Void Rivals #10 Review

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23, recorded June 30th, 2024. Hello and welcome

to another comic review. My name is Jesse. And

as always, I am joined by TFG1Mike of GeekCastRadio

.com. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. This episode

we are discussing Void Rivals number 10. But

before we get to that, we have some news that

just broke this past week. The ongoing G .I.

Joe series, not a real American hero, but the

ongoing G .I. Joe series set within the Energon

universe was announced. It will have the same

creative team as Duke, so Joshua Williamson,

Tom Reilly, Jordy Belair, with a release date

of November 13th, 2024. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

You can eat your turkey and read the first issue.

That's right. So yeah, I guess what are your

overall thoughts on this, right? Obviously, we

speculated on this. We got the announcement before

Comic -Con, which I was surprised by. I'm glad.

Because I didn't want it to get lost. The problem

with San, and I say this as someone who has covered

San Diego Comic -Con in the past on podcasts

and things, the problem with San Diego Comic

-Con that has been the last 15 years or long,

just 15, 20 years, there's so much and you can

miss things. So there's so many things, depending

on what your interests are, depending on what

your fandoms are, there's so much going on at

once. out there in California for that convention

so I'm glad that this was finally confirmed announced

blah blah blah before the convention so that

way we know going in okay cool so now who's gonna

be at the convention doing prints and this and

that and whatever covers and whatever else this

is good I like this this is gonna be fun so uh

we were treated here with the cover art what

are your thoughts on that I'm loving it man I

I think this again when you launch a number one

comic for any anything doesn't matter what it

is as long as it's a number one you have to pull

in the readers the fans not just us not not just

us as light fans or new fans or even the super

fans same thing with transformers you have to

pull somebody in and the fact that this first

cover this is just the first cover we've seen

I guarantee you the number one issue is going

to have at least five, maybe six different covers

because number ones normally have at least that

many, if not more with this, because it's a wraparound

is very, very cool. You don't actually, you see

the GI Joe lettering. You see the sky bound,

um, logo with the number one, whatever you see,

Joshua Williamson, Tom Riley, Johnny Belair at

the top there. The rest of it's all art. The

rest of it's Duke, Cobra commander. major bloods

tomahawks and zeimot and the bat troopers and

the and the new ninja red lady and baroness and

everybody else this is cool this is awesome cuz

wraparound covers are just there just really

cool i think that's a good way to do a comic

book is normally comics they'll usually. Obviously

have the front cover, but the back cover is usually

an advertisement or for single issues specifically

not for trade paperbacks That's completely different.

But for single it normally like the back is like

a paid advertisement or whatever and I love that

they're doing something like this Instead of

of that and again, it's a new number one. It's

to continue on with the energon universe It's

to basically do what we've been seeing them build

in these miniseries. They're building GI Joe.

They're building Cobra And the only way you can

continue that versus story is to have G .I. Joe

in the Energon universe and now we have it. What's

interesting in this cover, which I assume has

no bearing on anything that you're going to see

in the first issue here is they're all standing

on different robots, right? So there's Decepticons

in this rubble. There's Autobots in this rubble.

I want to know who like the giant hand is, because

I don't believe that belongs to Hound, who I

think is in the top. Look at the front cover

there. Yeah, because that's like a very large

Yeah, no, that's not hounds and like over commander's

like standing on what looks like sound wave I

was gonna say that is definitely sound wave Over

on the right and that because that will because

that'll be on the back cover over on the right

Which is the front cover right? We can see the

Autobot symbol. That's probably on prime based

on the color Yeah, and then like I said, I think

we see hound there and then you have some large

robot hand over on the left hand side So yeah,

ongoing GI Joe coming, so another comic to add

to our ongoing reviews here. You say that, you

laugh, and you say that like it's a bad thing.

I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm glad to get

away from the mini -series, the character -focused

mini -series. I'd rather jump into a full -on

series that involves all of the characters. I

understand and I sort of agree with you to a

point about the mini -series, but the thing with

the Energon universe, the fact that everything

is going to be connected and the fact that Skybound

is starting this whole new thing, I liked the

mini -series because even though some of it wasn't

so great. But it was, yeah, we haven't even finished

that yet. That's just on its first issue. Uh,

but it's introducing us who. I'm pretty much

a G .I. Joe layman. I know some stuff, but not

much. And it's also introducing the diehard fans

to what's going to happen in this universe with

these characters and the character point of views.

I agree with you to the point of, OK, let's not

do that anymore unless it's something special.

Let's do this ongoing. But they needed to build

it up to get to that point. I didn't just want

to see void rivals, Transformers and G .I. Joe.

because I like that slow burn story of building

up each team member and getting to know each

team member, even though I really don't want

to get to know Destro. I'm so dreading issue

two of Destro. We're not here to talk about that.

We're not here to talk about that, no. We're

here to talk about Void Rivals Number 10 by Kirkman,

De Felici, Del Pesce, and Wooten. Quick synopsis.

Go Russ. Quick synopsis from ImageComics .com.

Secrets of the Sacred Ring Revealed. Void Rivals

finally puts the Energon in their corner of the

Energon universe. My quick rundown, we open on

Zertonia where the Agorian and Zertonian leaders

are discussing Derek and Selila. We cut to Springer

continuing to fight Proximus while Derek tends

to Selila and is trying to figure out the key

he found on her person. Selila comes to and knocks

the key from Derek's hand and chokes him and

yells at him not to touch that before fainting

again. Having enough of the fight with Proximus,

Springer pulls out his sword and smashes it through

Proximus on the ground, severing an arm and a

leg. Looked pretty painful. Springer transforms

and tells Derek, who is carrying Selila, to hop

in as they head for Springer's lab deep below

the garage. Once inside, Derek removes his helmet

and Selila's, only for Springer to recognize

the jewels on their foreheads as energon ports.

Springer attempts to heal Selila with energon

using the port in her head. When she comes to,

she becomes hostile and demands answers, for

which Springer attempts to explain that the Agorians

and Zerotonians appear to have synthetic elements

that are Cybertronian in design despite being

organic themselves. Springer goes on to explain

that the sacred ring appears to be an engine

that generates energon, and that millions of

years ago, a transformer known as Zeratryon set

out to forge a new path for her kind. We close

with Zeratonian forces showing up outside of

Springer's garage, ready to take out Derek and

Selila, setting us up for an all -out battle

next issue. Thoughts in review of number 10.

I didn't realize that flesh creatures could have

energon ports, but it makes sense to tie it into...

the zirtonians and the agorians and the, and

the, and the, this and the, that and the sacred

ring. And I think this is the most we've ever

seen Springer in his car mode. We've never seen

him in car mode. This meant this long. And I

kind of like it. I kind of dig it. The only time

I ever remember seeing Springer in car mode is

I think it's the season three outro. Cartoon

where it's like I believe he transforms in a

car mode and he's like He's like tearing out

or like backing up or something and then like

ultimately transforms again out of that mode

I don't think we see him throughout the series

in the car mode Not not many times. No, I think

the only time we directly actually see him in

it is when he tries to do it in the movie and

then he transforms and pulls his sword and Starts

fight is the junkie on fight When he's fighting

the junkie on city because i remember in the

movie he does it but like no That's my point.

It's like it's nice to see even even in comic

form doesn't matter. I Every every screen cap

i've got for the last two issues since springer

is showing up is him in in alternate mode whether

he's parked or whether he's flying down the The

planet surface or whatever the hell and that

shot of him with the sword. Oh, wow Just goes

to show you how much larger Cybertronians are

to other flesh things. They're robots and like,

damn. Yeah, I mean, he skewered him there. Yeah,

just come on. Yeah, I just I've had enough of

this. Yep. It's like it's like like Craig Lundee.

Throw another shrimp on the barbie. But I'm loving

this. I think this is really fun. You know, I

100 % agree. I think when I when I read this

the day that it was released, I popped in our

chat, we have an ongoing for those that are listening,

we have an ongoing chat, the two of us. And I

think there's we've got a chat going with Ryan

as well. Yeah. And I think I posted in there

that this has been in my opinion, it was the

best void rivals issue to date. That was I was

very happy to read it. I've read it a couple

of times. And I just I love where the story is

headed, or potentially where the story is heading.

I like that they're weaving in the relation to

Cybertron and the energon in general. And yeah,

just very curious to see where that ultimately

ends up. I want to know more about this Serta

Trion, which is apparently a female transformer.

And when Springer was kind of talking about that

character, and again, we don't know what this

character looks like. kind of got some ideas

as to who the character is based on earlier Void

Rivals issues. But when he was talking about

this, he did mention that there's only two of

his kind that had that designation of Trion.

So I also imagine, right, the other one is Alpha

Trion. Yep. So is that character going to show

up? Don't know. But I'm curious. No. And yeah,

it's very cool and it's very fun. And yeah, I

mean, Void Rivals to the point of issue nine,

one to nine. It's a mystery. It's again, it's

introducing even us, because hello, this is a

whole brand new series, brand new creation, whatever.

It's introducing the audience to these new characters.

And then it's upping the stakes every issue,

issue four, issue five, issue six, seven, eight,

nine. And now we get to ten to the point where

it's not just, oh, hey, there's a transformer

like floating in space with I almost said Skylinks,

but I meant I was going to say Jetfire. Um. I

love I love Springer's kind of like, you know,

Jetfire They did But no, like I like I got to

the end and I was like, oh damn, that's the end

of that Like I don't want to wait another month.

This is why for the last I don't know how many

years over on the pull bag I don't do single

issues because I hate waiting because again,

they leave this off like Oh crap, what are we

going to do now? You know, like, I want to know

what you're going to do now. I don't want to

wait 30 days or 31 day or whatever, how long

it is between. It's too many. Yeah, that's what

it is. It's too many. I think the only thing

the only thing I think this issue was lacking

was more Android. Yeah, I think. Oh, God. Think

Springer doesn't know what the hell to do with

hand or in the beginning. He's like, mr. Hand

right thing And look Springer's a fairly, you

know intelligent robot whatever else and everything

else and all that but like He's meeting these

characters for the first time the fact that this

dude has a talking hand it's like Talk to the

hand, you know, like really like he doesn't know

what the hell to do. But no, it's super funny

again the the colors in this. Oh, it's so good.

Del Pesce on the colors. Oh, man. From the beginning

of this where, and again, you have something

really cool with this. On the front cover, you

have Celila in her pink energon glowiness with

Derek and Springer looking on. The very beginning

with the whole energon universe and all the credits

where it's pink. void rival thing and then you

get into greens and blues and oranges and yellows

with that scene then you get to springer and

you get all the the backgrounds of the planet

and the foregrounds of his colors and their colors

and it's just it's done so well and the story

like there's so many character moments here like

i mean like springer springer doesn't know what

the hell to do with a talking hand you know like

That's funny. That's cool. That's, that's awesome.

That's great. And then you have Derek and him

trying to do all this stuff and you figure out

you got, you know, energon plugs in your energon

outlets in your foreheads. Okay. Well, that's

a, that's a whole mystery we need to now explore.

And you have Selila kind of basically unconscious

and like this, I can only describe as when the

animated characters from Soul die, they all turn

blue. Like you've got this her in this blue stuff

and she's unconscious and trying to figure this

out. It's just really fun and interesting. And

I want to say it now void rivals for me, if I,

if I was making a. Top cause I like doing like

if the year is 24, I will do top 20. I was doing

top 24 comics of 2024 so far void rivals is easily

in the top 10 of that list because this is super

cool. I mean, I guess I would argue. I was trying

to argue against that, but I can't because this

is all I'm reading, sir. Yeah, you can't argue

against it. But again, I've read a bunch of other

comics so far this year, and they're all, you

know, I enjoy reading them. They're all good,

and they're all great, whatever else, but like,

if I went to my local comic shop during, let's

see, Newcom Book Wednesday, and I picked up 10

issues, one from each. title from whatever whether

it's skybound image whatever easily right now

void rivals because it's brand new to me and

brand new to all of us it's easily gonna make

the top ten I don't know if it's going to be,

you know, what number it'll be, but it'll easily

be the top 10 out of 24 for me. Yeah. I think

even if, if you're, I think we talked about this

a couple of issues or a couple of issues a couple

of episodes ago, um, as it related to void rivals,

like even if you're not into anything else within

the energon universe, I think this is really

good science fiction. Yeah. And it's connective

tissue. This issue proves it. It's connective

tissue because issue 10 here. has Springer saying,

oh, you're part, you're part, you were part of

the Cybertronian stuff, you were this, you were

that, you have energon plugs in your heads, and

this, that, and the other thing, and it's really

good, like, I, mmm, I don't know if I should

say this, I'm probably gonna get canceled if

I say it, but, I haven't seen science fiction

done this well. Since Star Trek the next generation.

So I'm I'm a here on page or location. Sorry

location 15 of 33 All right, and that's where

you see the cellula in her Bluey glowiness there.

Yeah, where it's like At this moment in time.

She's like unconscious or whatever. Yep, right

And then she's speaking to the Zerda character,

which obviously is going to be end up being sort

of try on Who is like their? It's like they're

God right there. Yeah, so This is Zerta character

goes on to say is there Tony ins? Agorians all

of you are sleeping first you will awaken meaning

Selena Then you will awaken the rest the time

of unity draws near All will be revealed to you

in time if you allow yourself to see it that

is a name and then she goes Zerta She goes yeah,

that is a name. I answer to you. Yes So in knowing

that the right, the two factions here have different

ports on their heads and knowing that they're

Cybertronian somewhat in nature, do you think

there's any relationship between Autobots and

Decepticons there? Well, do you think they're

pretenders? I know. Wow. That's not really that

much of a deep cut, but that kind of like, wow,

the first cut is the deepest. Yeah, I, I don't

think that's what they're going to do because

I don't think that the Zertonians and the Antigorians,

I don't think that they're going to become the.

I was going to use a blow pop reference, but

I can't, I can't bring myself to say that. um

i don't think so i don't think we're gonna get

maybe who knows i could be wrong but i don't

think because you want these characters to be

on their own like yes they can interact with

the transformers they can do whatever but you

don't want them to become pretenders for the

transformers or the other way around Whatever.

I'm just wondering if they're like analogs to,

well, not necessarily, right, Autobots Decepticons,

but more of like analogs to them, right? Because

the one faction is like a warring faction. And

so the other group, right, there's a resistance

there. Just wondering if those are just parallels,

if they're analogues to the Autobots and Decepticons

now that we're learning more about this. I'm

wondering if the Zeratryon has created these

beings kind of in the same vein as what the Autobots

and Decepticons were on Cybertron. So what you're

saying is one of them is the military hardware

and the other one is the consumer goods. Great.

Nice. I mean, so I guess the difference here,

though, is, right, the the the the leadership

from each side, they're technically working together.

Yeah, that's that's the big difference is the

leadership from both sides. And again, from what

I remember from what we've covered so far, I

have to go back and listen to some of the other

episodes. But like the Sacred Ring, it's two

factions that should be one people. Right. To

work together. And that's, I think, the whole

point. But yeah, I can very much see Derek and

Celilo being either military hardware or consumer

goods. You take your pick which one is which.

But hey, man, I like the Generation 1 explanation

of the beginning of Cybertron and the Autobots

and Decepticons. A lot of people don't like it,

but I do. I like it. Makes sense to me. All right,

anything else here for issue 10? I don't think

so. Like I said, edge of my seat. Let's go for

issue 11. Yeah, the final page here, they're

definitely gearing up for All Out Wars. Oh, yeah.

That leads us to preview for number 11 and 12.

Yep, yep. And I have that right here. So we're

going out to... with several different sources.

I have the Image Comics stuff, but I think we

mentioned this off air. The Image Comics website

for Void Rivals and some of the other books that

are listed for the comic company, it's just a

landing page. It gives you, the cover is in the

description. So I've got for issue 11, we are

going to Majorspoilers .com. And it gives preview

pages for issue - Is it a website? If it's not,

it should be. Yeah. I thought I sent you the

- MajorSpoilers .com is an actual site. Yeah,

you didn't send me this one. Okay, I don't want

to look at this then. Yeah, you might want to

look at that then, huh? No, I said I don't want

to look at this. Oh, okay, well then, yeah, these

are the preview links. All right. But yeah, so

we see, I think what's cool about this is we

see, it's basically a four page preview and I'm

not really, I didn't really look for this for

the preview. That's really not what I, I'm here

mainly for alternate covers. or the main cover

and the, and the description. That's really what

I'm here for. And basically the description is

probably the same as what's on sky bounds thing,

which I'll just say war in the wastelands or

Tony and forces have caught up to Derek and Selena,

but thankfully they have a little cyber Tony

and help Springer to the rescue, which we talked

about in the last episode of the podcast or whatever

else. But the reason why I went to this one website,

the major spoilers website for issue 11 is because.

If I was the person buying this at a comic book

store that I wanted a physical copy of this,

these covers, I would want that very first one

where Springer is in his helicopter mode. It's

the one with the yellow void rivals text for

the thing, and it's got people firing at him

and whatever else. That is super cool. I absolutely

love that. The one that's right after that one?

where it's got Derek and Selila kind of crouching

down, kind of hiding behind stuff. I don't know

who it is that draws that style, but that sort

of style, however you want to define that style,

I think they develop or design a cover for every

issue. Kind of in that vein. I love that style

of artwork. It looks fantastic. Yeah, that looks

really, really good. I like the one where Springer

is in his car mode, but it's like the first two

are very sleek and very modern ish. The third

one here is kind of like, hey, here's Springer

in Five Faces of Darkness Park, whatever. Like,

it's a nice little homage to the cartoon. You

can say that's more cartoon. Yeah, cartoonesque.

And then a really cool one with Derek and Selila

back to back in the different colors, like their

faces and stuff. That is really cool for a character

thing for them. And then the final one is just

Springer being energized or de -energized in

there in front of him. That one's cool too, but

I like some of the others better. The helicopter

one, the one where they're crouching, the two

faces one, those are my three favorites out of

the ones. Yeah, yeah. Now you didn't read the

preview yet, right? Not really, no. So that says,

it says, war in the wastelands. Zerotonian forces

have caught up to Derek and Selila, but thankfully

they have a little Cybertronian help. Springer

to the rescue. Yep. So I'm guessing that Springer's

gonna be featured a lot in that issue. Oh yeah,

and he's probably gonna be featured a lot in

the rest of the arc because it's just the way

that the stuff goes. In all honesty, before we

move on to 12 there, I would be perfectly happy

and okay. If he never moved over to the Transformers

comic, he just stayed here in Void Rivals. We

know Hot Rod is out there looking for somebody,

right? We presume it's potentially Springer.

It may not be because he mentioned who he was

looking for by name. But like I said, I'm perfectly

happy with him just staying with those two. So

we've got issue 12 here. With from the image

comics website because the other one just has

the covers After what they've endured in the

wasteland and our Derek and Selila now destined

to walk separate paths Where Selila goes now

Derek cannot follow or can he what will Springer's

final fate be? And what are the quintessence

planning now dun dun dun? So the only I don't

like that fate part cuz I'm hoping they don't

kill him off. Well, that's funny because one

of the One of the covers is... He's not telling

me this. Come on. There you go. No! He dead.

He dead. Maybe he's just down. Down and out.

I think as we come to a close of this arc, which

is what I'm assuming issue 12 will be, unless

they do something silly and have issue 13 be

the end of the arc, I'm very interested to see

what the Quintessons do because we haven't seen

the Quintessons specifically in a couple of issues.

So I'm very curious to see what they're going

to do because they crazy. Yeah. And then we got

to, I mean, at some point we got to get back

to the the Skuxoid too. You know gotta make sure

his wife's okay and his kids are okay and everything

else damn scuxoids So one thing I did want to

call out Going back to I guess this probably

plays into 11 and 12 and maybe beyond that So

I'm on again location 13 of 33 here. So kids

13 presumably. Yeah, right. We're inside of Springer's

lab. He's got a whole Cachet of energon cubes

just hanging out there Yes, he does. And obviously

he knows, right? He said that the sacred ring

is essentially an energon generator. Autobots,

Decepticons, they're still looking for energy.

So at some point, all of this is going to come

into play here. But I'm just wondering, like,

if Hot Rod is going to stumble upon this, Autobots

will, you know, gain this this Energon cashier.

I just want to know when Hot Rod's going to meet

up with the Autobots on Earth, I guess. At this

point, so do I because they teased him in the

in the free accommodation. I'm just like, bring

the boy in now. Just let's do it already. Like,

you know, after all, he is the better leader

anyway. So do you think do you think he's going

to show up in Void Rivals? Because again, that's

where he was introduced inside the free comic

book days. Yeah, I'm betting that's like, I think

that so Springer said he was searching for somebody

right? That's hot rod. Hot Rod said that. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Hot Rod said that. So maybe Hot Rod

is searching for Springer. So I I don't know.

I all as I know, as I'm here for whatever they're

going to do in this comic, like I'm already invested

into the two main characters of Derek and Selila.

I'm Kind of sort of invested into Proximus, just

because I think he looks cool. He did. OK, well,

he did now. But I'm saying I was invested in

that character because he looked cool kind of

thing. But yeah, I don't know. He might come

back money Python style, though, and just say

it's just a flesh wound. So who knows? Pray I

do not taunt you a second time. Friend taunter.

Geez. All right. Anything else in closing here?

Like I said earlier, this really is a top 10

comic for me. This whole series so far is just

really, really good and it's fresh. I don't personally

think, and I'll say this in other shows coming

up and wherever else, but... the overall entertainment

landscape, not just Hollywood, but the overall

entertainment landscape. We've had the same tropes,

the same plot points, the same this, the same.

Yes, people changed up. Yes, they do it differently,

but sometimes things are fairly freaking predictable.

And with this, because they're crafting a whole

new story, you can still have some of the predictability

of plot elements and things. But every issue

of this, I have walked away ready for more. and

just enjoying reading this book. And if comics

can do that, that's all you need. You just need

it quicker, more than once a month. Well, that's

90 years of tradition. And again, if you were

going to, quote unquote, avoid all spoilers and

just wait for the trade, it's only six months.

It's OK. I've waited for trades for years. That's

too long away. Yeah. All right. I think that's

it. Until next time, this is Jesse and Mike signing

off. See you. Thank you for listening to The

Bullbag here on the GeekCast Radio Network, which

is featuring syndicated versions of another comic

review. Catch you next time. Make your greatest

game in the comics. the pull bag. Send us an

email, feedback at geekcastradio .com, follow

us on twitter at the pull bag and at geekcastradio.

So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you. which ranges

to this day. And the Quintessons are our creators.

Through all these centuries, they have waited

for the proper moment to strike, to reclaim the

planet that we Transformers took from them. And

now they're going for the Gusto, right? Do not

forget what you've learned of our past, Watamus.

From its lessons, the future is forged. Are you

crazy? Why'd you short -circuit yourself? Wake

up, you... you moron! It was the only way...

into the Matrix. I was wrong. He is as dumb as

he looks. Springer!