Warning: contains spoilers for Transformers: Beast Wars #3!

The Transforms: Beast Wars reboot comic has made a genius change to the animated show's story, depicting Megatron as an even darker villain, and adding more weight to Dinobot's decision to defect. Both are now richer characters in the story going forward, and it all happened thanks to a pretty minor tweak.

Despite later being overshadowed by the psychotically deranged Inferno, Tarantulas originally stood out from his peers in the TV show for sharing many of the same disturbing proclivities as his Beast Mode animal: the tarantula. Whenever a Maximal is foolish enough to get tangled in his web, Tarantulas obliges his cravings by first torturing his prey, then sucking the sustenance from their robotic frame. But in the popular TV show, the Predacon always conducted these experiments in secret without Megatron's knowledge. Now, the reboot comic is making Megatron much more involved.

Related: Transformers Movie Reported Story Details Tease Bumblebee & Beast Wars Connections

Probably the show's most infamous moment was when Tarantulas captured the Maximal's Cheetor in season one, episode three, "The Web." But now, instead of Cheetor, Transformers: Beasts Wars finds Nyx, the Maximal bat, at the mercy of Tarantulas in its third issue, written by Erik Burnham with art by Josh Burcham. The dynamics are now much more complex than the TV show. Megatron interrogates the captured Nyx while Tarantulas controls the torture device that sends electrical shocks throughout her system. But when Nyx proves that she will not betray her comrades, Megatron relinquishes her over to the diabolical care of Tarantulas.

Transformers Beast Wars Tarantulas Megatron

While Tarantulas never has the chance to ensnare Nyx in his webbing, he does allow his fellow Predacons to participate in her torture before he has some one on one time with the Maximal. Tarantulas decides to exploit the detrimental effects that the planet's overabundant Energon reserves have on Transformers who maintain their robotic form for too long. He accomplishes this using a device that keeps Nyx in her robotic form, causing her to undergo crippling pain, as Tarantulas' comrades fire blasts at her.

In yet another stunning change from the TV show, Megatron's willingness to resort to torture embellishes the best quality of the Predacon Dinobot, while better aligning his reasoning for defecting. In the TV series, Dinobot blames the fact that they crash-landed on ostensibly the wrong planet on Megatron's poor leadership and leaves the Predacons when his plan to overthrow Megatron fails spectacularly. But the comic has the honorable Dinobot disgusted by how Megatron utilizes such a dishonorable tactic as torture and for denying Nyx a more honorable death, which a warrior deserves. Sickened by his comrades' lack of morality, Dinobot sets Nyx loose and leaves.

Transformers Beats Wars Tarantulas Dinobot

So not only does Beast Wars' comic reboot make Megatron a more compelling character by making him a disgusting enough villain to rival Tarantulas, but it has Megatron's twisted ideals bring out the qualities that truly define Dinobot and compel the honor-bound warrior to defect for reasons much more relevant to his overall character. In one moment, Transformers: Beast Wars improves on the source material and established Megatron as an even more insidious villain.

Next: Transformers: Earthrise's Megatron & Galvatron Meeting Sets Up Unicron