The Transformers: Man Of Iron (G1)

Script: Steve Parkhouse
Art: John Ridgway / Mike Collins

Inspired by writing my review of the recent movie, I decided to dig out this comicbook from my teenage years, and settle down to once again enjoy Steve Parkhouse's brief foray into the Hasbro universe.


My recollections were fairly spot-on. This British-set story did indeed still look a heck of a lot like Parkhouse's Doctor Who strips of the time – Stansham might just as well be Stockbridge – but I was unprepared for quite the extent to which the story was told from the humans' points-of-view. If anything, today I was rattled by why no-one in England had seen the giant transforming robots on the international news from the states. As a kid I'd just assumed that this was set in the same England where I lived. Today however I assumed this England was on the same Earth as all the other Transformers stories. It disappointed me that America and England had no idea what had been happening just across the pond. Even the final line gives the impression that in the years to come, none of the characters ever even heard of these robots again, despite all the subsequent stories back in America.

In a plot that foreshadowed the recent movie, the story concerns a kid called Sam getting caught-up in the war via a car, and getting taken to meet the others. At one point Jazz even stands outside his first-floor bedroom window one night.

The strip delivers what it promises – a simple charming tale of a little boy's adventure – and remembers to include a proper amount of actions/explosions too.

The end is an absolute cop-out though, but hey, this was written as what we now call a "missing adventure" – a tale designed to slot into some non-specific point in past continuity, without disturbing any subsequent events.

And to that end, it works just as well (as in not quite) if you instead imagine it set at some point during the recent movie.


The Transformers (G1, UK) #1-8: The Transformers / Power Play! / Prisoner Of War! / The Last Stand here.
The Transformers (G1, UK) #13-17: The Enemy Within here.
The Transformers (G1, UK) #18-21: Raiders Of The Last Ark here.