Hey everyone, this is Crooker. I’ll be writing another review of Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felice’s “Void Rivals.” Now with issue 16 out, things are starting to heat up again.
Well, this was certainly a big deal. Many revelations have brought this issue to light, and it feels like the status quo is changing a bit. The biggest story is the part where Sorira finally gets some answers from Vector Theta (almost “Vector Sigma, but different than last issue”). It’s… actually quite simple. She receives a curt answer to continue and does so. And that leads her to a name she has only heard spoken mostly in secret: Zelta Trion. Now, from a Transformers fan’s perspective, this is big news in a way. Unless the next revelation changes things, this is the first look at the first new Autobot character in the Energon universe. And yes, this would pre-date Starscream’s dead friends in Transformers #13, considering their names were established in the books a long time ago. That’s crazy! I don’t think we’ll know for sure until next time if this is actually a completely new person.
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Back to Darak’s half of the story, things get real very quickly and he is almost immediately captured by his father as a traitor. No matter how trivial the couple’s problems in the past were, no matter how two people were beginning to find some kind of understanding with each other, this feels like a kind of inevitable conclusion. This shows that our society is nevertheless still deeply and deeply corrupt, and that more people than we originally thought are fighting for the unification of two opposing cultures. Masu.
But sadly, we also see one of the characters in this book, Skuxoid, killed by the Cobra La agents introduced a few issues ago. Skuxxoid is an interesting example of an obscure Transformers character given new life in a new comic, but from what I understand, most people didn’t even realize he was a Transformers character. The fact that Kirkman manages to make us like the guy and then ends up killing him when things go wrong… Well, this is Kirkman’s book, right? You have to expect these. But even if I’m not completely sure that he’s gone forever, it’s still a shame…
Lorenzo De Felice’s art here is great as always, but one of the aspects I really liked about this particular issue was the minimalism in places. In particular, in most of Zorilla’s parts of the story, she walks around in darkness, with only her figure completely illuminated by light, in order to make it easier for you as a reader. I really like this. Because it makes any light source wonderfully subtle. For example, as your eyes get used to it, you’ll start seeing vague outlines of walls and floors when your attention is drawn to them, just as you can only see those things. darkness. I wanted to highlight that because I think that’s a really great effect this book has.
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So, this is Void Rivals again. What did I think? Well, there were no hot rods, so it was 0/10. Just kidding. As outlined above, there’s a lot of conspiracy reveals and movement here, and I think that’s definitely a positive thing. Void Rivals may seem quite sedate compared to the much more breakneck pace of Transformers, but it’s that contrast that helps balance the two titles. This is a very “Kirkman” problem, and if you knew this person’s work, you wouldn’t have been able to make it into a series this far without ruining the atmosphere, so this is still worth a book. It’s no exaggeration to say that there are. Unless Skuxxoid is your favorite character. RIP.
“Void Rivals” #16 Review
Voydrivers #16
Kirkman moves to shake up the book’s status quo in a truly exciting way, and fans start to find things shocking.
Hype reveals and twists
RIP Sukuxoid
The plot is moving in a very exciting direction
Great art as always
