Hasbro Universe
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. 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., Clue, and Visionaries.
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). 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. In addition to incorporating characters and concepts from the aforementioned series, Revolutionaries would also find a way to work in 2006's Hearts of Steel miniseries while hinting that the 2010 Pound Puppies cartoon was also set in the 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 December 2017'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 later would spawn a miniseries sequel Micronauts: Wrath of Karza. An attempt to combine titles to boost sales led to Scarlett's Strike Force (once solicited as G.I. Joe: Unmasked), in which the Joes join up with M.A.S.K. members. Also after issue 14, Rom would join the Micronauts in Rom & the Micronauts. The latter ended up being a 5-issue miniseries, while Scarlett's Strike Force was cancelled after issue three due to conflict between the author and IDW/Hasbro. Finally a decision was reached to end the entire Hasbro Universe, including the Transformers titles. The 6-issue Transformers: Unicron has the colossal world-ender destroying the colonies of Cybertron, including Rom's homeworld. As of this writing the fate of Earth is speculative. In each issue of the miniseries, short backup strips serve as finales for the Hasbro Universe titles. Both ongoing Transformers titles will end with issue 25.
Plans for a reboot of Transformers is due in early 2019 and at this time, the fate of the Hasbro Universe is unknown.
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, some of the issues in this series receive full articles on TFWiki. Specifically:
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.
External links
- IDW Hasbro Wiki
- Hasbro Universe on Wikipedia
