REVIEW: Void Rivals #1

3.85/5.0 Stars
Rating if the Book Were a Movie: PG/PG-13

Creative Team:

Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Lorenzo De Felici
Colors: Matheus Lopes
Letters:Rus Wooton
Cover: Jadon Howard
Editor: Bixie Mathieu
Publisher: Image Comics 

Ratings:

Story: 4.1 Stars
Artwork: 3.8 Stars
Cover Artwork: 4.0 Stars
Dialogue: 3.7 Stars
Mechanics: 3.8 Stars
Editing: 3.7 Stars 

About the Book:

Fighter pilots from two warring planets came too close to a comet during a dogfight. The comet’s gravitational pull throws the two ships across the galaxy and into uncharted quadrants. The two pilots have crash landed on a planetoid that has a breathable atmosphere; but not much else. Their ships are damaged to the point that collectively they have one functional spacecraft. Rations are limited. Darak and Solila, the pilots, will have to forget about their differences quickly if they’re to survive this.

Reader’s Notes:

I was very excited when I heard about Void Rivals #1 being published. The rumor mill was saying that this issue would give us a viable base to launch a Transformers series from. In turn that could lead to a G.I. Joe series. Seeing two of my favorite franchises brought back to give us more content?! Yes, please!!!

The fact that Robert Kirkman is going to be the one leading the charge has me very intrigued. Kirkman did pretty well with a title called The Walking Dead. I liked his work in Die! Die! Die!. He says he’s a fan of the franchises. This promises to be fun!

Now that that’s out of my system, let’s talk about Void Rivals #1. I liked the premise of the story. We’ve seen similar concepts over the years; but human beings are savages with the attention span of a fruit fly. They need constant reminders that hatred and fighting leads to mutually assured destruction while playing nicely may give one the opportunity to live long and prosper.

I loved seeing the reaffirmation that cooperation helps ensure survival. With any luck the dominant species on our planet will figure this out sometime soon before we run out of natural resources or breeding stock.

This cover is what I like to refer to as “Transformers Cool”. I give it this distinction for multiple reasons.

1.  It gives us a glimmer of hope that the franchise is coming back under a new publisher.

2. It has Jetfire (Skyfire) on the cover. For being a very popular original G1 character, he didn’t receive anywhere near as much love as the others from that era when it came to getting put on covers. It’s nice to see him get the respect he deserves.

3. Mr. Howard’s work on this cover is outstanding. The red Autobot logo on a white background with Jetfire in the foreground… It works because it isn’t too busy. We get plenty of detail on Jetfire with nothing to pull our attention away. Less is more in this case. I love it.

I enjoyed the artwork on the interior pages. We get good line work. The coloring is spot on, especially when we see the wreckage that is Jetfire. As much as I could go on at great length about what his being here means, from a story perspective I loved seeing the pilots take off their helmets.

As a geek on a budget I am all in on Void Rivals. We are getting an exciting new series that reminds us to be kind to others. We get great artwork. We get a chance to see greatness from the man that gave us The Walking Dead. What’s not to love?