Editing The Iron Klaw

{{Disambig3.5|the issue of ''Revolutionaries''|the titular villain|Iron Klaw|Iron Klaw}}
{{Comicstory
|seriesissue=''[[Revolutionaries]]'' #4
|prev=The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
|next=
|image=Revolutionaries4 cvrRI.jpg 
|caption=
|title="The Iron Klaw"
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[May 17]], [[2017]]
|coverdate=March 2017
|written by=[[John Barber]]
|art by=[[Fico Ossio]]
|colors by=[[Sebastian Cheng]]
|letters by=[[Tom B. Long]]
|editor=[[David Hedgecock]]
|assistant editor=[[David Mariotte]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]]
|chronology=Current era
}}

'''When the Revolutionaries investigate the Iron Klaw, they find themselves facing the Predacons—but fortunately, our heroes have Snake Eyes on their side to help out!'''

==Synopsis==
In the Eastern European nation of [[Kalistan]], the country's ruler Count van Rani, aka the [[Iron Klaw]], reclines on his throne in his [[Iron Castle]]. [[Baron Ironblood]] arrives to report that their newest comrade [[Tomax and Xamot|Tomax Paoli]], accompanied by [[Garrison Kreiger]]'s mysterious steampunk robot "Centurion," has embarked on a mission to [[San Francisco]] to retrieve the "Project: Ice Man Protocols." Centurion is not the only [[Transformer|Cybertronian]] on the villains' side; Van Rani also counts the [[Predacon (G1)|Predacons]] among his allies, but just as Ironblood is remarking on the impressive figures the [[Decepticon]]s cut, a communication from Kreiger informs the two men that Tomax has come up against resistance and is already requesting emergency extraction. Ironblood and Kreiger retrieve Tomax using the [[M.A.S.S. Device]], but are angered to see that Centurion is not with him. Tomax has brought a peace offering, however: the unconscious form of his attacker, [[G.B. Blackrock|Garrison Blackrock]]! Ironblood and Kreiger are eager to get to work studying the half-human, half-Cybertronian... unaware that everything in the castle is being silently watched from the shadows by the [[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]] ninja commando [[Snake-Eyes|Snake Eyes]]!

Nearby, [[Kup (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Kup]], in vehicle mode, transports [[Ayana Jones|Mayday]] and [[Action Man]] toward the Iron Castle. As they drive, they review the information being sent to them from inside the castle by Snake Eyes. Kup recounts his personal history with the Predacons; how he trained them before the war, how they conducting an unsuccessful experiment with [[combiner]] technology while stranded on [[Earth]], and their previous alliance with [[China|The People's Republic of China]]. Mayday has her own limited experience with the Iron Castle, having spent her early years as a member of G.I. Joe operating in the region with [[Big Ben]]. She goes on to describe how, a few years prior, Ben and [[Duke (G.I. Joe)|Duke]] worked with the [[Isaac Craft]], the son of [[Cobra]]'s public relations officer, in a plan to bring Cobra down; they ultimately succeeded, but Craft died when the plan went sideways due to them being unaware Snake Eyes was operating in deep cover in the Cobra ranks at the time. With all intel shared, and their destination reached, the team charge into action with abandon—Kup shoulder-smashes his way right through the walls of the Iron Castle, only to discover that Kreiger's technology has allowed the Predacons to perfect their combination process, as they now tower over him in their gestalt form of [[Predaking (G1)|Predaking]]!

Elsewhere in the castle, Kreiger and Ironblood link Blackrock up to the [[Talisman]] to experiment on him, but as they do so, a slight noise catches Ironblood's attention, and he spots Snake Eyes hiding in the rafters. The castle's robotic [[Iron Grenadier]] guards open fire, and when the brief barrage is over, Snake Eyes lies lifeless on the ground. Kreiger is quick to shift his attentions, demanding Tomax hand over the protocols he was sent to retrieve, but Ironblood looks closer at Snake Eyes's remains, and realizes that the "ninja" is actually nothing but a robot drone! "Tomax" rips his face off to reveal that he is, in fact, the ''real'' Snake Eyes in disguise, his voice having been provided through a synthesizer by Kup. Moving like only the real Snake Eyes can, he quickly takes out Ironblood and Kreiger, reclaims his costume from the robot, scythes his way through the Grenadiers, and cuts Blackrock free from the Talisman. Their infiltration gamble has paid off; by letting himself be linked to the Talisman, Blackrock has discovered that it has a connection to his ancient master, [[Onyx Prime]].

While Kup and Action Man keep Predaking busy, Mayday makes her way inside the castle and links up with Snake Eyes and Blackrock. At Mayday's instruction, Blackrock accesses Kreiger's Talisman-interfaced computers, searching for a way to force Predaking to disengage into his component parts. He treads carefully, wary that the Talisman may unlock his Cybertronian "[[Sovereign]]" personality, but Snake Eyes doesn't have time for hesitancy and simply smashes the console with a severed Grenadier arm. His percussive maintenance does the trick; outside, Predaking splits back into the Predacons, who turn out not to have been willing allies of the human villains and are ''furious'' at having their minds tampered with. Kup and [[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] grapple until Kup exploits the Predacon leader's "one weakness"—and just blows his head off. Blackrock, Mayday, and Snake Eyes subsequently fight their way to the M.A.S.S. Device and use it to teleport themselves outside the castle, appearing in mid-air, where they are quickly snatched to safety by Kup. The team beats a quick retreat to begin pursuit of the next objective, the real Tomax.

Iron Klaw watches the heroes escape, pondering whether he should send his Grenadiers after them. An unseen speaker scoffs—they're not the Klaw's Grenadiers, they are ''his,'' and ''he'' is the one running things. Ironblood advocates cutting ties to Tomax and Centurion, but Kreiger objects, pointing out that they will need them now that the heroes stand poised to learn the secrets of "Project: Ice Man." [[Doctor X]] chimes in over a communicator to say that it does not matter, because she has finished preparing the facility being used to house the so-called "Ice Man"... the frozen body of another steampunk Cybertronian who looks just like [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]!

==Featured characters==
Characters in ''italic text'' appear only in flashbacks.<br>
{{Featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Kup (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Kup]] (8)
*''[[Optimus Prime (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Optimus Prime]]'' (11)
*[[G.B. Blackrock|Garrison Blackrock/Sovereign]] (13)
*"Ice Man"/"''Hearts of Steel'' Optimus Prime" (29)

|c2=
*[[Tantrum (G1)|Tantrum]] (1)
*[[Rampage (G1)|Rampage]] (2)
*[[Razorclaw (G1)|Razorclaw]] (3)
*[[Divebomb (G1)|Divebomb]] (4)
*[[Headstrong (G1)|Headstrong]] (5)
*[[Predaking (G1)|Predaking]] (30)

|h3=[[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]|c3=
*"[[Snake-Eyes|Snake Eyes]]" (7)
*[[Ayana Jones|Mayday]] (9)
*''[[Big Ben]]'' (19)
*''[[Duke (G.I. Joe)|Duke]]'' (20)
*''[[Roadblock (G.I. Joe)|Roadblock]]'' (21)
*''[[Doc (Carla Greer)|Doc]]'' (22)
*''[[Hashtag]]'' (23)
*''[[Joe Colton]]'' (24)

|h5=Others|c5=
{{{!}}border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
{{!}}-
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Iron Klaw]] (1)
*[[Baron Ironblood]] (2)
*[[Garrison Kreiger]] (6)
*[[Action Man]] (10)
*"[[Tomax and Xamot|Tomax Paoli]]" (17)
*[[Baron Ironblood]] (18)
*''[[Isaac Craft]]'' (25)
*''[[Destro]]'' (26)
{{!}}style="background:transparent;border:0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*''[[Onyx Prime]]'' (27)
*[[Iron Grenadier]]s (28)
*[[Doctor X]] (31)
*[[Storm Shadow II|Storm Shadow]] (32)
{{!}}}
}}

==Quotes==
'''Kup:''' "We're not gonna wind up spendin' all day lookin' at '''picture''', are we?"<br>
'''Mayday:''' "How come an '''ancient Cybertronian''' sounds like my '''five-year-old nephew?'''"<br>
'''Action Man:''' "You get used to him."<br>
'''Kup:''' "Hey, I got '''ears.''' Well, not '''literally''', but you know what I mean."


"Our banter musta finally '''got''' to it!"<br>
"I'm '''sure''' that's it."
:—'''Kup''' and '''Action Man''' watch as Predaking screams and de-combines


"I known you since you were barely more'n a protoform, '''Razorclaw'''. An' you always had '''one''' weakness..."<br>
''(Kup places his gun under Razorclaw's chin and blows his head off)''<br>
"'''That's''' his weakness?"<br>
"Well, it's a '''lotta''' fellas' weakness."
:—'''Kup''' and '''Action Man'''


"A '''robot ninja''' fronting for a rubber-masked '''Trojan horse''' carrying a '''mechanical alien.''' Oldest trick in the '''book.'''"
:—'''Baron Ironblood'''


"Turning '''metal's''' made you soft."
:—'''Mayday''' wryly reacts to a show of concern from Blackrock

==Notes==
===Continuity notes===
*Following the appearance of the "''Hearts of Steel'' Bumblebee" robot in the previous issue (given the name "Centurion" in this story), the fact that he and Tomax have gone to San Francisco jumps out as notable, since portions of the original ''[[Hearts of Steel]]'' mini-series were set in the city.
*Kup having trained the Predacons before the war is new information. If taken literally, the flashback image that shows them with their beast modes during the pre-war era is a ''little'' odd, but not an outright error; though their earliest-dated appearance, in [[Megatron Origin issue 3|''Megatron Origin'' #3]], had them with vehicle modes, the later miniseries [[The Transformers: Primacy|''Primacy'']] showed they had access to their beast modes many, ''many'' years before coming to Earth, and that they switched back and forth between them and their vehicle forms over the years.
*The fact that the Predacons once unsuccessfully experimented with combiner tech is also a new story point. Per Kup's telling, this unchronicled adventure—which Kreiger notes involved the Predacons using a mysterious "object" of some kind—must have taken place somewhere between the end of ''[[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|All Hail Megatron]]'' and the Predacons' reappearance during the "International Incident" arc of the [[The Transformers (IDW)|2009-2011 ongoing series]]. Though not mentioned in this issue, Razorclaw had become separated from the rest of the team by the time of their Chinese alliance; consequently, the flashback image of him having a staredown with Optimus Prime on [[Earth]] must have taken place during this untold story.
*China's failed alliance with the Predacons is credited as being a big part of the reason [[Zilong Qian]] hates Transformers so much.
*Mayday reveals that, before becoming a Joe, she was a member of [[Skywatch]]. Since, according to her bio on the cast page, she was serving with the Joes by the time of ''All Hail Megatron'', that means she must have been a member of the organization in its earlier incarnation, from [[Simon Furman]]'s "-Ations" era of IDW history, before [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]] was put in charge. Lucky for her.
*Mayday notes her early days in the Joe ranks were spent in Eastern Europe with [[Big Ben]]; Ben was still active in the area, though no longer associated with Joe, in {{i|G.I. Joe vol. 4|''G.I. Joe'' vol. 4}}. Action Man also recalls Ben's death in [[Concorde Hymn|''Revolution'' #1]].
*Continuing with her recap of her history, Mayday covers the public outing of G.I. Joe by Cobra from {{i|G.I. Joe vol. 2 issue 12|''G.I. Joe'' vol. 2 #12}}, following which she transferred to the [[Earth Defense Command]] (where we first met her in [[Earthfall Chapter 4: Full Fathom Five|''Robots in Disguise'' #31]]), and the Joe team went public, as seen in {{i|G.I. Joe vol. 3|''G.I. Joe'' vol. 3}}.
*This issue provides some vague closure to the stories begun in  ''G.I. Joe'' vol. 4 and ''{{i|Snake Eyes: Agent of Cobra}}'', the final ''G.I. Joe'' comics published by IDW prior to their revival as part of ''Revolution''.  As things had been left, Snake Eyes was working for Cobra for no clear reason, and Big Ben and [[Duke (G.I. Joe)|Duke]] had allied with Isaac Craft to take down Cobra; this issue reveals that Snake was actually working as a deep cover agent for Joe, and is implied to have been the one who killed Isaac when whatever he, Duke, and Ben did went down.
*Blackrock dreams of his master, [[Onyx Prime]], who recites the same poem heard when [[Pyra Magna]] dreamed of him in the [[Ghost Stories|2017 ''Transformers'' annual]] (itself taken from the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon]] episode "[[Cosmic Rust (episode)|Cosmic Rust]]").
*As with "Bumblebee"/Centurion, the mysterious "Ice Man" is the ''Hearts of Steel'' incarnation of Optimus Prime. Prime didn't take on an Earthly form in the original ''Hearts of Steel'' mini-series; he appears here as he did in ''[[Infestation 2]]'', in which he was also appeared frozen (in the [[Mare Rurek Glacier]]). What is going ''on'' here?

===Transformers references===
*"Project: Ice Man" takes its name from the [[Transformers (film)|first live-action ''Transformers'' movie]], in which it referred to the frozen form of [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]].

===Hasbro franchise references===
*Ironblood remarks on the outfit "Tomax" (actually the disguised Snake Eyes) is wearing; it's Tomax's classic outfit from the original ''G.I. Joe'' series, which he's never worn in IDW continuity before.
*Like the man said, "G.I. Joe is the ''codename'' for America's daring, highly-trained special mission force"... but it's not often that it's mentioned what the team's ''actual'' name is. This issue gives it the same real name as the original Marvel comic: "Counter-Terrorist Group Delta"; however, see "Errors", below.
*Their appearance here is obviously intended to thematically tie into the '''''Iron''''' Klaw, Kreiger's '''''I.R.O.N.''''' Army, and Baron '''''Iron'''''blood, but the Iron Grenadiers are normally depicted as [[Destro]]'s private army in ''G.I. Joe'' lore (and they're normally people, rather than the robots used here). Perhaps we can take that as a hint to the identity of the unseen speaker on the final page....

===Errors===
*The title page gives the issue's name as "[[Enter The Shadow]]".
*On subscription cover B, Rampage is miscoloured as Razorclaw.
*Mayday refers to G.I. Joe as "Counter-Terrorist Group Delta"... but {{i|Homefront, Part 1 of 5|''G.I. Joe'' vol. 3 issue 1}} gave its name as "Joint Services Special Counterterrorist Group", a fact made even more egregious by the flashback on the same page to that same issue.
*A red, orange, and grey robot lies before Onyx Prime in Blackrock's dream, as two versions of Blackrock one in his human guise and one in his Cybertronian form seen in this series, walk off to the left and right, respectively. It looks like this robot is supposed to be Blackrock's ''original'' "[[Sovereign]]" appearance, as seen in the ''[[Titans Return (comic)|Titans Return]]'' storyline, prior to his ''Revolutionaries'' redesign, but if so, it's been significantly miscoloured from its original purples.

===Other trivia===
*Originally solicited for release in March, this issue arrives significantly late, two months after the fact, halfway through May. The solicitation for the issue mistakenly used the text intended for issue #5's solicit. 

===Covers (4)===
*'''Regular cover:''' Our heroes, Snake Eyes, and Predaking, by [[Tradd Moore]] and [[Felipe Sobreiro]]
*'''Subscription cover A:''' Snake Eyes versus Predaking, by [[Robert Atkins]] and [[Juan Fernandez]]
*'''Subscription cover B:''' Rampage loom over Snake Eyes, by [[Tone Rodriguez]] and [[Thomas Deer]]
*'''Retailer incentive cover:''' Snake Eyes and the Revolutionaries under fire, by [[John Royle]] and [[Juan Fernandez]]

<gallery>
File:Revolutionaries4 regcvr.jpg|
File:Revolutionaries4 subcvrA.jpg|
File:Revolutionaries4 subcvrB.jpg|
File:Revolutionaries4 cvrRI.jpg|
</gallery>

===Advertisements===
*''Revolutionaries'' #5
*''Jem and the Holograms'' #26
*[[Wrath of Karza issue 1|''Micronauts: Wrath of Karza'' #1]]
*"The Hasbro Tribune" editorial page promoting March's [[Hasbro Universe]] titles, including this issue, [[G.I. Joe vol. 5 issue 4|''G.I. Joe'' #4]], [[Dissolution Part 4: Bad Moon Rising|''Lost Light'' #4]], and [[New Cybertron Part 5: Future Glories Lost|''Optimus Prime'' #5]].
*[[Free Comic Book Day]] 2017 (which had already taken place over a week prior to the late shipping of this issue)
*''Wynonna Earp'' season 2

==External links==
*[http://www.multiversitycomics.com/previews/exclusive-preview-revolutionaries-4/ Preview]

[[Category:Revolutionaries issues]]