Hasbro Universe
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IDW: Hold my beer.
The Hasbro Universe is the name for the shared universe, cataloged by the TransTech as Primax 1005.19 Gamma, in which IDW Publishing's assorted comic books featuring licensed properties from Hasbro all reside. These properties include IDW's original Transformers continuity, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Rom, Jem and the Holograms, Action Man, M.A.S.K., Clue, and Visionaries.
Much like the later Energon Universe (and prior "spinoffs" like Beastformers), TFWiki covers this shared universe in full, sans G.I. Joe content from before 2015, as they were not created or written with Transformers in mind, or titles not particularly involved with this shared universe (such as Jem and Clue).
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Development
The Transformers was the first Hasbro property licensed by IDW in 2005, followed a few years later by G.I. Joe in 2008. The two franchises were never written with the intent that they occupied the same universe, and so they did their own thing for years, with the Transformers titles even massively devastating the entire Earth in the All Hail Megatron storyline.
From mid-2015 onward, IDW began announcing new Hasbro licenses: Jem and the Holograms in March 2015, Rom and Micronauts in July 2015, Action Man in October 2015, and finally M.A.S.K. in May 2016. According to author John Barber, the idea that all of these characters inhabited a single shared universe began with Rom's Chris Ryall and Christos Gage suggesting that G.I. Joe appear in Rom, with Transformers author John Barber bringing up Andrew Griffith's idea that IDW's G.I. Joe continuity could (with some squinting) be wedged between the major events of IDW's Transformers comics. In turn, this led to all of them suggesting to Cullen Bunn of Micronauts to alter an upcoming arc in the Micronauts series involving the Micronauts visiting Earth, with Andrew Griffith establishing a timeline to make their already established Transformers and G.I. Joe stories fit together.
In June 2016, Revolution was announced, a five-issue crossover that would unite Rom, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, and Action Man with G.I. Joe and Transformers. The summer of 2016 saw the groundwork for Revolution laid in the first issues of Rom and Action Man, which made reference to the events occurring in Monument Valley in concurrent issues of The Transformers. G.I. Joe characters made appearances in the debut storyline of Rom and the Titans Return storyline in The Transformers, while the Revolution prelude issue established that no continuity was being discarded, as the existing IDW Transformers and G.I. Joe stories were handwaved into having happened in the same universe all along. Jem and the Holograms has been stated to have also been retroactively fused into the new universe, but characters from that title were not going to appear in Revolution for "reasons of tone" in comparison to the other titles; references to elements from it have been popping up (such as Ian Noble, the new Action Man, having a Misfits poster in his quarters). Likewise, the 2017 Clue miniseries has tenuous ties at best to the shared universe; while it doesn't explicitly contradict anything, it also doesn't have any hard connections either. IDW's My Little Pony comics exist outside the universe altogether, as do Dungeons & Dragons.
Revolution proceeded to bring the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Action Man, M.A.S.K., and the Micronauts together to foil a plan by the allied evil forces of Miles Mayhem, Baron Karza, and the Dire Wraiths to obtain Earth's Ore-13 for their own nefarious ends. This was followed by Reconstruction, a post-event branding used to identify the shared universe books as their stories continues on out of the events of the crossover. A notable feature of Reconstruction was the debut of the Revolutionaries, which paired up Action Man with three supporting characters from The Transformers and a rotating "guest star" in each issue, featuring gratuitous references to long-forgotten Hasbro properties and spinoffs across a span of eight issues; notably, the series incorporated a version of the Hearts of Steel continuity into the mainstream IDW universe.
Revolutionaries would lead into August 2017's crossover event in the pages of First Strike, which sees Joe Colton and an alliance of villains attacking Cybertron to prevent Earth from joining the Council of Worlds, bringing heroes together once more to foil their plan. This, in turn, set up the debut of the next group of Hasbro characters to join the universe, the Visionaries, which went on to clash with Cybertron in January 2018's Transformers vs. Visionaries miniseries.
Unfortunately, the Hasbro Universe titles never picked up much steam and were subject to cancellation. M.A.S.K. only lasted ten issues and Micronauts eleven, though the latter would spawn a sequel miniseries, Micronauts: Wrath of Karza, in which the Transformers guest starred. An attempt to combine titles to boost sales led to Scarlett's Strike Force, in which Matt Trakker and his fellow M.A.S.K. members joined G.I. Joe, and Rom & the Micronauts, where Rom joined the Micronauts for an adventure in Microspace. The latter ended up being a five-issue miniseries, while Scarlett's Strike Force was cancelled after issue three due to conflict between the author and IDW/Hasbro.
Due to a combination of factors, 2018 saw the decision to end the Hasbro Universe entirely, which included the two Transformers titles. The six-issue Transformers: Unicron capped off the universe with a colossal battle against the eponymous planet-eater; though both Cybertron and Rom's own homeworld of Elonia were annihilated by Unicron, the series ended with these alien immigrants settling into a peaceful new life on Earth. In each issue of the miniseries, short backup strips served as finales for the Hasbro Universe titles. After Unicron's conclusion, the entire Hasbro Universe, and by extension the 2005 IDW continuity as a whole, wrapped up with the publication of Optimus Prime #25 in November 2018.
A new Transformers comic continuity debuted in early 2019, followed by a G.I. Joe reboot in September, but the two franchises wouldn't overlap again under IDW's tenure, as the company lost the license to both properties at the end of 2022. When the two franchises next crossed paths, it would be under IDW's successor Skybound Entertainment, who used the titles to launch a similar shared universe known as the "Energon Universe".
Other Hasbro franchises
Over its two-and-a-half year run, the Hasbro Universe featured many references to other Hasbro franchises and properties, including some decidedly esoteric concepts. In addition to Transformers, Micronauts, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, Rom, and Visionaries, several other Hasbro concepts made cameo appearances. These references include:
- Action Force — Quarrel, the Red Shadows, and Baron Ironblood make appearances in Revolutionaries. Revolutionaries
- Air Raiders — Bludgeon references the planet Airlandia, the home planet of the Air Raiders, as a candidate for galactic conquest. Salvation
- Dungeons & Dragons — Several G.I. Joe members are shown playing the game. Scarlett's Strike Force #3
- Furbies — Hacked up by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Scarlett's Strike Force #2
- Inhumanoids — The Inhumanoids would have starred in G.I. Joe vol. 5, before Hasbro learned that they no longer held the rights to the franchise or the characters.[1] As a result, the comic changed the antagonistic monsters to the Fatal Fluffies, although they remain gigantic subterranean monsters with supernatural powers. Years later, Rom: Dire Wraiths would introduce the heroic human cast of Inhumanoids into the universe, with several of them sporting new names thanks (presumably) to the aforementioned rights issues.
- International Movie Maker — J.J. Hackensack was first referenced in this board game, and several of Bulletman's films and co-stars also reference it. Bulletman profile
- Mastermind — A popular television game show in the Hasbro Universe. Centurion is fond of it. When Eagles Scream
- Pound Puppies — In his youth, Mike Power owned a dog named "Smarts," physically based on the character "Lucky" from the 2010 cartoon adaptation. Backmatter in Revolutionaries #8 would take the reference further, establishing that Smarts was, in fact, the ancestor of Lucky, and thus suggesting that the television show takes place in the Hasbro Universe. Power and Glory
See also
References
- ↑ Aubery Sitterson's Patreon
External links
- IDW Hasbro Wiki
- Hasbro Universe on Wikipedia
