Cover: I had a feeling the cover I have looked similar, surprise, surprise, it's the Guido Guidi cover! That's right, the same artist that did the Transformers: Infiltration issue 3 cover I have! Anyhow, it's a great cover, while the Transformers on it are obviously from this new batch of Maximals and Predacons and I therefore have no clue as to their names, but the overall effect is stunning with a large horned Transformer and smaller Transformers surrounding him, all in a crevass that appears to have lava flowing through it.

Story: We open on Magmatron telling a huge legion of Predacons that they are at war and the prize is no less than Cybertron itself! But first he says, there's a more local matter to deal with, the traitor Razorbeast. Magmatron tells them that Razorbeast will undoubtedly be appempting to contact Cybertron, he tells Drill Bit and Spittor that he must fail. There's only one place he can be heading for, because to transmit across space and time he'll need a Transwarp Signal Booster and there's only one place to get that... A Transwarp Cruiser! Elsewhere one of the newly risen Maximals asks Razorbeast if he's certain it exists as he leads them small band towards the cruiser. Razorbeast tells them that he had no chance to warn Ops-Command of Magmatron's plans before they left Cybertron as he kept his masterstroke to himself as long as possible. Flashback to Cybertron, Magmatron tells the fes Predacons his plan to gather an army from Earth's Prehistory, with the aid of a global transmitter array that Razorbeast was building to Magmatron's specs. Back to now Razorbeast tells them that while he had no chance to warn anyone he did his level best to throw a spanner in the works. One of the other Maxamals says that he did and they're living proof, but Razorbeast tells them that there should be more of them and wonders why others haven't answered his call. Several elsewheres we see Transformers capturing beasts, swimming, and flying, the beast modes are mutants, not one form or another. Drill Bit, Spittor and Magmatron arrive at the spot where the final showdown between Ravage and his Transwarp Cruiser and the Maximals, but they still need to find the crash site. Back with the Maximals and Razorbeast and the ape B'Boom are butting heads with B'Boom commenting that Razorbeast screams Predacon to his sensor net, Razorbeast reveals that his resonant spark signature was altered at a sub-molecular level. B'Boom backs down and they move on, but Razorbeast has the feeling that it's too late as we zoom out and see one of Magmatron's componants flying above them. A bi ahead the maximal Ramulus, a cybernetic mountain goat, is scoutig and encounters Spittor who, in his beast mode spits a wad of some sort of electrical disruptor. The other Maxamals see him fall and realize the Predacons are there. B'Boom is thrown back as Magmatron arrives and congratulates Razorbeast on finding new playmates. Elsewhere a small monkey Maximal has found the Transwarp Cruiser, or what's left of it. Back to Razorbeast and Magmatron's fight, it looks like everything is lost after Razorbeast throws as much as he can at Magmatron with little effect. Back to the Transwarp Cruiser and the monkey is wondering what a Transwarp Amplifier looks like when he hears a voice behind him telling him it looks like this, we see a Predacon there with the Transwarp Amplifier in his hand. Back to Razorbeast who appears to be surrendering, but it's a ruse so he can shoot the canyon wall above him sending a rockslide down onto Magmatron's T-Rex section, which distracts his other 2 parts while the Maximals escape. Back at the Transwarp Cruiser, we see the Predacon, Drill Bit approaching the monkey with another Maximal behind him, a shot is fired and we see Drill Bit walking out of the Cruiser before falling down, a blast wound in his back, the two Maximals exit with the Transwarp Amplifier. Epilogue: the Maximals examine the amplifier which is broken, Razorbeast notes that 3 million years or so before the time they're in a little piece of Cybertron fell to Earth... The Ark! Epilogue 2: Spittor, Magmatron and a revived Drill Bit are at the Transwarp Cruiser where Magmatron finds the mortal remains of the once and former Tri-Predacus Agent Ravage, and while his body didn't survive, his spark core did! Magmatron decides that their conflict needs a dash of Decepticon dogma! ... To Be Continued...

Graphics: These are amazing, better than the Infiltration graphics if you ask me, the detail is so amazing, you'd swear you were there... These are the sort of graphics that give comics a very, very good name.

Bonuses: A two page black and white preview of the next issue which tells the basic story that Magmatron will turn his attention to his proper mission, capturing Megatron, while Ravage will sort out Razorbeast. We also have the standard 3 page preview of the current Transformers Infiltration, issue 3, we open in the control room of Ark-19, Sunstreaker and Ratchet are watching monitor screens showing their human guests, the center screen focused in on Verity holding up the palm computer threatening to wipe it if they don't let them out, Sunstreaker comments on how noisy they are before muting the sound. We pull back and see Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Prowl, Wheeljack, Jazz and Bumblebee, Ratchet is pointing out that a lone human did what the Autobots couldn't and tracked the Decepticons to their strategic command bunker, Prowl's still hung up on Ratchet breaking the rules and had direct contact with humans.

Readers Letters: This is the first Beast Wars oriented letter column so we have a new name "Maxi-Mail" and it features what appears to be a good cross-section of views on issue 1 of Beast Wars. The upcoming issues section features 3 panels Infiltration #4, Beast Wars #3 and Generations #2.

Adverts: As with Infiltration issue 3, we have an ad for Transformers Generations, a look back at classic Transformers comics from the past 2 decades! The second ad is on the back cover and shows an image of Cybertron with the legend "A Storm is Coming - July 2006"

Scores

Cover 10/10
Story 10/10
Graphics 10/10
Bonuses 7/10
Readers Letters 8/10
Adverts 5/10

Average Score: 8.3/10
Overall Score: 10/10