End of the Road! (UK issue)

The Autobots struggle to rescue Irwin Spoon - but is this what the Decepticons want?

=Marvel UK issue #289=

Writer: Simon Furman Art: Staz Letters: Gary Gilbert

Featured characters
(''Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Synopsis
Motormaster speeds along a motorway, crushing all in his path, with Irwin trapped in his cab. Prowl comes alongside the Stunticon but Motormaster knocks him off the road. Behind him Jazz, Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, Tracks and Wheeljack speed along in pursuit. Wheeljack breaks off to help Prowl but the others prepare to advance on Motormaster. However waiting at a junction are Dead End, Drag Strip and Breakdown who speed off to help their leader.

Inside the cab Irwin asks why he has been captured and Motormaster explains that the Decepticons don't want the humans to know the truth about the Autobot-Decepticon conflict, otherwise their armed forces might side with the Autobots. Irwin tries promising not write his story but the offer falls on death ears. Meanwhile Bombshell, in his beetle mode, is hiding in the cab.

Jazz transforms and shoots out Motormaster's rear tires, causing the Stunticon to veer all over the road. In revenge Breakdown smashes into the Autobot. Both Autobot and Stunticon are damaged. Motormaster jettisons his trailer, laving it turning to block the road. Bumblebee and Tracks get past it but Sunstreaker is hit in the bonnet.

Bumblebee and Tracks find themselves being pursued by Dead End and Drag Strip as they close in on Motormaster. The Stunticons prepare to ram the Autobots, but the latter quickly turn aside and it is Motormaster who is hit by his fellow Stunticons. Motormaster crashes. Bumblebee rips open his door and rescues Irwin who is concussed, but otherwise okay. They take him home.

Later Bombshell reports to Starscream that the mission was a success and Irwin has been implaneted with a cerebro shell.

At home Irwin sits down to type his story. He writes of how he was held prisoner by the evil Autobots, "no doubt to blackmail the government."

Errors

 * Irwin's clothes have changed from the pullover and leather jacket he wore last issue to the jacket, tie and checked shirt he wore in his first issue.

Items of note

 * Irwin is now given a surname - "Spoon".


 * This is a rare story in which the Transformers are in their disguise modes for almost all the time. Only Bumblebee, Tracks, Starscream and Bombshell appear in their robot modes, all on the final page.


 * Motormaster's trailer detaches from his cab mode without any seeming pain, despite his robot mode combining both sections.


 * This was the very last original story in the UK comics. From issue #290 the comic combined new US material with reprints of past colour UK stories.


 * One further story set in the Earthforce continuity is the text story "The Magnificent Six!" in the Transformers Annual 1991; however this had already been printed by the time issue #289 went on sale.


 * There would be one final original UK story, a text story entitled "Another Time and Place" in the Transformers Annual 1992, although this eschews the Earthforce stories completely and is set after the end of the US comic.


 * The phrase "End of the Road" has often been used to note the end of a Marvel comic's originated material. As well as being the title of this story, it is also the title of the last issue of the US comic and also appears prominently on the cover of the last issue of the US Generation 2 comic.


 * Instead of naming the next story, the box at the end of this story states THE WAR GOES ONE...

Reprints

 * This story was reprinted in the Titan Books trade paperback "Perchance to Dream".