Previously, it had been reported there might be a live action movie in the works based on 2 of Hasbro’s most famous toy franchises. But now, Deadline’s announced a new cartoon for TV is planned based on Skybound/Image’s adaptations of GI Joe and the Transformers, and intended to be adult in nature:
Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment has teamed with Hasbro Entertainment to produce Energon Universe, an adult animated series based on the comics of the same name created by Kirkman and published by Skybound. Joe Henderson (Lucifer) is attached to write the adaptation and serve as showrunner on the series, an epic crossover of G.I. Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals mythology, which is expected to be taken out to buyers shortly.
Despite featuring the family-friendly Hasbro characters G.I. Joe and Transformers, the Energon Universe series will be broad, with adult sensibility in the vein of Kirkman’s gritty adult animated series Invincible, based on his comic, which has been a hit for Prime Video, renewed for Season 5 ahead of its Season 4 premiere next March.
It’s not hard to guess the reporter’s not familiar with Marvel’s original GI Joe volume for starters, which, while far from the bloodiest comic you’ll read, was anything but kiddie fare, and there were occasionally deaths seen in the scripts by Larry Hama. Even their Transformers series by Bob Budiansky was anything but kiddie stuff. I’m weary of these short-ranged writers who don’t look to the older stuff to get an idea of what the adaptations were like. The new stories by Skybound, as far as I know, also also relatively more mature than what came before, and I think I once noticed a story where Starscream grabbed and smashed an innocent human to death in his hand in their Transformers series. That’s hardly child’s play there.
Kirkman, a Transformers and G.I. Joe fan since childhood, won the comic book publishing rights to the signature Hasbro brands in 2021. He went on to create a cohesive shared universe in which Transformers and G.I. Joe co-exist together alongside original IP Void Rivals, which Kirkman co-created with Lorenzo De Felici.
Two years in, Energon Universe has become one of Hasbro’s bestselling comic book lines ever, with over 7 million combined units sold worldwide. It launched in June 2023 with Void Rivals which featured the surprise appearance of Transformers character Jetfire on the final page. That was followed by the October 2023 release of Transformers and four G.I. Joe character-focused miniseries, leading to a tentpole G.I. Joe series launch in November 2024, with Transformers #1, G.I. Joe #1 and Void Rivals #1 all setting sale records and Transformers winning two Edgar Awards in 2024.
Since they mention Jetfire, there may be some interesting history to that particular toy model – due to copyright issues with Japanese companies like Takara and Bandai, who made similar models at the time, Jetfire vanished from sales and the comics originally published by Marvel after a year or so, and the toy character name was changed to Skyfire at one point during its original brief run. Many years later, these licensing issues were presumably smoothed over, and I do admit, it’s flattering the assigned writers/artists/editors were able to make the arrangements to once again make use of such a previously rare character. Something else about Skybound’s adaptations is told by Movieweb:
Energon Universe is a publishing initiative overseen by Robert Kirkman, best known as the creator of The Walking Dead and Invincible, that reimagines the mythology of the Transformers and G.I. Joe, tying the two franchises’ histories together. In this universe, the Joes were formed in response to the Transformers’ arrival on Earth and COBRA’s weapons harnessing Energon, the life essence of the Transformers. The series has even brought in Hasbro’s other 1980s toy property, M.A.S.K. Paramount spent years trying and failing to build a shared universe for Hasbro’s properties, but Skybound Entertainment has seemingly done so with ease.
Well maybe that’s because until now, they focused on writing up a comics-based world, not something for movies. As for M.A.S.K, I’m fairly familiar with it; a toy line originally published by Kenner and mid-80s cartoon about a team of crimefighters with transforming vehicles and special masks who battled a terrorist organization named V.E.N.O.M, who had similar technology. Sounds like today’s nostalgists in entertainment can certainly make an effort to rope in as many older products as possible.
But as for a new cartoon on TV based on both these leading toy franchises, while it may not be new that they could have a more adult perspective, if you consider that the volumes originally from Marvel had more of a sense of sophistication than the animated cartoons of the times, will they actually tackle serious issues and metaphors convincingly? If they turn out to be sexless and nailed on painting conservatives as the sole root of evil, then what good is this? Also, let’s consider that, while they may speak of 7 million units, that’s combined, which suggests that in the past few years since their launch, individual monthly copies only sold in the low hundred-thousands below a million, and combined doesn’t prove indefinitely they’re selling much better than Marvel/DC.
If the new cartoon in planning for TV isn’t PC, then good luck to it. But if it is PC, and turns ladies like Scarlett and Cover Girl into a sexless mess, I don’t see why so much animation technology has to be wasted on sullying these franchises any more than need be. The Transformers: One cartoon film wasn’t a big success, and if this new crossover cartoon turns out to be woke, it’ll only continue compounding the damage inflicted upon GI Joe by extension in wider medium.
Originally published here
English (US) · 