The manga cover for G.I. Joe #29 puts a number on the end of Night Force

Skybound, Image Comics and Hasbro announced on September 3 that four Energon Universe books, M.A.S.K., Transformers, G.I. Joe and Void Rivals, will each carry a manga variant cover in December, drawn by Satoshi Shiki and Manabu Yashiro. The block of type beside the price on the G.I. Joe cover carries something the announcement does not.

Yashiro’s cover for G.I. Joe #29 reads NIGHTFORCE, PART 5 OF 5.

When issue 25 arrived we went looking at Tom Reilly’s wraparound rather than the press release, and found PART 1 OF 5 printed beside the price. Issue 29 ships on December 16, and Skybound’s release says what is in it: the book “delivers the final Night Force fight and the end of G.I. Joe as we know it.”

The credit block along the top of the cover reads Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly and Lee Loughridge. Reilly drew issue 25, and Andrea Milana, who appears in Skybound’s own description of the series, is not on this block at all, but the wraparound on issue 25 carried all four names together, so treat this as a credit line rather than a casting announcement, at least until the December solicitation spells the team out.

What these covers are, and what it takes to get one

The three other Energon Universe manga variants side by side: M.A.S.K. number 7, Transformers number 39 and Void Rivals number 37, all drawn by Satoshi Shiki in black and white halftone

The other three books in the set. Covers: Satoshi Shiki, via Skybound and Image Comics.

All four are 1:50 incentive variants in the E slot, so a shop is allocated one of them for every fifty copies of the issue it orders. Shiki, whose credits include Attack on Titan, takes M.A.S.K. #7 on December 2, Transformers #39 on December 9 and Void Rivals #37 on December 23. Yashiro, of Tank Chair, has the Joe book on his own. Every issue is $3.99 before the variant premium.

Executive editor Ben Abernathy is quoted in the release: “As a long-term manga reader, I was thrilled to have Japanese legends Satoshi Shiki and Manabu Yashiro join us for some gorgeous covers!” These are drawn in the style rather than a house logo dropped onto existing art. Yashiro’s Joe cover is all dot screens and speed lines, with spent shell casings falling across the frame. It is the best of the four!

Where to start if you have not been reading it

Night Force began in issue 25, an extra-sized book that set Joe against Joe and printed its own chapter count on the cover, and the sub-team has been showing up in plastic alongside the comic, with a Classified Night Force Psych-Out arriving as a Walmart Collector Con exclusive in July at $27.97 with eight accessories in the tray.

Issue 26 is on shelves on September 16, with 27 and 28 between it and the finale.

Sources

Skybound, Image Comics and Hasbro press release, September 3, 2026, carried in full by First Comics News
Cover art: Manabu Yashiro and Satoshi Shiki, via Skybound and Image Comics.
Pricing and availability read from Third Eye Comics on September 5, 2026.