I have an addendum to what I wrote before regarding the first four Marvel UK-original comic stories, particularly what I wrote about "Man of Iron".
I did some further research and discovered a few incongruities with what we're told about when "Man of Iron" is set, which not only cause some problems with where I chose to place that story in the Marvel UK continuity, but which also simply make no sense.
Part 1 of the story opens with a narration box that sets the story "at the end of a long hot summer". Then, Part 2 opens with another narration box that tells us it is now "An Autumn night, clear, cold, and sparkling with stars." Part 1 also takes place during the day and ends with night falling, while Part 2 appears to begin during the same night that ended Part 1. This would suggest Part 1 occurs on the last day of Summer while Part 2 begins on the first day of Autumn. Like I said in my previous post, this would place the story in September, but specifically about a week before the end of September, around the 22nd or 23rd. This poses a conflict with something else we are told in Part 2: When Jazz, uh... "kidnaps" young Sammy Harker (the Autobots' main human ally in this story), he reminds Sammy that the boy is currently "on holiday", meaning he's on a break from school. This appears to be true as the bulk of the story is set across three consecutive days, and during all three of them, Sammy never attends school.
The thing is, Sammy can't be on break from school if the story is set in the latter half of September, because (according to Wikipedia, at least), the academic years for primary schools in England begin during the first week of September, and the first school break doesn't occur until the end of October/beginning of November, around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night. Of course, any UK members on here are free to correct me if any of this information is incorrect. Here is what Wikipedia said on the matter:
So, between the three bits of info we're given on when the story is set (end of summer, Autumn, and a school break), something is off. It seems the only way to find a fix for this is to assume that one of these points is less factual than the other two: If we take just the first two points into account, the story would be set in the back half of September. But, as I said before, Sammy is clearly not in school during this story, so the third point seemingly can't be ignored.
Going by just the first and third point, that would place the story earlier, before the first week of September during the final week of summer break (as opposed to the end of the Summer season). This could work, in theory. But, throughout the story, pretty much every human character is shown wearing jackets, coats, sweaters, long pants, long-sleeve shirts, and layers upon layers of clothing, all suggesting that the weather really is chilly and cool, like the caption for Part 2 said about the Autumn night being cold. And when the montage at the very end of the story flashes forward to the next summer, people are seen wearing short sleeves and T-shirts, reflecting the warmer weather accordingly.
So, that leaves the third option of ignoring the ironclad letter of the first point in favor of the latter two, with it being Autumn and during a school holiday. We'd just have to assume that "at the end of a long hot summer" is less literal and actually just means that Summer has already come and gone. If the above information from Wikipedia is correct (again, any UKers on here may chime in), then the Autumn session's half-term break set around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night would be the perfect time of year for this story to be set. Specifically, it could be set during the little gap of time between Halloween (October 31) and Guy Fawkes Night (November 5), since neither event is so much as hinted as having happened or about to happen in this story. The three days could go anywhere from the 1st to the 4th of November (either November 1-3 or November 2-4).
But then, you're probably wondering, what does any of this have to do with my previous placement of the story during the same stopgap within "The Last Stand" that I placed "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", and the flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I not only really didn't like having to place "Man of Iron" in two radically different placements between the US and UK continuities, but I also struggled to believe that (out of all four of those stories) "Man of Iron" could also be set during that same stopgap as the others. It's just such a busier, longer-set story than the events of the other three, each of which only span a day at the most and keep the action close to home for the characters. Whereas "Man of Iron" takes the cast halfway around the world on a longer three-day adventure, with a more explosive and destructive battle between the 'Bots and 'Cons that yields heavy damage to both sides, consequently feeling like so many more resources are expunged during the story.
The Autobots' energy situation on Earth in the four-issue limited series is dire. They are desperate for more energy, and their reserves are practically running on empty. The other three UK stories taking place during that time is already straining believability enough, while "Man of Iron" just feels impossibly too big a story to have also occurred during that time. So then, where am I going to put it? Right after US issue #12 "Prime Time!", which would put it before "Shooting Star!" in the US continuity and before "Christmas Breaker!", "Crisis of Command!", "The Icarus Theory", "Dinobot Hunt!" and then "Shooting Star!" in the UK continuity.
But what about all I said before about why it can't go right before "Christmas Breaker!"? Well, I found something else, too. While it's still true that "Christmas Breaker!" opens with a newspaper dated December 24, 1985 that has an article written about the events of "Prime Time!" (suggesting that those two issues are meant to be close to each other), I found there to be a gap of time that happens later but which, in-universe, doesn't feel like a time gap at all. The majority of "The Icarus Theory" takes place on January 25, a whole month after "Christmas Breaker!". On that same day, Optimus checks in on Ratchet repairing Bumblebee from the injuries he sustained during the preceding story "Crisis of Command!" Both Optimus and Bumblebee act as if the events of that story just happened very recently, as if it was just the other day that Bumblebee got injured. If that's the case, then that means there's about a whole month-long gap of time between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", despite the former containing some story bits that foreshadow the events of the latter, which, when read back-to-back, make "Crisis of Command!" feel like it comes shortly after "Christmas Breaker!", not a whole month after. And yet, the dates in both "Christmas Breaker!" and "The Icarus Theory" say otherwise.
So, if there can be that long of a gap between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", then perhaps there could be a similar gap between "Prime Time!" and "Christmas Breaker!" after all, in which "Man of Iron" could slot in and be set at the beginning of November. As for the newspaper article, perhaps the news coverage of the events of "Prime Time!" was an ongoing thing, with multiple stories being written about it for several weeks after it happened. The specific article in the Christmas story was also said to be an interview with Ferdy and Gabe, two of G.B. Blackrock's employees that were among the workers held captive by Shockwave. Maybe the interview simply took that long to get underway, delaying the article's completion and publication. Maybe the two were first taken in by the Army or Triple-I and questioned by them before being released to public and interviewed by the press. Either way, the events covered by the newspaper article don't necessarily have to be as recent as I'd previously believed.
What's more, the sudden outrage that the Autobots feel with Optimus at the start of "Crisis of Command!" would now have more context in light of Optimus's callous decision to order Jazz to destroy the buried Autobot vessel at the end of "Man of Iron", when the Autobots could have salvaged any resources from that ship for them to use in their war with the Decepticons, instead of Optimus simply having the ship destroyed. Prowl and Bluestreak grumbling to themselves in "Christmas Breaker!" about how Optimus has been acting "strange" lately would also have more context from that decision in "Man of Iron", since that decision always felt strangely out of character for Optimus.
So in the end, I'm more comfortable with placing "Man of Iron" right after "Prime Time!" in both the US and UK continuities. While this would instead set "Man of Iron" during the Autumn of 1985 instead of 1984, the story was originally published in January 1985, so it's at least still within the same year it was originally published. Consequently, we now have the following reading order for all of these issues (US issues in normal text, UK issues in Italics):
"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand" Pages 1-8
"The Enemy Within!"
"Raiders of the Last Ark"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback story
"The Last Stand" Pages 9-22
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" present-day wraparound story
"The Wrath of Guardian!"
"The Wrath of Grimlock!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Man of Iron"
"Christmas Breaker!"
"Crisis of Command!"
"The Icarus Theory"
"Dinobot Hunt!"
"Shooting Star!"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"
I did some further research and discovered a few incongruities with what we're told about when "Man of Iron" is set, which not only cause some problems with where I chose to place that story in the Marvel UK continuity, but which also simply make no sense.
Part 1 of the story opens with a narration box that sets the story "at the end of a long hot summer". Then, Part 2 opens with another narration box that tells us it is now "An Autumn night, clear, cold, and sparkling with stars." Part 1 also takes place during the day and ends with night falling, while Part 2 appears to begin during the same night that ended Part 1. This would suggest Part 1 occurs on the last day of Summer while Part 2 begins on the first day of Autumn. Like I said in my previous post, this would place the story in September, but specifically about a week before the end of September, around the 22nd or 23rd. This poses a conflict with something else we are told in Part 2: When Jazz, uh... "kidnaps" young Sammy Harker (the Autobots' main human ally in this story), he reminds Sammy that the boy is currently "on holiday", meaning he's on a break from school. This appears to be true as the bulk of the story is set across three consecutive days, and during all three of them, Sammy never attends school.
The thing is, Sammy can't be on break from school if the story is set in the latter half of September, because (according to Wikipedia, at least), the academic years for primary schools in England begin during the first week of September, and the first school break doesn't occur until the end of October/beginning of November, around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night. Of course, any UK members on here are free to correct me if any of this information is incorrect. Here is what Wikipedia said on the matter:
So, between the three bits of info we're given on when the story is set (end of summer, Autumn, and a school break), something is off. It seems the only way to find a fix for this is to assume that one of these points is less factual than the other two: If we take just the first two points into account, the story would be set in the back half of September. But, as I said before, Sammy is clearly not in school during this story, so the third point seemingly can't be ignored.
Going by just the first and third point, that would place the story earlier, before the first week of September during the final week of summer break (as opposed to the end of the Summer season). This could work, in theory. But, throughout the story, pretty much every human character is shown wearing jackets, coats, sweaters, long pants, long-sleeve shirts, and layers upon layers of clothing, all suggesting that the weather really is chilly and cool, like the caption for Part 2 said about the Autumn night being cold. And when the montage at the very end of the story flashes forward to the next summer, people are seen wearing short sleeves and T-shirts, reflecting the warmer weather accordingly.
So, that leaves the third option of ignoring the ironclad letter of the first point in favor of the latter two, with it being Autumn and during a school holiday. We'd just have to assume that "at the end of a long hot summer" is less literal and actually just means that Summer has already come and gone. If the above information from Wikipedia is correct (again, any UKers on here may chime in), then the Autumn session's half-term break set around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night would be the perfect time of year for this story to be set. Specifically, it could be set during the little gap of time between Halloween (October 31) and Guy Fawkes Night (November 5), since neither event is so much as hinted as having happened or about to happen in this story. The three days could go anywhere from the 1st to the 4th of November (either November 1-3 or November 2-4).
But then, you're probably wondering, what does any of this have to do with my previous placement of the story during the same stopgap within "The Last Stand" that I placed "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", and the flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I not only really didn't like having to place "Man of Iron" in two radically different placements between the US and UK continuities, but I also struggled to believe that (out of all four of those stories) "Man of Iron" could also be set during that same stopgap as the others. It's just such a busier, longer-set story than the events of the other three, each of which only span a day at the most and keep the action close to home for the characters. Whereas "Man of Iron" takes the cast halfway around the world on a longer three-day adventure, with a more explosive and destructive battle between the 'Bots and 'Cons that yields heavy damage to both sides, consequently feeling like so many more resources are expunged during the story.
The Autobots' energy situation on Earth in the four-issue limited series is dire. They are desperate for more energy, and their reserves are practically running on empty. The other three UK stories taking place during that time is already straining believability enough, while "Man of Iron" just feels impossibly too big a story to have also occurred during that time. So then, where am I going to put it? Right after US issue #12 "Prime Time!", which would put it before "Shooting Star!" in the US continuity and before "Christmas Breaker!", "Crisis of Command!", "The Icarus Theory", "Dinobot Hunt!" and then "Shooting Star!" in the UK continuity.
But what about all I said before about why it can't go right before "Christmas Breaker!"? Well, I found something else, too. While it's still true that "Christmas Breaker!" opens with a newspaper dated December 24, 1985 that has an article written about the events of "Prime Time!" (suggesting that those two issues are meant to be close to each other), I found there to be a gap of time that happens later but which, in-universe, doesn't feel like a time gap at all. The majority of "The Icarus Theory" takes place on January 25, a whole month after "Christmas Breaker!". On that same day, Optimus checks in on Ratchet repairing Bumblebee from the injuries he sustained during the preceding story "Crisis of Command!" Both Optimus and Bumblebee act as if the events of that story just happened very recently, as if it was just the other day that Bumblebee got injured. If that's the case, then that means there's about a whole month-long gap of time between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", despite the former containing some story bits that foreshadow the events of the latter, which, when read back-to-back, make "Crisis of Command!" feel like it comes shortly after "Christmas Breaker!", not a whole month after. And yet, the dates in both "Christmas Breaker!" and "The Icarus Theory" say otherwise.
So, if there can be that long of a gap between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", then perhaps there could be a similar gap between "Prime Time!" and "Christmas Breaker!" after all, in which "Man of Iron" could slot in and be set at the beginning of November. As for the newspaper article, perhaps the news coverage of the events of "Prime Time!" was an ongoing thing, with multiple stories being written about it for several weeks after it happened. The specific article in the Christmas story was also said to be an interview with Ferdy and Gabe, two of G.B. Blackrock's employees that were among the workers held captive by Shockwave. Maybe the interview simply took that long to get underway, delaying the article's completion and publication. Maybe the two were first taken in by the Army or Triple-I and questioned by them before being released to public and interviewed by the press. Either way, the events covered by the newspaper article don't necessarily have to be as recent as I'd previously believed.
What's more, the sudden outrage that the Autobots feel with Optimus at the start of "Crisis of Command!" would now have more context in light of Optimus's callous decision to order Jazz to destroy the buried Autobot vessel at the end of "Man of Iron", when the Autobots could have salvaged any resources from that ship for them to use in their war with the Decepticons, instead of Optimus simply having the ship destroyed. Prowl and Bluestreak grumbling to themselves in "Christmas Breaker!" about how Optimus has been acting "strange" lately would also have more context from that decision in "Man of Iron", since that decision always felt strangely out of character for Optimus.
So in the end, I'm more comfortable with placing "Man of Iron" right after "Prime Time!" in both the US and UK continuities. While this would instead set "Man of Iron" during the Autumn of 1985 instead of 1984, the story was originally published in January 1985, so it's at least still within the same year it was originally published. Consequently, we now have the following reading order for all of these issues (US issues in normal text, UK issues in Italics):
"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand" Pages 1-8
"The Enemy Within!"
"Raiders of the Last Ark"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback story
"The Last Stand" Pages 9-22
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" present-day wraparound story
"The Wrath of Guardian!"
"The Wrath of Grimlock!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Man of Iron"
"Christmas Breaker!"
"Crisis of Command!"
"The Icarus Theory"
"Dinobot Hunt!"
"Shooting Star!"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"
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