Hasbro Universe
The Hasbro Universe is the name for the shared universe in which IDW Publishing's assorted comic books featuring licensed properties from Hasbro all reside. To date, these properties include IDW's Generation 1 Transformers continuity, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Rom, Jem and the Holograms, Action Man, M.A.S.K. and Clue.
Crossovers between the Transformers and the other properties they share this universe with are chronicled here on TFWiki, but we also maintain a sister site, the IDW Hasbro Wiki, that offers full coverage of every issue and character from the Hasbro Universe.
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. The next month, Revolution was announced, a five-issue crossover that would unite the latter four properties with Transformers and G.I. Joe to establish a shared fictional world in which all the characters would co-exist. The summer of 2016 then saw this shared universe established via 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).
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 featured a four-member main cast sourced from different Hasbro Universe series and a rotating guest cast in each issue.
The Hasbro Universe is due for its next crossover event in August 2017, with the First Strike miniseries uniting the heroes of the Hasbro Universe for another crisis caused by their opponents.
Hasbro Universe issues with Transformers content
If a comic book features the Transformers in a significant capacity, it will typically receive its own article here on TFWiki. However, the nature of a shared universe is such that the Transformers can, will, and already have made small cameos in other titles that are otherwise not about them. This section of the article serves as a quick list of all such appearances, with links to all relevant articles either here or on the IDW Hasbro Wiki.
Action Man
G.I. Joe
Due to the fact that Skywarp is now a member of G.I. Joe, individual issues of this series will receive full articles on TFWiki.
Micronauts
- Venturing into the entropy cloud that is consuming their home reality of Microspace, the Micronauts discover that the seemingly-dead body of Micronus Prime dwells at the heart of the cloud, and that it has fallen under the control of their enemy, Baron Karza.
Due to the presence of Transformers characters, at least some of the issues in this series will receive full articles on TFWiki.
Rom
- Following the events of Revolution, Optimus Prime allows Rom to leave in peace, trusting him to deal with the Dire Wraith situation on Earth while Prime's forces handle with their own challenges, but prepared to become involved if necessary.
M.A.S.K.
- Kup appears in the brief flashback.
- Following his destruction above Jupiter, the dismembered pieces of Astrotrain become infected with an alien bio-tech virus and fall to Earth. The allied forces of M.A.S.K. and G.I. Joe emerge victorious in a race against V.E.N.O.M. to obtain the Decepticon's remains.
