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Voltron Defender of The Universe #Omnibus
Voltron, Defender of the Universe Omnibus
An unbelievable legend thought lost forever! Five mythical and technological ships that combine to form the greatest defender the universe has ever known! A desperate journey to recover these lost wonders takes five men from Earth and into a galactic war that threatens to consume all! Witness the rise of Voltron and the Voltron Force!
- GenresGraphic Novels
300 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2008
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45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 18, 2025
As a Klance fan, so crazy to find Lance was with Allura in the show and Keith was with her in the books. Also, Lance is canonically taller than Keith. The art style was switching up and it was cracking me up. Still love it though, this is my family's origin story. KICK
June 8, 2015
Last month when dealing with my monthly attack of insomnia, I got the urge to watch some old school Voltron. And I haven't stopped since. I watched all the 80s episodes on Hulu. I tracked down the original Beast King GoLion Japanese show (not appropriate for children at all, btw) on YouTube and Crunchyroll . I even watched the 2011 Nick Toons reboot, which I like. Don't shoot me.
My childhood obsession was back. And that's how I ended up searching for this Omnibus. I started out loving this - the characters all had more personality. Backstories will do that. I adored the more mystical origins of Voltron, which are more inline with GoLion and what the Nick Toons reboot was starting to explore. I love how the Lions chose their pilots and connected with them telepathically. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as sanitized as the 80s cartoon either. No cheesy speeches from Keith. No Nanny at all, thank God. And we get an Allura who's tons more forthright, not letting Coran rule her. She is the princess of Arus after all.
What kills it is the printing errors. Pages out of order, which throws off the reader in some of the more climatic parts of the story. Towards the end of the 12 issues included in the omnibus, the artwork gets sloppy and the characters start looking completely different. The mythological aspects seem to get replaced by the more robotic, scientific ones. It just felt lazy. Yes I know, the series was cancelled because of sales, but that didn't mean the fans who did buy these issues had to suffer. If this is all we're getting, since movie plans don't seem to be panning out, they could've done us a solid.
I'm also really tired of every incarnation of Voltron playing around with Keith and Allura, rather than just going for it. Are there other comics that actually do? Maybe I'll pick up those.
My childhood obsession was back. And that's how I ended up searching for this Omnibus. I started out loving this - the characters all had more personality. Backstories will do that. I adored the more mystical origins of Voltron, which are more inline with GoLion and what the Nick Toons reboot was starting to explore. I love how the Lions chose their pilots and connected with them telepathically. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as sanitized as the 80s cartoon either. No cheesy speeches from Keith. No Nanny at all, thank God. And we get an Allura who's tons more forthright, not letting Coran rule her. She is the princess of Arus after all.
What kills it is the printing errors. Pages out of order, which throws off the reader in some of the more climatic parts of the story. Towards the end of the 12 issues included in the omnibus, the artwork gets sloppy and the characters start looking completely different. The mythological aspects seem to get replaced by the more robotic, scientific ones. It just felt lazy. Yes I know, the series was cancelled because of sales, but that didn't mean the fans who did buy these issues had to suffer. If this is all we're getting, since movie plans don't seem to be panning out, they could've done us a solid.
I'm also really tired of every incarnation of Voltron playing around with Keith and Allura, rather than just going for it. Are there other comics that actually do? Maybe I'll pick up those.
December 1, 2024
As a dieheart Voltron fan who has to get my human hands on everything from Beast King Golion to Vehicle Force to the latest episodes of Legendary Defender, I was extremely excited in the opportunity to purchase and read this omnibus. I must say, out of all the Voltron iterations and interpretations I have experienced, this has turned into an unexpected top favorite.
While I do read graphic novels and own a fair collection of trade paperbacks and loose comic issues, I will admit that I don't gravitate as quickly to these stories as I do text novels. For whatever reason, I find it more difficult to become invested. This omnibus, however, consumed my attention so thoroughly that I had to frenetically liveblog at friend at 4:30 AM about my emotions, thoughts, feelings, speculations, and excitement.
What this run of Voltron does so well is capture the original heart, story, and context of Defender of the Universe... but frame it in a more realistic and mature respect. I feel as though there was a great balance of maintaining original lore and updating that which might feel corny to keep otherwise. For instance, Arus is still depicted as a war-torn country with little technology, a princess, and a castle, but the background makes this setting feel much more feasible in the midst of a deep science fiction realm. The Drule's attacks on the people have lead the Arusians to flee and live underground; where once there was more advanced technology, now they are reduced to what little they can scrounge up. All this gives a natural feel for maintaining a close setting to the original Defender of the Universe show, while at the same time updating it for better logic.
The characters for the most part feel right at home with the Lion Force episodes, though they are given a little bit more gritty portrayals, backstory, and personality. Lance is still the semi-cynical, cocky rogue with a sense of daring adventure. But weaved into Lance is now the background that he is a convicted felon who took his flight abilities in the military a bit too far. Pidge's youthfulness is maintained just as we might expect from Defender of the Universe, though the story infuses other now-well-established Voltron lore that Pidge is a technological genius as well. Where we perhaps get the most divergence is with Keith - who is a bit more brooding than calm and open - and Sven - who is not just quiet and alert, but also bitter and cold. Still, these decisions are all made with very important storytelling goals, and it's something that I embraced completely from the first page. I find everyone's personalities nicely done.
It truly felt as though I were viewing Defender of the Universe anew - the same story, but updated to a more "adult" level. I once again could view to my delight the five space explorers embark on a mission to investigate Arus and locate Voltron. I once again saw them land near the Castle of Lions, meet Coran and Allura, and harness the power of the five Lions to protect this planet against the Drule Empire. It's a rather thrilling venture.
As the story gains momentum, it - in a few respects - diverges increasingly more from the 1980s American storyline. By that point, though, the reader is invested in the world that is established. And, frankly. an original story with new content is a nice divergence from this point... it avoids the monotony in the middle of Lion Force's first season, where we repeatedly watch Zarkon/Lotor send down one robeast at a time to fight on Arus. That repetitive episodic structure is foregone in favor of what I find a thrilling, long-arcing, solid, exciting plot. The only notable weak plot points arrive late in the game, when the 2004 comics were discontinued, and from what I gather, the 2008 omnibus hastily gathered together the story and completed it for reader satisfaction.
And though the story doesn't always closely follow that of Defender of the Universe, it always harks back to the show, too... not only Lion Force, but also integrating Vehicle Force in the mix, too. For people familiar with the old American show, it's rewarding to re-meet characters down to Merla and Chip and Jeff and Hawkins and Yurak and Romelle.
I am going to talk spoilers now. Whether or not you read them is your choice. But I do think it is only fair to bring up some particulars as to WHY this was such a thrilling plot to me.
1. The long-term plot is smooth and fully developed. I feel as though lots of graphic novels (especially ones going on decades of issues) have "truncated" or detached plots... they don't feel as long, developed, and momentum-moving as a several hundred page text novel might. This omnibus, however, is very large, and it progresses smoothly start to finish in a single story that organically moves and grows and shifts and tugs and tumbles. It's honestly nice pacing and storytelling. Very satisfying to sit down and read.
2. Character growth for particular characters is marvelous. Keith and Allura's relationship grows organically, and we see them increasingly come to know one another. While it's not perfect, it's a believable flow. And as far as Sven is concerned... how Sven was handled and developed was so SUPERB I'm giving him his own number point.
3. Sven. I love how the story handles Sven. He is shown to be a personality naturally aloof; when he is rejected by the Blue Lion and can no longer function as part of the main Voltron Team, he becomes understandably upset. This bitterness grows into a motivation to find a team that truly appreciates him... and combined with the mind-influencing powers of Merla and Haggar... we get a solid reason for why this lone wolf decides to betray Voltron. Watching Sven betray Voltron is extremely exciting, not to mention it's long and powerful tension seeing the questions of his fate arise. How much of his betrayal is his own free will and how much is the mind control of Merla? Is there a way for the Voltron team to recover him, or will they need to kill him? It's great suspense, leading to great interaction, leading to great action, leading to great drama. I'm not going to say it's perfect - I could nitpick some things here and there - but it truly is thrilling.
In so many ways, this comic delivers *THE* Voltron story I would want. It gives me a great balance between mature adult logic and action... alongside the original enchanting, motivating story of a giant heroic robot that first caught my eye in BKG, DotU, and VLD. It gives me a highly entertaining, talkative, if somewhat scoundrel-esque Lance; it gives me a cute relationship between Keith and Allura; it gives me the high-stakes drama of Keith deciding whether or not the need to KILL SVEN; it gives me the fun and action and excitement that I've always loved about the Voltron universe.
I know I don't see many Voltron fans picking up these comics, and I see even fewer talking about these comics with gusto, but I personally wholeheartedly recommend this story. It's got something for people who first hopped into Voltron with Legendary Defender, and it's got something for people who watched Voltron when the Americans first dubbed Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV in the 80s.
I think I've talked mostly about how this is an asset to DotU fans. Now, for the people who are more on the Voltron train because of VLD, I'll leave you with this:
There are multiple plot points in this omnibus that are notably similar to current VLD plot progressions (I'm writing this after VLD S4 has been released on Netflix). This omnibus covers things like:
1. The pilots' connections to the lions being a combination of mechanical control and magical-psychological linking.
2. The lions of Voltron being able to reject an unsuitable candidate - namely, we see a lion reject Sven on account of the conditions of his mind!
3. Keith suffering through past loss, including the death of his parents when he was twelve (and the death of his fiance twelve years later). This loss influencing his current emotional health and his distance from the other teammates of Voltron.
4. Haggar selecting Sven for her purposes.
5. Questions arising about how much Sven is in control of his own mind, or how much is influenced by Drule control over him.
6. Lotor entering a desperate situation in which he must work together with a member of the Voltron Force.
7. A character deciding that they must fly kamikaze into a Drule ship to save Voltron during battle, while Lotor is fighting alongside Voltron, and said character manages to survive said kamikaze stunt.
Sound familiar?
And many of these plot points are found basically *only* in this omnibus across Voltron canon. I can't claim that the writers of Legendary Defender took any inspiration from Devil's Due Publishing, especially since this is a more obscure part of the Voltron canon, but... it's fun to speculate. So for people who wish to theorize about what may happen with Shiro, Kuron, and the clone theory... or people who wonder if Merla might make an appearance in VLD... perhaps this story can offer tentative clues.
So I am wholly happy that I have read this omnibus. I do encourage people to give it a read. Don't expect it to be THE SAME as Defender of the Universe, Voltron Force, Legendary Defender, or some other iteration of Voltron. This comic is more or less a retelling of Defender of the Universe with its own original spin, plot, and internal consistency. So this is its own separate telling of Voltron. And it's a mighty underappreciated and enjoyable one.
While I do read graphic novels and own a fair collection of trade paperbacks and loose comic issues, I will admit that I don't gravitate as quickly to these stories as I do text novels. For whatever reason, I find it more difficult to become invested. This omnibus, however, consumed my attention so thoroughly that I had to frenetically liveblog at friend at 4:30 AM about my emotions, thoughts, feelings, speculations, and excitement.
What this run of Voltron does so well is capture the original heart, story, and context of Defender of the Universe... but frame it in a more realistic and mature respect. I feel as though there was a great balance of maintaining original lore and updating that which might feel corny to keep otherwise. For instance, Arus is still depicted as a war-torn country with little technology, a princess, and a castle, but the background makes this setting feel much more feasible in the midst of a deep science fiction realm. The Drule's attacks on the people have lead the Arusians to flee and live underground; where once there was more advanced technology, now they are reduced to what little they can scrounge up. All this gives a natural feel for maintaining a close setting to the original Defender of the Universe show, while at the same time updating it for better logic.
The characters for the most part feel right at home with the Lion Force episodes, though they are given a little bit more gritty portrayals, backstory, and personality. Lance is still the semi-cynical, cocky rogue with a sense of daring adventure. But weaved into Lance is now the background that he is a convicted felon who took his flight abilities in the military a bit too far. Pidge's youthfulness is maintained just as we might expect from Defender of the Universe, though the story infuses other now-well-established Voltron lore that Pidge is a technological genius as well. Where we perhaps get the most divergence is with Keith - who is a bit more brooding than calm and open - and Sven - who is not just quiet and alert, but also bitter and cold. Still, these decisions are all made with very important storytelling goals, and it's something that I embraced completely from the first page. I find everyone's personalities nicely done.
It truly felt as though I were viewing Defender of the Universe anew - the same story, but updated to a more "adult" level. I once again could view to my delight the five space explorers embark on a mission to investigate Arus and locate Voltron. I once again saw them land near the Castle of Lions, meet Coran and Allura, and harness the power of the five Lions to protect this planet against the Drule Empire. It's a rather thrilling venture.
As the story gains momentum, it - in a few respects - diverges increasingly more from the 1980s American storyline. By that point, though, the reader is invested in the world that is established. And, frankly. an original story with new content is a nice divergence from this point... it avoids the monotony in the middle of Lion Force's first season, where we repeatedly watch Zarkon/Lotor send down one robeast at a time to fight on Arus. That repetitive episodic structure is foregone in favor of what I find a thrilling, long-arcing, solid, exciting plot. The only notable weak plot points arrive late in the game, when the 2004 comics were discontinued, and from what I gather, the 2008 omnibus hastily gathered together the story and completed it for reader satisfaction.
And though the story doesn't always closely follow that of Defender of the Universe, it always harks back to the show, too... not only Lion Force, but also integrating Vehicle Force in the mix, too. For people familiar with the old American show, it's rewarding to re-meet characters down to Merla and Chip and Jeff and Hawkins and Yurak and Romelle.
I am going to talk spoilers now. Whether or not you read them is your choice. But I do think it is only fair to bring up some particulars as to WHY this was such a thrilling plot to me.
1. The long-term plot is smooth and fully developed. I feel as though lots of graphic novels (especially ones going on decades of issues) have "truncated" or detached plots... they don't feel as long, developed, and momentum-moving as a several hundred page text novel might. This omnibus, however, is very large, and it progresses smoothly start to finish in a single story that organically moves and grows and shifts and tugs and tumbles. It's honestly nice pacing and storytelling. Very satisfying to sit down and read.
2. Character growth for particular characters is marvelous. Keith and Allura's relationship grows organically, and we see them increasingly come to know one another. While it's not perfect, it's a believable flow. And as far as Sven is concerned... how Sven was handled and developed was so SUPERB I'm giving him his own number point.
3. Sven. I love how the story handles Sven. He is shown to be a personality naturally aloof; when he is rejected by the Blue Lion and can no longer function as part of the main Voltron Team, he becomes understandably upset. This bitterness grows into a motivation to find a team that truly appreciates him... and combined with the mind-influencing powers of Merla and Haggar... we get a solid reason for why this lone wolf decides to betray Voltron. Watching Sven betray Voltron is extremely exciting, not to mention it's long and powerful tension seeing the questions of his fate arise. How much of his betrayal is his own free will and how much is the mind control of Merla? Is there a way for the Voltron team to recover him, or will they need to kill him? It's great suspense, leading to great interaction, leading to great action, leading to great drama. I'm not going to say it's perfect - I could nitpick some things here and there - but it truly is thrilling.
In so many ways, this comic delivers *THE* Voltron story I would want. It gives me a great balance between mature adult logic and action... alongside the original enchanting, motivating story of a giant heroic robot that first caught my eye in BKG, DotU, and VLD. It gives me a highly entertaining, talkative, if somewhat scoundrel-esque Lance; it gives me a cute relationship between Keith and Allura; it gives me the high-stakes drama of Keith deciding whether or not the need to KILL SVEN; it gives me the fun and action and excitement that I've always loved about the Voltron universe.
I know I don't see many Voltron fans picking up these comics, and I see even fewer talking about these comics with gusto, but I personally wholeheartedly recommend this story. It's got something for people who first hopped into Voltron with Legendary Defender, and it's got something for people who watched Voltron when the Americans first dubbed Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV in the 80s.
I think I've talked mostly about how this is an asset to DotU fans. Now, for the people who are more on the Voltron train because of VLD, I'll leave you with this:
There are multiple plot points in this omnibus that are notably similar to current VLD plot progressions (I'm writing this after VLD S4 has been released on Netflix). This omnibus covers things like:
1. The pilots' connections to the lions being a combination of mechanical control and magical-psychological linking.
2. The lions of Voltron being able to reject an unsuitable candidate - namely, we see a lion reject Sven on account of the conditions of his mind!
3. Keith suffering through past loss, including the death of his parents when he was twelve (and the death of his fiance twelve years later). This loss influencing his current emotional health and his distance from the other teammates of Voltron.
4. Haggar selecting Sven for her purposes.
5. Questions arising about how much Sven is in control of his own mind, or how much is influenced by Drule control over him.
6. Lotor entering a desperate situation in which he must work together with a member of the Voltron Force.
7. A character deciding that they must fly kamikaze into a Drule ship to save Voltron during battle, while Lotor is fighting alongside Voltron, and said character manages to survive said kamikaze stunt.
Sound familiar?
And many of these plot points are found basically *only* in this omnibus across Voltron canon. I can't claim that the writers of Legendary Defender took any inspiration from Devil's Due Publishing, especially since this is a more obscure part of the Voltron canon, but... it's fun to speculate. So for people who wish to theorize about what may happen with Shiro, Kuron, and the clone theory... or people who wonder if Merla might make an appearance in VLD... perhaps this story can offer tentative clues.
So I am wholly happy that I have read this omnibus. I do encourage people to give it a read. Don't expect it to be THE SAME as Defender of the Universe, Voltron Force, Legendary Defender, or some other iteration of Voltron. This comic is more or less a retelling of Defender of the Universe with its own original spin, plot, and internal consistency. So this is its own separate telling of Voltron. And it's a mighty underappreciated and enjoyable one.
July 18, 2022
Five stars for the series, three for the presentation.
I was aware of Voltron as a kid, but didn't consider myself a fan and didn't consistently watch it. However, having had mixed results with other 80s cartoon revival comics (TMNT was good, Masters of the Universe not so much), I was excited but also worried going in. Would this spark interest in going back to those shows, or would it retroactively ruin it?
I needn't have been, the story hooked me right away. It's updated in all the right ways, without going overboard and trying to be overly serious and grim like Masters of the Universe. I loved the characters, Allura is far stronger and central than I remember, and even though the bad guys are clearly bad they're also clearly people with flaws and even the potential to do good at times, rather than stock evil for evil's sake.
Unfortunately, there are some weird errors in this otherwise excellent omnibus. Pages are out of order at one point, putting the climatic giant robot fight first and then going back to our heroes trying to get to their lion ships. Also, in the paragraph introducing the final prequel mini-comics, apostrophes are replaced with question marks, and why is there a set of character bios at the end when the bios only cover their pre-series lives? That should have been at the beginning, as at first differentiating the characters (especially Sven and Keith who are viusally rather similar) can be difficult, particularly if you don't remember the series at all.
Still very worth it if you can ignore the editing errors.
Whoever put this together should have paid more attention, as it mars what was otherwise a very fun series.
I was aware of Voltron as a kid, but didn't consider myself a fan and didn't consistently watch it. However, having had mixed results with other 80s cartoon revival comics (TMNT was good, Masters of the Universe not so much), I was excited but also worried going in. Would this spark interest in going back to those shows, or would it retroactively ruin it?
I needn't have been, the story hooked me right away. It's updated in all the right ways, without going overboard and trying to be overly serious and grim like Masters of the Universe. I loved the characters, Allura is far stronger and central than I remember, and even though the bad guys are clearly bad they're also clearly people with flaws and even the potential to do good at times, rather than stock evil for evil's sake.
Unfortunately, there are some weird errors in this otherwise excellent omnibus. Pages are out of order at one point, putting the climatic giant robot fight first and then going back to our heroes trying to get to their lion ships. Also, in the paragraph introducing the final prequel mini-comics, apostrophes are replaced with question marks, and why is there a set of character bios at the end when the bios only cover their pre-series lives? That should have been at the beginning, as at first differentiating the characters (especially Sven and Keith who are viusally rather similar) can be difficult, particularly if you don't remember the series at all.
Still very worth it if you can ignore the editing errors.
Whoever put this together should have paid more attention, as it mars what was otherwise a very fun series.
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