Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Image | Tagged: Daniel Warren Johnson, Energon Universe, gi joe, hasbro, skybound, transformers

Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers #1 Opens With Over 153,000 Orders

The buzz around Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer’s Transformers #1 from Image Comics/Hasbro/Skybound has been growing.

The buzz around Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer's Transformers #1 from Image Comics/Hasbro/Skybound has been growing, so much so that the former's art rep compared the launch to Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's The Dark Knight Returns (though looking at this 5-page preview, I think Tom King and Daniel Sampere's Wonder Woman might have that comparison in the bag).

But even as that debate remains inconclusive to some, we told you just yesterday that the early buzz on Transformers #1 orders might just, pardon the pun, transform The Big Two (Marvel, DC) shared universe into The Big Three (with the Energon Universe putting forth the sales that would lead to quite the cheers for similar books at the aforementioned companies).

That explains why I've now heard from my sources that Transformers #1 has launched with orders in excess of 153,000 units – that is not only a record for any Hasbro licensed comic launch this century but also the top-selling debut for Skybound (outside of The Walking Dead #1, including all the subsequent printings).

Skybound's record-breaking Transformers #1 debut number happened with the ever-popular retailer variants at less than 20% of the total print run for Transformers #1 and no ratio variant above 1:100, despite many other big launches in reaching years relying on variant ratios as high as 1:1000.

Even more impressive, I have a feeling that Dan Buckley at Marvel and Pam Lifford at DC might be wondering how Transformers – a license that hasn't sold six figures in nearly two decades – has suddenly sold at levels they'd applaud for reviving their top properties and places the Energon Universe solidly next to DC's The New 52 launches, with the latter launching in a much stronger economy.

Now the immediate question, as we approach October, is simple: Did retailers order enough copies of Transformers #1? Excitement seems at an all-time high for Transformers in comic book form, surpassing even the buzz over twenty years ago when Dreamwave launched Transformers: Generation One and made Pat Lee a comic book rock star (with all the bad behaviour that would come with it).

Perhaps even more importantly, one must ask how the heat from Transformers #1 will transfer to more titles from the very Energon Universe that Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici stealth-launched in June's Void Rivals #1 (which also had a six-figure debut). Every issue of that series has gone back to print multiple times and new printings of the first three issues arrive in stores alongside Transformers, exposing it to the largest comic audience for a debut in 2023.

Then in December, we see the launch of Duke #1 from Joshua Williamson and Tom Reilly, which begins the MCU-like path to bringing together the organizations we know as G.I. Joe and Cobra in a shared universe with the Transformers and Void Rivals. With mega-popular Decepticon Starscream on the cover to Duke #1, it's clear that this series is not only a fresh jumping-on point for G.I. Joe fans, but it will have a lot to offer for Transformers fans too.

Transformers #1 is on sale Wednesday, the 4th of October at comic shops everywhere. Now if someone could only tell me what the spoiler is on that 1:100 foil variant cover…

TRANSFORMERS #1 CVR A JOHNSON
IMAGE COMICS
AUG230407
(W) Daniel Warren Johnson (A/CA) Mike Spicer, Daniel Warren Johnson
SERIES PREMIERE THE ALL NEW TRANSFORMERS ERA STARTS HERE! Superstar creator DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON (DO A POWERBOMB, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth), alongside ENERGON UNIVERSE showrunner ROBERT KIRKMAN (VOID RIVALS, INVINCIBLE), reimagines Hasbro's robots in disguise for a brand-new generation. Optimus Prime was supposed to have led the Autobots to victory. Instead, the fate of Cybertron is unknown, and his allies have crash-landed far from home, alongside their enemies-the Decepticons. As these titanic forces renew their war on Earth, one thing is immediately clear: the planet will never be the same. New alliances are struck. Battle lines are redrawn. And humanity's only hope of survival is Optimus Prime. Discover THE TRANSFORMERS like you've never seen them before!In Shops: Oct 04, 2023 SRP: $4.99

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