Transformers and G.I. Joe comics license goes to Skybound

[reillyd]

I’ve held off naming the successful licensee of the Hasbro IP license in the title, in the event that someone is genuinely waiting for the formal announcement from Hasbro social media, or the press release.

And the winner is …… drumroll…..

Image Comics, under their Skybound Imprint. Makes sense with their distribution (it wasn’t going to be with a niche publisher again), but my money would have been on Marvel since Hasbro already works hand in hand with Disney for Star Wars.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/06/09/the-new-home-for-transformers-and-g-i-joe-comics-revealed-486657

It was originally broken by Ain’t it Cool news, which sometimes has interesting comic industry scoops.

We’re still await the formal announcement, but the new IP’s look will be released in one of Skybound’s new titles called ‘Void Virals’ which for some strange reason, comic stores ordered over 100k copies of. Yes its Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman, and issue one of walking dead sells for gazillions, but still it’s a huge overorder and was apparently one of the industry’s best kept secrets about the reveal in that issue.

[JJJ]

Oh good, at last some news about this. I'd become quite accustomed to their being Transformers comics again, and it felt wrong without them (I am currently re-reading MTME/RID and the rest of last decade's IDW stuff, and it feels ever wronger today :) ). Very happy to learn that things are moving here.

...

Oh wait. Oh no.

Shared universe? Nononononononononono...

That's the garbage that ruined IDW's run (Revolution and all the rubbish that trailed behind it).

Well that seriously burst my bubble :(

[reillyd]

You *have* to read Void Rivals. Like now. Literally now.

I thought I recognised the wing design, but then thought “Naw, there’s a lot of ships based on a Veritech design”.
This is a shared universe. I see now why retailers ordered 100k, and it’s not going to be nearly enough. Second printing for sure.

[reillyd]

Oh and the new shared universe is termed the Energon Universe. It may tangentially involve Joes at some point, but it appears to be new Hasbro IP.

[reillyd]

Transformers #1 October 2023. The artwork is quite nice. I won’t post it here, but I’m sure the fan sites will have it shortly.
Duke #1 and Cobra Commander for December, so don’t expect a cross over quickly.

[Paulbot]

You *have* to read Void Rivals. Like now. Literally now.

You convinced me. I'd seen the leaked spoiler poster before, but still this was an interesting first issue of a new series/concept with some familiar tropes. (Not sold on buying anymore of this series though but I'll try the spin-off!)

[JJJ]

Read it. Not impressed, but that's hardly unusual with comics and me.

But the good thing was that the entire TF content is completely inconsequential, and can be referred to in a single throwaway sentence if the real TF series ever needs to make mention of it.

On the other hand, the "millions of years" thing is still with us (it irks me in and of itself, but it also shows Kirkman's lack of understanding of erosion). I just wish we could get writers who a) understand scale, both in terms of distance and time (4 million years of continuous warfare, or 10 million of nearly continuous for IDW's full background, is beyond absurd) and b) are willing to break away from that particular conceit.

Now a little happier than before, but I'd still very much like to know that there won't be any crossover crap.

Mixed feelings now. I've just read an interview with Kirkman that rules out the crossover rubbish, but also this: "updated retellings of your favorite episodes of Transformers". Which is not what I want, at all. That, I think, is even worse than just running with the old ideas and not trying new ones.

[KELPIE]

And the winner is …… drumroll…..

Image Comics, under their Skybound Imprint. Makes sense with their distribution (it wasn’t going to be with a niche publisher again), but my money would have been on Marvel since Hasbro already works hand in hand with Disney for Star Wars.

Hate to break it to you. The winner is Skybound, who is certainly a niche publisher. They just use Image for logistics, same way Devils Due did back in the day (before they went bankrupt) when they had the Joe and Micronauts license.

I think this is a terrible outcome in every which way you could possibly look at it.

Utterly disappointed in this news. However as always I'll grab the issues and see how it shakes out.

[griffin]

I was at a comic shop in Brisbane today and found issue 1 of the Void Rivals (they were still sitting on about 20 copies of the first printing) and bought it.
Unfortunately I didn't know about the 2nd and 3rd printings until tonight, which all have Jetfire on the cover... which I would have preferred as a Transformers fan. I might have to chase them up online later.
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Void_Rivals_issue_1

At the comic shop I saw that they had issue 2 as well, so I flicked through it to see if there was anything interesting in it, and the final page had a Skuxxoid, from the Season 3 Transformers cartoon... so they are still managing to keep it in a shared universe for now (or just throwing in easter eggs each issue to keep some of the Transformers fans buying that comic series).
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Skuxxoid

I can't find any hint of Skybound planning to do TPBs, so until I am sure that there will be TPBs that are easier and cheaper for me to chase up, I will buy the individual issues while they are available.

I think this might be the first time I would be buying new-release Transformers comics from a local comic shop since Generation Two in the early 90s. I remember importing Dreamwave and Devils Due comics, and most of IDW's comics I bought online as TPBs... so it has been an interesting experience buying comics in-person in a comic shop again.

[Paulbot]

That cameo is a bit of a deep cut - I couldn't name the alien and only barely recognise it.


I can't find any hint of Skybound planning to do TPBs, so until I am sure that there will be TPBs that are easier and cheaper for me to chase up, I will buy the individual issues while they are available.

It's extremely likely there will be collections. Skybound have had a lot of success with collections of Walking Dead and Invincible and it looks like all of their current comics are being collected. It's very rare these days for any comics to be released without a collected volume coming.

[JJJ]

Yep, Skybound's most acclaimed work of the past few years, Oblivion Song, is collected as TPBs. It'll happen with TF too. That's the least of my concerns...

[KELPIE]

They've already started talking about their brainstorming sessions about what TPB collections they can do from previous publishers.

Personally I'll be skipping void rivals.... Maybe go down the digital path for it if it introduces any required reading for the main TF series.

[JJJ]

Void Rivals has absolutely nothing to offer except the most fervent of TF collectors who have to have absolutely every possible TF appearance.

The only TF content it has is an entirely irrelevant (to it's own story) aside where two shipwrecked pilots stumble across Jetfire, awaken him, and then watch him fly away. Not even 5 pages, and they contain nothing of any meaning to the TF comic that's coming.

[reillyd]

But Jetfire! Skuxxoid!

Oh, I just realised. I must me one of those fervent collectors starved of new G1 content. :p

[Cat]

It's got me in so far. I've even got the SDCC ashcan and Void Rivals exclusive cover on the way over to me. I'm in deep.

[griffin]

When i saw that there were already about 10 cover versions for issue 1, I was bit put off. That's a bit much.... squeezing completest comic collectors.

[Cat]

When i saw that there were already about 10 cover versions for issue 1, I was bit put off. That's a bit much.... squeezing completest comic collectors.

I just ignore that. Really that's every new comic released these days. I just pick the cover I like (or the cover I get allocated if I'm unlucky) and go about my day. But if you do want to be a conpletist I can understand your frustration with the way the industry is these days. Although to be fair, IDW was just as bad with its initial offerings. Hopefully things will settle down as we get into the stories, and get down to just two covers a month, something reasonable.

[reillyd]

Spoiler alert - Quintesson Prosecutor in issue 3.
So it was a slow build, rather than deep cuts.
Can’t wait to see issue 4.

[KELPIE]

Just to confirm, this is in Void Rivals, not Transformers.

[griffin]

The first issue of the new Transformers comic comes out in October, and we have several cover versions revealed so far.
https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/08/30/skybounds-transformers-2023-comic-series-issue-1-additional-covers-artwork-493739

[griffin]

I picked up my copies of the first issue a couple weeks ago, and the comic store had four different cover versions for me.... which I thought was a lot already, but now looking at the tfwiki page, there are already 53 cover versions of just the first issue!!!
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_(2023)_issue_1

53 different cover versions... that's definitely a record for Transformers, but is that normal for big name titles these days?

I'd hate to be the sort of person who is a comic fan who is compelled to complete the set of cover variants.

[griffin]

Issue 5 of Void Rivals is out soon (or has been released), so a preview has been released, with spoilers on one of the covers...
https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/10/17/skybounds-void-rivals-comic-series-2-page-preview-of-issue-5-496710

The other two comics in the Energon Universe come out soon too, focussing on GIJoe, but including Transformers as one story universe - Cobra Commander and Duke.