How Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Could Adapt a Surprising Comic Story

The latest trailer for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has revealed the film's main villain: Unicron. The chaos bringer has been literally and figuratively the biggest villain in the franchise since 1986's Transformers: The Movie, and his arrival always spells bad things for anyone in his path. Rise of the Beasts also draws on the Beast Wars cartoon, bringing in a cast of Maximals that includes Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rhinox, and Airazor. While Unicron did not encounter the Maximals in the American Beast Wars cartoon, he did cause a lot of problems for some of those specific characters in the Transformers Armada and Energon comics from Dreamwave. While those comics might seem an unlikely inspiration, it's possible they could provide a hint to the story in Rise of the Beasts

Beast Wars toys first released in stores in 1996, reinvigorating the Transformers franchise at a point when it was nearly dead. The animal-based series was a big hit with fans young and old, and acted as a direct sequel to the original "G1" continuity. After multiple Beast-themed cartoons and toylines, however, a lot of fans began to miss the classic characters and vehicles. As a result, Hasbro and Takara began to co-develop a new series, which came to be known as Transformers Armada. Debuting in 2002, Armada served as a complete reboot of the Transformers storyline, while bringing back long missing favorites, like Unicron and Jetfire. The series revolved around a series of smaller robots known as Minicons, and every Autobot and Decepticon in the line came with a Minicon partner.

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(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

Armada proved to be quite successful, but Hasbro found it did not have enough product on shelves to meet demand. To satisfy hungry kids and collectors, the company took multiple figures originally released in the Beast Wars line, giving them new paint jobs and new Minicon partners to match the rest of the Armada figures. These characters were mostly just meant to fill out the toyline, and Rhinox was the only one to receive a brief cameo in the accompanying animated series. Despite this, the characters would actually play a significant role in the Transformers Armada comics published by Dreamwave. 

In the comics, Unicron did not just devour planets like he did in the animated movie; instead, this version consumed entire realities. In this quest, Unicron would send his heralds into realities to scout ahead, destroying any Autobot and Decepticon resistance (including their leaders) before they knew of his coming. In the "World's Collide" storyline, Unicron's initial heralds included G1 favorites Galvatron, Scourge, Bludgeon, Thunderwing, and Dirge. In the Armada continuity, the Beast Wars characters were not meant to be Maximals and Predacons; instead, they were Autobots and Decepticons with alt-forms designed for Earth combat. As part of an Autobot team led by Jetfire, Rhinox helped to defeat several of Unicron's heralds, before the chaos bringer arrived in their reality.

Upon his arrival, Unicron was surprised to find his heralds defeated, and Optimus Prime and Megatron still alive. This gave Prime the upper hand needed to defeat Unicron in the final issue of the Armada comic. However, the battle was not without casualties; Autobots Rhinox, Cheetor, and Airazor, along with the Decepticon Terrorsaur, were seemingly killed by Unicron. When the comic relaunched an issue later as Transformers Energon, it was revealed that the four Transformers were actually captured, and were now under Unicron's control as his new Horsemen. The four would remain recurring villains throughout the series, as they attempted to restore Unicron to full power.

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(Photo: Hasbro)

Unfortunately, real-world problems would prevent that story from ever getting a conclusion! Financial troubles led to Dreamwave's closure, as well as the abrupt end of the Energon comic series. Transformers fans hoped for years that publisher IDW might give the story a conclusion, but legal red tape has left the story unfinished. Despite the messy ending, it doesn't seem too big of a stretch to imagine that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts could use this story as inspiration. If the film's Maximals end up enslaved by Unicron, it could even set up an interesting sequel, where the Autobots are forced to save their newfound Maximal allies. Two decades after their release, the Armada and Energon comics remain some of the most underrated Transformers stories ever, and it would be pretty cool to see them loosely adapted for the big screen!

Are you looking forward to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts? Do you think Cheetor, Rhinox, and Airazor will have better luck against Unicron this time? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter and on Hive at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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