The blind-bag one-shots go on open sale: M.A.S.K. Origins #1 and the Rom Special, 26 August

mask.toys October 31, 2026

Both books first appeared only inside the issue one blind bags. Skybound opened them to ordinary orders for 26 August 2026, with Rom now also in Void Rivals.

Skybound’s blind bags were built to reward people who walked into a shop on launch day, and the publisher has now decided that everybody else should get a turn. ICv2 reported on 21 July that Origins #1 and the Rom Special #1, both of which first came out inside the bags that carried issue one on 10 June, would be open to order with a release date of 26 August 2026, and The Beat’s 5 August report on issue three repeats the same date for the pair.

What the two books are

Origins is a double-sized issue that, per ICv2, introduces the team, V.E.N.O.M. and others in the Energon Universe ahead of the series proper. Its main cover is by Pye Parr, and the variants credited to Jason Howard, Ethan Young, Danilo Beyruth with Neeraj Menon, and Ben Oliver. The cover on our issue page lists several creators by name, which suggests it gathers material from more than one hand; ICv2 does not itemise the contents, so we will not either.

The Rom Special is a standalone one-shot by Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici that brings the Space Knight into the same universe. It carries a foil die-cut mask cover by John Amor among its variants. No Rom ongoing series has been announced, and ICv2 says Rom and his companion Carpet will turn up in upcoming issues of Void Rivals; the Energon Universe article on Wikipedia puts Rom in the sixth arc of that book, beginning with issue 32.

Why the open order matters

A surprise one-shot that is only in a bag is a hard thing to review, to recommend or to find a year later, and moving it into regular ordering turns a stunt into something a reader can actually follow. It also settles a small bookkeeping question for the site: Origins is a real numbered issue with a real release date, and it has its own entry in our comics section.

Sources

Brigid Alverson, “First ‘ROM’ Comic and ‘M.A.S.K. Origins’ Will Be Open to Order”, ICv2, 21 July 2026
Christopher Chiu-Tabet, The Beat, 5 August 2026
Energon Universe, Wikipedia, read 31 October 2026

See the Origins issue page and the Skybound series page.