G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity

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"Ve haff vays of makink you talk mit funny accents."

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers is four miniseries published by Devil's Due Press, who held the G.I. Joe comic-book license until 2007.

This universe is set apart from its contemporary G.I. Joe and Transformers comics by its overriding sense of fun. Because neither group of fans takes this crossover universe very seriously, it revels in its ability to do whatever it wants, kill important characters, or change the world. For example, the fourth series seems to be a gleeful exercise in throwing as many ideas that fans love to hate as possible into one story (principally Cobra-La and the Pretenders) and telling a pulp adventure with them.

Production

Devil's Dues' G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers was originally the counterpart to Dreamwave Productions' Transformers/G.I. Joe. The series were published offset, so that the Dreamwave series began as the Devil's Due series ended, with little overlap in-between.

Devil's Due changed the second series from six issues into four (with double-sized first and last issues) in order to get the last issue published before Dreamwave lost the Transformers license (and to avoid the legal headache around their right to publish the end of the series.)

Initially, each series was not planned ahead of time, leading to a somewhat disjointed overall story arc (technology given to humans after the first story is being decommissioned at the beginning of the second). Many different story ideas were considered for the second and third series, but subsequent series have followed 'seeds' (obvious hooks) of stories planted earlier.

Overview

In 2003, the newly founded Cobra unearthed the Ark, containing 39 Transformers, which it sought to reprogram to use as weapons, triggering a series of increasingly bizarre encounters between Earth and Cybertron.

Series

1. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers (2003–2004)
2. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II (2004)
3. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: The Art of War (2006)
4. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Black Horizon (2007)

• All four series have also been collected in a G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers Omnibus, published in January 2008.

Notes

• Although a completely new continuity, the series turns to the original The Transformers cartoon for many story elements.
  • Soundwave's cassettes have a symbiotic relationship with him.
  • Frenzy is red, Rumble is blue.
  • Rumble's arms convert to pile-drivers.
  • Soundwave produces Energon cube shells from his chest.
  • Shockwave remained on Cybertron to rule while the others were deactivated aboard the Ark.
  • A multitude of non-shrinking Insecticons.
  • A-3 became the hero Alpha Trion.
  • Commonplace robot mode flight.
  • Quintesson-made Transformer origin story.
  • A cartoon-style Matrix of Leadership.
• A notable exception are Reflector components, who look like the toys in the first and third series (but cartoon-style in the second).
• The Art of War #1 makes a brief reference to Optimus Primal, indicating a version of the Beast Wars series fits somewhere in the backstory.
• Ironically, in this reboot, G.I. Joe is founded in 2003 instead of 1982, making most of the team children of the 1980s.

We suffer from a depressing series of rejections!

• Don Figueroa came up with his own Transformers/G.I. Joe story pitch back when the original Dreamwave G.I. Joe crossover was in production. Dreamwave did not approve this pitch, instead going with Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front. After Dreamwave's bankruptcy — when Don was under contract with Devil's Due — he tried pitching his story again, including designs for Optimus Prime as the Rolling Thunder and Megatron as Destro's Dominator; Devil's Due instead opted to continue their own crossover universe. Don was subsequently assigned to pencil the third Devil's Due G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover, at the time a Cobra-La-centric story; however, Hasbro then told them that Cobra-La could not be used. Don tried submitting his pitch again to fill the apparent story-void, but it was once more rejected... and then on top of that, Devil's Due was told that they could not publish another Transformers crossover until 2006.
• In 2016, Fun Publications utilized the General Hawk from this continuity in a TransTech dimensional crossover story that expanded upon the vision of the future seen in The Art of War #5.