This week, Jesse and Mark kick off a brand-new “What’s on Mark’s Shelf?” trilogy with a deep dive into Cobra Commander from the Energon Universe. Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Andrea Milana, this 2024 miniseries reimagines one of G.I. Joe’s most iconic villains—not as the cartoonish, screeching failure of Saturday mornings past, but as a cold, calculating visionary willing to burn down his own legacy to reshape the future.

The story reframes Cobra Commander’s origins within Cobra-La, positioning him as a disgraced zealot who rejects the organic dogma of his people in favor of alien technology—Energon. Cast out and hunted, he sets out to claim this powerful resource at any cost, crossing paths with the Dreadnoks, Destro, and even Megatron himself. Along the way, the series builds a foundation for the larger Energon Universe while giving Cobra Commander a ruthless edge that longtime fans may have never seen before.

Mark and Jesse unpack the nostalgia of Cobra-La, the evolution of the character from incompetent cartoon villain to stone-cold operator, and the surprising effectiveness of tying G.I. Joe into a broader Transformers mythos. Does this reinvention honor the legacy? Does it finally give Cobra Commander the menace he always deserved? And how does it stack up as a modern entry point into a shared universe built on ‘80s toy lines? All that and more.