Robert Kirkman Further Comments On New Energon Universe Partnership Between Skybound and Hasbro For Transformers, G.I. Joe, Void Rivals and More Through Image Comics!
Void Rivals #1 (full spoilers here) ended with a message from Robert Kirkman to readers.
Well, since the release of Void Rivals #1, and its stunning revelation of the shared Energon Universe, Robert Kirkman has been doing the interview circuit with some insight provided.
Robert Kirkman dropped some knowledge via Newsarama.
More in the Void Rivals premise.
Void Rivals focuses on two opposing forces, the Agorrians and the Zertonians. Darak is an Agorrian pilot and Solila is a Zertonian pilot, and they both come from this thing called The Sacred Ring, this big apparatus that is built around a black hole. They fight for resources in this dead quadrant of space, as the black hole hole pulls things into their vicinity.
As the story picks up these two pilots have gone on this mission to recover a comet so that they can mine its frozen ice, but they find themselves stranded on this desolate planet. They have very little resources and they have to figure out a way to survive or kill each other.
On the tone of Void Rivals.
…I definitely wanted to do something that fit seamlessly into that G.I. Joe, Transformers space. I wanted something that could kind of exist alongside those without feeling too different. I wanted it to feel like it was in the same universe.
The partnership with Hasbro and creation of the Energon Universe.
We started talking to Hasbro about taking over the Transformers and the G.I. Joe license almost two years ago. IDW had those licenses for a good long time and served those brands very well, so we had to come up with something that was new and different. I thought that one of the best things that we could do is strip everything down to its core and establish a new beginning with these characters in the shared Energon universe, where they can interact in organic ways…
…In a sense it’s playing with my love of the DC Universe and the Marvel Universe. It’s something that’s unique to the comic space, and it’s something that the MCU has replicated in the movies that’s made it something super special.
How the titles of the Energon Universe intersect or not.
I think it’s important that all of the books in the Energon universe are kind of their own hub. If you love Void Rivals and that’s the book that you most enjoy you can continue reading that and there will be little bits and pieces here and there that tie into the other books, but there’s nothing [else] that you absolutely have to have to make sense of Void Rivals…
…If you’re reading all of them, there’s going to be an additive experience where the different things that happen enrich the overall story and make it one big thing, but each individual book completely stands on its own and has its own narrative and its own rewards and isn’t dependent on the other titles…
G.I. Joe in space?
…Well, Void Rivals takes place in deep space, so a lot of the references are going to be Transformers related – there’s not a lot of G.I. Joe characters that are exploring the cosmos…
…We also want to maintain the integrity of G.I. Joe. It’s never gonna feel like just a Transformers spin-off or an offshoot, or anything like that. We love G.I. Joe, as much as we love Transformers. We’re definitely going to give it its moment to shine. As this universe unfolds you’ll see how it all makes sense and how we’re integrating these characters together.
More titles to come beyond the Energon Universe.
The other thing is, we’ve got other plans for G.I. Joe and Transformers that don’t involve the Energon universe. There’s a lot of stuff that will be rolling out in the next year.
In that last vein, Image Comics did announce the continuation of the Larry Hama penned G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series, that began in 1982 and continued under different publishers, with issue G.I. Joe: ARAH #301 in November 2023.
Kirkman also spoke with CBR.
The genesis of the Energon Universe and the Hasbro partnership.
…when the opportunity for Skybound to get involved with Hasbro and do Transformers and G.I. Joe came in, I dove right in and started pitching ideas that eventually became the Energon Universe. I wanted to try and figure out a new way to get into these stories and get into these characters. I wanted to find a new angle.
The Energon Universe is kind of like an origin story. We’re going back to square one with both Transformers and G.I. Joe and introducing the readers to this universe from the ground floor. We’re gonna get to see them interact and grow in an organic way because these are massive universes with massive casts of characters. We’re going to start small and grow into the cast. So there’s a lot of characters that people are going to be dying to see. You know, “When’s this character gonna show up? When’s this character gonna show up?” It’s going to be a very methodical rollout that — I keep saying “roll out” in these interviews, and it always throws me — but we’re going to transform and roll out these characters in a really cool way.
Why new title Void Rivals was the best way to launch the Energon Universe.
I’m always trying to approach things as a fan. You know, “What would excite me if I was a fan?” If I was reading an Ed Brubaker comic book and Freddy Krueger showed up halfway through it, that would be the craziest thing as a comic book reader. If you were reading Reckless, and all of a sudden, on Page 12, Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up fighting the Predator — that’d be crazy! So I think that to be able to do something like that, it’s imperative to actually try to accomplish this. When I had that notion, we pitched it to Hasbro. Hasbro seemed really excited about the idea. [It’s] also a tremendous honor to be able to create characters that live alongside the Transformers and G.I. Joes and interact with their universe. That was really exciting to me — trying to reverse engineer a concept that seems like it could have been a television series and toy line in the ’80s. Trying to come up with a title, Void Rivals, that you could have seen on toy packaging next to Visionaries at some point, or next to M.A.S.K. It just seemed exciting to try and unwrap that puzzle and make it all work. I love keeping secrets. I love trying to launch books in new ways. I love trying to make the comic-shop-going experience as exciting as it was for me as a kid. All of those things dovetailed — my love of Transformers, my love of G.I. Joe, my love of new concepts, my love of surprising people, [and] my love of launching books in a weird way. It all kind of crashed together, and then here we are!
Scope of the Energon Universe.
The Energon Universe is a self-contained exploration of these characters. So if you buy Void Rivals #1, Transformers #1, Duke #1 [or] Cobra Commander #1, that’s all you need to get. We’re going to keep the line contained. We’re going to try to limit it to four concurrent titles. It’s kind of like the Ultimate Universe for these characters — to give an explanation for the comic book readers. That’s kind of our approach.
Who Jetfire’s cameo in Void Rivals #1 leads to Transformers #1.
You’ll see at the end of that scene in Void Rivals. He’s like, “I gotta find out what’s going on with Cybertron and [the] Transformers.” That’s gonna lead to him seeking out other Transformers, and it’s possible that those Transformers are asleep under a volcano on Earth.
Beyond the Energon Universe and goal for Skybound / Hasbro Partnership.
…The Energon Universe is not the sum total of what we’re going to be doing with these properties. There [are] any number of opportunities for the Skybound-Hasbro partnership to lead to a lot of other cool things. There’s a lot of things we’re planning that we’ll be rolling out…
…Hopefully, in Year Two or whatever, you’ll have fans that have never read a Transformers comic and never read a G.I. Joe comic absolutely loving these series, and we’ll also have the diehard fans enjoying this new take on the material — this refresh, if you will — where we’re going to be rebooting things and changing things up and doing some really cool and exciting things.
A lot of exciting crackling over the Energon Universe.
