatron Origin comic series
• IDW trade paperbacks (Infiltration, Stormbringer, The Gathering, Hearts of Steel, War and Peace, Generations
• Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron
• The Transformers: Cover Gallery Volume 2
• Star Trek: Year Four
• Devastation #1

Reprints

Other than reprints of the full series

• Transformers Comic issues #14–17 (July–October 2008)

• Reprinted The Ascending issue 1 over the space of 4 issues.
• Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie, a new Animated story, and also reprints the first issue of Megatron: Origin.

• 

  Transformers Comic #14; art by Jon Davis-Hunt and Kris Carter

• 

  Transformers Comic #15; art by Jon Davis-Hunt and Jason Cardy

• 

  Transformers Comic #16; art by Lawrence Etherington

• 

  Transformers Comic #17; art by Cosmo White