Void Rivals Recover!
UNITY was averted and we recover in issue # 24 of Void Rivals! Void Rivals is Robert Kirkman’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.
Ongoing artist Conor Hughes and colorist Patricio Delpeche join Robert Kirkman for this 24th issue and wrap up the second year of Void Rivals. Unity has been averted for now, but the threat of Goliant is still looming over both Agorrian and Zertonian civilization and the universe itself! We catch up with our various factions of characters here as a new era begins.
So this is an “aftermath” issue, huh?
Yes, the rising action rose and fell last issue and this one is mostly Kirkman putting his toys back in the box for the next arc. For some characters like Hot Rod and Springer, that means seemingly leaving the book, as their spacecraft is refuelled and they bid farewell to Darak to return to Cybertron. Solila faces the wrath of Zerta Trion for her defiance against Unity and we learn exactly why Zerta is so keen on it.
Also out in space, Pythona and her Cobra-La guys need to deal with the gravest threat of them all, WHEELIE (the Wild Boy of Quintessa), and the Skuxxoid prepares to make some moves of his own. Basically this is another setup for future stuff issue, rather than a real “conclusion” to this arc.
Oh.
Yeah, I can’t help but feel this arc ended on kind of a whimper, despite a strong start. Kirkman’s not ready to pull the trigger on a lot of stuff yet, but he had to have some kind of payoff. Thankfully strong characterization and world-building save the day here as the concepts presented are still pretty intriguing. All of this is seemingly leading to next year’s event, the Energon Universe’s first big crossover: the Quintesson War. Hopefully there will be more in the way of payoffs there.
It’s a little bit of a bummer to lose Hot Rod and Springer from this book, if that’s indeed what Kirkman is planning, but I’m sure they’ll pop up again soon. Being the fan of Hot Rod that he is, Kirkman probably wants him over in the proper Transformers book ASAP anyhow. The new status quo for all our other characters is hardly uninteresting and I’m looking forward to where Void Rivals goes from here.
Buy Void Rivals # 24 this week and get your allotted small dose of Wheelie for the month!
