Destro #1

History

The series was announced on March 7, 2024, when Skybound and Image Comics — operating under the tripartite Hasbro/Skybound/Image licensing arrangement that had been formalized with Void Rivals #1 — revealed Destro and Scarlett as a paired June 2024 expansion of the Energon Universe. Writer Dan Watters, a British author known for Loki and Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives!, was selected to script the series despite openly acknowledging he was not a G.I. Joe devotee growing up, a creative choice that may have contributed to the series' notably fresh, outsider-perspective tone on classic Cobra characters. Artist Andrei Bressan — whose prior Skybound work includes Birthright and Dark Ride — served as the primary interior artist and cover illustrator, with colorist Adriano Lucas completing the core creative team and letterer Rus Wooton rounding it out; Cobra Commander artist Andrea Milana was brought in to fill on art for issue #3, suggesting some production scheduling flexibility mid-run. The complete five-issue run was collected in Destro TP, Vol. 1 (ISBN 9781534351066), published November 20, 2024.

Trivia · 7 facts

• Published June 19, 2024, by Image Comics under the Skybound imprint, as part of the Hasbro/Skybound Energon Universe — a shared fictional world that also encompasses Transformers, Void Rivals, Duke, Cobra Commander, and Scarlett.
• First Energon Universe appearances of the Crimson Twins, Tomax and Xamot Paoli, and their mercenary/weapons company Extensive Enterprises; their debut scene — ordering the massacre of wounded soldiers — is explicitly more brutal than any depiction from the 1980s cartoon continuity.
• Written by Dan Watters (Loki, The Six Fingers) and illustrated by Andrei Bressan (Birthright, Dark Ride), with colors by Adriano Lucas and lettering by Rus Wooton.
• Destro is positioned as the final of four initial G.I. Joe villain/hero miniseries — following Duke, Cobra Commander, and Scarlett — that collectively build the road to the ongoing G.I. Joe #1 series.
• The issue spins directly out of the events of Cobra Commander #5, with Cobra now formally constituted and Destro field-testing Energon-enhanced B.A.T. (Battle Android Trooper) units as his military edge over rival arms dealers.
• Astoria Carlton-Ritz, a character originating in the Transformers animated series episode 'The Girl Who Loved Powerglide,' appears in the Energon Universe continuity — one of several cross-franchise Easter eggs Watters embedded for attentive readers.
• The full miniseries was collected in Destro TP, Vol. 1 (ISBN 978-1-53435-106-6), published November 20, 2024; variant covers for issue #1 were contributed by Nikola Čižmešija, Jorge Fornés, Jonboy Meyers, David Mack, and Jason Howard (the last two as incentive and anniversary connecting variants respectively).

Full credits

Variants (2)