This article has been updated since its publication.
The first issue of Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo de Felici’s new sci-fi series, “Void Rivals,” was released today, and with it came confirmation that the shared universe publisher Skybound promised it would herald is actually a new take on an old, highly beloved one, that has been licensed by several previous publishers. Spoilers after the jump:
The comic sees alien protagonists Darak and Solila discover the Autobot Jetfire from the Transformers franchise, who proceeds to fly back to Cybertron. The back advertisements, and a press release, confirm Skybound is now the new home for the Transformers and G.I. Joe comics, which will share a setting called the Energon Universe (named after the Transformers’ fuel source.) Daniel Warren Johnson will write and draw a new “Transformers” series in October, while Joshua Williamson will write two G.I. Joe limited series, “Duke” and “Cobra Commander,” drawn respectively by Tom Reilly (“The Thing”) and Andrea Milana (“Dahlia in the Dark”), and releasing in December and January.
Johnson’s “Transformers” will pick up with the Autobots and Decepticons resuming their war on Earth after crashlanding here, just like the original 1984 comics and cartoon, while “Duke” will explore “the origins of G.I. Joe and Cobra in a world grappling with the arrival of the Autobots and Decepticons,” as Conrad S. “Duke” Hauser investigates the Transformers. “Cobra Commander” will in turn reveal how “one man’s sinister plans to utilize the mysterious alien substance known as Energon” led to the founding of Cobra. Two more “G.I. Joe” miniseries will be announced at a later date.
Skybound’s interest in acquiring the Transformers and Joe licenses was shared by The Hollywood Reporter when it first broke the story that Hasbro was seeking a new publisher in December 2021. Kirkman, who writes in the afterword about his childhood love of Transformers, was previously part of the writers’ room for the robots in disguise’s film series in 2015, although he had to bow out as a result of health issues after his first day.
Incidentally, the Energon Universe’s debut comes five days after the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which brought the G.I. Joe team into the Cybertronian cinematic universe for the first time. Previous comics license holder IDW Publishing, which published “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” respectively from 2005 and 2008 until 2022, created a shared Hasbro Universe with other properties like Rom the Space Knight and the Micronauts, the rights for which have been returned to Marvel, who’ve announced omnibuses for the long out-of-print original series will arrive this September.
Skybound will instead flesh out the Transformers and Joes’ universe with new characters like Darak and Solila’s species. As the license holder, they also presumably have the rights to publish comics based on the movies, and the new animated series Transformers: EarthSpark, as well as to revisit and reprint older cartoons and comic book series. For now though, only the Energon Universe has been confirmed, with “Void Rivals” underway, and its first true “Transformers” title rolling out this fall.
