Skybound‘s Energon Universe has all been building to this: the release of G.I. Joe #1 on November 13. Bringing together threads from miniseries Destro, Cobra Commander, Duke, and Scarlett — and even the ongoing Transformers series — the new, ongoing series from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Tom Reilly promises to transform the universe… Yet again.
“There’ll definitely be some connective tissue between Transformers and G.I. Joe,” Williamson teased in a podcast interview with Comic Book Club. “You’ll see there’s a little bit in the first issue because they actually reference something that happens in or happened in Transformers… You’ll see it as we go. We’re not trying to rush everything. But that’s part of the trick is that we’re really trying to make it so things are unexpected. So we hope that people are surprised as they’re reading it.”
To find out a lot more about Williamson’s approach to the title, his deep connection to the cartoon from his youth, and more, you can listen to the full podcast conversation. Or check out some highlights, below!
G.I. Joe #1 hits comic book stores on November 13, 2024, but you can place advance orders with comic book shops now.
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Every Team Needs A Jerk
The main team on G.I. Joe, at least for issue one, is Duke, Stalker, Rock And Roll, Covergirl, Clutch, and The Baroness. While the latter is the clearest candidate for “jerk” on the team, Williamson teased that someone else might fill the bill.
“I always like Clutch playing that role too,” Williamson said. “I just like watching these characters that can bounce off each other, and if they’re going to bounce off each other because they can’t really get along, there has to be a little bit of tension. It can’t just be nonstop high fives and Kumbaya, you need to have a bit of conflict among each other. Baroness definitely plays a little bit of an antagonistic part. Clutch isn’t antagonistic at all, but he likes to say s**t. He’s so different from Duke. And that’s really what so much of this is about, just making sure these characters felt different from each other.”
It’s Not Action Figures, It’s Human Beings
While Williamson did note that Easter eggs are throughout the issue and part of the process, it always comes back to human emotions.
“When I look at all of these properties, these big fandoms, all of it, you can take that massive, massive world and that massive mythology, but you got to tell a human story, and you got to tell something smaller that is about those characters within that world,” Williamson said. “Some of my favorite stuff is when you have a character that’s really well established, you know what they want, you know what they’re about, and you throw them in a new situation, in a new world.
“That’s why, with both Duke and Cobra Commander, when I was writing those books… With Duke, it was very much about a crisis of faith, a moment where no one believes you and you’re questioning yourself. I think people can relate to that. You’re at a moment where you’re falling versus coming up. It almost doesn’t matter if it’s giant robots and big explosions, it’s a person who’s looking for something.
“And same with Cobra Commander. He’s trying to prove himself… Duke is questioning everything at the beginning, he’s questioning what he believes. And he’s like, forget the government I’m out of here. But at the ending, he reaffirms and comes back around and realizes what’s important to him. Whereas Cobra Commander is very loyal to Cobra-La but is manipulating things, and is going through a different version of a crisis of faith. And then by the ending, he rejects it, he betrays them.”
This Is A New G.I. Joe
Despite cartoons, comics, etc, Williamson notes that this is a brand new story for the characters.
“We’re not trying to retell what’s happened before in any way,” Williamson said. “We’re just taking all the pieces. We’re taking the core of it. But this world is different because of how it was created, because of the stuff with the Energon Universe, the fact that Transformers are such a major piece of it. How does that change the dynamic of how GI Joe and COBRA are created? And then it changes how they react to things, and everything has a little bit of a different bite to it than it did the previous incarnations.”
Meet Risk
One brand new element? Risk, a member of the team who is completely new for the comic book series.
“We knew we wanted to bring in a new character,” Williamson said. “I have a lot of GI Joe toys in my office… Every once in a while when I’m writing, I just stand up and I stare at them. And when I was looking at the visuals of them, it’s always interesting how the Joe’s characters are always so unique and different looking. When you’re trying to create a GI Joe character, what do you want to do? How do they look different from the rest of GI Joes? How do they stand out? If someone’s gonna make a toy of this, you know, fingers crossed, how would it stand on the shelf?
“I was talking to Ben Abernathy, who’s the editor on Joe now, and all the Energon Universe stuff. We were going back and forth. And I was like, “You know what I’ve never seen before? I’ve never seen a character that wears a suit.” The Crimson Twins would wear suits occasionally in their book, and so would Destro. But I’ve never seen a Joe that wore a suit… So I’m like, can I potentially create somebody who wears a suit, kind of John Wick-type thing? And that was how it started.
“And then it was like, okay, well, GI Joes always have two things that they do. They’re not just a military person. [So] he’s CIA. He does undercover missions. He does a lot overseas, but he’s also this hand to hand fighter guy. Oh, he also comes from money.
“I started writing him as Duke is like the Cyclops to his Wolverine, was sort of how I saw their dynamic. He’s a little bit of a grenade in the team dynamic, because he’s also a bit of a jerk character… You think about toys… He has a shotgun and it’s gold plated, and we call his Moneymaker… We’re really excited about him. He’ll be in the first issue, and then he’ll play an important role in the book.”
It’s All One, Big Story
Unlike the old cartoon show, these issues aren’t done in one. Not only does it tie into the bigger Energon Universe, the world is also a lot more complicated than it was previously. This isn’t just G.I. Joe vs COBRA.
“It’s all one big story,” Williamson said. “We’ll have plot stuff where it’s like, here’s this mission, but there’s a lot of B, C, D plot that will carry across for years to come. One of the things that always bugged me as a kid, and when I started working on this, I started rewatching the cartoon again… [It’s just] G.I. Joe versus COBRA, and it was like, well, [what do you do] when you actually beat them? Because it’s just them again. And I always like, I wish there had been a bit more dynamic of, G.I. Joe has multiple enemies.
“The interaction of the Dreadnoks, originally, I wish they had just been like, “Oh, these are mercenaries who work with Cobra Commander. I wish they did something separate with the Ashikaga Clan, [which] is why Scarlett sets up things up the way it does. And you get to see those things come together and consolidate. Major Bummer was in Duke, [and] he was a mercenary working for Destro, but he is not COBRA.
“With the book, we have this massive story that we’re telling, and we’re going to have these rhythmic plots, you know. Eventually, those C plots become the A plots… These [first] six issues are really the first time that G.I. Joe and COBRA are encountering each other. But it’s just the beginning of a massive thing. And it’s not always going to be Joe Versus Cobra… Even though they’ll both always be a presence in the book and will always be about that conflict.”
(Re)meet The Valkyries
In G.I. Joe #2, the team comes into conflict with the Valkyries — a team of female COBRA soldiers that, thus far, have never appeared outside of action figures.
“We were talking about doing something new and different, and so much of G.I. Joe has been done,” Williamson said. “Hasbro had created this force called the Valkyries, and they didn’t have a lot of backstory… They have such a cool visual. And part of it was, there aren’t a lot of women COBRA characters. Obviously there was Baroness, but that was part we’re taking away. We introduced Chameleon, but we needed to have more women COBRA characters. I found out, because of timing, they had never appeared in anything. No comics, no games, no movies… They’re a relatively new thing that Hasbro created… And so I was like, we can have the first appearance of these characters in the comics? Hell yeah, let’s go.”
How Will G.I. Joe Connect To The Larger Energon Universe?
Naturally, the Energon Universe is one big story across Void Rivals, Transformers, and now G.I. Joe. So how will they connect?
“There’ll definitely be some connective tissue between Transformers and G.I. Joe,” Williamson teased. “You’ll see there’s a little bit in the first issue because they actually reference something that happens in or happened in Transformers… You’ll see it as we go. We’re not trying to rush everything. But that’s part of the trick is that we’re really trying to make it so things are unexpected. So we hope that people are surprised as they’re reading it.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
G.I. Joe #1 hits comic book stores on November 13, 2024.
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