We're here live with IDW's Transformers Versus G.I. Joe! panel at Comic-Con International.
We're moving on to ROM, by Chris Ryall, Christos Gage and David Messina. The next arc will see ROM going up against monstrous Dire Wraiths, and he will soon learn why the Wraiths have chosen to set up shop on Earth.
Next up Micronauts, by Cullen Bunn, Jimmy Z. Johnston, Andrew Griffith and Max Dunbar. With the Micronauts only being three inches tall, having such a large scale difference will cause a lot of sparks.
Next up is M.A.S.K., with Brandon Easton, Tony Vargas and Juan Samu. Easton joked that he's still figuring out why "Kommando" is spelled with a "K." He said he had to look at the '80s cartoon and refine it down to tone down some of the cheesiness, and to lean into a more Fast and Furious tone.
M.A.S.K.'s tech is reverse-engineered Cybertronian tech, thanks to IDW's current Revolution landscape.
Next up is G.I. Joe, from Aubrey Sitterson and Giannis Milonogiannis. Sitterson praised Milonogiannis and colorist Lovern Kindzierski: "This book would have been the crown jewel even if I wasn't involved on it," he said.
There will be a Revolution toyset from Hasbro, inspired by IDW and Hasbro's shared universe.
"I didn't even know these were being made," Easton said. "Having this made into a toy is a dream I didn't even know I had."
IDW's next event, First Strike, featuring the Transformers, G.I. Joe and more, will ship every two seeks starting in August. It's designed to be a jumping-on point to get lapsed readers, showing off IDW's various properties interacting with one another.
"I really want First Strike to be a complete story, and to be a trade you wanted to pick up," Mairghread Scott said. Earth has been annexed into more of a cosmic state. "What if we did like Brexit?" she said. Certain figures are looking to separate the Hasbroverse in a particularly violent way — destroying Cybertron.
Scott said that this story is about Scarlett reconciling the founder of the G.I. Joes, Joe Colton, meaning so much to her... but also spearheading robotic genocide with the destruction of Cybertron.
John Barber, who has written Joe Colton's backup stories, has been critical to making sure that the story has gotten continuity correct.
With First Strike, IDW will do one-shots featuring Micronauts and ROM one-shots by Christos Gage and Chris Panda. Their role will be a bit secondary to the main Transformers vs. G.I. Joe factions, but this will have the Micronauts discovering the Dire Wraiths trying to make themselves a virus.
There is also G.I. Joe and MASK one-shots, by Aubrey Sitterson and Ilias Kyriazis. Sitterson promises museum heists, kung-fu fights, and giant robots with explosions and lasers in these two issues.
With Scarlett gone, Shipwreck will have to take over the team, as Venom, a new faction of COBRA, will attack.
Finally, there will be First Strike one-shots featuring Optimus Prime and Transformers, by John Barber and Guido Guidi. These will take place on Cybertron. Barber said that the story will deal with the Transformers having to react to the war with Earth without Optimus Prime.
There will also be a book in December called G.I. Joe Unmasked, which has MASK's Matt Trakker joining G.I. Joe join the fight against Cobra, by Aubrey Sitterson and Nelson Daniel. Sitterson said that with the characters already established, they can go up against a wild assortment of foes, like Hasbro's Army Ants.
There will also be a ROM and the Micronauts comic in December 2017 by Christos Gage and Paolo Villanelli, where the Micronauts help ROM right a Dire Wraight god.
There will be a double-sized Transformers: Till All Are One annual in December, by Mairghread Scott and Sara Pitre-Durocher. The question of the series, Scott said, is who should rule Cybertron: Windblade, Starscream, or Elita? So there will be an election, filled with plenty of "dirty tricks."
Also in December will be Visionaries by Maggs Visaggio and Fico Ossio, which will have more news coming up in the future.