The Iron Fist

« Transformers/G.I. Joe #6 »
Megatron menacingly brandishes a Photoshopped cloud of dust.
"The Iron Fist"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	March 31, 2004
Cover date	March, 2004
Story	John Ney Rieber
Pencils	Jae Lee
Inks	Rob Armstrong
Colors	June Chung
Letters	Ben Lee
Editor-in-chief	Roger Lee

The army of G.I. Joes and their Autobot allies begin their final siege against Cobra's Terrordrome. Lives and loyalties are lost as the climax unfolds.

Synopsis

On a barge, heading towards the Terrordrome, Stalker laments that he feels that since the Autobots are only entering the conflict to protect the slaves, all the G.I. Joes are effectively good as dead. However, Roadblock and Grimlock convince Stalker to drop his pessimistic outlook.

As Superion continues to come under attack, several of the chained slaves fall into the sea. Beach Head, Hound, and Prowl act quickly to pull them to the surface before any of them drown; however, one Joe doesn't emerge.

Alone, Lady Jaye arrives on the Terrordrome's landmass and is welcomed by a sinister Major Bludd, but she quickly manages to defeat the goons using a rotten stick. When only Major Bludd is left, Flint appears to assist her. But Lady Jaye knows that Flint wouldn't offer mercy to an enemy agent—determining that Flint is actually Zartan. And with precision, she tosses her stick to execute the impostor.

While Skywarp is toying with some human Cobra soldiers, Optimus Prime emerges from the ground to begin the showdown. Grimlock overpowers Soundwave, making Ratchet wonder how the Autobots seem to have an easier time defeating the Decepticons on Earth than they did on Cybertron.

Within Cobra's territory, Megatron points out how careless the Cobra Commander has been to abuse his power when he could, leaving Shockwave disabled.

The pair of Scarlett and Snake-Eyes, having swum within Cobra's stronghold, come to face an inactive Bruticus.

Starscream and Destro, aware of the moving Autobot and G.I. Joe assault against the combined forces of Cobra, are ready to activate Bruticus. But first, Baroness reveals her loyalty to Destro—and with a single well-placed shot, disables Starscream. She then leaves her co-conspirator to seize the Matrix away from Cobra Commander.

The rampaging Bruticus causes a wild avalanche, and Cobra Commander's legs are caught, helpless, under a large piece of rubble. He orders Megatron to be of assistance, but Megatron only lends himself to Cobra Commander as a tool to relieve the pain via suicide.

The Joes and Autobots try to save as many lives from Bruticus as they can while Optimus Prime presses forward to find the Matrix.

The Commander is unable to take his own life, so instead the Baroness is the one to pull Megatron's trigger and execute the leader of Cobra. Lady Jaye arrives to stop the Baroness from betraying anyone else, while Snake-Eyes grabs the Matrix. Megatron and Optimus finally battle to see who shall control the Matrix's fate, and under Prime's instruction, Snake-Eyes shatters the Matrix. With a bright flash of light, all the Autobots and Decepticons (including Bruticus) deactivate, leaving G.I. Joe to round up the surviving Cobra agents.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Items of note

He obviously just wanted to get the last issue done already.

• Flint's final fate is unknown. He was seen in the previous issue as a Cobra prisoner, and had no personal appearances afterwards.
• Cobra Commander makes the totally non-sequitur claim that the Autobots have "destroyed the Combaticons". The individual Combaticons have not appeared or been mentioned anywhere in the series, under Cobra's command or otherwise; meanwhile, their combined form Bruticus is still alive and well at this point, after having been secretly created by Destro and Starscream long before the current battle began.
• Wavelengths has an article from the desk of Joe Ng.
• The original cover to this issue had Optimus Prime's decapitated head hanging by wires from Megatron's fist. However, when the issue saw print, the cover was altered to obscure Prime's head with a cloud of dust. The reason for this is unknown, but perhaps Hasbro vetoed the original image. If so, it seems they've lightened up since...
• Artist Jae Lee likes to recycle his own artwork. On page 9, Bumblebee and Prowl are taken from pages 13 and 14 of issue 2, respectively. The line-art is identical down to individual shading details and scratches. Prowl is recycled again on page 10, albeit this time mirrored. Furthermore, on page 20, Optimus Prime's head is recycled from the same panel the aforementioned Bumblebee head originated on, again mirrored. What's worse, the Optimus head itself was swiped from Pat Lee's cover for the second printing edition of Generation One (vol. 1) #2.

Covers

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