Advance Review: After The First Issue Hype ‘Void Rivals’ #2 Falters
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
‘Void Rivals’s #2 offers up a potted backstory for the two alien races at war with one another, but its nothing new with the rest of the issue plodding along at a slow pace. An issue whose function it seems to be to get the series up and running and heading towards more satisfying and exciting adventures, I hope.
Overall
6/10After all the noise and chatter surrounding the surprise reveal of The Transformers existence in Void Rivals #1, the second issue was always going to be hard to live up to that level of hype. But, it could at least try to be more exciting than it is. This series feels like a very slow-burn, decompressed story which, while revealing a good deal of history surrounding the two warring factions of Aggorians and Zertonians, spends a good deal of its time focussed on out two heroes, and sworn enemies, building a rag-tag space ship, and a budding relationship too. It’s not quite as dull as watching paint dry, but it’s no kore exciting than watching a mechanic fix your car. And while the world building helps explain the animosity these two alien races have towards each other, there’s not too much else that actually happens. It’s an issue that’s sole purpose seems to get an adventure in space up and running, both literally and figuratively. A means to an end, but little more.
Lost in space, will this whole series be a journey from one adventure to another, before these two frenemies come to realise they, and their differing species, are more similar than they think?
The artwork, by Lorenzo De Felici, remains visually stunning and establishes the two different alien races, while the colour art by Matheus Lopes help differentiate them with two distinct, and contrasting colour palettes adopted by each. Although you may feel this all feels far too familiar, with the concept of warring alien races with more in common than they care to admit being a rather overworked idea.
Can writer Robert Kirkman breath new life into this stale story idea? I suspect so. He does have a track record, after all, of surprising the reader by turning well worn tropes on their head, as he did with Invincible and the super hero genre, as just one example of a career based on invention designed to surprise the reader. But, based on its own merits, Void Rivals #2 is a rare dull and pedestrian read that offers nothing new that readers haven’t read or seen many times before. Although, the last page reveal does suggest more Transformer related adventures to come.
Void Rivals #2 is out Wednesday 19th July from Skybound/Image Comics
