Skuxxoid Begins to Return Forever!
He does and it starts here with issue # 19 of Void Rivals! 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.
Lorenzo De Felici steps away from this book with this nineteenth issue as we welcome new ongoing artist Conor Hughes to tell a tale of Skuxxoid!
A new artist?
Yep, according to the letters page, Conor Hughes is our new ongoing artist for Void Rivals and he makes a great debut with a sort of Skuxxoid origin tale! I did appreciate De Felici’s moody, atmospheric art, but Hughes lends a more Sunbow cartoon-ish leaning to the goings-on, while still evoking his predecessor thanks to Patricio Depeche’s continued work on colors.
It’s only appropriate that Hughes has a more “animated” style, as it were, as this very issue focuses heavily on characters that are Sunbow-specific, like the aforementioned Skuxxoid and the Junkions. Yes, our beloved TV-talking Transformers make their Energon Universe debut, with Wreck-Gar himself claiming much of the panel time here. The real star of this issue is Skuxxoid though, and we finally get a bigger picture of where Kirkman is going with this character.
“Spotlight Skuxxoid” then?
Yeah, that’s pretty accurate. I’ve been wondering why Kirkman’s kept Skuxxoid around aside from him obviously having an affection for the character in general. But now we see him more properly woven into the fabric of the “Energon Universe” here. Last we saw, Skuxxoid got apparently killed by Pythona’s roving gang of Cobra-La cronies, but thankfully Kirkman wasn’t intending that to be the end of his story.
Of course, this issue DOESN’T feature the titular “Void Rivals” in it, which might be frustrating to some after last issue’s tension-filled cliffhanger. However, if you’re mainly reading this book for the Transformers or G.I. Joe side of things, this will not disappoint.
Cube?
A great one-off that expands the story of one of the book’s most entertaining characters. The new artist makes a great debut and I can’t wait to see how he renders Darak and Solila in the future. I’ve consistently enjoyed Void Rivals more than Skybound’s Transformers since both books launched and if the faint rumors going around that Kirkman is taking over Transformers as well after DWJ leaves are true, then bring it on.
Buy Void Rivals #19 this week and become part of the Skuxxoid Revolution!
