It’s not just on the big screen where the various Hasbro properties will be coming together in a shared universe, as IDW has announced that its upcoming Revolution event series will bring together the publisher’s G.I. Joe, Transformers, Micronauts, ROM, Action Man and M.A.S.K. series with new number ones and a new, shared status quo.
“We didn’t want this to be what fans have seen from so many others, which is a reboot or a relaunch where you’re asked to forget about all these characters and stories you’ve been following for years,” states IDW’s editor-in-chief Chris Ryall (via EW). “It’s just now everybody will be acknowledging each other in a much greater way than ever before.”
“Revolution is its own thing,” he continues. “It’s a five-part biweekly series that we’re launching in September, and that series will detail the reasons why these characters are all drawn together. It centers around something called Ore 13, which is an unstable version of Energon, the material that gives the Transformers their power and life. There’s a version of that on earth, that has an adverse effect on tech, which adversely affects ROM, and changes the status of him and his villains, the Dire Wraiths. It affects the Micronauts universe in a way they didn’t expect, and then it also gives birth to M.A.S.K., which is a big new title we’re launching out of this. So that series details the reason for all these characters to be drawn together. Then all the series will be relaunched with new number ones and this new status quo.”
Ryall also points out that readers won’t need to pick up every series in order to follow the stories: “The plan is to have the characters go back to occupying their own spaces. I don’t want G.I. Joe or Transformers fans to feel like they have to buy every issue of everything we publish now just to get the whole story. If they do, certainly that’s a nice outcome, but I still want them to read a Transformers book and have it feel like a Transformers book. It’s just, now within that universe, ROM is somewhere in the background and may be drawn back in at some point. It’s sort of like the Marvel universe, how Spider-Man’s book can be his own thing but occasionally he may come into contact with the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy.”
UPDATE: Here are the creative teams for the new titles…
ROM
Co-written by Chris Ryall (Onyx), Christos Gage (Marvel’s Daredevil)
Art by David Messina (Star Trek)
G.I. Joe
Written by Aubrey Sitterson (Street Fighter X G.I. JOE)
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis (Prophet)
Transformers: Till All Are One
Written by Mairghread Scott (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, TRANSFORMERS)
Art by Naoto Tsushima (TRANSFORMERS)
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye
Written by James Roberts (TRANSFORMERS)
Art by Alex Milne (TRANSFORMERS)
Transformers
Written by John Barber (Back to the Future)
Art by Andrew Griffith (TRANSFORMERS)
M.A.S.K.
Written by Brandon Easton (Marvel’s Agent Carter, TRANSFORMERS: Deviations)
Art by Tony Vargas (Rot & Ruin)
Action Man
Written by John Barber (TRANSFORMERS)
Art by Paolo Villanelli (G.I. JOE: SNAKE EYES)
Micronauts
Written by Cullen Bunn (Uncanny X-Men)
Art by Chris Panda
The news follows the recent announcement that Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are interconnecting five of the toy manufacturer’s properties in G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K. and ROM for a shared cinematic universe.
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Originally published June 1, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
