Issue 16, 20 April 1985.
Written by:Simon Furman.
Art by: Mike Collins.
Colours by: Gina Hart.
Letters by: Richard Starkings.
Cover art: Mike Collins (from the looks of things).
Plot:Brawn and Starscream duke it out, variously gaining and losing upper hands as they go. As the Autobots watch via satellite, they are unaware that Ravage lurks near the battle scene, apparently with a part to play. Nor do the Decepticons know, however, that Mirage is nearby. Starscream chases Brawn into a cage, from which Brawn briefly emerges to surrender - at which point Starscream fires on him.
Wicked dialogue: Starscream: 'Surrender?! How quaint?!' Not so great in and of itself, but the cool part is that you really can hear him saying in his voice from the TV series.
Miserable glitches: In this issue, we see Optimus Prime pondering that they'll need Mirage's power soon, as it looks like Brawn is losing. We'll work out just what this means next issue, but in short - he's planning to pull a fast one. Does this really seem like the Optimus we all know and love? Granted, some other Autobots I can see figuring it's OK to cheat the Cons because otherwise they'll cheat you, but Optimus Prime?
Fact-file: Prowl.
Back-up strip: Machine Man - Arms for the Robot, Planet Terry - The Search. The 'shrinkage' of the main story accounts for the extra story of Planet Terry filling up the extra pages in the comic (see below).
Notes: Until the US strip returns in issue 22, the Transformers story will be only half (on average - 5 or 6 pages compared to 11) its usual length. Maybe this was to save on original-comic production costs in these early days of the comic?
Comments: I have a real hard time with Brawn when he's drawn like his toy. Not only is he missing his bad-bot face, but he's got these weenie li'l arms and we're supposed to look on him as the strongest Autobot around bar Prime (at least at this stage we are).
There's not really a lot to say about this issue. It pretty much is just one big slugfest with a few panels of plot (well, this is a Marvel book - I guess we should be glad they broke character to bring us those panels of plot). Furman's gift for plot manages to show through in the context this issue keeps, and despite the toy art, we manage a nice panel or two.