Void Rivals, Volume 2: Hunted Across the Wasteland Review (Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici)

Absolutely fascinating and totally distinct main characters Generic Man Hero Character and Generic Woman Hero Character are on the run for alien treason. Kylo Ren-wannabe Proximus is dispatched to kill them. Couple of Transformers cameo. Do not read Void Rivals while operating heavy machinery!

Robert Kirkman’s Energon Universe endeavour is so well-received that last month Transformers outsold all of DC’s titles, including Batman - which says a lot about the popularity of this Energon thing and also how unutterably dismal Batman is these days. So it’s ironic that Kirkman himself is writing the least interesting series in the Energon Universe, Void Bowels.

I don’t care the least bit about the characters or their story. I’ve seen characters like Darak and Solila in dozens of other similar comics and their story of running away from danger is so boring. They did it in the first book and they’re still doing it in the second. And the Romeo and Juliet angle is so trite. Kirkman’s also trying to make minor characters like the pig alien a thing and those characters’ subplots are even worse.

Proximus is a crappier version of Kylo Ren with a worse weapon (laser bow and arrows instead of laser sword) and the Thanos-lite character is a snooze. Most of the book is pointless fighting - it’s so dull.

Maybe it’s because I prefer the series or because they seem so much more compelling in comparison to the rest of this title’s drab cast but the Transformers cameos were what saved this book for me. Not so much Hot Rod (though he is one of the few Transformers I recognise from my childhood, so that was nice) but Springer, who plays a bigger role in this book than Jetfire or Hot Rod, and explains more of what Energon is.

Springer looks cooler than the main cast, has some mystique to him, and just feels like a character with more agency and purpose than anyone else. The only times my attention rose above comatose-levels was when he was on the page.

I don’t dislike Lorenzo de Felici’s art but it doesn’t seem that special to me and the comic as a whole is quite boring to look at - it’s basically the same washed-out purple wasteland with a black space background nearly the whole time.

Kirkman and de Felici’s bad Star Wars impression Void Rivals remains the worst title in the Energon Universe. It underlines that fact by continuing to rely on Transformers cameos to have fans of that series pay attention to it, otherwise it’d be the most disposable series in the line! Void Rivals, Volume 2: Bored Across the Wasteland is a comic void of excitement.