End of the Road! (UK)

The name or term "End of the Road" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see End of the Road (disambiguation).

File:TFUK 289 COVER.JPG

Even humans are bigger than the Stunticons!

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

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<a name="Marvel_UK_issue_.23289"></a><h1><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w2/index.php?title=End_of_the_Road%21_%28UK%29&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Marvel UK issue #289">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Marvel UK issue #289</span></h1> Writer: Simon Furman <br /> Art: Staz<br /> Letters: Gary Gilbert<br />

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots </th><th style="background:#EEEEFE"> Decepticons </th><th style="background:antiquewhite"> Humans </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Prowl (3)
• Jazz (4)
• Bumblebee (5)
• Sunstreaker (6)
• Tracks (7)
• Wheeljack (8)

</td><td style="background:#EEEEFE" valign="top">

• Motormaster (1)
• Dead End (9)
• Drag Strip (10)
• Breakdown (11)
• Bombshell (12)
• Starscream (13)

</td><td style="background:antiquewhite" valign="top">

• Irwin Spoon (2)

</td></tr></table>

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 to write his story but the offer falls on deaf 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, leaving 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 implanted 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.
• However he's still wearing his second outfit on the cover.

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 Jazz, Bumblebee, Tracks, Starscream and Bombshell appear in their robot modes, the latter four all on the final page.

• Motormaster's trailer detaches from his cab mode without any seeming pain, despite being his entire robot mode, less his feet.

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

• The text story "The Magnificent Six!" in the Transformers Annual 1991 is also set in the Earthforce timeline, but it is not clear where exactly. The annual had already gone on sale by the time issue #289 appeared.

• There would be one final original UK story, a text story entitled "Another Time and Place" in the Transformers Annual 1992. It 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 ON...

• One of the letters in #289's Dread Tidings refers to a contemporary broadcast of Masterforce in Malaysia, likely one of the earliest times a western Transformers publication (indirectly) confirmed the existence of any of the G1 anime series.

Reprints

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