The Transformers: Man of Iron

Man of Iron was the first British Transformers story. After the initial four-part miniseries (that eventually ran to 80 issues) of the American Transformers had been reprinted in the UK comic, they began publishing original stories by British writers and artists.

While writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior would later become synonymous with the series, and would take it in a direction that eschewed the necessity for using mannys as audience identification or POV characters, this was not something in place from the very beginning. Man of Iron was written by Steve Parkhouse, with art by John Ridgway, respectively the writer and artist of the Voyager stories for Doctor Who. As we might expect from such imaginitive creators, they had their own unique perspective on the world of the Transformers...

Very much beginning the story from the POV of mannys, it starts with Decepticon jets dropping bombs on an old English castle. The mannys don't know they're Decepticons, and we readers are only clued in by the blurry presence of the Decepticon insignia on their wings. They all appear as a dull grey, instead of the distinctive colourings of Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker.

It's as if they're trying to be "robots in disguise" from the readers as well as the mannys in the story.

Two bombs: one explodes; the other doesn't. This caues the police and the army to cordon off the castle, and send for the curator, Roy Harker.

From Roy, we are introduced to our main character, his son Sammy. Sammy is busy in the woods playing at Cultural Appropriation. His first thoughts that we are privy to:

"Running Wolf says... many moons must come and go until he tastes venison once more in his father's lodge..."

It was a different time. Sammy would be in his 40s now.

Sammy encounters the Autobot Jazz in the wood and runs away. Jazz says nothing (though he does step on and destroy Sammy's bow and arrow - the postmodern toy symbolically replacing the old-fashioned one), and is very much portrayed as the stranger in this scene, with Sammy the POV character. This is going to remain the case for the majority of the story, giving us a greater degree of removal from the Autobots than is usual even for the earliest introductory stories in the American comic - there we were shown the origin of the Transformers and the backstory of how they came to be on Earth before we were introduced to any of the main human characters.

We next see Jazz transformed into his car mode, framed in such a way that a reader with no preknowledge of the Transformers might not connect that this is the same robot. Or that, as he communicates with an "Autobot leader," that it is the car itself doing the talking and not some unseen person within.

Roy Harker, still trying to puzzle out what the mystery jets' intentions were, is summoned home because his son is "in a state of shock." The scene suddenly changes to a flashback to history, with the picture frames changing to a borderless style to clue us in on the transition.

In 1017, a battle between the armies of noblemannys was interrupted when "the ground was seized by a great shaking" and then "a man of iron of great height and girth" (clang!) appeared. And it wasn't just his height and girth that frightened the mannys, lol, because this man of iron also "carried a sword of fire, and a javelin of flame... and thunderbolts came from his hands..."

It is then revealed to us that all this historical exposition is being read out of a book by Roy to Sammy. Roy asks

"Sammy... the, er... robot you saw in the woods today... did it look like this?"

Sammy charitably says "that's more or less what it looked like" and this seems to confirm Roy's suspicions. He tells Sammy

"This is a drawing taken from an illuminated manuscript found in the castle chapel by my predecessor twenty five years ago... it's the man of iron...

The manuscript was completed in 1070, Sammy... it's over nine hundred years old!"

The sense this gives us of the enormity of history is something that wouldn't make sense in an American setting, so here we see the writer making good use of the choice to set it in Britain. Using the passage of centuries in this way reminds me of Dark Towers, where the ancient Tall Knight was so terrifying partly because of his extreme remoteness from life in the present day.

The next five pages are an extended, surreal dream sequence, where Sammy dreams about seeing a spaceship, the Decepticon Thundercracker in his jet mode, and the Autobot Mirage in humanoid robot form. As it goes on it becomes increasingly unclear to us what is real and what is in the dream, as Sammy appears to wake, and yet he and the objects in his bedroom go on to levitate around the room.

The picture of the man of iron flies out of the open window where it is taken up by a robot hand, as Sammy says

"The man of iron! He's flying! He's flying away!"

The dream sequence ends only when Roy breaks into the room to find Sammy is still sleeping, but that "there's a hurricane blowing through here..."

Shutting the window, Roy sees the back of the departing Mirage, as he stalks away into the night. Roy's response to his seeing this is to ask

"What the heck is going on around here?"

In the sort of transition that plays better in a TV show, the next day he asks the same question of an army captain at the castle. The captain tells him

"There's a very large object buried under the hill. Very large indeed."

"How large?"

"Well... ahh... at a rough estimate? About the size of an ocean-going liner."

Sammy, meanwhile, sees Jazz as a car, and doesn't connect him with the robot he saw the previous day.

Examining the car more closely, Sammy spots that it has "no driving mirrors. No wing mirrors, either." So while they may be robots in disguise, that doesn't guarantee that their disguise is perfect. This makes sense even if you know the backstory for why the Transformers turn into Earth vehicles, since the intelligence that repaired them and gave them their alternative forms mistaikenly believed the cars, jets, guns and cassette recorders to be Earth's indigenous lifeforms. It does contradict how the Autobots are often shown in other stories, however, although this is also true of the way John Ridgway draws them very closely to the appearance of their toys, while other artists would go for a more streamlined or stylised approach that made the characters both easier to draw and more individually distinctive.

Sammy is literally speechless when he sees the picture of the man of iron on the car's back seat, which the comic depicts by drawing a speech bubble but not filling it with any speech. Jazz, on the other paw, says

"Get in, Sammy!"

Sammy claims to have been taught by his mum "not to take lifts from strangers" but Jazz tricks Sammy inside with a persuasive, tempting offer:

"Why not just sit for a while in the front seat? Just pretend you're driving..."

Are we quite sure the "Heroic" Autobots are the goodys? If that ploy had failed would Jazz have offered to show Sammy some puppies?

As soon as Sammy's mum appears and calls for him, Jazz slams his door shut and kidnaps Sammy, driving away as Sammy shouts

"Mum! Help meee!"

This is the halfway point in the story, and so far the presence of the Transformers has been kept to a minimum level in their own comic that will scarcely, if ever, be seen again. They are as alien as they will ever be, with the Decepticons having unknowable motives and even the Autobots' motivation appearing sinister for now. Up to this stage they have lurked in the periphery of the story, which has been fantastic in establishing an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Though this is completely lost upon any reader with too much prior knowledge of the Transformers, who know all about the Autobot-Decepticon conflict, and must therefore be aware that the Autobots are not baddys. Thus this only makes sense as one of the earliest Transformers stories, and could never have been successful if placed any later in the comic's run.

The second half of the story sees an immediate change in direction - with Sammy now in Jazz's hands (there's maybe a joke to be made here if you want it, mew), the Autobots reveal themselves to both him and, through him, to us the readers.

"Sometimes we disguise ourselves [...] so we can move around without being noticed [...] and sometimes we're discovered by accident. Like the day you saw me in the woods!"

"You mean the robot I saw in the woods was you?"

(He's not the sharpest, is our Sammy. Mew.)

"That's right, Sammy. That was the real me. My name is unpronouncable in your language... so just call me Jazz!"

This is the second time in this story when it has been stated that the Autobots' names are not their real names, but rather they are supposed to be "codenames." This contradicts many, many other Transformers stories, where it is generally accepted that their names are their names, but is arguably more 'realistic' than that they all have names that so neatly and precisely match their personality, form or function. Never mind, this is clearly an early attempt at worldbuilding by Parkhouse, just one that wouldn't be taken up by other writers.

Jazz meets up with Mirage and Trailbreaker, and then they are immediately attacked by Decepticon jets. The story is suddenly all action. Trailbreaker, having only joined in the story a page earlier, is attacked and damaged, and for all we know may even be killed since the last we see of him is his reporting to Jazz

"I hear you Jazz... it's no good. Everything's gone... just plain... ruined..."

Trailbreaker? More like Trailborken

Mirage tricks one of the Decepticons into crashing into a bridge, while the other one attacks Jazz. There is some confusion about the identity of the Decepticons involved in this attack, since they are both coloured dark blue like Thundercracker - this is far from the only time the precise number and nature of the Decepticon jets has been left vague, and the Transformers cartoon would be a lot worse than this for having multiple Thundercrackers, Skywarps and even Starscream lookalikes.

Jazz and Sammy are saved by the arrival of another Autobot, Bluestreak, who guns down the remaining Decepticon.

The action sequence comes to and end with the jet taking half a page to crash-land.

After this, the pace changes once again as Sammy is taken to the Autobot's spaceship...

"Gosh! Is that a spaceship? A real spaceship?"

asks Sammy, to which Jazz replies

"Not really. It's a shuttle-craft."

Jazz does not elaborate on this, but as readers we can deduce that this may be a technologically advanced craft, but it is not capable of flying through outer space - not only will this become significant later on in this story, it is key to the overarching story of the Transformers that they do not have access (at least at this early stage in the comics) to interplanetary travel, and are trapped on Earth after their actual spaceship - the Ark - crashed into it.

Out of the shuttle comes...

Optimus Prime!

In some ways the main character of the Transformers, certainly their most iconic figure, Optimus Prime would transcend his creator's intended function as a toy robot that turns into a truck to become one of the most beloved characters of the 20th century. That can be largely attributed to the way he was given a compassionate personality that ought to have acted counter to his purpose as a military leader, but instead allowed him to transcend that role. This made his death in The Transformers: The Movie (1985) all the more painful to viewers, but it also meant his eventual return from death was almost Christ-like to the generation that witnessed it.

There's little of that to be seen here (though there will be hints of it later on in the story), with the Autobot leader's function right now being to give Sammy - and through him, us - the exposition about what's going on:

"We are Autobots, Sammy. We come from the planet Cybertron. We are stranded here on Earth. We came to your country after picking up a signal. We tracked the signal from halfway round the world, all the way to Stansham. The signal is in our language. It has acted like a beacon, beaming out its message for millions of years...

We believe that scientists on our homeworld have sent a rescue craft for us. That craft is somewhere near the castle of Stansham. It may even be underneath it!"

The upshot is that the Autobots have to reach the craft before the Decepticons do. Sammy tells them that the soldiers his dad has been W-wording with are also looking for it, to which Optimus Prime replies that if the mannys get there first, the Decepticons "will destroy the craft, the castle, the village... everything!"

The next day, the soldiers have gotten as far as exposing part of the rescue craft and seen the Autobot symbol. With security efficiency worthy of UNIT, the captain is quite happy to chat with Roy Harker about it:

"We have reason to believe it's a craft, Mr Harker. Possibly extraterrestrial, though we have no proof of that. The signal may be a distress call... or an attempt to contact extraterrestrial beings near to Earth [...] or even here on the surface!"

To me that sounds too suspiciously accurate for speculation, maybe the captain does know more than he's telling Roy?

Roy has worries of his own, as he (and the writer) remembers that his son was last seen being "kidnapped by a driverless car." But he has more immediate problems when the ground shakes and the man of iron appears.

This isn't Jazz, but the man of iron of legend, who emerges from a secret undeground lair. It starts attacking the army, destroying a jeep, but then a Decepticon appears and blasts the man of iron, destroying it.

This is a great twist and subversion of reader expectations - after all the build up and the anticipation of his arrival, the man of iron is killed off only three pages after he made his entrance.

The Autobots arrive on the scene and battle is joined, the Decepticon jets (multiple Thundercrackers again) accompanied by Buzzsaw and Laserbeak (or their lookalikes). The narration draws a parallel between this battle and the historical battles fought over this site, in and around the castle.

This climactic fight is short - really only a page-and-a-half - before the Decepticons retreat (having none of them spoken a word throughout the entire story, leaving them a mysterious and alien presence - a far cry from the ranting, maniacal Megatron of the cartoons), with the Autobots taking possession of the rescue craft.

Sammy is reunited with his father and advises him to leave the area, something that he and the army were, rather sensibly, going to do anyway. The army soldiers are never explicitly identified as being from UNIT, but it would be a perfect fit, especially in an era when Marvel comics were also producing the Doctor Who comic strip.

Optimus Prime and Jazz discuss what to do now that they have the means to leave the Earth, and here we get a sense of the great wisdom and compassion of Optimus Prime as he takes the command decision:

"We cannot leave the Earth now, Jazz. The Decepticons would soon overrun the planet. Only we few stand in their way. We cannot leave. Nor can we leave the rescue ship intact. We have no choice but to destroy it."

The repetition of "we cannot leave" cleverly hints at the internal struggle that Optimus Prime faces over this dilemma, but when he makes his decision it is final - phrased as having been "no choice."

As readers we are made privy to information that would most certainly have altered Optimus Prime's decision had he been aware of it - the craft still has an occupant; a "navigator," for whom the man of iron was only an "attendant." The narration makes it clear that "Jazz could know nothing of this" and so he carries out his leader's order, and destroys the spaceship so that "nothing remained."

With that, the story is all but over. The last few panels are a melancholic epilogue, as the narration explains what happened afterwards in a far more poetic fashion than a story like this honestly deserves:

"Autumn came, leaves fell... Sammy was a year older and a year wiser. He never saw Jazz again...

But on clear, sharp nights, when stars glittered like needles and the night winds rattled his window... then he slept a fitful, fearful sleep...

...and the man of iron walked once more through his dreams."

Man of Iron is one of the all time great Transformers stories for good reason, being an exceptionally tight, self-contained story that a reader needs no prior knowledge of the Transformers to enjoy. Indeed, arguably having too much knowledge of the Transformers might well lessen one's enjoyment of this story, because it runs counter to the more established tropes of the franchise in so many ways.

But if you can set 40 years of Transformers lore aside to experience their world afresh through Sammy's eyes, there's a lot here to enjoy. Though we never did find out what became of Trailbreaker...