Darak and Solila’s return to the Sacred Ring hasn’t gone as planned. Both are now jailed, likely to be executed, and all of it due to some conspiracy. While Void Rivals has generally been “who’s the latest guest star,” Void Rivals #5 and the previous really start to get things going hinting at the bigger story to come.

Written by Robert Kirkman, Void Rivals has been an interesting series. It was the surprise launch of the “Energon Universe” that includes Transformers and G.I. Joe. Each issue has had a surprise guest star from Transformers that hasn’t tied too much into the main story, acting more as something that happened. Finally, Void Rivals #5 begins to tie all of that together… finally.

Darak and Solila are still jailed and there’s much going on there, but Kirkman is doing something interesting in giving us a look at another intergalactic conflict. There’s some interesting echoes of the Cybertronian conflict here, making Void Rivals at time feeling like meta commentary about that story. But, it is its own thing with two sides in cahoots and a division built on arbitrary bullshit instead of actual abuse. Still, it’s two rival factions locked in a death spiral, much like their robot guest stars.

But… there might be more to it all if the tease is to be believed. Where this series goes after its initial arc will be the interesting part and hopefully it builds off of and expands from the initial setup as it has this issue. It’s taken a bit, but things feel like they’re starting to move and pay off.

The art by Lorenzo De Felici continues to be good. With color by Patricio Delpeche and lettering by Rus Wooton, the art delivers a sci-fi world while still not being completely alien. There’s a coldness to the characters and world, overall it creates an almost brutal, inorganic feel to it all. It’s a different feel from that of Cybertron or that of Earth. The three different settings will be intriguing when we really get to compare them all but there’s clearly a decision here to contrast the look and feel from everything else that’s coming.

Void Rivals #5 is what I’ve been hoping for from the series. The story feels like it’s progressing beyond its launching of a comic line. It’s beyond guest stars. All of that has built something towards this, though at times loosely. Hopefully the payoff is worth it, there’s potential, but we’ll have to wait a bit more and see.

Story: Robert Kirkman Art: Lorenzo De Felici
Color: Patricio Delpeche Letterer: Rus Wooton
Story: 8.35 Art: 8.35 Overall: 8.35 Recommendation: Buy

Skybound provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – Kindle