Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Image | Tagged: all we destroy, gi joe, skybound

Destro #1 Breaks Record, Will Image Publish New GI Joe #1 This Year?

As Destro #1 breaks another GI Joe comics record with 85,000 orders, it looks like Image Comics/Skybound will publish a new GI Joe #1

Published Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:03:08 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Destro #1 sets a new GI Joe sales record with 85,000 units ordered.
Image/Skybound's Energon Universe surpasses two million units sold.
Transformers title approaches 300,000 sales, outselling major comics.
Potential for a new GI Joe #1 to compete with major X-Men and DC launches.

Just weeks ago, we told you that Eisner Award darling Kelly Thompson and artist Marco Ferrari had set a new G.I. Joe comic book sales record, and now we're here – as I predicted, I might add – with the news that Dan Watters and Andrei Bressan's Destro #1 from Image/Skybound has topped it.

I'm hearing that Destro #1 saw orders around 85,000 units, which has now become the new best-selling G.I. Joe comic launch in 20 years and the best solo character launch in franchise history. That has kept alive the streak that Joshua Williamson started in December with Duke #1 (alongside Tom Reilly) and then topped with January's Cobra Commander #1 (drawn by Andrea Milana) and then by the aforementioned Scarlett #1 (on sale this week). One wonders what numbers Image Comics will get when they eventually launch a new G.I. Joe #1.

That also very clearly pushes Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe past two million units sold in about a year, a landmark number for a new imprint with such a small number of books – and one that all of the comic book shared universes would consider quite the success.

However, the G.I. Joe side of the Energon Universe is not the only area heating up – Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Coronoa's Transformers now sells nearly 80,000 units per month, with the Eisner-nominated series' debut issue on track to hit 300,000 units by the time it celebrates a one year anniversary in October.

Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici's Void Rivals, the series that began the Energon Universe in June 2023, is also now seeing sales rising with the debut of the popular Autobot character Springer. The series' debut issue is on the cusp of a tenth printing and well on the way to passing 200,000 copies sold.

I don't think it would be a stretch to guess that Skybound has a new G.I. Joe #1 planned for the near future, given both Destro and Scarlett wrapping up in October – but could that series launch outperform Marvel's highly touted new X-Men: From The Ashes launches or DC's big Mark Waid and Dan Mora Absolute Power event? Given we live in a world where Transformers can outsell Amazing Spider-Man and Batman now, it doesn't seem like a big stretch.

Destro #1 is on-sale in comic shops on Wednesday, the 19th of June.

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