BotTalk Reviews

Story : Sean Collins/Throwdown continues his rampage, destroying a Terror Drome and a couple of Cobra H.I.S.S.: High Speed Sentries before stealing a Cobra Stinger: Night Attack 4-WD to move onto the next Terror Drome. Helix and Beachhead provide commentary while informing Duke of the situation. A Joe team, with Snake-Eyes and Scarlett are en route. Snake-Eyes is finally able to confront Sean. Writing : Hama keeps the pressure and action going in this issue. Sean, with Dr. Venom's programming, just doesn’t stop. The beginning is a bit odd with the commentary from Helix and Beachhead. While all are cured of Dr. Venom's programming, there might still be more to the story. Art : Pelletier keeps the art nice and crisp with a lot of good colors. When Sean and Snake-Eyes do their mental battle, the color changes up a bit and is a bit reminiscent of the style from the 80’s.   Overall : Sean gets his issue in this deprogramming arc and it has a strong finish. Excellent art and a straig...

Story : Shipwreck meets up with Lara Croft, “the Tomb Raider” as she needs help getting to the Arbco Star shipping freighter on Cobra Island to hunt for a missing artifact. Destro’s forces are already there so the Joes send a team in to try to find the artifact, which has the potential to be really powerful.   The team encounters the Iron Grenadiers on the island and neither team uses weapons for fear of alerting the Blue Ninjas that are still in the casino.  Writing : The themes of this issue feel more like a classic Sunbow cartoon than the ongoing ARAH issues but not too bad. Lara Croft has been set up as an established character in the series with Shipwreck knowing her and both Destro and the Baroness having met her before. I did like that as it feels a bit more believable than her suddenly appearing in the series. Her franchise (Tomb Raider) is mentioned a few times ("oh, it’s the Tomb Raider") more as a nickname than what she goes by. I also enjoy the call back to the fr...

Add an "R" for less brand confusion! Enter Predaco- er...PREDACRON in issue # 34 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-fourth issue, Darak and Solila, along with their acquaintances in Cobra-La and their new ally ROM the Spaceknight are attacked by alien bounty hunter Predacron! Also on the way to the main plot; SKUXXOID! Preda...cron? Y'see, late in G.I. Joe's run, there was a sub-line called ...

Creators : Joshua Williamson (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) Story : Duke's G.I. Joe team fights off against Flint's Night Force team in trying to capture the Baroness.  Duke vs. G.I. B.A.T., Beachhead vs. Stalker, Roadblock vs. Risk and Flint, Shooter and Lady Jaye vs. Clutch, Autobot Hound, and the Baroness.  We get more details on what Zartan is after, and Snowjob has brought Scarlett back for debriefing.  Meanwhile, Cobra Commander uses the Energon Sword to train/fight Major Medusa, using Crystal Ball's D.I.R.E. Tech - which leads Destro to finding out something about Cobra Commander.  Eventually, most of the Joes and Night Force realize things are getting too far gone once G.I. B.A.T. tries to kill Duke, against the current orders to capture the team.   Writing : Lots of action and a lot going on. The Baroness and Clutch have a good conversation in which the Baroness accuses him of never trusting her.  We...

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Pat Olliffe (artist), Francesco Segala (colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (flatter), Pat Brosseau (letterer) Story : Cutter, Shipwreck, and Wetsuit are on the Killer W.H.A.L.E. Hovercraft assisting Deep Six as he investigates a sunken Russian submarine.  Ghostrider in The Phantom X-19 Stealth Fighter is providing air support when three Rattlers and a ASPID helicopter arrive with two Cobra Eels and a Hydro-Viper who head down to the sub as well.  Writing : Sometimes this is just what you need, a nice stand-alone issue with some good action and fight scenes.  The Russian sub may come up later down the road but for now, it's just a MacGuffin for our characters.  And we get nautical guys doing nautical stuff and a flier...flying!  Everyone is doing their role nicely and it all fits together in a nice, tight story.   Art : Art and colors are sublime in this issue. Olliffe does a good job with the action scenes and, between him and Ham...

More thrills! More shocks! More new arms! The bold new era for the Autobots and this book continues! Robert Kirkman, chief architect of the Energon Universe, writes the flagship Transformers title and Jason Howard takes over as regular penciler for this new story arc with Mike Spicer on colors. Howard had previously drawn issues # 13 and # 14 of this book, along with many covers. In this thirty-sixth issue, a new Superion is born! Doctor Arkeville proves his worth! Starscream prepares a plot! And Beachcomber searches for a new purpose! What is it with Skybound and giving people new arms? Optimus, Rom, and now Superion… I dunno. Anyhow, as practically EVERYONE expected, Thundercracker becomes part of Superion in this issue! And uh… well, there’s not a lot of fanfare to it, actually. It’s just treated as something Thundercracker could already do. Off-panel upgrades from Wheeljack, I guess? I dunno what I expected, maybe Cobra-La to have the Enigma of Combination or something, but it just...

It’s a ROMlution! Or a Romvolution? Rom the Space Knight is here in issue # 33 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-third issue, Darak and Solila make formal acquaintance with Rom the Space Knight and his partner, the organic blob known as Carpet! Also, Cobra-La is still there and we catch up with Skuxxoid as he arrives on a new, very-familiar planet! Who’s this Rom guy? You know! Rom! The Space Knight! Yet another Hasbro property folded into the...

Creators : Joshua Williamson (writer),Tom Reilly, Andrea Milana (artists), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) Story : Flint, Beachhead, Lady Jaye, and Shooter are fighting some Cobra S.N.A.K.E (System: Neutralizer—Armed Kloaking Equipment) Battle Suits as training and officially reveal their name as Night Force.  Hawk/Zartan fights the Baroness after the events of last issue and he issues an order to capture her but she gets away.  Baroness was able to see something was wrong with Hawk.  He orders the Joe team to take her out.  Cobra Commander reveals his upgrades to Crystal Ball's D.I.R.E. (Dread-Inducing Responsive Energy) Tech and his new "left hand" Major Medusa.  On her yacht, the Baroness is confronted by Night Force but tries to explain and that anyone who talks to her will probably be killed.  The rest of the Joes show up to help the Baroness with Flint surprised to see Autobot Hound but then he releases Night Force's own surprise - G....

Aerialbots VS Yodelling! The bold new era for the Autobots and this book continues! Robert Kirkman, chief architect of the Energon Universe, writes the flagship Transformers title and Jason Howard takes over as regular penciler for this new story arc with Mike Spicer on colors. Howard had previously drawn issues # 13 and # 14 of this book, along with many covers. In this thirty-fifth issue, the Autobots must rely on their new human allies to save the dying Shredhead’s life! Also, Thundercracker leads the Aerialbots to track down the forces of Cobra-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LA! So Shredhead ain’t dead? Nah, they’re fine. Although who knows after Doctor Arkeville gets done with them. It does seem like Onslaught is dead for now, which is a shame and kind of weird considering he’s got a new toy out currently, but I guess Kirkman isn’t constrained to Hasbro’s whims as much as other writers were. Wheeljack and Doctor Arkeville have a bit of back-and-forth about fixing Shredhead, which is kind of amus...

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciler), Tony Kordos (inker), Francesco Segala (colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (flatter), Pat Brosseau (letterer) Story : Lift-Ticket and Wild Bill fly the Tomahawk helicopter through bad weather to deliver Shockwave and Rock 'n Roll to Snake-Eye's cabin to help Scarlett but are relived to discover he has been able to deactivate his implant on his own and they all head back to the Pit.  At the Pit, Dawn is trapped but begins to take out the cameras so the team has no clue where she is.  The Pit crew (Mainframe, Dial-Tone, Stalker, Duke) are able to contact Helix and Beachhead to get an update on Sean, who is attacking the Terror Drome.  Sean is driven off but Helix and Beachhead take out most of the remaining Cobras and create a truce with the remaining ones to stop Sean.  Snake-Eyes arrives at the Pit and confronts Dawn, using Arashikage abilities to help destroy her implant as well.  Meanwhile, in Darklonia, Sea...

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. B...