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Void Rivals #18 review





Void Rivals Meet Again!

They do and it continues here with issue # 18! Void Rivals is Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s sci-fi comic that tells the tale of two crumbling planets linked by a “Sacred Ring” (it’s not Halo), their peoples at war for generations. When a member of each culture are stranded together, the two find they must put aside their differences if they want to survive. This story takes place in the so-called “Energon Universe”, Skybound Entertainment’s initiative to relaunch properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe within a shared universe that also happens to include the original characters and setting of Void Rivals.

In this eighteenth issue, Darak and Solila’s separate paths are set to converge again as the truth about Unity is revealed to them both! But is it the same truth?

Seems like they split up or reunite at the end of every arc.

Yep, that seems like the pattern thus far! Solila’s been gifted insight and an upgrade from Zerta Trion and Vector Theta, while Darak is told directly by his father Minister Dulin what the Sacred Texts say about Unity. No surprise, both sets of knowledge are at odds with each other and Darak and Solila end the issue in the same situation.

After her upgrade from Vector Theta, Solila has a leg up in the arms race, but she ends up in hostile territory when she attempts to meet with Darak again. The stage is set for some more personal drama as this third arc concludes.

What about everyone else?

Of course, we check in with most of our other main players. Hot Rod and Springer are still chatting, Premiere Zalilak continues his trials, and Proximus takes a seat. No real update from Pythona’s crew in this issue, but most of its space is dedicated to Darak and Solila so that’s understandable.

As far as the conclusion to an arc goes, this seems pretty typical for Kirkman, as there’s a bunch of setup for the next arc, and one big dramatic moment at the end.

Cube?

Like I said, this is fine, but I think it’ll read better in trade thanks to Kirkman’s decompressed storytelling. Hot Rod and Springer did nothing but talk to each other for about this entire arc. At the very least Darak and Solila are back together again by the end.


Buy Void Rivals # 18 this week and we will be AS ONE.








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