Shortly before they took the stage at the 2025 New York Comic Con Energon Universe panel, I was able to sit down with Robert Kirkman, Tom Reilly, Jorge Corona, Dan Mora, Conner Hughes, and Ben Abernathy to talk all things Energon Universe. You can read about the G.I. Joe half of the interview right here, and click here to read the Transformers and Void Rivals half.
First off, what do fans have to look forward to in G.I. Joe? Series artist Tom Reilly say, “A lot of crazy stuff coming up in this next arc. Double shipped. Twice the fun in half the time.” That’s right. G.I. Joe will be double shipped in the next arc. Editor Ben Abernathy says, “It’s called The Dreadnok War. It picks up the threads from the Cobra Commander series in particular, where he decimated the Dreadnoks, so it ties into that. We see Duke and Cobra Commander together again. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We decided to double ship because it’s the first big event in the Energon Universe.”
Tom went on, “Lots of cars to draw. I think it’s going to be crazy. I’m trying my best.” Ben agreed, “I will say it’s going to be crazy. As an editor, two thumbs up.”
When asked about M.A.S.K. joining the Energon Universe, Ben countered, “Technically we haven’t introduced M.A.S.K. yet. Matt Tracker debuted in the Free Comic Book Day issue, and then we saw in issue #25, Miles Mayhem’s appearance. Where that will lead, time will tell. Matt Tracker, we’ll see in February in G.I. Joe. He’ll be teaming up with Clutch and Hound again. That sets off events going into next year.”
Tom talked about designing M.A.S.K., saying, “I got to do the design for him, which was fun to play with more Hasbro toys. I’m not a huge M.A.S.K. head, so it was fun to dive in and update him.”
Tom praised Joshua Williamson, who couldn’t make this interview because of the DC K.O. panel. Tom said, “Josh (Williamson) is the mastermind here. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of this stuff. He knows when to pay respects and when to diverge. It’s fun to read his scripts and figure out when I can do the same thing. Look up different references that I may want to use or not use. ”
Ben also praised Josh, saying, “Josh is very much a student of the history of G.I. Joe. He studies the file cards. A lot of the designs for the characters, we take the G.I. Joe Classified line as the basis for the starting point of our designs. Also, I remember Andrea [Milana] found a file card for Major Bludd where it says he’s poet and loves poetry. He said, “I gotta put that in there.” There’s a scene where he reads this crummy poem to Baroness. Robert is a huge Transformers fan. Josh is super into G.I. Joe.
I then asked them how they balance the stories so that G.I. Joe doesn’t look better than Transformers doesn’t look better than G.I Joe while maintaining all the characters looking good? Tom answered, “There’s a lot of self contained elements to both stories. G.I. Joe and Transformers are such character driven books that each book has enough stuff to sustain itself.” Ben credited “Long term planning. Josh and Robert have had creative summits. They have the next couple of years mapped out. One of the goals has always been to have a connected universe, but not have to read Void Rivals to understand Transformers.”
Tom was asked if there’s anything he doesn’t like to draw, to which he responded, “There’s one car that I admit that I hate drawing, the Thunder Machine. I have no idea how that thing is put together. But no one really has any idea on how that thing is put together. It can sort of be easy to draw because you can fudge a lot of it. This can go here, because no one really cares. I had to make up a lot of vehicles for Dreadnoks. That was challenging. You want them to all individually be cool, but you can’t make them too cool, because then you’re drawing twice as much stuff. I did buy the Dreadnok Cycle figure, the vintage one. It’s the first vintage G.I. Joe that I bought I got Zandar on there. I can write that off.”
As for who Tom likes to draw? “I like drawing them all. There are harder ones than others, like the Thunder Machine. I love drawing Cobra Commander and Duke. Duke is my guy. I like all the Dreadnoks. They’re fun. I like those dirty, grungy characters that are super full of character. I had to create Dreadnok fodder characters. I had to create a whole visual language for them. They can’t all be too cool, but there are a bunch that are my favorites.” He went on to say, “Visually, initially, I tried to keep most things more grounded in reality, and then as the more Energon based stuff bleeds into the more realistic G.I. Joe stuff, things will look more fancy and more sci-fi. It will be gradual.”
Is there a house style for the Energon Universe? No, but there is collaboration. Tom said, “From the art standpoint, all the references that I’ve compiled, I put in a big folder for everyone to look at to make sure things are consistent across the board. Everyone draws things a little bit differently while giving it the same idea it’s supposed to have. I think all the artists drawing these books are awesome. I’ve always respected their work. Ben and Robert have put together a good stable of people.”
Ben then explained, “Every character Tom designs, he puts a spin on. With Transformers, Generation 1 was the starting point. That was very much Daniel Warren Johnson‘s passion in the first six issues. There are tweaks here and there, but we kept to the iconic looks.” Tom explained further, saying, “You can push Optimus Prime into looking too much not like Optimus Prime. But the Joe characters are more malleable with what you can do. It’s bandoliers, yellow shirts, things like that.” Ben then noted, “We also try to keep things more distinct from A Real American Hero and that line of books.”
When asked which character they’re hoping debuts in G.I Joe soon, Ben said, “I could say one character, but someone at that table might throw something at me. I’ll pivot on that one. I won’t say when. But I’ll say Zartan. I was a Zartain kid. I always thought Zartan was cool. We’ve seen Dreadnoks, Zandar, Zaranna, but Zartan we haven’t seen yet.” But for Tom? ” My blanket answer for this question is Shipwreck every time.” I pointed out the similarities between Tom and Shipwreck and suggested he cosplay him at a convention. He responded, “Oh yeah? I need a bird.” Ben then went on to explain Shipwreck’s popularity is not a joke. “There’s more people in the letters asking for Shipwreck than asking for Snake Eyes.” Tom then said, “When he’s introduced, sales will plummet, because he’s the best.” I replied, “Will it turn into Shipwreck and G.I. Joe?” Tom corrected me, saying, “It will be like G.I. Joe Starring Snake Eyes. G.I. Joe starring Shipwreck,” referencing the title change late in Marvel’s run of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. That’s the variant cover that needs to happen.
