NOTICE! Spoilers ahead for GI Joe #1GI Joe is back with a new issue #1, and the latest installment in the Energon Universe took a much-derided piece of classic franchise lore and turned it into a deadly weapon. Cobra Commander’s search for Energon has resulted in perhaps the most devastating weapon ever portrayed in the new combined Skybound continuity, spelling trouble for the newly formed GI Joe team.
GI Joe #1 – written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Tom Reilly – introduces the newly unified Cobra organization, formed the previous year Cobra Commander and Destroy miniseries.
Cobra Commander and Destro formed an uneasy alliance in the new Joe continuity, with the Commander providing Energon harvested from the Dreadnok swamps for Destro’s MARS Industries to create weapons – effectively tying together aspects of the franchise’s lore and setting the stage for a dramatic new era. Most excitingly, Destro’s newest weapon is an Energon-powered laser gun, which is capable of completely decimating an enemy target with a single shot.
’80s GI Joe Cartoon’s ‘Non-Lethal’ Weapons Are Finally Deadly Serious
GI Joe #1 – Written by Joshua Williamson; Art by Tom Reilly; Color by Jordie Bellaire; Rus Wooton lyrics
Although the laser rifle proves positively devastating in GI Joe #1, longtime fans of the franchise will likely smile at the new weapon. When the GI Joe: A True American Hero The toy line got its own cartoon in the 1980s, the weapons used by GI Joe and Cobra were revealed to be laser guns, thus toning down the violence of the military-themed toy line. Characters never died on screen and were rarely seriously injured, with the cartoon going so far as to ensure that pilots always parachuted out of their planes before they exploded.
The Energon Universe is under no such restrictions, so the new laser rifle developed by Destro and MARS can showcase the devastating power of the Transformers’ valuable power source. “Energon when pulling the trigger,” Destro describes the new laser weapon while Cobra Commander uses the weapon to make giant molten holes in a target doll. “Imagine every member of our forces armed with a” proclaims Destro, and readers get to see this in action as Mercer and his Cobra Vipers rain hell on the Joes with their new laser weapons in the climactic battle.
Cobra’s new Energon-powered laser weapons make them an even more dangerous foe for GI Joe
GI Joe #2 – December 18, 2024 Releases from Skybound Entertainment
By taking the old laser weapons from the original 80s cartoon and making them dangerous weapons in the new continuity, the Energon Universe era of GI Joe continues to find new ways to comment on the franchise’s classic lore. In addition to elements such as the upcoming war between Cobra-La and Cybertron, it also connects GI Joe even more closely with the Transformers franchisemerging Hasbro’s two toy lines in a way that should be incredibly exciting for longtime fans. The new GI Joe series looks to the future paying homage to the past, resulting in yet another victory Energon Universe installment.
GI Joe #1 is on sale now from Skybound Entertainment.