Is an Energon Universe crossover about to hit Skybound and Image Comics? That’s certainly the question fans have been asking for the past year and change, since the blockbuster line debuted with Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s Void Rivals, then spinning into Transformers and G.I. Joe. And the idea of a universe-wide crossover seems to be building steam, particularly with the events of the just-released Energon Universe 2025 Special on Free Comic Book Day.
Add in some more evidence that the universe celebrates its one-year anniversary in June, and both Void Rivals and Transformers should be hitting their 24-issue mark in October… Sure seems like the right time to bring it all crashing together. But when we asked Kirkman directly about it during a wider-ranging interview about the upcoming series Invincible Universe: Battle Beast, he, true to form, stayed cagey about what to expect. Or rather, not expect.
“One of the things that is the strength of the Energon Universe is that we do not do what is expected,” Kirkman said. “Everyone’s been expecting a crossover since the end of year one. There will eventually be some massive crossover event, that’s just by design. That’s one of the cool things about shared universes that you can do, [but] we’re going to do it when you least expect it. Hopefully.”
Fans of the titles — and spoilers past this point — can note that Void Rivals recently revealed extremely deep ties to both Transformers and the origin of Cybertron. And the end of the first arc of G.I. Joe revealed a Transformer to a member of the team, a plot point that was picked up in the Energon Universe 2025 Special. But despite the titles starting to weave close together, don’t hold your breath for an October surprise.
“It’s not something that is priority number one on our timetable, we’re still building this universe, expanding this universe, making these characters interact cohesively, building the connections in the universe, and making sure that the G.I. Joe and Transformers stuff dovetails in interesting ways to the Void Rivals stuff there,” Kirkman continued. “Our storylines building in all three series could eventually lead to big crossover events. And so if you’re paying attention, you can get a sense of where things are going and and what could eventually happen in the future. But you know, we’re very much looking at the long haul for this entire universe and taking a very long form approach. So it’s not something that we’re trying to rush into. And when it finally does happen, we want it to be as big as possible and have the most impact, and so we’re taking time to craft it right.”
Look, does this preclude a one-year anniversary announcement at San Diego Comic-Con of an October-debuting Energon Universe crossover? No, of course not. But also, it seems clear that Kirkman wants the books to live and die individually, right up until they all smash together. Given they’re all still selling well and fans seem hyped about the universe, there’s no real rush to mix all the toys in the toybox, yet. Unless they do.
Invincible Universe: Battle Beast #1 hits stores on May 14, 2025.
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