THUNDERCATS Officially Crosses Over With SILVERHAWKS in a Surprise Shared Universe Reveal
Shared universes keep popping up all over pop culture, especially in comics, and now another classic franchise has jumped into the mix. ThunderCats has officially been confirmed to exist in the same universe as SilverHawks, connecting two iconic 1980s animated series in a way fans have speculated about for decades.
The reveal happens in ThunderCats: Lost #10, the final issue of the miniseries from Ed Brisson and Rapha Lobosco. The story follows a squad of five Thunderian soldiers who are shot down deep in enemy territory. Cut off and hunted by the ruthless Captain Shiner, their mission is simple and dangerous: recover the lost Book of Omens or die trying.
By the time the issue reaches its closing moments, only four ThunderCats remain. They manage to escape aboard a gifted spacecraft, but their luck doesn’t last long. The ship is suddenly pulled into a mysterious portal with no way out. What looks like the end turns out to be something much bigger.
Their rescuer is revealed to be Flashback, a time-traveling hero who brings them forward through time for a very specific reason. He tells the stranded ThunderCats that their help is needed to prevent the extinction of the Thunderian race.
Then comes the big moment. Flashback introduces himself as a member of the Silverhawks, confirming that the two franchises are officially connected.
For fans who grew up in the 1980s, this crossover feels like a long time coming. SilverHawks ran for a single 65-episode season and acted as a more science-fiction-focused counterpart to ThunderCats.
The show followed a team of cyborg heroes protecting the Limbo Galaxy from a lineup of over-the-top super-criminals. It was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and shared several writers, artists, and voice actors with ThunderCats.
That overlap fueled playground debates for years about whether the shows existed in the same universe, even though the cartoons themselves never confirmed it.
Flashback’s involvement makes the connection even more interesting. In the original SilverHawks series, his appearances suggested he came from the future of the main team. That opens the door to the idea that the classic SilverHawks lineup could exist during the same era as the ThunderCats. Time travel adds plenty of flexibility, but it also hints at a much larger mythology tying these worlds together.
The adventures of Flashback and the lost Thunderians will continue in a new miniseries titled ThunderCats: Lost In Time, which looks ready to dive deeper into this newly confirmed shared universe.
ThunderCats: Lost #10 is available now at comic shops everywhere, and for fans of either franchise, it’s a pretty awesome moment that finally turns years of speculation into official canon.