Summary
- Void Rivals #3 pays homage to 1986’s Transformers: The Movie with a clever reference to the Quintesson Cruiser ship.
- The inclusion of the Quintesson Cruiser adds depth and history to the Energon Universe, tying together old and new Transformers lore.
- By incorporating Transformers Easter eggs, Void Rivals creates a sense of excitement and investment for fans of the franchise.
The Transformers made their grand return to comics earlier this summer in Skybound’s Void Rivals, and Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s new series continues to draw from the TF world in unique and unexpected ways. This includes a clever reference to 1986’s Transformers: The Movie.
Coming from the creative team of Kirkman, De Felici, Matheus Lopes, and Rus Wooten, Void Rivals #3 picks up the story of Darak and Solila, who managed to escape from a desolate moon only to have their ship commandeered by a nearby Skuxxoid, a mercenary alien race of scavengers who travel on large, rock-shaped ships. On the Skuxxoid’s ship are several other ships the mercenary has commandeered, one of which will be familiar to fans of Transformers: The Movie.
The strange, drill-shaped ship in the background is a Quintesson Cruiser, the same vessel that, in the movie, Ultra Magnus and others use to escape the planet Junkoid. They also use the ship to fly into the eye of Unicron at the film’s climax.
Void Rivals Pays Homage To 1986’s Transformers: The Movie
As the debut title in Skybound’s new Energon Universe shared continuity, Void Rivals exists in an all-new and rebooted continuity that also includes Hasbro’s Transformers and G.I. Joe. The story takes place in the midst of a war between two alien races who live on the Sacred Ring, the remnants of two planets that collapsed around a black hole. Two pilots from each race, Darak and Solila, are stranded on a desolate moon following a space battle, and must put aside their differences to work together and try to escape.
This detail is a fun Easter egg, but it also makes sense within the context of Void Rivals #3’s story, as Darak and Solila also run across a Quintesson being held prisoner by the Skuxxoid in the issue. The appearance of the Cruiser not only allows De Felici to strut his stuff and show off his excellent rendering of mechanical details, but it also further establishes the Energon Universe as a living, breathing universe all its own. It also continues the trend of Kirkman and De Felici drawing on the furthest corners of Transformers lore in building out their world, showing that no reference or character is too obscure for inclusion in the new continuity.
This approach adds a great deal to a new property like Void Rivals; by interweaving the mythology of the Sacred Ring with classic G1 Transformers lore, the creators are able to give the new shared universe a sense of history and scale, getting fans invested in by closely tying the new mythology into their love and appreciation for the old. By including fun Transformers Easter eggs like the Quintesson Cruiser into Void Rivals, Kirkman and Skybound are building their new Energon Universe the right way.
Check out Void Rivals #3, available now from Skybound!
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
