I want to like Void Rivals #29, but something just feels off. It might be that it feels like it’s catching up from a lackluster issue last month, but it’s very much two steps forward, and probably more than one step back, as characters are moved across the chessboard to their marks for the finale to the Quintesson War. However, the longer this arc goes on, the less it feels like a story that needed six issues to be told.
Let’s talk about the positives first: the story moves briskly. One minute we’re catching up with Zerta Trion, the next we’re seeing Pythona interact with Proximus, before cutting back to Minister Dublin leading a counterattack against the Quintesson War Tribunal. Powered by Energon, Darak makes it back just in time to help his father but ultimately falls short and awaits judgement with his father.
Solila and Premiere Zalak make a grand reintroduction this issue too, smashing Sharkticons and Allicons. The action in this issue is high energy and frenetic, matching the piece of the story that’s moving swiftly towards its conclusion. More importantly, there’s something that’s starting to feel like hope floating in the air around Zertonia, and a lingering sense of despair in Agorria. Because of the breakneck pace of this issue, I’m excited to see if that holds true through the conclusion next month, or if the script gets completely flipped. There’s a mania that comes along with the rush that feels exciting and dangerous.
To turn the conversation a little negative, none of this feels like anything more than moving actors to their marks so they can do something more meaningful next month. Cool things are happening, but they’re ultimately ringing a little hollow.
This issue also has one scene that I can’t describe as anything other than annoying. The end has Darak and Dulin being tried by the Quintessons… and if you’ve seen the Transformers animated movie from 1986, you already know how the scene goes down. Practically verbatim.
It shouldn’t bother me too much because this entire arc has done a good job of expanding the the extended Transformers mythology, but it’s often come at the expense of what makes Agorria and Zertonia feel unique and special. Dedicating pages to what amounts to a shot-for-shot remake of the judgement scene from Transformers ’86 feels less like expanding on something from your past and more like repackaging it. This is the aforementioned step back.
Void Rivals #29 gets back on track and moves the story forward to set up an epic conclusion to the Quintesson War arc, but while the scenery changes at a breakneck pace, consequential moments of the story feel like like they’re being rationed, dripping out at a snail’s pace so you don’t enjoy the story too much. With no solution for our heroes in sight, the finale has the potential to be explosive, but the penultimate chapter still falls a little flat because of its reliance on things we’ve already seen, and lines we’ve already heard.
