Void Rivals #4

Void Rivals (Single Issues)

by Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici (Artist), Mateus Lopes (Artist)

The climactic return to the SACRED RING!  Thrown before the highest authority for their crimes against the Sacred Ring, will Darak and Solila’s newfound alliance hold strong?
 THE MOST SHOCKING NEW SERIES OF THE YEAR CONTINUES! 

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

32 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 27, 2023

About the author

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.

Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.

In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.

Reviews

[Jean-Paul Lane Valley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am getting a similar vibe from this series so far as I got from the first issue of Skybound's Transformers: It's just very safe and by the numbers. It's a very solid story and good enough to keep me interested, but nothing very memorable from among the thousands of 'Enemy Mine' based stories out there. This lacks a good twist that would spark the story, I guess Kirkman wants to wait to something like he did on Invincible, but so far it's taking too long. And randomly inserted Transformers characters are not enough to keep me interested, especially when there is a new series solely focused in them.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teil 4 der Serie, der nächste Schritt der Reihe wird dann im Wechsel zu den Transformers sein. ich bin gespannt. Die beiden Gestrandeten haben es auf den heiligen Ring geschafft, allerdings nicht wie besprochen getrennt, sondern einer als Gefangener des Anderen. Wie reagieren die Herrscher?

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well isn’t that just perfect?! Of course that’s what the big reveal at the end would be, LOL. But woah that quick cybertron interlude came out of nowhere, that was awesome! As we shockingly jump into this issue, we pickup right after Solila shocked Darak into unconsciousness in order to bring him to her side of the sacred ring. Even though Darak is out, the handroid, which can only control the hand part of his body, is not a fan of this idea and is able to maneuver Darak to knock Solila over and point a blaster at her. Unfortunately the handroid doesn’t have any ability to see, so it can’t see that Solila has her spear pointed at Darak’s neck. Handroid has a protocol for this situation…surrender. With the knowledge that there is a failsafe is she tries to remove the handroid, she tells it to behave, lol. We now come upon the large green pyramid filled city of Zertonia. There we are immediately introduced to Premier Zalilak and his many names to be honored. Today he meets with one of the leaders in the city as he comes desperately asking for more water. But the conversation is cut short as the Premier is made aware of the approaching ship, and immediately realizes that it is Solila due to it being an alien ship and the correct security code is being used. He cuts the conversation short to amass a welcome party. At this point Darak is awake and quite mad, he thought they were friends. Solila can’t help but scoff, she will admit they seen no longer enemies but they are no where near friends, more like…rivals! CUE THE THEME MUSIC and TITLE CARD EVERYONE, lol. Darak has to admit he also likes the sound of them being rivals, hell this was probably the best outcome when facing a Zertonia warrior. She makes sure it is very clear that he cannot let anyone know he knows anything about her, especially the part about seeing each others faces as she can only reveal that to people she is sure she can trust…which she is still figuring out. The premier welcomes her with open arms and has his guards take the Agorrian prisoner away as people spit and hide their children’s eyes from his hideous face still hidden behind a mask. Solila immediately gets down on one knee and apologizes for her failure and promises to accept her punishment. But the premier will not hear of it after she brought such a gift.

But in a surprise twist that literally made me yell “WHAT,” we suddenly turn the page to see shockwave of the decepticons! And as is the norm, he is not in a good mood. Turns out Skuxxoid brought the xenomorph head tentacle monster, known as a quintesson, to Cybertron to sell to them as they had its species. But shockwave has no currency that he hasn’t spent on resources, and as it turns out energon seems to be a currency and sustaining force. And at this very moment the other decepticons are in stasis. Skuxxoid hoped that would mean shockwave could understand his blight as he also has mouths to feed and they can probably work something out. But shockwave doesn’t care and is threatening to rip his ship apart for parts if he doesn’t leave, lol. What a wild interaction to stick in the middle of this issue, love it.

We jump back to the sacred ring to find Solila kneeling before the Premier in the throne room. Turns out he knows all about Darak, the Agorrians greatest pilot, and he believes he is a valuable asset that can be traded for resources. This also means he will be traded back and not harmed, which Solila is very vocally pleased with. This confuses the Premier, and he asks if she cares for this Agorrian? She backtracks immediately, proclaiming that they had to cooperate to her home but he is her enemy but they survived together and she doesn’t want to see him harmed if it can be avoided. The premier looked down at her and then leaned in real close and asked if she saw his face? She is too stunned to speak, and moments later we join Darak in his cell finding no way he can escape with his handroid (as why would they let him keep it if it was useful) only for the door to open and for Solila to be thrown in with him. He is very confused as to why they are together, but she explains that they know about their situation and how she didn’t even need to say anything but the premier just knew she knew the truth. Darak can’t help but laugh at how her double cross ended up. But as the issue comes to an end we see the premier head to a secret underground location where he removed his mask and activated a communication channel. It’s very clear from the start that he is talking to someone on the other side as he explains that they both saw their faces and they must keep this secret as they have alter planned to m deal with their pilot accordingly…but the Agorrian is another more complicated matter as he is the son of the minister the premier is currently talking to! Bum-bum-bum! Of course they have been in cahoots the entire time, but the minister doesn’t seem to care. His son was lost to him years ago, and he promptly hangs up the call. They haven’t said this yet, but based on the Premier’s body language, I would place a hefty bet to say his daughter is Solila. Which means that Solila and Darak are destined “rivals” from two warring civilizations, lead by their parents, that are probably destined to unify it as Darak’s dream implies. Yeah, this rocks.

[Josh Beasley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The twist is expected, but not bad. Pacing remains good. Books are snappy, easy reads. The art is growing on me.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aún es bastante desconcertante que esta parezca una propuesta totalmente independiente y seguir presenciando cameillos de la franquicia Transformers y la referencia del Energon. Se sabe lo del Universo Compartido, pero tampoco parece sensato generar series porque sí, al menos, no varias de una misma temática o estilo. Pero, claro, si está bien planteado, me imagino que más pronto que tarde Void Rivals empezará a defender su existencia en este marco comiquero. Pero sí que temo que en su mejor punto personal, la historia de estos personajes tenga que seguirle la corriente a Optimus Prime y cia. más que a otra cosa.

[Shawn Robare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I’m enjoying this enough to keep reading, but I have to say that the crossover aspect of this issue was mighty forced. So far the Transformers bits have been more or less organic to the story. Jetfire in Issue 1 was alight, not organic, but okay. The Skuxxion in issue 2 was fun, as was the Quintesson prosecutor in issue 3. But just having the latter two show up on Shockwaves doorstep on what I assume is Cybertron in this issue was not only not organic, it interrupted this story. Just lazy and forced.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a conspiracy between the two parts of the Sacred Ring to suppress the origins of the two warring factions that live on it. And Shockwave and Cybertron make a cameo!

There is no doubt that this reader is hyped to read the new Transformers series. Once that series is up and running, a transition to reading solely that series may be in order because aside from the Transformers cameo, there is little else for this reader to stick around for.

[Katy Morrical · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm getting concerned that I need to know about the Transformers series to truly enjoy this.

[Dennis Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still intriguing 4.25/5

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

My interest in the main story wanes just as a secondary story starts to heat up.

[Jason]

5