Robert Kirkman and his imprint Skybound Comics (a subsidiary of Image) have reported on the enormous sales success of their Energon Universe project of interrelated comic book series. Three years and three months into the project, cumulative sales of individual comics and collected editions have reached a very impressive 7.6 million.
The Energon Universe is a collaboration between Skybound and toy company Hasbro, and involves new, original characters and Hasbro's existing properties coexisting in a shared universe, similar to the Marvel and DC Comics multiverses. The project launched with the original title Void Rivals in June 2023, which tells the story of two soldiers from the opposing sides on a war forced to work together to survive being marooned on a remote planetoid. The first clues that this universe was bigger than it first appeared was when they stumbled across the Transformer Jetfire and helped him get back on his feet. Later issues revealed that the war between the two sides was a side-effect of the ancient struggle between the Transformers and the Quintessons, with the mysterious Cobra-La species also involved.
The project expanded with Transformers, launching in October 2023, and then a series of G.I. Joe mini-series launched across 2023 and 2024. These comics established both the G.I. Joe and COBRA organisations being founded in response to the Transformers' presence on contemporary Earth, a marked difference from previous iterations where the two franchises awkwardly coexist on the same world but forget about each other for 95% of the time. An ongoing G.I. Joe comic began in November 2024, with the Autobot Hound becoming an honorary member of the G.I. Joe organisation. A further Marvel property, M.A.S.K., launched as a new comic in June 2026. The robot character Rom the Space Knight has guested in several issues of Void Rivals, with a possible eye to launching his own series later on.
According to Kirkman, the entire Energon Universe project has sold 7.6 million copies to date, with Transformers accounting for about 3.5 million of the total. Issue #1 of the Transformers line is the most-reprinted comic in the line, knocking up 15 printings since 2023 and selling over 350,000 copies, possibly rivalling the original Marvel #1 from 1984 as the best-selling Transformers comic of them all. Kirkman also confirmed that Transformers is now Skybound's second-biggest-seller in collected editions, behind only Invincible.
Kirkman has paid tribute to Daniel Warren Johnson, who launched the Transformers line by penning the first 24 issues and drawing the first six. This may be a vague nod to increasing fan complaints that the comic's storyline has developed pacing issues since Kirkman himself took over writing with the 25th issue.
An animated adaptation of the Energon Universe is in the planning stages, following the huge success of Kirkman's Invincible animated series at Amazon.
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