I had the pleasure of sitting down with Robert Kirkman, Tom Reilly, Jorge Corona, Dan Mora, Connor Hughes, Ben Abernathy, and others to talk all things Energon Universe just before they took the stage at the Energon Universe panel at New York Comic Con 2025. You can read the GI Joe half of the interview here and the Transformers and Void Rivals half by clicking here.
GI Joe editor Ben Abernathy and artist Tom Riley
First, what can fans expect from G.I. Joe? Series artist Tom Reilly says, “There’s a lot of craziness going on in this next arc. It’s twice as much. It’s twice as much fun in half the time.” That’s correct. GI Joe gets double shipped in the next arc. Editor Ben Abernathy says, “This piece is called War of the Dreadnocks, and it ties into that specifically because it picks up on the part in the Cobra Commander series where he destroyed the Dreadnocks. We’ll see Duke and Cobra Commander together again, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s the first big event in the Energon Universe, so we decided to do a double ship.”
Tom continued, “I have a lot of cars to draw. I think it’s going to be crazy. I’m doing my best.” Ben agreed, “I think it’s going to be crazy. As an editor, I give it two thumbs up.”
When asked about MASK joining the Energon Universe, Ben said, “Technically we haven’t introduced MASK yet. Matt Tracker made his debut in the Free Comic Book Day issue, and then we saw the introduction of Miles Mayhem in issue 25. “We’ll see where that leads. You’ll see Matt Trucker on GI Joe in February. He’ll team up with Clutch and the Hound again. That’s the start of things for next year.”
Talking about MASK’s design, Tom said, “I got to design it for him and it was fun to play around with a lot of Hasbro toys. I’m not really into MASK, so it was fun to jump in and update him.”
Tom praised Joshua Williamson, who was unable to participate in this interview due to the DC KO panel. Tom said, “Josh (Williamson) is the mastermind here. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of this stuff. He knows when to be respectful and when to deflect. It’s fun to read his scripts and think about when you could do the same thing. Look at different references that you might or might not use.”
Ben also praised Josh, saying, “Josh is learning a lot about the history of GI Joe. He studies the file cards. For a lot of the character designs, we base the design on the GI Joe Classified line as a starting point for the design. I also remember Andrea (Milana) finding Major Brad’s file card, and it said he was a poet and loved poetry. He said, ‘We’ve got to include that.’ There’s a scene where he reads this stupid poem to the baroness. Robert is a huge Transformers fan. Josh is obsessed with GI Joe.
I then asked them how they balance the story to keep all the characters looking great but also not make GI Joe look better than Transformers or better than GI Joe. Tom replied, “There are a lot of self-contained elements in both stories. G.I. Joe and Transformers are very character-driven books, so each book has enough content to stand on its own.” Ben credited, “We’re planning for the long term. Josh and Robert have had a creative summit. They’re planning for the next few years. One of the goals has always been to have a connected world, but you don’t have to read Void Rivals to understand Transformers.”
Asked if there was anything he didn’t like to draw, Tom said, “There’s one car I admit I don’t like to draw, and that’s the Thunder.” It’s a machine. I don’t know how it’s put together, but it might be easy to draw because you can fudge a lot of it. You had to make a lot of vehicles for the Dreadknocks. They’re all individually cool, but you can’t make them too cool because then you’ll end up drawing twice as much. This was the first vintage GI Joe I bought, and I can write that off.”
Who does Tom like to draw? “I love drawing them all. Some are more difficult than others, like the Thunder Machines. I love drawing Cobra Commander and Duke. Duke is my guy. I like all the Dreadknocks. They’re fun. I like characters with a lot of personality and dirt. I had to create fodder characters for the Dreadknocks. I had to create a whole visual language for them. They can’t all be too cool, but there are a lot of my favorites.” He continued, “Visually, we tried to make most of the things more grounded in reality at first, but then things start to look flashier and more sci-fi as the more Energon-based stuff blends into the more realistic GI Joe stuff. That’s going to happen gradually.”
Is there an Energon Universe house style? No, but there are collaborations. Tom said, “From an art standpoint, I put all the references I compiled into a big folder for everyone to see to make sure it was consistent across the board. Everyone draws it a little differently, giving you the same idea of what it should be. I think all the artists who are illustrating these books are amazing. I always respect their work. Ben and Robert have put together a great group of people.”
Ben went on to explain, “Every character Tom designs has a twist. For Transformers, Generation 1 was the starting point. That was Daniel Warren Johnson’s passion for the first six issues. There were tweaks here and there, but we kept the iconic look.” Tom further explained, “You can push Optimus Prime into something that’s too un-Optimus Prime, but Joe’s character is more malleable in what he can do: bandoliers, yellow shirts, things like that.” Ben continued, “We’re trying to make it more distinct from Real American Heroes and the books in that series.”
When asked which character he hopes to see in G.I. Joe soon, Ben says, “I can only name one character, but someone at the table might throw something at me. I’m going to focus on that character. I won’t say when, but I’ll say Zartan. I was Zartan’s kid. I always thought Zartan was cool. I’ve seen the Dreadnocks, I’ve seen Xander, I’ve seen Zaranna, but I haven’t seen Zartan yet.” But for Tom? “My overarching answer to this question is Shipwreck every time.” I pointed out the similarities between Tom and Shipwreck and suggested that I cosplay Tom at the convention. He answered, “Really? I need a bird.” Ben went on to explain that Shipwreck’s popularity is no joke. “I have more people in my letters asking for Shipwreck than Snake Eyes,” and Tom said, “When he’s introduced, sales will plummet, because he’s the best.” I said, “Are you going to be a shipwreck and a GI Joe?” “It’s going to be something like GI Joe with Snake Eyes or GI Joe with Shipwreck,” Tom corrected me, referring to the title change in the second half of the Marvel movie GI Joe: The Real American Hero. That’s the variant cover you need.
Something like this:
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