In the National Interest

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You guys just have to destroy everything, don't you?
"In the National Interest"
Publisher Marvel Comics
First published Part 1: 9th August
Part 2: 16th August
Part 3: 23rd August
Part 4: 30th August, 1986
Cover date Part 1: 16th August
Part 2: 23rd August
Part 3: 30th August
Part 4: 6th September, 1986
Writer Simon Furman
Art Will Simpson
Art assist by Andrew Leary (Part 3)
Inks Dave Hine (Part 2),
Tim Perkins (Part 3)
Colours John Burns (Parts 1-2),
Gina Hart (Part 3),
Tony Jozwiak (Part 4)
Lettering Annie Halfacree
Editor Ian Rimmer
Continuity Marvel Comics continuity

Joy Meadows and the Dinobots are going to blow the whole Robot-Master story wide open, but the Decepticons and Triple I don't want this to happen.

Synopsis

Part 1

Joy Meadows is on Between the Lines announcing that she will expose the claims of Robot-Master that he leads the Transformers for the sham that is. Meanwhile, Triple-I are watching and decide that she must be silenced. At the same time, Professor Morris is standing trial for murder on a security guard, when the courtroom is invaded by four armed men who kidnap Morris.

At the Ark, the Dinobots are bored, as they are confined to the Autobot base because their forms make them too conspicuous. Grimlock decides they need to go find some action, when Sludge rushes in and states that he's seen Joy on TV. The Dinobots go out to find Joy and are just in time to save her from an ambush laid by Triple-I. Morris then finds out he has been captured by Triple-I to control their new mechanism, Centurion, in order to stop Joy wrecking their Robot-Master scenario.

Part 2: "Gauntlet!"

Grimlock tells Joy about the fights between the Autobots and Decepticons and works out that Robot-Master is a puppet of the government. Joy sets up an interview with one of the Dinobots, and Swoop sets off to pick up her film crew. The Decepticons (who are searching for Robot-Master) pick up the signal, and Swoop gets involved in a fight with Megatron while picking up the film crew. Swoop is saved by the arrival of Centurion (controlled by Morris, who is disobeying Triple-I's orders and has sealed himself in the control room).

Part 3: "Holocaust"

Swoop manages to escape with the film crew, but as he flies off he is hit by a homing beacon fired by a Triple-I employee. Back at Talon's Point, the Dinobots laugh at Swoop stuck in mid-transformation and manage to find and destroy the homing beacon. But it's too late - the Decepticons appear out of the sea and attack the Dinobots.

Part 4: "The Dinobots' Last Stand?"

Centurion arrives as the Dinobots are getting defeated and attacks the Decepticons, bringing the battle back into the balance. Soundwave takes the recordings from the film crew and destroys them, threatening the humans with an unpleasant fate if they ever try to compile further evidence. The Decepticons leave, and the Dinobots lick their wounds.

Meanwhile, Morris decides that he is going to bury Triple-I once and for all. Locked in the vault, he has enough food and water to last a year. He concludes it won't take him that long.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others

Quotes

"OOH, 'ECK! DECEPTICONS!"

-Slag has the campest warning ever.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Joy Meadows and her crew previously appeared in issue #49, in which Sludge first encountered her. She has been tipped off to the truth behind Robot-Master by G.B. Blackrock, who earlier butted heads with Triple-I over the hoax in US issue #15.
  • The clips shown from Robot-Master's broadcasts during Joy's interview include footage of Megatron and Shockwave fighting, as seen in issue #65.
  • Triple-I, Forrest Forsythe, and Walter Barnett were all introduced in US issue #14. "In the National Interest" is their only appearance in a UK-original story.
  • Professor Morris was previously introduced in issues #45-46, in which the murder for which he is on trial took place. Morris actually confessed to the murder and surrendered to the authorities in that story, so it seems a little odd to see his lawyer arguing that he is innocent in Part 1, but Triple-I tech Grady notes in Part 2 that the organization planted falsified evidence that would lead to Morris's confession being thrown out. Perhaps the lawyer is also on their payroll?
  • Slag refers to the "weeks" the Dinobots' spent "strung up in Ratchet's butcher shop," between the events of issue #50 and issue #65. The Transformers Annual 1987 story "Victory!" will go into a little more detail on this period, but it was not released until the month after "In the National Interest" concluded.
  • Robot-Master escaped the Decepticons in US issue #19. Soundwave notes that Ravage, who is tracking their escapee, has still not reported in; that's because he was sent offline by a fall down a mineshaft in US issue #20.

Real-life references

  • The plot of this story is inspired by a pair of political thrillers, 1974's The Parallax View, about a female reporter uncovering a conspiracy, and 1975's Three Days of the Condor, about a murderous governmental conspiracy.

Continuity and plotting errors

  • The Dinobots complain that they're confined to the Ark by the other Autobots because their dino modes make them look conspicuous. This was the explanation given for the Dinobots' absence from US stories given in US issue #19... but the UK reprint removed that dialogue, because it was unnecessary due to the team having seen plenty of action in various UK-exclusive stories. So basically, this issue of the UK comic adopts a plot point from the US comic that the UK comic previously chose to ignore.

Artwork and technical errors

  • For the majority of this story, Snarl and Swoop continue to be colored in their "early" Marvel UK color schemes; Swoop is largely blue instead of grey like his teammates, and Slag's dino-mode head is golden-yellow instead of greyish-purple. See below for deviations.
  • The Constructicons are likewise off-colour in a variety of ways when they appear in Parts 3 and 4, not unlike how they appeared in issues #61-62. Their heads are all colored purple instead of the correct blue-black; other weirdness is noted below.
  • Part 1, page 4: Slag and Snarl's heads are both colored red instead of black.
  • Part 3, page 8-10: While he's in robot mode, Slag's dino-mode head is colored grey, which is technically correct, but it's not clear if it's been done deliberately, as the panel between it and his robot head is incorrectly colored golden yellow.
  • Part 3, page 10, panel 1: Long Haul has a purple abdomen instead of green. Scrapper is almost entirely purple; both the decals on his pectorals are red, when only the right one should be.
  • Part 3, page 11, panel 3: Scrapper continues to be mostly purple, and the red of his chest decals has spread up over his shoulders.
  • Throughout part 4, Bonecrusher's thighs are coloured purple instead of green, while dino-mode Swoop is now in his "finished" Marvel color scheme (grey body, white wings and head, with a red lower jaw). However, his robot-mode limbs, extending from beneath his dino-mode, are consistently miscolored red instead of grey.
  • Part 4, page 3, panel 4: Snarl's limbs and back are all colored mostly red instead of grey.
  • Part 4, page 4, panel 3: Long Haul is colored entirely purple from the waist down.
  • Part 4, page 5, panel 1: Scrapper's thighs are green and his boots purple; the boots should be green, the thighs white.
  • Part 4, page 8, panel 2: Mixmaster's helmet assembly (that... big ol' block that goes around and over his head) is purple instead of green.
  • Part 4, page 9, panel 6: Snarl's head is red instead of black.
  • Part 4, page 10, panel 3-4: Sludge's shoulder-wings are gold instead of grey.

Back-up material

Issue #74:

  • Back-up strips: Hercules ("For the Love of Gods," Part 1) and Robo-Capers
  • Fact File: Hercules
  • The comic undergoes another change in format this issue, with a redesigned contents page that relocates Robo-Capers (which previously ran across the bottom of the page) to elsewhere in the comic. There is no letters page this issue, replaced with a special full-page Robo-Capers strip (right) that introduces Grimlock as the page's new host replacing Soundwave.

Issue #75:

  • Back-up strips: Hercules ("For the Love of Gods," Part 2); Robo-Capers sits this issue out.
  • Grimlock's "Grim Grams" letters page begins properly this issue, and will run until issue #182.

Issue #76:

  • Back-up strips: Hercules ("For the Love of Gods," Part 3) and Robo-Capers
  • Fact File: "And Now... The Dinobots!", recapping the characters' history up to this point.

Issue #77:

  • Back-up strips: Robo-Capers and Hercules ("For the Love of Gods," Part 4)
  • Other features: Competition to win How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way; the inclusion of this contest means there's no room for the traditional half-page "Next Issue" preview, which is compressed to a small caption box on the letters page.


Covers (4)

  • Issue #74: Grimlock, Sludge and Slag burst through the cover, by Alister Pearson.
  • Issue #75: while Megatron is about to destroy Swoop, Guardian looms up behind him, by John Stokes.
  • Issue #76: Swoop carries off the LCTV van, by David Hine.
  • Issue #77: composite of the story's major players, by Phil Gascoine.
  • Issue #74
    Issue #74
  • Issue #75
    Issue #75
  • Issue #76
    Issue #76
  • Issue #77
    Issue #77

Reprints

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