Title: Man of Iron – Chapter 2

Original Release Date: January 26th, 1985

When did I first read it: In 1991, when this issue (and the other issues of this short story) was published in a pocketbook format

Cover

The original cover shows a rather toy-like looking Mirage walking around in what’s likely the village Stansham (where Sammy lives). The very dark coloring on Mirage and overall coloring on the buildings give the cover a rather eerie feeling. His eyes seem a bit large and weirdly placed in the picture, but overall I like this cover.

Story Synopsis

After his exciting day (see previous issue), Sammy is having a dream about spaceships and robots. This dream fluently transitions into showing Mirage as he enters the village in robot mode, walking towards Sammy’s home. As he looks into Sammy’s room, everything there starts to float. The picture of the “Man of Iron” that Sammy’s dad left there floats out of the window and Mirage picks it up. When Sammy’s parents enter the room, they find Sammy in his bed, sleeping, but there are a lot of things floating/flying around in  his room. As Sammy’s father closes the window, he seems Mirage walking away, which confuses him even more. The next day he visits the castle area and is told that something very big is buried under the castle (around the size of an ocean-going liner). Back home, Sammy notices Jazz parked in front of the house. At first he just thinks it’s a nice car, but then he notices the drawing on the back seat. At this point Jazz starts talking to him, inviting him to sit behind the wheel. As Jazz asks Sammy some questions about the castle, his mother notices him sitting in the car and tells him to get out of it. Before he is able to, Jazz slams the door shut and drives away.

Thoughts on content

A decent issue, though due to the shortness of UK issues not that much happens. Especially since that one scene that goes from dream to chaos in Sammy’s room takes up around half of the total page count. To be fair, I think the whole dream sequence is nicely done since there wasn’t a clear point where it switches from dream to reality, but it’s a fluid transition. But all in all there isn’t more in it than “Sammy dreams of robots and Mirage steals the drawing of the Man of Iron”. Usually I’d say that Jazz kidnapping Sammy (in front of his mother, even) would be a bit out of character for an Autobot, but then I have to remind myself that it was him that stopped Sparkplug Witwicky and his son with his flame-thrower just 3 UK issues back (beginning of US Issue #4)… the “Remember: Never accept lifts from strangers!” line below the panels of the last page made me smirk.

Next Up

UK Issue #11