Image Comics’ Skybound division announced that two of the world’s most popular media franchises – Transformers and G.I. Joe – have a new comic book home as part of the historic partnership between toy and game company Hasbro and Skybound.

Comic book fans who picked up their copies of Void Rivals #1 in comic shops on the day of the announcement were the first to learn the news, as the blockbuster Oblivion Song team of writers Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead) and artist Lorenzo De Felici (Kroma), along with colorist Matheus Lopes (Step By Bloody Step) and letterer Rus Wooton, revealed that the series was actually a stealth launch of this new shared “Energon Universe” with the surprise first appearance of iconic Transformers character Jetfire.

Three upcoming releases, alongside Void Rivals, mark the beginning of the interconnected “Energon Universe,” featuring both veteran characters and franchises, along with entirely new concepts developed in partnership by Hasbro and Skybound.

Launching in October, Transformers #1 begins an all-new era for the iconic robots in disguise from creator Daniel Warren Johnson (Extremity, Do a Powerbomb, DC’s Wonder Woman: Dead Earth) and colorist Mike Spicer (Stillwater). Optimus Prime was supposed to have led the Autobots to victory. Instead, the fate of Cybertron is unknown, and his allies have crash-landed far from home, alongside their enemies—the Decepticons. As these titanic forces renew their war on Earth, one thing is immediately clear: the planet will never be the same. New alliances are struck. Battle lines are redrawn and humanity’s only hope of survival is Optimus Prime.

The new Energon Universe expands in December with Duke #1, a limited series from Joshua Williamson (DC’s Superman, Dark Ride), Tom Reilly (The Thing) and Jordie Bellaire (W0rldtr33), that tells the story you’ve never read before – the origins of G.I. Joe and Cobra in a world grappling with the arrival of the Autobots and Decepticons. When Conrad S. Hauser (codename DUKE) investigates the mysteries behind The Transformers, the answers will lead to the birth of forces for good and evil that the world never imagined.

Duke will be the first of four G.I. Joe limited series coming from Skybound, setting the stage for a fresh new take on G.I. Joe, Cobra and the iconic characters that you only think you know.

This will be followed by the launch of Cobra Commander #1 in January 2024, from Joshua Williamson, Andrea Milana (Impact Winter: Rook) and Annalisa Leoni (Oblivion Song). In a world where Cobra doesn’t exist, one man’s sinister plans to utilize the mysterious alien substance known as Energon will send shockwaves across the globe.

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