Is there ROMance in the air??
Maybe, or maybe we’ve met a new ally in issue # 32 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.
In this thirty-second issue, Kirkman and Conor Hughes catch us up with Darak, Solila and their Cobra-La companions as they recover from the events of the Quintesson War!
Oh right, they went on the run in that giant space bug.
Yeah, it kind of reminded me of the ACANTI from X-Men comics. Except… a giant space bug instead of a giant space whale. Believe it or not, the Cobra-La “Leviathan” actually helps provide one of the more stirring emotional moments in this issue, as Pythona goes off on Darak over an insensitive comment about it.
Speaking of Darak, he finally gets time to process his father’s death at the end of the Quintesson War and Solila is there to comfort him. While there hasn’t been too much in terms of romance between our two leads, it can very easily be leading to that and it was a nice moment for them to connect and grieve together for their losses. I also enjoy the interaction between their respective Handroids, who I guess we’re referring to as “Blue” (Solila) and “Red” (Darak) now.
So ____ shows up on the last page, huh?
Yes, ROM the Spaceknight shows up on the last page.
Hey, SPOILERS!
Well, not really. Skybound did drop a surprise ROM # 1 issue a couple weeks ago, so while this is a cool cliffhanger, it’s not a big reveal for those in the know. It would have been neat if they had saved it for this issue, but whaddaya gonna do?
I’m not the biggest fan of ROM or anything, but I do think he’s cool and I enjoyed him in IDW’s stuff, so I’m sure he’ll add something special to Void Rivals as well for however long he sticks around.
Cube?
A breather issue that focuses on character moments and succeeds pretty well in that regard. Darak, Solila, and Pythona are all well-served here and even Pythona’s Cobra-La minions get a moment to themselves. Conor Hughes’ art is great as always and while the ROM reveal (ROMveal?) on the last page wasn’t a surprise to me, it was still a good cap-off to the issue.
Buy Void Rivals # 32 this week for GIANT SPACE BUG MUST BE AVENGED!
