Transformers Gives Optimus Primal’s Brutal Transformation a New Origin

Warning: spoilers ahead for Transformers: Beast Wars#14!

IDW Publishing’s Transformers comics just gave Optimus Primal’s most brutal form from the Beast Wars TV show a twist that not only alters what initiated the Maximal leader’s transformation, but diminishes the entire scenario with a much larger crisis – and even affects Dinobot’s character and redemption. Transformers: Beast Wars #14 comes from writer Erik Burnham, artist Josh Burcham and letterer Jake M. Wood.

During this odd retcon, the Predacons stumble across and decide to use a particularly potent lode of Energon that increases the anger and aggression of Transformers not in Beast mode, infecting Optimus Primal.  The Predacon Blackarachnia and Tarantulas carry out this plot by ambushing Dinobot (who’s in Beast mode) and a transformed Optimus Primal. The villains utilize a weaponized version of the Energon that’s been repurposed into a bomb. The resulting explosion causes Optimus to fall into an unadulterated rage once he awakens and lead a one-man assault on the Predacons himself – before getting apprehended by a new character.

In the original TV show, Scorpinok created such a virus himself, except he had intended that it would inflict the infected target with cowardice. It’s only due to his incompetence that the virus malfunctions, causing it to have the opposite effect when he later infects Optimus. More like the comics, Scorpinok’s original invention also functioned as a bomb (except shaped like an insect), but that’s where all similarities end, since the episode in which this occurs revolves entirely around Optimus’ predicament. In fact, the Maximals try to come up with various ways to find a cure, but when Optimus escapes and heads for the Predacon base alone, his followers have no choice but to provide him cover.

The comics’ version of this event is much different for a myriad of reasons. First, the Maximals don’t even bother trying to stop Optimus. Their reasoning is that the radiation from the Energon will wear off, resulting in Optimus’ fury and aggression lowering to normal levels. Second, Optimus (and Megatron) are captured by two Transformers, negating the whole situation from the TV show entirely and putting more of a focus on who captured them and why. In other words, Optimus getting infected is used only as a means to explain why he would go out on his own rather than serving as the main driver for the entire incident. In fact, it isn’t hard to imagine that Optimus Primal’s rage is only an easter egg for readers who also watched the show growing up.

The downside, however, is that the TV show used this moment to further capture Dinobot’s growth as a Maximal. After Optimus blasts off to assault the Predacon base alone, it’s Dinobot who serves as the voice of reason. Despite being a Maximal convert, Dinobot still espoused the more violent tendencies of his fellow Predacons, always preferring action over pacifism and berating his comrades whenever they were wasting their time exploring when they should be planning how to defeat their enemies. But Dinobot used this moment in the TV show to promote thinking with a cool head, even going so far as to say they should think like Optimus. This suggestion was a massive moment for Dinobot, especially since he wasn’t rewarded for his even temper after his plan failed, making future pacifist decisions all the more surprising and impressive.

In the series so far, IDW Publishing’s comic has made a point of redeeming Dinobot in ways that the Beast Wars TV show never did, which makes this latest issue more of an enigma, especially since Dinobot is one of the Transformers who suggests letting Optimus go. He even comments that it will be a fight for the ages if their leader doesn’t calm down before his arrival at the Predacon base. While the Transformers: Beast Wars comic just massively downgraded the importance of Optimus Primal’s rage-filled episode, the choice may also have unexpected implications for Dinobot’s redemption.

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