Void Rivals Are At War!
The Quintesson War continues in issue # 26 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.
New artist Andrei Bressan steps in along with regular colorist Patricio Delpeche to join Robert Kirkman for the second part of “Quintesson War”. Having invaded both Agorria and Zertonia, the Quintessons make their intent known to planetary leadership. While Zalilak and Proximus fight the Quints on the ground, Darak is in a spot of trouble in space. How will each planet’s defenders respond to a swarm of Sharkticons?
So how goes the war?
The Quintessons are rather polite in their insistence that Zertonia surrenders, which leads to a great scene between Premier Zalilak and a Quintesson judge named Naven. It was honestly my favorite part of the entire issue. Zalilak and Proximus are then forced to put their personal beef aside to deal with a Sharkticon swarm, so it’s nice to see all our main characters uniting against a common enemy.
Meanwhile, Darak and his squadron have to do some outer space maneuvering to get back home. Darak’s squadron hasn’t been around for long, but Kirkman does a good job establishing their individual personalities and quirks. Of course, Handroid’s interactions with Darak are always fun to read as well.
What else, what else?
Um, not much, actually? I mean, this issue’s more of an action piece than a plot one. The war begins, the Quintessons invade, and we jump between both planet’s casts of characters to see how they’re dealing with this first strike. That doesn’t mean it’s bad; the contrary, I loved that scene with Zalilak meeting Naven. However, there’s not much else to say other than... some nice action and great art from Andrew Bressan. Oh, and the cliffhanger was intriguing too!
Cube?
Like I said, this issue is more action-heavy, but it does that well and the cliffhanger promises that next issue will have more character drama probably. I always enjoy Void Rivals, and while it hasn’t blown me away yet, “Quintesson War” is shaping up to be its most exciting story arc yet. I’m looking forward to see how the war continues!
Buy Void Rivals #26 this week and punch a Quintesson in the face!
