''Revolution'' is a 2016

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

storyline published by

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

, that ran from September to November 2016. The story involves characters from various

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

franchises.

Plot

Main story

Several months after Optimus Prime's controversial annexation of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

into the Cybertronian Council of Worlds, the political situation remains volatile as humanity struggles to come to terms with the actions of the Transformers, viewing them with distrust. The tensions heighten after Earth's deposits of Ore-13 start to rapidly destabilize, threatening the planet with nuclear annihilation. Believing the

Autobot The Autobots are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. The Autobots are living robots from the planet Cybertron who, like most Transformers, are each imbued with a unique "life force" known as a " ...

s to be responsible, the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

makes the decision to reactivate America's highly trained special mission force

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...

to counterattack. Unbeknownst to the government, G.I. Joe's ranks have been infiltrated by an entirely different race of alien shapeshifters: the evil wizards known as

Dire Wraith The Dire Wraiths are a fictional extraterrestrial species appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing. The Dire Wraiths are the main opponents of Rom the Space Knight. Publication history The Dire Wraiths firs ...

s – also drawn to Earth's supplies of Ore-13 – in a conspiracy that spreads all the way up to Joe Colton himself. The Wraith masquerading as Colton contacts his old Adventure Team friend Miles Manheim, hoping to reverse-engineer captured Cybertronian assets into a mechanical strike force in order to fight back. Manheim, however, has cut a deal with the extradimensional conqueror known as Baron Karza - in exchange for Earth's deposits of Ore-13 to save Karza's dimension from a destructive entropy storm, Manheim will receive dominion over Earth. When the Autobot base Metrotitan abruptly goes silent, Optimus Prime calls Windblade to Earth in the hopes of using her cityspeaking skills to diagnose the problem. Before long, however, Prime and his allies are dispatched to Portland when Joe Colton takes the fight to Transformers. The battle is interrupted by

Rom the Space Knight Rom the Spaceknight is a superhero who was originally conceived as a toy and then a magazine lead. Rom was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers and is now a Hasbro asset. After the toy was licensed ...

, who annihilates the Wraiths within the ranks of the Joes and forces the Autobots to pursue the alien. Meanwhile, Kup and

Aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

discover the true problem with Ore-13, but are ambushed by M.A.S.K., with Miles Mayhem taking Kup prisoner. Optimus and Rom reach an understanding and the Space Knight accompanies them back to Metrotitan, just as Windblade returns from a mental voyage into Microspace, where she encountered its progenitor Micronus Prime. Her desire to save this dying dimension runs up against Optimus Prime's orders to protect Earth first, but Rom's recklessness prompts Prime to realize that both Earth and Microspace must be saved; meanwhile, in Microspace, the adventurous

Micronauts Micronauts is a North American science fiction toyline manufactured and marketed by Mego from 1976 to 1980. The ''Micronauts'' toyline was based on and licensed from the '' Microman'' toyline created by Japanese-based toy company Takara in 1974 ...

head into the fray as part of a deal with Baron Karza. Meanwhile, the restless

Decepticon The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. Serving as the main antagonists in the franchise, their goals include conquering their fictional homeworld planet Cybertron, defeating ...

Thundercracker finds himself protecting the President and her entourage from a team of Dire Wraiths. The extraterrestrial activity on Earth prompts the attention of the UK-based Action Man Programme, prompting them to deploy their top agent, Ian Noble, to retrieve Kup from beneath Governor's Island. Ian and Kup form a friendship as they return to

Monument Valley Monument Valley (, , meaning "valley of the rocks") is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching above the valley floor. The most famous butte formations are located in northeas ...

, now under siege by the combined forces of M.A.S.K. and the Dire Wraiths. As the battle intensifies, Baron Karza finally reveals himself as the perpetrator behind it all. Being enhanced by the Ore-13, Karza fuses with Wraith magic and M.A.S.K. technology to transform himself into a colossal monster. The arrival of G.I. Joe turns the advantage towards the Autobots and their allies; with the help of the Micronauts and repentant M.A.S.K. pilot Matt Trakker, they succeed in forcing Karza back into his dimension, ending the threat to Earth.

Subplot

A side story focuses on the adventures of the

Scavengers Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding ...

as they head to Earth so that

Crankcase A crankcase is the housing in a reciprocating engine, piston engine that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, res ...

can go on a date with a friendly Dire Wraith he met online.

Aftermath

The aftermath of ''Revolution'' marks the beginning of the

Hasbro Reconstruction Hasbro Reconstruction was a 2016 comic book launch by IDW Publishing about its line of American comic books, comic books based on properties of the toy company Hasbro. Since June 2016, this branding converged most of IDW's Hasbro comics into the H ...

initiative, converging the stories featured in the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' and ''

'' comic books, with the addition of new comic books based on ''

'', ''

Rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

'', ''

Action Man Action Man is an action figure launched in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro's American "movable fighting man", G.I. Joe. Action Man was originally produced and sold in the United Kingdom and Australia by Palitoy Ltd of ...

'', and '' M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand'' within the Hasbro Comic Book Universe.

Titles involved

"The Road to Revolution"

Main issues

Collected editions

Spin-off

In 2017, IDW released a miniseries titled ''Aw Yeah Revolution!'', written and drawn by

Art Baltazar Arthee "Art" Baltazar (born 1968) is an American comics artist and writer who currently works for DC Comics. Career Art Baltazar started making comic books with his self-published comic book, ''The Cray-Baby Adventures''. Since then he has cr ...

, which represents a humorous version of the events of ''Revolution''. The series was cancelled after three issues.

Sequel

In April 2017, IDW and Hasbro announced a new crossover event titled '' First Strike'' and it will serve as the sequel to ''Revolution''.

Other media

On July 10, 2017, Hasbro announced to release a toy set titled ''Revolution Comic Crossover Preview Mega-Set'' as an anticipation to IDW's ''First Strike'', and features sixteen figures from ''Transformers'', ''G.I. Joe'', ''Rom'', ''Micronauts'', ''Action Man'', ''M.A.S.K.'', and ''Visionaries''.

References

External links

Revolution - IDW Publishing
{{Hasbro Comic Book Universe 2016 comics debuts 2016 comics endings Comics based on Hasbro toys Crossover comics G.I. Joe comics IDW Publishing titles Transformers comics Comics about parallel universes Rom the Space Knight