Ground Zero

Tales from the Beast Wars: Transformers: Critical Mass »
That Furmanite is about to give Packrat the worst case of indigestion he's ever had!
"Ground Zero"
Publisher	3H Enterprises
First published	July 18, 1997 (BotCon 1997) December 8, 2000 (BotCon: Beyond)[1] November 13, 2001 (BotCon Online)[2]
Cover date	July
Writer	Simon Furman
Artist	Andrew Wildman
Art assistant	Stephen Baskerville
Lettering	Starkings and Comicraft
Continuity	3H Beast Wars continuity

A Maximal and a Predacon learn a valuable life lesson.

Synopsis

Fractyl has created a new device, energon armor, using an element called furmanite. Blackarachnia urges him to finish the project (so she can use the results to take over the Predacons). Packrat eagerly spies on their activities, coveting the new armor.

The initial test is a success, but when Blackarachnia asks Inferno for the pure energon sample, she finds that the ant is distracted. Inferno has discovered Packrat, and he drops the pure energon crystal. This sample reacts with the furmanite that Fractyl dropped, causing a massive explosion. Fractyl deduces that furmanite must be anti-energon, and that if his device comes near any larger deposits of energon, the world could be at stake.

Of course, Packrat has taken off with the orb-shaped energon armor and is heading straight toward the energon-rich badlands. Packrat feels this device will solve his problems of being unappreciated by his group.

Meanwhile, Cheetor, Rhinox, and Airazor enjoy the sounds of nature—until they come across Packrat battling Inferno, that is. Packrat has gone mad with power, blasting Inferno into pieces. Fractyl arrives, warning of the dangers of his new armor. Rhinox tries to talk Packrat down, but Fractyl takes a forceful approach. Packrat knocks him down but surrenders the armor.

Airazor spots Megatron and Blackarachnia approaching. A despondent Fractyl resigns himself to his fate. However, Fractyl's good-heartedness in saving the Maximals from his invention has inspired Packrat, and he gives Fractyl an idea.

As Megatron catches up, he sees Fractyl shooting at the fleeing Maximals and is pleased. Packrat's plan to make Fractyl look good to his superior works, and Rhinox is pleased with Packrat's attitude turnaround.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"WARNING! Energon levels exceeding safety parameters. Stasis lock imminent."
"Be quiet, voice! Can't you see I'm busy?!"

—Inferno's onboard computer is paid no respects by the mad Inferno.

Fractyl: "You'd better go. I'll have to stay and face the music."
Rhinox: "For what it's worth, Fractyl, you did good. A lot of folk would have saved their own neck, left us to cook."
Fractyl: "I couldn't. I have a responsibility as a scientist that goes beyond my allegiance. I should have never allowed this to happen, I let myself be blinded by my own need."

Packrat: "Hey! I know I told Fractyl to make it look good, but not that good!"
Rhinox (thinking): "You know something, Packrat... ...There's hope for you yet!"

Notes

Production notes

"In twelve seconds time, I drop the photograph in the sand, walking away. Ten seconds now.
It is July, 1997. I am writing that Transformers is a past work, an old franchise people are surprised to remember. I am thirty-six years old.
Four seconds now. Three."

• This was the first piece of BotCon fiction ever produced, kicking off two decades of work! It followed the noble tradition of pimping toys, in this case the BotCon 1997 exclusives.
• It was also Simon Furman's and Andrew Wildman's first return to Transformers since the Marvel Generation 2 comics. (Until 3H contacted him to write the comic, he'd not even been aware there was still a fandom.^[3]) In honor of their return, this comic opened with a message from them to the congoers. Gaze upon that note, for it is a relic of a time when Transformers was considered to be old and dead, despite Beast Wars (note not Beast Wars: Transformers) doing well in ratings; where people would respond with "unintentional dismissiveness" to the idea of Furman and Wildman having worked on it, and where some extra TF fiction was a wonderful and odd thing.
• Furman would later admit that he wasn't that hip to what happened in Beast Wars until after BotCon 1997! Heh, little did he realize at the time that he would go on to write many more pieces of Beast Wars fiction, including the final episode of the cartoon.
• Three years after the comic's BotCon 1997 release, scans of the comic were posted online to the (now defunct) BotCon: Beyond website on December 8, 2000^[1] before they were later moved to the main BotCon website proper, BotCon Online, on November 13, 2001^[2]
• The "KADOOM" panel at the top of Page 6 features three cute little pixelations of Robot Mode Fractyl, Beast Mode Blackarachnia, and Robot Mode Inferno, with the former two being tossed into the air by the explosion while the latter fanatically chases after Packrat. Ha!

Continuity notes

• Though this comic takes place within the cartoon's first season, Fractyl and Packrat are just... there, with no explanation for their presence given by the comic. The BotCon 1997 program guide featured The Transformers Universe-style profiles for the two, in which Fractyl was confirmed to have been a protoform emerged from a stasis pod claimed by the Predacons. Packrat, meanwhile, would not get an origin of his own until BotCon 2002's "Betrayal", in which he was said to have been a preexisting Maximal thief on Cybertron who had been placed into a stasis pod and shipped off-world (evidently, aboard the Axalon) by the Imperial Peace Marshals. Presumably, his pod was found and opened by Optimus Primal's team of Maximals prior to this issue's events. Both characters would go on to appear in later BotCon fiction published by 3H, but the two's absence from the rest of the cartoon's events was only loosely explained in Fractyl's profile mentioning his preference to remain out in the fields (a la Tigatron) and Packrat's mentioning his preference to work alone (while also claiming he has his own quarters aboard the Axalon, implying he lives there with the other in-show Maximals, thus raising more questions).
• The energon armor is meant to shield the Predacons (and Maximals) in robot mode from the harmful effects of the energon radiation in the planet's atmosphere, which was a constant threat throughout the cartoon.
• Blackarachnia harbors secret ambitions to seize Predacon leadership from Megatron, which she first displayed in "The Trigger, Part 1" and "Part 2".
• Inferno goes bugnuts at the sight of a Maximal, calling Packrat "destroyer of the colony", in direct reference to the events of "Spider's Game", placing this comic's events, at the earliest, not too long after that episode.
• The concept of "anti-energon" is introduced in this comic as a preexisting substance that both Fractyl and Blackarachnia are already familiar with.
• The Badlands are also introduced here, as one of the most energon-rich areas on the planet. Later fiction would eventually apply the name to various Decepticon-owned territories on Cybertron.

Art and technical errors

• All of the characters who wear their respective faction's insignia on their helmets in the show do not wear them here.
• In the last panel on Page 11, the first "a" in Rhinox's line of "But he's more of a skulker than a fighter," is italicized, reading with unnecessary emphasis as "But he's more of a skulker than a fighter..."
• In the fifth panel on Page 15, Fractyl's speaking bubble points away from him, instead pointing towards Airazor in the next panel.

Transformers references

• "#1 in a one-issue limited series" is a joking nod to the first issue (and final issue) of the Marvel Comics run, which was originally a 4-issue mini.
• Furmanite is a reference to—oh, you guessed.
• The lettering is the same that Comicraft used for the Generation 2 comics, complete with 'boxes' for Maximals speech bubbles and 'daggers' for Predacons.
• Despite being a Predacon, Fractyl invokes the Matrix (rather than the Pit).

References

External links

• Tales from the Beast Wars: Transformers: Critical Mass #1 - "Ground Zero" at the BotCon Online archives