[Spoilers] Void Rivals- The Quintesson War Review
With the Quintesson War now concluded I figured it would be a good time to collect my thoughts on this arc of Void Rivals.
First thing out of the gate: the artnis phenomenal. Andrei Bressen takes over from Lorenzo De Felici and his style is so good, and brings so much classic space pulp to this arc which is very fitting. Patricio Delpeche and Dee Cunniffe do excellent work on the colours too. Overall this aec looks gorgeous and thats been a big contributor to my enjoyment of this arc.
Now this arc see's the Sacred Ring under assault by Quintesson forces, who wish to free a creature/weapon called Goliant who is imprisoned within the Sacred Ring's black hole. This was set up by Zerta Trion millions of years ago, long before the Cybertronian Great War. The Quintessons are seemingly worried about a new more dangerous threat so are trying to free Goliant so they can defeat that threat. Is it Unicron? Maybe.
Most of the issues follow Dark, Solila and Proximus (who is confirmed to be Solila's brother) as they attempt to repel the Quintesson invasion. An early lead from the Quintessons is short lived until the Agorrians and Zertonians start using Energon to enhance themselves, quickly repelling the Shakticon forces. That is, until the Quintesson War Tribunal arrives.
I am obsessed with this guy. It's a 10/10 design and the idea of a Quintesson War Judge is just very cool. I like his three faces: War, Death and Dominion. I like his Doc Ock style tentacles. I like his holier-than-thou attitude. And I love that the other Quintessons just absolutely despise him.
In addition to the Quintesson invasion we also have Pythona and her group from Cobra-La arrive on the Sacred Ring. I know next to nothing about these people so it was an uphill battle for me to be engaged in these parts. I do think it is funny that Pythona's ultimate purpose in this storyline is to give Darak and Solila a lift.
The reveal of Proximus as Solila's brother fell a bit flat honestly. I think most people had worked that out many issues earlier, so this confirmation just feels a bit unnecessary. I do like the tragedy of him never catching up to Solila though, it was a nice throughline of him at the end.
And so the arc ultimately ends with the Quintessons winning. Zertonia surrenders, Agorria is more or less destroyed, and Darak and Solila flee with Pythona, tasked by Zerta Trion to find the Cybertronians and rally them to the Sacred Ring. They are going to be in for a rude shock when they get to Cybertron.
Some more general thoughts:
\- I love that Minister Dulin and Darak were found "Innocent" by the Tribunal. They were accused of being Weak, Afraid and being Bad at War. So really the Tribunal likes them and thinks they are worthy opponents. Too bad they get executed either way
\- The Tribunal apparently has "Elite Sharkitcons". We never see them do anything of note...
\- Zalilak breaking one of Judge Naven's faces is great, its always nice to see the Quintessons put in their place.
\- I really like Proximus and Ultum's friendship. We didn't see much here so I hope we get more goong forward.
So yeah overall I really enjoyed the arc. It's more focused viewpoint and story made it a lot more compelling than the previous arcs, which I found to be a bit meandering and very unfocused. But this is a strong entry in the Energon Universe and I am excited to see where Kirkman takes it next.
Next arc is shaping up to be interesting. Issue #31 is confirmed to be all Skuxxoid, so Darak and Solila won't return for two months. I suspect that Alpha Trion appearing in the mainline Transformers comic is a sign that eventually the Cybertron plot of Trnssformers will intersect with Void Rivals. Hot Rod and Springer will probably return soon too. It could be that both Shockwave and Elita Prime will want to capitalise on the Sacred Ring's resources.
Ultimately though I suspect the Quintessons will be brought down by the army of Skuxxoids and the Junkions, as they are both set up previously. Excited to see how it all shakes out!