Joshua Williamson Talks Forming The New G.I. Joe Roster in the Energon Universe

The Energon Universe is about to debut a new G.I. Joe book from Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, and Jordie Bellaire. The book will combine the different stories in the Skybound storytelling initiative for an exciting new tale. We spoke to Williamson about what readers can expect from the series!

Duke has been put through the wringer in his series; where does this book find him, and does he feel vindicated after the government and (some) allies turned their back on him for his reports about the Transformers?

A little bit, but I still feel like he's still worried. I mean, we don't talk about it as much as you want. But I think as we go on, we'll get into it. It's like this: one of these things, The Transformer, Starscream, still killed his friend. He doesn't know the difference between an Autobot and a Decepticon. They're just giant robots to him.

So, I think he does feel a little vindicated. People believe him now. But it doesn't take care of the problem, like” "Oh, you believe me, there are giant robots that are killing people. That's terrific. But I still have giant robots that are killing people”. And this is still intense. He thinks nobody else needs to die on his watch—there's still definitely intensity to it. He's still angry. He's definitely still angry.

Cobra is on the rise with the alliance between Destro and Cobra Commander; their tension is already high. Can that last? Or is it a last-man-standing type of agreement?

Rewinding a little bit with Cobra Commander. I love Cobra Commander! I really had fun writing the miniseries. I feel like that also was where I started to figure out some stuff with the property in general, like what I wanted to do and how I thought it'd be different.

So, with Cobra Commander, we had been having these meetings in Zoom talking about the books. There was one where it was just me, Sean [Mackiewicz], Robert [Kirkman], and Daniel [Warren Johnson], and we were talking about the connective tissue. And Cobra Commander kept coming up. And we were all like, “Okay, well, we're gonna show this here, we're gonna show that there.” And it was like, “Okay, well, we knew that Megatron was going to be in Cobra-La.” And we knew that Cobra Commander was going to be experimenting on him. And that was what would ultimately get him to leave.

And we were like, “Where are we going to show that?” It's two pages here. And I was like, “That sucks.” We're supposed to build Cobra up and reintroduce him. And we're talking about these weird little short scenes. And I was like, “What if we did a Cobra Commander book? What if we did two? I really love the way that Jonathan Hickman does his books where, if you ever notice, Hickman always writes two books. And they usually connect with each other in some way or another. And so I was like, I always find it fascinating because he was doing it before HOX/POX.

And I was like, this actually ties into something I was obsessed with for a long time. I was always like, “Why do people follow Cobra Commander?” They clearly hate him. He’s a master manipulator, but he has something they want: the Energon. He has this technology with the Energon. And I was like, “Okay, let's show that.”

Let's show him and Destro. Why would Destro ever work with this lunatic? Well, Destro is a businessman. So he's looking at it as, “When do I just buy this guy out and kick him into the curb?” One of the hardest things to write is manipulators. People who can manipulate what is believable can be challenging. So for Cobra Commander, I was like, I have to have a whole issue where all he's doing is manipulating people to show this. Yeah, there's this issue with the whole premise, the whole issue of Cobra Commander sitting in a chair. And it's still one of my favorite issues you've done is the issue where he's being tortured.

And then the paint. I wanted to show the Cobra Commander that he was happy and got what he wanted. But I can't do that because he wears a mask. And then I was like, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, what if they painted a bloody face on him earlier in the issue?” And that's the payoff, which is that you realize he is smiling because the red paint is both his own blood. And so this whole thing, like many things, came together with that issue.

What can you say about the Baroness’ role in the book working alongside the Joes?

I think that when we always get introduced to her, she's always just a villain. And I find that she really is an opportunist. We’re making her a G.I. Joe. She’s a fascinating character, and I wanted to drop her into a different situation. One of my favorite things to do with any character is to take them and put them in a new situation.

Having her be in the G.I. Joes allows us to show her in different lights It is still the Baroness that we know and love before. But you get to see her in this new situation and see how she reacts to it. But again, she's an opportunist. So we'll see how far that lasts and how long we get there with it. She's fascinating to write because she has such an antagonistic relationship with Duke.

You said this book introduces new characters; what can you say about them, and what role will they play in this book?

We created a couple of new characters. I don't think I'm going to introduce a lot of new characters because I don't want it to become a new-character show. Thankfully, there are already so many great G.I. Joe characters I want to play with.

But, we do have a new character named Risk that we're introducing in issue one.

How exciting is collaborating with Tom Reilly and Jodie Bellaire again on this book?

Tom and I were working on a creator-owned book maybe five years ago. Since then, we’ve tried to work together again. He was too busy with Marvel stuff. Then we were at New York Comic-Con two years ago, and it was just like walking around the convention, wondering what we wanted to do next. And when it came up, it was like perfect timing. And so we were able to do this together, and it's been awesome. I mean, he really gets it. He's knocking it out of the park. Like every page is so cool.

When Jordie came in, Tommy wanted to work with them. I love them. She came in and just elevated everything we were doing. She really uses color as part of the story. There are little visual cues that she does in Duke and G.I. Joe, where it's like, if there's red in a scene, that means danger is coming.

Will we see Snake Eyes in this book?

Who is Snake Eyes? [Laughs]. I mean, listen, we have plans for everything. That is really the most I can say. We have plans for everything.

G.I. Joe #1 arrives in comic book stores on November 13, 2024.

This interview has been edited for clarity.