Missing in Action

« Transformers Annual 1985 »
Rumble penetrates Tracks. No innuendo intended.
"Missing in Action"
Publisher	Marvel Comics in association with Grandreams
First published	Late 1985
Cover date	1985
Writer	James Hill (uncredited)
Illustrator	John Stokes (uncredited)
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Tracks comes to grief in a back passage.

Synopsis

Tracks has run into Rumble in an alley in Greater Portland whilst both are on missions for their respective leaders. The Decepticon is tough and smashes Tracks in. He leaves Tracks for dead, but the Autobot manages to transform to his car mode before losing consciousness. Tracks's failure to return to the Autobots causes Optimus Prime concern and he sends Jazz to investigate.

Tracks has been found in the alley by J.D., a youth looking for a getaway car. He and his friend, Mark Brookes, have agreed to carry out a robbery using Mark's father's gun. Mark has stolen the gun from his father's top drawer whilst J.D. has been given the job of stealing the car. J.D. drives Tracks to Lou's Bar where he picks up Mark and they proceed to a supermarket. J.D. holds up the store but a cashier presses an alarm button and he accidentally fires the gun. The two flee to New York City.

A week later, the Autobots have still not found Tracks when Cosmos tells Prime that he has been monitoring human law enforcement computers and spotted reports of a crime wave in New York by two youths wanted in connection for a hold-up in Greater Portland and driving a car that sounds like Tracks. Prime orders Inferno, Grapple, and Hoist to travel to New York City and recover Tracks.

Braddooooock!

Late at night in New York, ten year old Danny Phillips is awake in bed, reading through "his most prized possession... his scrap book", containing newspaper clippings about many subjects including the space shuttle and UFO sightings. His latest clipping is about sightings of robots in the state of Oregon. He is doing so secretly as his mother is determined to prevent Danny developing a reckless thirst for adventure like his father, who died testing a rocket ship for NASA, and she believes Danny will go the same way if she doesn't stop him. Consequently, she steers him away from science fiction, astronomy, spacecraft and the like.

The next day, Danny is out doing errands for his mother when he sees a blue Corvette Stingray pull up and two men get out and go into the bank. Danny recognises the insignia on the car and soon realises that it is the same as used by the robots in the newspaper story. He charges into the bank, only to find J.D. and Mark holding it up. Danny's entrance distracts J.D. and a cashier pushes an alarm button. Mark worries but J.D. responds that they will be fine if they take hostages and the police know that they have the bomb he now produces.

Elsewhere in the city, Hoist, Grapple and, Inferno meet up in vehicle form. Hoist and Grapple explain they have tapped into the police frequencies and learnt about the bank robbery. The three Autobots set off. At the bank the police have cordoned things off and brought in hostage negotiators. The Autobots transform to their robot modes and nonchalantly walk towards Tracks. J.D. sees this from inside the bank and panics. The bomb drops to the floor and the timer starts ticking.

The explosion destroys the front of the bank and a fireball engulfs the rest of the building. Hearing that the hostages are still inside, the Autobots go into action. Grapple transforms and uses his crane to get people down from the roof of the building whilst Hoist uses his strength to hold up the floors whilst Inferno pulls unconscious victims to safety. They turn J.D. and Mark straight over to the police and think they've rescued everyone when a woman tells them a young boy is still inside. Inferno charges into the flaming building. Suddenly the remains collapse. After several minutes Inferno rises and walks out, carrying Danny in his arms. Inferno explains he used his own body to shield the boy from the flames. Inferno looks at the little human and smiles as he feels glad to have saved him.

The Autobots return to Oregon, where Tracks is repaired. He debriefs Optimus Prime on the events and asks that if humans behave like the two crooks then aren't they as bad as the Decepticons and deserve to be ruled by them? Prime responds that the crimes of the humans are very different from those of the Decepticons, that many other humans are honest and the Autobots are sworn to protect them. Tracks never forgets Prime's words...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Production notes

• As with most of the other stories included in the first Transformers Annual, "Missing in Action" was written largely to promote toys from the 1985 assortment currently available in stores that had not yet appeared in the ongoing comic, without regard for how it would fit into the larger UK comic continuity. By writer James Hill's recollection, as recounted in IDW Publishing's The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1, both it and "Hunted!" were written early in 1985, long before the 1985 characters featured in this story would be properly introduced by the US comic. Hill rationalized the appearance of these characters at the time with the presumption that "there was no reason why a few more Autobots couldn't be salted away in the bowels of [the Ark]," to be used as needed by stories.
• The artist for this story is uncredited, but a summary section included in the Titan Books trade paperback Fallen Angel speculates that it is the work of John Stokes, which Hill would confirm in his Classics UK interview.

Continuity notes

• To get specific on why this story cannot fit into the larger Marvel continuity, though most of the 1985 characters seen in it (Tracks, Hoist, and Grapple) would be introduced into the comic in UK issue #53, Cosmos would not join Optimus Prime's Autobot forces until UK issue #103, which was at a point in time after Rumble had already gone offline at the hands of Omega Supreme in UK issue #71. Additionally, outside of a questionable one-panel cameo in UK issue #30, Inferno was never shown to be part of Optimus's Autobot forces on Earth.
• The following year's annual would contain a sequel to "Missing in Action," entitled "The Return of the Transformers," in which Danny Phillips would reappear. That story dates "Missing in Action" to around a year prior to the creation of the Aerialbots (which took place in UK issue #89), which would be a point of time at which none of the 1985 characters were active in the comics, further validating the idea that the story cannot possibly be part of UK continuity.

Real-life references

• Hill notes in his interview in UK Classics that J.D. is named after the character of John "J.D." LaRue from the TV series Hill Street Blues.

Artwork and technical errors

• On page 22, "It had been months before when J.D. and first, half-jokingly, suggested that the two perform a robbery." That should be "at first," not "and first."
• A few lines later, "that" is misspelled as "tht".
• Inferno has two hands in the illustration. His toy can have two fists as an option, but Inferno is depicted with a nozzle instead of a right fist in the vast majority of his fictional appearances.
• In the text, Mark and J.D. meet at Lou's Bar and proceed to rob a supermarket. However the illustration of J.D. holding up a place with a gun includes a sign that ends "...AR", indicating they are holding up a pub instead.
• Tracks has a gold hood in robot mode.
• Rumble is taller than Tracks.

Other trivia

• Optimus Prime is shown recharging by means of a cable plugged into his chest cavity that links it to the Ark's main computer.

Cover

• Transformers Annual 1985: Starscream, Thundercracker, Jazz, Optimus Prime and Sunstreaker. Cover Artist John Higgins.

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  Hardcover

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  Softcover

Reprints

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  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 (IDW Publishing, 2011)