Title: Man of Iron – Chapter 3
Original Release Date: February 9th, 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
Well this cover certainly is a contrast to the previous two issues! But sadly that’s not exactly a good thing as the cover is no cover at all, but 4 of the panels in the issue with stronger colors. What we see is a Decepticon Seeker in jet-form attacking Jazz from above, with Sammy sitting behind the steering wheel. An additional blurb promises “Action and adventure inside!”.
Story Synopsis
After driving away with Sammy, Jazz meets up with Mirage and Trailbraker. On their way, they are attacked by Decepticon jets, one manages to score a bad hit on Trailbreaker and they leave him behind. Mirage and Bluestream (who was lying in wait on a bridge) manage to down both their attackers. Later, after a presumably longer drive (it has gotten dark), Jazz transforms and carries Sammy the remaining way to the Autobot Shuttlecraft, where they meet up with Optimus Prime. Sammy learns that whatever is underneath the castle might be an Autobot rescue craft that was sent from Cybertron. The Decepticons suspect this as well, which means that if they find it first, everyone in the area is in danger. Jazz declares that they have to get there first and with that the issue ends.
Thoughts on content
This issue makes decent use of its page count, notably better than the previous one. Besides learning what is actually underneath the castle, we get a decent action scene, especially considering almost all combatants are in their vehicle modes. Battle damage is depicted in a far more severe way than what the US series has depicted most of the time so far, though it might have been stuff like Gears’ fall in US issue #3 that gave the author the idea that such damage needn’t be fatal (if they even put in that much thought at the time, who knows). In any case that gave us some nice looking panels with explosions and fire, so there’s that.
Next Up
UK Issue #12