War continues, next on Void Rivals!
The Quintesson War continues in issue # 29 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.
Penciler Andrei Bressan and colorist Patricio Delpeche join Robert Kirkman for the fifth and penultimate part of “Quintesson War”. In this instalment, Darak and the Agorrians are being pushed back by the massive Quintesson Tribunal, while the war continues to be fought on other fronts by Solila, Pythona, Proximus and many others.
Wait, what’s the Tribunal?
A massive Quintesson Judge with only three faces that is currently laying waste to Agorria. Darak, his father Dulin and his uncle Dukan are left to face its fury but come up short, as the Tribunal isn’t considered a last resort by the Quints for nothing! It makes for a nice “end boss” since hordes of Sharkticons and Allicons aren’t really a big enough “stick” for the Quints.
Meanwhile, the war goes slightly better on Zertonia thanks to Solila having better luck rallying allies against the Quintessons. Pythona and Cobra-La are also directly involved now and come across Proximus. I do wonder how Kirkman is going to bring all these players’ intersecting paths closer for the finale.
There’s a lot of players, yeah.
Yeah, I didn’t even mention Zerta Trion! The web of plots weaving through this arc seems a bit loose as of this issue, so I’m curious how this will end. The cliffhanger is something of a homage to Transformers: The Movie, but I don’t see a Matrix anywhere close by to switch the plot off!
While I enjoy Kirkman making the Quintessons more of a threat, this arc seems to be rushing towards another setup for a future arc, rather than a proper conclusion. Maybe I’ll be wrong and everything will weave together beautifully in the next issue, but everything seems a bit disconnected here.
Cube?
The art is still beautiful and there are some cool set pieces and dramatic moments here, but I feel the overall plot is suffering a bit. We haven’t checked up on the Skuxxoid in awhile either, and I wonder if that plot thread will suddenly swoop in during the next instalment too. Kirkman’s gotta tug a little harder on his threads to pull this together for a satisfying finale.
Buy Void Rivals # 29 this week; You want it so bad, you can taste it, it’s driving you mad to see it wasted.
