Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe Sold Over A Million Copies So Far

Article Summary

• Energon Universe comics surpass one million sales in under a year.
• Records set by Transformers, G.I. Joe, and new Void Rivals series.
• Kelly Thompson's Scarlett and Dan Watters' Destro poised for success.
• Retailers see steady Energon series demand, with scarce collectible variants.

That's been driven by Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici's Void Rivals, Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers, and Joshua Williamson's G.I. Joe related launches in Duke (with Tom Reilly) and Cobra Commander (with Andrea Milana) that not only launched at record-setting levels, but have consistently seen sales growing with each issue, in recent months over and over). It doesn't hurt that retailers are continually selling out of those series, with every issue of Void Rivals, Transformers, Cobra Commander, and Duke all going back to print multiple times – even with Image & Skybound rushing back new printings on a constant basis (with no allocations). In fact, Void Rivals #1 is on a 7th printing and seems on track for a record-setting 10th printing, something we have rarely seen in the modern comics industry. But will even that be enough to meet the demand of the new readers that comic shops are seeing every week?

Now with the announcement of two new Energon Universe series, including Kelly Thompson & Marco Ferrari's Scarlett and Dan Watters & Andrei Bressan's Destro, the Energon Universe seems on track to break through the near impossible two million units mark by the end of 2024. Along the way to making more comics history, will Scarlett and Destro become the newest Image & Skybound releases to outsell Amazing Spider-Man and Batman? I'm told that much of the discussion from retailers at the recent ComicsPro Annual event centred around the success of the Energon Universe and challenging both Marvel and DC to bring similar results with their global franchises. That includes bringing back the collectors we saw fuelling industry growth just years ago, who have clearly stayed around for the Energon Universe high ratio variants, such as David Mack's 1:250 Cobra Commander #1 seeing no drop in value at $350 months later or a 1:100 Jonboy Meyers Duke #1 variant selling for nearly $250. Even the Transformers #1 second printing by Jason Howard is seeing graded sales at over $150, numbers that haven't been seen in years on modern reprints outside of Miles Morales' first appearance.

In the meantime, you can find copies of Energon Universe series at your local comic shops – that is if they haven't sold out again by the time you're reading this.