Writer: Robert Kirkman / Penciller: Lorenzo De Felici / Colour Artist: Matheus Lopes / Letterer: Rus Wooton / Logo & Publication Design: Andres Juarez / Editors: Sean Mankiewcz, Jonathan Manning / Collects: Void Rivals #1-#6 / TP / Skybound Entertainment via Image Comics
Review by Paul Dunne
19th March 2024 (Released: 6th March 2024)
The Pitch: The blockbuster Oblivion Song team of Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici launch an all-new shared universe connected to the Transformers and G.I. Joe! War rages around the Sacred Ring, where the last remnants of two worlds have collapsed around a black hole in a never-ending war. However, when pilot Darak and his rival Solila both crash on a desolate planet, these two enemies must find a way to escape together. But are they alone on this strange planet? And what dark forces await that threaten the entire universe?
This book might not be what it purports to be. It may be more than meets the eye. It may be something in disguise...
You get where I'm going with this right? The secret is out on this one. It's tied into both The Transformers and G.I. Joe Universe. How? Well, that part I have to keep secret. It genuinely would ruin the whole book for you. I found out before I opened the pages of the very first issue, largely because I asked a pal, to be fair. I have to commend Kirmak, De Felici, and everyone at the Image / Skybound Marketing departments for not blowing it before the issue hit the shelves. But then, Kirman and his collaborators have always been good at keeping secrets. Remember how surprised we all were being told that the next issue of The Walking Dead, despite the next few issues having been solicited (part of their clever ruse). But everything about this is surprising, with Kirman taking on the Hasbro license AND the Universal Monsters license, as well as TF tying into the plot... And with Fire Power coming to an end recently, this marks an interesting new chapter for Skybound. But that's the wider picture. What about the book itself?
One of Kirkman's talents is taking well-trod story paths and peppering them with new and unique landmarks along the way. In that respect, Void Rivals will find you familiar ground, story-wise. For my pop-cultural touchstones, being perhaps not as well-read as many and having spent a lot of time reading four-coloured funny books instead of literature and Star Wars instead of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, I saw Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy Mine in the tale of two pilots that crash land in a hostile environment. The prospect of them staying there forever would have put us in the arena of Hell In The Pacific, but since this is part of a larger universe! There's an epic, galactic feel to this as Dark and Solia relate their pasts and the contextual war they find themselves in to each other and us. They are early reveals that poke holes in the logic of their war, as if war was ever logical. As they make their escape from the planet, they run into some familiar obstacles, leading us into other tangents. And those tangents, bit by bit, connect us to Transformers.
Again, I can't give all the details, because I am concerned about ruining it for you. Which leaves me in an odd position. What can I say? Well, I can say that the connections to the TF universe feel entirely logical. Darak's people already seem to have sentient robotics as part of their culture - his 'Handroid' makes for a fun and interesting take on the robot assistant trope. As we get into the separate cultures, we find traces of conspiracy and religious orders that have their claws deep into society, which says a lot about how connected civilisations develop closely, yet along differing paths. Science versus Religion. As the book progresses, we find the tentacles of darker, more ruthless cultures reaching out from the past to ensnare whole worlds.
Kirkman has begun developing decent backstories for his characters, whilst working with the existing material this newly dubbed 'Energon Universe' gives him and his co-creators. The book is well constructed with excellent use of flashbacks, side stories, and surprise appearances that lean on the mythology. My only issue is that I felt a little distracted by the dips into Transformers lore as the prospect of that lore being engineered by interesting new creators is so mouthwatering, that the main thread of the book felt a bit threatened. Still, the writing and art are good enough to keep you invested. It does feel as if Kirkman knows that the Transformers are probably going to be the main attraction, so it's both magnanimous and curious that those characters' fates will be decided by someone else. Darak and Solila are compelling and fun enough to make you want to come back.
De Felici's art is even better here than it was the last time he teamed up with Kirkman on Oblivion Song. He creates a world that feels partially of a piece with the designs we've seen in TF before, whilst making new worlds and new machines. His lines are fast and lively, getting in a surprising amount of detail in nearly all the panels, saving the sparse images for shots that really need to catch your attention. His action panels are exciting and fun, bringing energy to the Energon universe. Lopes mutes the brightness of the colours but keeps a rich dynamic range present. He adds a layer of dust to De Felici's pencils adding to the feeling of a used universe. Wooton's letters and sound effects are well chosen, switching effortlessly between the organic and synthetic, keeping the flow moving. All in all, this is a good, almost low-key start to this version of the characters we know, whilst introducing new ones we can develop attachment to. I suspect that these worlds may tie together in ways we haven't guessed yet and I look forward to seeing how those ties are knotted. More than meets the eye indeed.
Void Rivals Vol. 1 is available now.