M.A.S.K. Energon Universe 2026 Special story
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| Publisher | Image Comics Skybound Entertainment | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 2, 2026 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Dan Watters | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Pye Parr | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Pye Parr | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Rus Wooton | ||||||||||||
| Editors | Ben Abernathy | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Energon Universe | ||||||||||||
Miles Mayhem has begun recruiting agents to his network. Matt Trakker decides it’s time he does the same.
Synopsis
Miles Mayhem sits in a café reading about the recent bombings in Rio Lindo, Sierra Gordo that took out both local warlord General Villavaca AND the revolutionaries who were opposing them. Mayhem asks the woman sitting at the next table what she thinks about the news. Thinking he’s trying to hit on her, the woman rebuffs him, but Mayhem soon reveals that he knows the woman – Vanessa Warfield – was responsible for the bombings. He reveals his own identity and presents her with an offer and a special helmet.
Three days later, security footage of this meeting is being watched by Matt Trakker while driving his Thunderhawk. Matt calls his friend Alex "Megabyte" Sector for help confirming if Mayhem and Warfield were behind the recent break-in of a prison in Siberia. Sector shares footage with Matt of the Bladejet attacking the prison, confirming that Mayhem was indeed responsible. Sector wonders why, as there were no records of anyone significant being held there, but Matt theorizes that this prison was where Sly "the Wrecker" Rax was being held after he assassinated a British ambassador on Russian soil.
Matt speculates that Mayhem is trying to put together his own version of Shadow Watch in a bid to "protect" the world by taking it over himself. As such, Matt decides to officially bring the M.A.S.K. Network online, activating a device on his wrist that sends out a signal to similar devices all around the world.
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in photographs.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| M.A.S.K. | V.E.N.O.M. | Others |
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Quotes
"The world is becoming unrecognizable, Ms. Warfield. This is how humanity evolves."
- —Miles Mayhem
"I thought the internet called you "Megabyte" for a reason. You’re telling me you can’t do it?"
"They call me Megabyte because I am very old and my back hurts. And then I track their I.P.s so I can show up at their homes and beat them with my old man cane."
- —Matt Trakker and Alex Sector
Notes
Continuity notes
- Extensive Enterprises, the company run by Tomax and Xamot of Cobra, is mentioned as having previously backed the Sierra Gordo government, which we saw in Destro #1 (also written by Dan Watters). This likely makes the General that Tomax spoke with in that issue Villavaca.
- The newspaper Mayhem is reading has a headline that reads "Robots? Disguised?" in clear reference to the Transformers series. Of course, given their recent very-public battle and clean up in Chicago at the end of the Daniel Warren Johnson run, "disguise" doesn’t seem to be a major priority for the Transformers.
- One of the Siberian guards name-checks Darklonia, the country ruled by Destro’s cousin previously seen in Destro and G.I. Joe #12.
- Mayhem's Viper mask is looking very different from the last time we saw it in Transformers #28. This is likely just an instance of artistic license by Dan Mora, or possibly Pye Parr not having finished designs done by the time that issue had to be drawn. Either way, whether the change will be acknowledged in-story remains to be seen.
- Matt mentions Shadow Watch, the government program he and Mayhem both worked for, first officially introduced in Transformers #25.
- The ending of this story leads directly into M.A.S.K. #1.
M.A.S.K. references
- Alex Sector being British comes from the original M.A.S.K. cartoon.
- References are made to Alex Sector being known as "Megabyte" and Sly Rax being known as "the Wrecker". These are both characters' codenames from the original series.
G.I. Joe references
- General Villavaca is the name of a character from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #69. He is a General for the government of Sierra Gordo, the recurring fictional Latin American country that Rio Lindo is the capital of.
Real life references
- Sector references the social media platform Discord.
