Revolution

This article is about the IDW Generation 1 crossover event. For the Titan movie story arc of the same name, see Transformers Comic issue 23.

This is the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny.

Revolution is a multi-property crossover event by IDW Publishing that includes many of Hasbro's properties, aiming to amalgamate the separate IDW continuities into a new shared universe. Running from September to November 2016, it consists of a main five-issue mini-series and eight one-shot tie-ins—one for each of the series crossing over in the story. The five-issue mini-series was written by John Barber and Cullen Bunn (writer of IDW's Micronauts), with art by Fico Ossio. The tie-ins were handled by each book's respective creative teams.

January 2017 saw the launch of Revolutionaries, a team-book featuring various Transformers and Revolution characters, including Kup, Garrison Blackrock, and Ayana Jones.

Revolution was followed by the Reconstruction post-event branding, designed as a jumping-on point for new readers. Later on, Revolution received a sequel of sorts, First Strike.

«	Revolution issues:	»
"Road to Revolution" - Till All Are One #1 #2 #3 #4 "Road to Revolution" - Titans Return Titans Return #1 The Transformers #56 #57 More than Meets the Eye #56 #57 Revolution #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Revolution one-shots ROM M.A.S.K. Micronauts The Transformers Action Man Till All Are One G.I. Joe More than Meets the Eye

IDW Publishing's comic book events
Inter-company crossovers	Infestation Infestation 2 Mars Attacks The X‑Files: Conspiracy Deviations
Transformers events	"Dark Cybertron" "Combiner Wars" "Titans Return"
Hasbro Universe events	Revolution First Strike Unicron

Conception

According to John Barber's foreword in the Revolution trade paperback, the shared universe concept came not from Hasbro, but from himself, Chris Ryall, and David Hedgecock. The three of them came up with the idea and then contacted Michael Kelly to get Hasbro on board. Barber talked with Cullen Bunn, who was already planning on sending the Micronauts to Earth, and suggested that it be the same Earth as the Transformers. From there they wove in the rest of Hasbro's properties, with Andrew Griffith establishing a timeline to make their already established Transformers and G.I. Joe stories fit together.

Build-up

IDW's slate of new Hasbro licenses was announced from mid-2015 onwards: ROM and Micronauts in July 2015, Action Man in October 2015, and finally M.A.S.K. in May 2016. The next month, Revolution was announced, a five-issue crossover that would unite those four properties with Transformers and G.I. Joe – not as a one-time-only deal, but to establish a shared fictional world in which all those characters would co-exist. Much was made of the fact that no continuity was being discarded – the existing IDW Transformers and G.I. Joe stories were handwaved into having happened in the same universe all along, all their stories and characters intact; the Jem and the Holograms comic which began publishing in 2015 has been stated to have also been placed into the new shared universe, but did not appear in Revolution for "reasons of tone" compared to the other titles.

Whilst Micronauts was the first new book to debut, explicit build-up for Revolution's shared world began with the initial issues ROM and Action Man. Both books made reference to the events happening at Monument Valley in the pages of The Transformers, whilst ROM also incorporated a number of G.I. Joe characters into its debut storyline. Around this time, IDW also released a prelude issue of Revolution through various avenues, which recapped the essentials of the previous Transformers and G.I. Joe stories, and set the stage for the main crossover event.

On the Transformers side of things, both the debut arc of Till All Are One and the Titans Return crossover were billed on their covers as being lead-ins to Revolution, although only the latter featured any significant tie-ins to the event.

Overview

Several months have passed since Optimus Prime's controversial annexation of Earth into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds. On Earth, the political situation remains volatile as humanity struggles to come to terms with the actions of the Transformers, viewing them with distrust. The tensions heighten after Earth's deposits of Ore-13 start to rapidly destabilize, threatening Earth with nuclear annihilation.

Believing the Transformers to be at fault, the President of the United States makes the decision to reactivate America's highly trained special mission force G.I. Joe to counter the mechanical invaders. Unbeknownst to the government, G.I. Joe's ranks have been infiltrated by an entirely different race of alien shapeshifters: the evil wizards known as Dire Wraiths – also drawn to Earth's supplies of Ore-13 – in a conspiracy that spreads all the way up to Joe Colton himself. The Wraith masquerading as Colton contacts his old Adventure Team friend Miles Manheim, hoping to reverse-engineer captured Cybertronian assets into a mechanical strike force in order to fight back. Manheim, however, has cut a deal with the extradimensional conqueror Baron Karza - in exchange for Earth's deposits of Ore-13 to save Karza's dimension from a destructive entropy storm, Manheim will receive dominion over Earth.

When the Autobot base Metrotitan abruptly goes silent, Optimus Prime calls Windblade to Earth in the hopes of using her cityspeaking skills to diagnose the problem. Before long, however, Prime and his allies are dispatched to Portland when Joe Colton takes the fight to Transformers. The battle is interrupted by Rom the Space Knight, who annihilates the Wraiths within the ranks of the Joes and forces the Autobots to pursue the alien. Meanwhile, Kup and Aileron discover the true problem with Ore-13, but are ambushed by M.A.S.K., with Miles Mayhem taking Kup prisoner.

Optimus and Rom reach an understanding and the Space Knight accompanies them back to Metrotitan, just as Windblade returns from a mental voyage into Microspace, where she encountered its progenitor Micronus Prime. Her desire to save this dying dimension runs up against Optimus Prime's orders to protect Earth first, but Rom's recklessness prompts Prime to realize that both Earth and Microspace must be saved; meanwhile, in Microspace, the adventurous Micronauts head into the fray as part of a deal with the devil.

Meanwhile, the restless Decepticon Thundercracker finds himself protecting the President and her entourage from a team of Dire Wraiths. The extraterrestrial activity on Earth prompts the attention of the UK-based Action Man Programme, prompting them to deploy their top agent Action Man to retrieve Kup from beneath Governor's Island. Ian and Kup form a friendship as they return to Monument Valley, now under siege by the combined forces of MASK and the Dire Wraiths. As the battle intensifies, Baron Karza finally reveals himself as the perpetrator behind it all, fusing with Wraith magic and M.A.S.K. technology to transform himself into a colossal monster. The arrival of G.I. Joe turns the advantage towards the Autobots and their allies; with the help of the Micronauts and repentant M.A.S.K. pilot Matt Trakker, they succeed in forcing Karza back into his dimension, ending the threat to Earth.

A side story focuses on the adventures of the Scavengers as they head to Earth so that Crankcase can go on a date with someone he met online.

Recommended reading order

• Revolution #0-1
• ROM: Revolution
• M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand: Revolution
• Revolution #2
• Micronauts: Revolution
• The Transformers: Till All Are One: Revolution
• Revolution #3
• G.I. Joe: Revolution
• The Transformers: Revolution
• Action Man: Revolution
• Revolution #4-5
• The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye: Revolution

Collections

• Revolution (February 8, 2017) ISBN 163140816X / ISBN 978-1631408168
  • Collects Revolution issues #0–5.
  • Bonus material includes a foreword by John Barber and a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Revolution: Heroes (March 8, 2017) ISBN 1631408410 / ISBN 978-1631408410
  • Collects ROM: Revolution #1, M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand – Revolution #1, G.I. Joe: Revolution #1, and Action Man: Revolution #1.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Revolution: Transformers (March 8, 2017) ISBN 1631408429 / ISBN 978-1631408427
  • Collects Till All Are One: Revolution #1, The Transformers (2012): Revolution #1, More than Meets the Eye: Revolution #1, and The Transformers Holiday Special.
  • Trade paperback format.

• Revolution (March 29, 2017) ISBN 978-1631409370
  • Collects Revolution issues #0–5 and all the tie-in one-shots.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Hardcover format, exclusively sold through the comic book direct market.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 81: Revolution (February 19, 2020)
  • Collects Revolution issues #0–5, Till All Are One: Revolution #1, The Transformers (2012): Revolution #1, and More than Meets the Eye: Revolution #1.
  • Bonus material includes an intro from Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 1 (November 17, 2021) ISBN 1684058422 / ISBN 978-1684058426
  • Collects Revolution issues #0–5, Till All Are One: Revolution #1 & issues #5–8, The Transformers (2012): Revolution #1, Action Man: Revolution #1, More than Meets the Eye: Revolution #1, and Revolutionaries issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• 
  Revolution – cover art by Tradd Moore and Felipe Sobreiro
• 
  Revolution: Heroes – cover art by Brandon Peterson
• 
  Revolution: Transformers – cover art by Marcelo Matere
• 
  Revolution – cover art by James Biggie
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 81: Revolution – cover art by Dreamwave Productions (Blitzwing) and Fico Ossio (retro)
• 
  The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 1 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

Toys

What, no Mayday?

In a surprising move, as a tie into the crossover almost a year after it happened, Hasbro released a Revolution-branded boxset as an exclusive at San Diego Comic-Con 2017. In addition to a re-release of Legends Jetfire, the Revolution set includes G.I. Joe-scaled toys of Roadblock, Rom the Space Knight, a Dire Wraith, Action Man, Matt Trakker, and — in a surprising, possibly foreshadowing move — Leoric of the Visionaries. On top of that, the set also includes a set of nine non-articulated Micronauts minifigures; Baron Karza, Acroyear, Quin-Tillus, Phenolo-Phi, Oberon, Biotron, Gammatron, Betatron, and Xant.

In a cute touch, Roadblock has a figure stand emblazoned with the G.I. Joe logo, while the other characters all have generic stands. The box's summary for the conflict it depicts is taken directly from the blurb of the Revolution TPB... which means that Leoric and the Visionaries don't get mentioned at all.