The cleverly concealed, mind-blowing reveal of the Energon Universe back in Void Rivals #1 deserves to go down in comics history as a masterwork of licensing subterfuge. Hiding the announcement of one of the preeminent nostalgia franchises within the pages of an unknown and untested property was not only a brilliant way to create buzz for a favorite property but to also wow readers hungry for something new.
That Void Rivals has been consistently good only makes the payoff of the trick all the better. Instantly compelling, the story of deep space castaways Darak and Solila establishes its own mysteries and develops its own sci-fi setting. Though every issue has dropped a single bit of Transformers lore into our protagonist’s struggle for survival, it never feels gratuitous or fan-baiting so much as an organic introduction of the universe’s moving parts.
With its third issue, out this week, Void Rivals drops another bit of Transformers esoterica – our Rivals, scrambling to escape the Skuxxoid’s asteroid-based ship, come across a conniving creature in a cell. This extant relationship – the Skuxxoid and his bounty – stands only as a universe-deepening conflict our characters skirt past on their own journey home.
Dakar and Solila continue to deepen, themselves. Their relationship remains ideologically contentious, and though they are now unified in purpose (revealing a centuries-old conspiracy separating their people), a cultural barrier remains between them.
Lorenzo De Felici has developed incredible character designs; both Dakar and Solila’s space suits establish a sort of cultural personality, hinting at the technological aesthetics of each of their civilizations. Dakar, with his jacket and bizarre handroid, and Solila, who reveals a new, spear-like weapon that feels at odds with her glowing, Daft Punk-like helmet, feel both unique and somehow Transformers-adjacent. Their civilizations feel believable as technologically evolving alongside one another in a universe where clunky jet- and semi-truck-people set the aesthetic precedent.
Robert Kirkman manages to flirt with that larger whole without neglecting this new niche narrative, carving his own unique space in a storied universe. Void Rivals is something refreshing and unprecedented, and it delights each month under its own merits.
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