G.I. Joe, Absolute Batman highlight big week of Wednesday releases

Midweek update: Absolute line and Energon Universe among comics' bright spots

A real American strike force and a hero taken outside his usual tropes highlight some of this week’s most anticipated comics.

After launching four miniseries introducing Duke, Scarlett, Destro, and Cobra Commander to the Energon Universe, the G.I. Joe team unites in this week’s “G.I. Joe” #1.

Skybound describes it as the biggest comic-book launch of the decade —presumably for Skybound, though the overall numbers should be strong. I’d be interested to hear if we get some actual sales data that Image Comics has on this launch. Joshua Williamson and Tom Reilly are the creative team.

Here’s how the book is described:

Conrad Hauser, Codename DUKE, has assembled a special force known as G.I. Joe to battle the rising power of the mysterious COBRA in the aftermath of the Autobots and Decepticons’ arrival on Earth.
But the enigmatic Cobra Commander has unleashed the power of Energon like never before!

Meanwhile, the Absolute line at DC continues to be successful. “Absolute Batman” hit comic-book stores today.

The Absolute line features Bruce Wayne with no fortune, no Batcave, and no faithful Alfred to guide him (or not in the traditional sense, at least), but he still becomes a Batman to be reckoned with in “Absolute Batman.”

Scott Snyder writes via his Substack newsletter that “Absolute Batman” #2 is already sold out at the distributor level.

“We never expected it to be this kind of a hit,” he writes. “Honestly, we were just doing it for ourselves. We hoped that it would get some traction, but the fact that you guys have showed up in droves to support it means the world to all of us. We just got news that the second issue has sold out at the distributor level.”

Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta are the creative team for “Absolute Batman,” which is giving me “Batman: Year One” vibes, remixed for a 2020s audience.

Both the Absolute line and the Energon Universe titles remain among our best-selling titles at Speeding Bullet Comics. Hopefully, this excitement will continue as we roll into the holiday shopping season and into 2025. I found both of these titles to be exciting, interesting reads and recommend them both.

Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK.