Another long one that had to be split into two posts.
Recently, I've been trying to do what most might consider to be an impossibility. That is, to find actual workable placements (in relation to the US issues) for the events of the first four Marvel UK G1 comic stories: "
Man of Iron", "
The Enemy Within!", "
Raiders of the Last Ark", and the main flashback portion of "
Decepticon Dam-Busters!"
These four were written with the intent of slotting their events into the timeframe of the first four issues of the US comics, but were each written in such a way that made it difficult for them to neatly fit in. The first four US issues have such a tightly-knit, serialized continuity between them, while these four UK stories were incredibly vague about how they fit into the larger narrative of "The Transformers", "Power Play!", "Prisoner of War!" and "The Last Stand". And even with those four US stories being split in half to make two issues each for their UK release, that still didn't provide any clean breaks for the four UK stories to fit neatly between those US-story issues.
The three "
Robot War" recaps tried to find places for these four UK stories, but only did so in ways that make no sense. Namely, those recaps recounted events of the US stories that did not actually reflect how they went down in those stories. Like, "Man of Iron" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" were placed during the events of "Prisoner of War!", at a point where there isn't actually any time for them to take place.
"Prisoner of War!" begins with the Decepticons returning to their base with the captured Sparkplug Witwicky as their hostage. They order him to come up with a formula to convert ordinary gasoline into Transformer-compatible fuel, but he refuses. Back at Sparkplug's home, the defeated Autobots lick their wounds from the battle they just had with the Decepticons, and decide to return to the Ark, bringing Sparkplug's son Buster along with them. Back with the Decepticons, Sparkplug is convinced to help them with the formula, and thus begins a montage of the Decepticons stealing materials and equipment from different places to help Sparkplug with the fuel conversion. It is during this montage that "Robot War" wants us to believe the events of "Man of Iron" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" took place. There are at least three problems with that:
- Starscream is shown to be among the Decepticons involved in the thefts carried out during the montage, when all three Seekers (plus Laserbeak and Buzzsaw) were over in England taking part in the events of "Man of Iron". Starscream couldn't have been in both England and Oregon at the same time.
- The present-day events of "Man of Iron" span a total of three days (there's a couple of time-skips at the end of the story that take place in the future from when the story is set, so we won't count those), while the flashback story of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" is on yet another day, making four days total. The implication of the montage in "Prisoner of War!" is that it spans only a single night, with the first caption of the first panel that ends the montage beginning with "Dawn", denoting that it's supposed to be the very next day from when Sparkplug was kidnapped, not four days later.
- The flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" begins with Ratchet's narration of "We'd got wind of another Decepticon plan to transform Earth power into a fuel source they could use." He says that the events of this story were another plan, as if the Decepticons had already carried out some other energy-related scheme beforehand. The thing is, Sparkplug's kidnapping was their first and only energy-related plan during the first four US issues, and if "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" was set during the aforementioned montage, that means it took place while the Decepticons' first plan was still in the early stages of being carried out, and wasn't anywhere close to completion. Plus, if the story took place during "Prisoner of War!", Sparkplug would still be their hostage, yet there is zero sign of him at all during "Decepticon Dam-Busters!".
Similar problems arise for where "Robot War" places the events of "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark". These two stories are placed at the very end of "Prisoner of War!", right after the Autobots and Spider-Man rescue Sparkplug from the Decepticon base, but right before Sparkplug is brought back to the Ark, reunites with Buster, and reveals the sad truth to everyone that he succeeded in giving the 'Cons the fuel conversion formula. Like before, this placement doesn't make any sense at all because there is no time for
anything (let alone "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark") to take place here: Right after Sparkplug is rescued, he is immediately taken back to the Ark. The scene right before that is when he, Spider-Man, and the Autobots have all made their escape from the Decepticon fortress, with Gears fatally injured from the rescue; Gears isn't restored to working order until
after Sparkplug returns to the Ark, yet he is up and about during "The Enemy Within!" There is no time for two whole other adventures to have occurred between these two scenes.
So then, if we can't trust where "Robot War" placed these four UK stories, where
can they go? Well, after a LOT of headache-inducing work, I think I have found some workable places for them.
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I'll skip "Man of Iron" for now, since it is the hardest one to fit, so we'll instead look at "The Enemy Within!" first.
The story begins in the Decepticon fortress with Megatron and Starscream arguing about their next move against the Autobots. Megatron mentions the encounter with Spider-Man in "Prisoner of War!" as having happened both previously and recently. The Autobots are also shown making more repairs to the Ark, which is what they're seen doing at the beginning of "The Last Stand", right when they hear Sparkplug's confession. Speaking of which, Sparkplug and Buster aren't at the Ark or even in this story at all. In "The Last Stand", they leave the Ark when Sparkplug has his heart attack and Ratchet takes him and Buster to the hospital. The Decepticons also have no concerns about needing to replenish their fuel reserves, suggesting that Sparkplug has already completed his fuel conversion formula for them.
All this would suggest "The Enemy Within!" to instead take place during "The Last Stand", at some point after the Witwickys leave the Ark, but before the final battle. Why before then? Because "Raiders of the Last Ark" is the direct follow-up to "The Enemy Within!", and it ends with the Decepticons retreating from their raid on the Ark and vowing to return, which a narration caption explains is meant to foreshadow their final assault on the Ark at the end of "The Last Stand", requiring both "Enemy" and "Raiders" to come before that battle. A reference to "Raiders" is also made by Prowl in the later UK story "The Wrath of Grimlock!", further placing "Raiders" before the end of "The Last Stand".
Looking through "The Last Stand", there is a scene at the Decepticon base that ends with Megatron menacingly looming over Starscream. At first, this looks like a good stopping point to pause "The Last Stand" and switch to reading "The Enemy Within!", as the latter begins with Megatron yelling at Starscream. However, the context of this scene in "The Last Stand" makes that transition completely unworkable. In this scene, Megatron is declaring that now is the time to launch their final attack on the Ark and destroy the Autobots once and for all, to which Starscream nervously agrees. While "The Enemy Within!" instead begins with Starscream calling for a direct strike on the Ark while Megatron wants the Decepticons to instead
cautiously watch and wait, saying that now is
not the time for battle. So that scene in "The Last Stand" doesn't work.
Looking through the issue again, there is another point earlier in the story that I feel
could work (albeit, somewhat imperfectly). On the eighth page of the story (not counting the cover or inside-cover), there is a scene where a fully refueled Megatron steps outside from the Decepticon fortress and allows the US military to unleash all their firepower on him. He is unharmed and the frightened military is sent packing. Megatron then turns around and walks back to the base. Right here is where I've chosen the stopping point for the story. It's the very next scene that comes after Sparkplug has been admitted to the hospital, and everything else that comes after this scene is too serialized with the final battle at the end of the issue.
Admittedly, it's not a perfect fit, since the scene literally jumps from Megatron walking outside to suddenly being inside yelling at Starscream mid-conversation. But because "The Enemy Within!" was never written to be a perfect fit with the US stories, this is as good as it's gonna fit. Besides, the original scene similarly jumped from Megatron being outside to inside anyway. And "The Enemy Within!" shows there to be no military outside Decepticon fortress surrounding it anymore, so it has to come after this scene from "The Last Stand" regardless, since the military is sent into retreat in this scene.
So basically, after Sparkplug is hospitalized, Megatron tests out his refueled condition on the military, sends said military packing, and then goes back inside his base to find Starscream badmouthing Megatron's orders, leading right into "The Enemy Within!" and then "Raiders of the Last Ark". And after those two stories, "The Last Stand" resumes with Megatron overlooking the damaged Decepticons who are recovering from their most recent skirmish with the Autobots, which would now be in the events of "Raiders of the Last Ark". For now, at least.
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Next comes the flashback part of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" While "Robot War" placed this before "Enemy" and "Raiders" right after "Man of Iron", certain lines of dialogue from Megatron during the fight between him and Optimus atop Sherman Dam give off the impression that this fight has been a long time coming. Lines like "Greetings, Autobots! I'm so glad you could make it to witness my final victory!" and "I'm going to seal this Decepticon victory with your death, Prime!" give this fight a real sense of dramatic finality to it, as if this is latest-set event in Megatron's time on Earth (but still before the final battle of "The Last Stand").
And like I said above, the events of this flashback story are said to be "
another Decepticon plan to transform Earth power into a fuel source they could use." Since their kidnapping of Sparkplug and forcing him to make the fuel conversion formula was their
first energy-related plan, "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" must come after Sparkplug's rescue. But, from the time when Sparkplug is rescued at the end of "Prisoner of War!" to when he is hospitalized in "The Last Stand", there is no point where the "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback could take place. Everything is too serialized in those two issues.
...Unless we use the same stopgap I used in order to slot "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark" into the middle of "The Last Stand". Looking at the end of "Raiders" and the point of recommencement in "The Last Stand", the flashback events of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" can absolutely go there, right after "Raiders" and right before the rest of "The Last Stand". So now the scene of Megatron looking over the damaged Decepticons would instead be in reference to the damage they took during "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"
