Inferno (Beast Wars)
Inferno is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. This page is AbOUT the Inferno who appeared in the Beast Wars series. For other characters named Inferno see Inferno (Transformers).
Beast Wars
Insane and arsonistic, Inferno delights in causing pain and suffering while blasting opponents with twin flamethrowers. During his first encounter with Quickstrike, he claimed that "Pain is my friend! Allow me to introduce YOU to it!" before giving the Fuzor a severe pounding. When Megatron first witnessed Inferno's insane vigor for violence, he commented, "Oooh, Ilikehim!" Inferno was extremely tough and powerful, while at the same time being amazingly loyal, even igniting energon crystals rather than lose them to the Maximals, as per Megatron’s orders. In keeping with his ant instincts, he was one of the few Predacons genuinely loyal to Megatron, and always refers to him as "the Royalty" or "the Queen" (although he rarely used the latter in public after Megatron nearly strangled him after one too many uses of the term). Additionally, he referred to the Predacon Base as "The Colony" (and at one point "The Nest") and his comrades as drones, drawing some amount of dissatisfaction from them. Despite this, Inferno would prove surprisingly sociable, often playing cards with his fellow Predacons ("Changing of the Guard").
Bob Forward revealed in 1997 that Inferno was originally planned by Hasbro to be "the new Megatron [toy]. We were going to kill Megatron and bring him back as Inferno." 1
Season 1
Inferno was originally a Maximal protoform who was converted into a Predacon by Tarantulas, who had originally intended to recruit a third arachnid loyal only to him, as well as gain the stasis pod for himself to escape the planet. However, the scanner in Inferno’s pod had already scanned a fire ant before Tarantulas arrived. A glitch in this process (and possibly Tarantulas' faulty programming) resulted in Inferno's beast instincts heavily influencing his robot mode. He believed he was an actual fire ant, protecting his "colony" (the stasis pod), which was soon destroyed by Tigatron. An enraged Inferno was seconds away from [...] him when he was blown apart by Optimus Primal. Repaired after this, Inferno joined the Predacon ranks, reprogrammed to believing Megatron to be his “queen", the base to be his “colony” and the other Predacons as fellow “drones”. His arsonistic tendencies and impenetrable personal loyalty to Megatron (whom he often referred to as his "Queen", or "the Royalty" , much to Megatron's chagrin) forgive his quirks. This favored treatment would lead to a rivalry with Megatron's current second-in-command Scorponok, as the brutish Predacon considered the fanatically loyal Inferno as a threat to his position.
Inferno quickly made an impact on the Predacons, frequently leading the other flyers (Waspinator and Terrorsaur) on missions, although his desire for destruction often meant he disregarded any semblance of a plan. He also obtained revenge on Tigatron, [...] his white tiger companion Snowstalker during a mission. Inferno was considered loyal enough to be sent on a solo mission to retrieve the alien second Golden Disk artifact from a mountain cave. Later, he was sent after Tarantulas and Blackarachnia when they tried to escape in a modified stasis pod, incinerating Tarantulas.
Convention Comics
Inferno was one of the stars of the 1997 BotCon Convention Comics, a story set near the end of season one of the Beast Wars television series. In the Convention Comics plot, Inferno and Blackarachnia watched as the Predacon scientist Fractyl attempted to invent Energon Armor capable of protecting them from energon build up. Although seemingly successful, the armor was stolen by the Maximal thief Packrat. Blackarachinia and Fractyl realized the energon armor was flawed and could destroy the planet if it came in contact with large amounts of energon. Inferno pursued Packrat, but since Packrat didn't need to assume beast mode with the armor on, he got the upper hand in the fight with Inferno.
Season 2
Scorponok and Inferno’s rivalry was rendered moot after Scorponok died falling into a lava pit. After this, Inferno was promoted to sub-commander throughout the second and third seasons.
At the start of season two, he was still at the Maximal base, but inactive and imprisoned. When Blackarachnia turned off the energized cells to get Tarantulas' body, he was reactived and freed. During the time he was free, Megatron was attacking the base. He soon fought with Dinobot and Rhinox, but was kicked out by Rhinox. When Megatron saw him, Megatron sounded surprised, as he probably thought that Inferno was dead. The Predacons were soon out numbered when Waspinator and Blackarachnia retreated, so Megatron retreated as well with Inferno.
He proved to be a great fighter in several occasions; he was the first one to fight the Fuzors, he had a cowboy-themed showdown with the newly resurrected Optimus Primal, he faced-off with the traitor, Dinobot, he helped take down the human civilization until Dinobot cut through him, and he tried to get the stasis pod which contained Transmutate, only to get blown away by Transmutate itself.
In the season finale, he tried to kill Optimus Primal and Cheetor by exploding the energon crystals. His plan failed and he almost destroyed himself (at the time fans believed Inferno died at this point as his body was obliterated, but he was seen to have survived the explosion in the next season).
Season 3
Inferno was seen to still function at the start of the third series. He continued to serve Megatron loyally, even when commanded to help destroy the original Optimus Prime (which had he succeeded, would eliminate Inferno's existence, as he was a maximal protoform, however, he was never actually shown in reality flux). He scored a major victory for the Predacons when he managed to recover the Maximal defense computer Sentinel. Shadowing his earlier rivalry with Scorponok, Inferno had somewhat of a rivalry with the Transmetal II Dinobot clone, whose seeming loyalty to Megatron's rivaled his own. Inferno then took on any and every mission regardless of danger to hopefully win back his Royalty's favor. A recurring gag throughout Season Three was Inferno getting blasted by defense turrets in front of the Maximal base.
In the finale, Inferno led Quickstrike and Waspinator in search of a new "colony" after the Predacon Base was destroyed by Tigerhawk. Inferno decided that the caves of the humans would be suitable and he and Quickstrike attacked the base, after Waspinator defected. As Inferno tried to annihilate the human leader, Megatron appeared in the skies onboard the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis to take revenge on the human, and unknowingly destroyed Inferno and Quickstrike in the process, blowing them to pieces with one blast. His parts along with Quickstrike's were later used by the human settlement as tools (notably his head is comically used as a bongo drum).
Throughout the Beast Wars series, Inferno was one of only three characters to last the entire series without receiving some type of upgrade (the others being Rhinox and Waspinator).
IDW Publishing
Inferno had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing. {{-}}
Toys
- Beast Wars Mega Inferno (1997)
- There was a red transmetal ant released in the Beast Wars line called Scavenger, who was supposed to be Inferno, but was misnamed. He did however appear as a separate character in the IDW Beast Wars comics. In Japan however, the Scavenger toy was correctly sold as the transmetal version of Inferno. There was a black carpenter ant (a recolor of Inferno) called Antagony, a female Predacon Transformer, released as a BotCon Exclusive in 1998.
- Universe Deluxe Inferno (2003)
- Inferno is the name of an Autobot toy, a recolor of Robots in Disguise Prowl who was colored as a homage to the original Autobot Red Alert. Of all the initial characters in the Transformers: Universe toy line Inferno was the only one to lack any tech spec, bio, or appearance in any fiction, leaving his character a complete mystery. According to rumors the toy was originally going to be called Red Alert, and Universe Autobot Ratchet was to be called Inferno, but the names were swapped in a production mistake for this toy, so they had to rename the other toy as well.