The Ascending issue 3
From Transformers Wiki
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 You can't spell "Rend" without "Blendtron". | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | December 12, 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | October 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Don Figueroa | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Josh Burcham | ||||||||||||
| Colors assist by | Mark Bristow | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Chris Mowry | ||||||||||||
| Edits by | Andrew Steven Harris | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
Earth is attacked by the Blendtrons as Shokaract gets closer to ascension.
Contents |
Synopsis
On Cybertron, Big Convoy and his team have found a massive tower with high levels of Angolmois energy inside. Shokaract, aware of their presence, prepares to go deal with them himself. The Blendtrons protest, saying that his power is not yet stabilized, but Shokaract is impatient and dismisses their concerns. Emerging through the wall, Shokaract tears Tasmania Kid in half and prepare to take on Big Convoy himself.
On Earth, Razorbeast is attacking Maximal and Predacon alike, mutated by Rartorata's Angolmois injection. Ravage tries to explain the situation to Lio Convoy, saying that the future of Cybertron depends on a truce between them.
On Cybertron, Big Convoy transforms into his spider tank mode to get up close and personal with Shokaract. Shokaract easily tears through Cohrada and Survive, but tells Big Convoy what will happen: Cybertron will become an extension of his will, and Shokaract will become a god. With that, he destroys Big Convoy and goes on to devastate Cybertron. Magmatron, watching everything in chronal phase, knows what will really happen: Shokaract will destroy most of Cybertron, and the survivors will kill each other before Unicron's resurrection.
On Earth, Lio Convoy agrees to a truce with Ravage's Predacons. The Maximals will deal with Razorbeast while the Predacons will take down Rartorata. As the Predacons down the Blendtron (Transquito injecting him with his entire narco-virus reserve) and extract some Angolmois from him, the Maximals manage to restrain Razorbeast. Lio tries to reason with him, and Razorbeast's personality manages to break through. Ravage says that they need to go now, but the other Blendtrons arrive. Razorbeast breaks through his binds and attacks—the Blendtrons. He urges the others to go, while he fights the Blendtrons himself. The most able of both forces go on Lio Convoy's transwarp cruiser, while the rest stay behind to help Razorbeast. Ravage says that they will need a scientist to make a retrovirus from the Angolmois that the Predacons extracted, and Lio Convoy happens to know one.
As before on Cybertron, Shokaract emerges from his tower and tears Tasmania Kid in half, but before he can do the same to Big Convoy, Lio Convoy's transwarp cruiser emerges, only to be shot down by Shokaract. Then, tears in space and time appear, announcing the coming of Shokaract's Heralds, carrying enough Angolmois to ensure his rise to glory.
The Ascension has begun...
Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Too late, Big Convoy... far, far too late! For you, and for Cybertron! This, now, is the age of Shokaract! And it will be built on your eviscerated remains!"
- —Guess who
"Sho—my lord, it is too soon!"
"The power within you is not yet stabilized. Soon, you will have more, soon—"
"Soon! Soon! That's all I ever hear from you two! You would do well to remember, both of you... who is master and who is servant!"
"[waits for Shokaract to leave] The vessel is impatient."
- —Drancon and Elephorca manipulate a petulant Shokaract
"Iz it me, Injector... or doez our foe look familiar?"
"Nah. Must be your imagination, Transquito!"
- —Transquito and Injector lampshade the repaints
"How I know you're not lying?"
"You don't. In fact, I've made something of a career of doing just that. But... if you know anything about me at all, you'll know I look out for number one. So if I'm going to these lengths, it's got to be bad!"
- —Lio Convoy and Ravage
"I want you to know, I'm proud of you. You took on a highly dangerous mission and you came through, maybe even saved us all. But it's not over. Not yet. You have to be strong now. Stronger than ever before."
- —Lio Convoy tries to get through to Razorbeast
"Someone... seriously doesn't want us to get back to Cybertron. Like, ever!"
- —Snarl
Notes
Production notes
- This issue would be reprinted from #21 to #23 of Titan's Transformers.
- As before, the comic assumes you know about the BotCon Shokaract stories, Angolmois etc. to fully understand, which many readers then and since wouldn't. In the Titan reprints, have been referring to Shokaract as Unicron's ghost and in #22 refer to him as "godhead".
- Noctorro is a guy who gets around. He's seen helping bring supplies to bind the berserk Razorbeast to the ground and then on the very next page, he's also seen wrestling with Rartorata's stinger.
- Apache and B'Boom are both on panel grappling with Razorbeast, allowing us to see Don Figueroa's modifications to both Maximals to make them seem less identical.
- On the middle panel and on the bottom left panel of the second to last page, a building and a bridge has inscribed on it "BYE" and "GOODBYE EVERYBODY — DON", a sorrowful goodbye from Don Figueroa as this was his last Transformers comic work for some time. He has since returned to pencil the BotCon 2008 comic "Shattered Glass", issue #3 of Transformers: Defiance and IDW's 2009-2011 The Transformers ongoing comic series.
- The Cybertronix written on the first page of the issue identifies the various Maximals and their equipment, including calling a scanning device in Big Convoy's hand "Geiger". Written in a box in the lower left is the following: "Big Convoy is so freaking awesome. I love him. Yeah ... So cool. He kicks Shokaract's butt all over [unreadable] lol". This marks the first canonical use of lowercase Predacon letters.
- There's a bunch of little character moments in the fights against the Angolmois-infected Razorbeast and Rartorata.
- Grimlock complains about having to tie up Razorbeast's hind end.
- Drill Nuts is moaning about having to use wooden stakes.
- Transquito is mocking Injector and his resemblance to Rartorata.
- Transquito then tries to figure out how Air Hammer keeps hitting Rartorata without getting hurt.
- Polar Claw makes an aggressive comment about wanting a piece of Rartorata earning him disapproving glances from K-9.
Continuity notes
- Shokaract's tower is said to look like it was "part of 'old' Cybertron" and has grown upwards through the surface. (Ancient ruins underground are a key part of Beast Machines.)
- There's a rather cunning thing going on if you're familiar with the BotCon Shokaract stories, which is that he's not the imposing cosmic warlord and all his big Furmanism speeches, as he did in those stories, are just the ravings of a drug-addled edgelord. The real villains are manipulating him through the promise he would be the conqueror from Reaching the Omega Point.
- It's unclear if Ravage knows who Lio Convoy is, only calling him "you" and guessing he's in charge. The next issue would have Big Convoy refer to the Pack's existence as "need to know", so it's possible Lio Convoy's role/existence is deliberately obscured.
- Polar Claw refers to it as "poetic" that Transquito injected Rartorata with a virus, a diss on how Rartorata had injected Razorbeast.
Errors
- When the Maximals are wrestling Razorbeast to the ground, Drill Bit is shown pegging stakes into the ground and complaining about their current lack of technology. This is more than likely supposed to actually be Drill Nuts, only mistakenly colored as Drill Bit.
Covers (4)
- Cover A: The Blendtrons; art by Nick Roche.
- Cover B: Lio Convoy and the Pack; art by Don Figueroa.
- Cover RIA: B&W cover A
- Cover RIB: B&W cover B
Cabin boy, fetch me my brown pants!
Dual breadsticks of JUSTICE.
RIA cover
RIB cover
Advertisements
- The Ascending #4
- CGC Grading, feat. Grimlock
- Transformers posters
- Movie toys
- The Art of IDW's Transformers
- Megatron Origin comic series
- Greatest Battles of Optimus Prime and Megatron
- Spotlights for Blaster and Arcee
- Doctor Who comics (back cover)
Reprints
Other than reprints of the full series
- Transformers Comic issues #21–23 (January–March 2009)
- Reprinted The Ascending issue 3 over the space of 3 issues.
- Other material was mainly related to the 2007 Movie, an Animated story, and also reprints the third issue of Megatron: Origin.
Transformers Comic #21; art by Jason Cardy
Transformers Comic #22; art by Jason Cardy
Transformers Comic #23; art by Jon Davis-Hunt and Jason Cardy
