IDW has announced Revolution, an epic crossover event that will unite the publisher’s current Hasbro titles (G.I. Joe & Transformers) as well as new (to IDW comics) properties Rom, Micronauts, Action Man, and M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Command).  The narrative seed for the Revolution crossover was planted in IDW’s first Transformers comic in 2005, but the epic narrative really starts to build in July with the launch of Rom #1. 

The biweekly, 5-issue Revolution miniseries debuts with two issues in September, and will be accompanied by one-shot tie-in issues of Rom (co-written by Chris Ryall and Christos Gage with art by David Messina), G.I. Joe (written by Aubrey Sitterson with art by Giannis Milonogiannis), Transformers (written by John Barber with art by Andrew Griffith), M.A.S.K. (written by Brandon Easton with art by Tony Vargas), Action Man (written by John Barber with art by Paulo Villanelli), and Micronauts (written by Cullen Bunn with art by Chris Panda).

Cullen Bunn and John Barber are writing the Revolution miniseries, which will feature art by Fico Ossio.  The Revolution event will include lots of variant covers by a bevy of popular artists including Brandon Peterson, Tradd Moore, John Byrne, James Bigge, Adam Riches, Guido Guidi, Ken Christenson, and Art Baltazar.

With the launch of the new Hasbro-based titles and the Revolution miniseries IDW is attempting to create a coherent comic book universe out of these properties.  The example of the Marvel Universe’s successful transition to movies and other media is what every publisher and media company is busy attempting to emulate in every way possible—note how Hasbro is creating a “cinematic universe” out of its characters, a very parallel operation to what IDW is attempting in comic books with the Revolution crossover event (see “Hasbro Assembles Writers Room for Cinematic Universe”).