Comic Book / Void Rivals

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Void Rivals is a 2023 Science Fiction comic by Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo de Felici, and Mattheus Lopes by Skybound Entertainment via Image Comics. The comic tells the story of Darak and Salila, two members of opposing warring alien races stranded on an unknown, desolate planet, where they must work together to survive. But as they attempt to repair their ship, they soon find that there is more to this planet — and their species' war — than meets the eye…

Void Rivals serves as the first entry in the Energon Universe: A Shared Universe incorporating Transformers and G.I. Joe and by extension serves as the first original IP in the setting.

Void Rivals contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Darak's dad, Dulin, is emotionally distant towards his son at best, a complete asshole at worst. His Establishing Character Moment is telling Darak that his success as a pilot is the only thing sparing him from Dulin's wrath and that if he doesn't succeed in his next mission, he may as well not come back home at all. And when told his son is probably about to be executed, Dulin's response is to pretty much let it happen for the "greater good", even if he's bereaved by the thought.
• Adipose Rex: Both Dulin and Zalilak, the respective leaders of the Agorrians and Zertonians, are heavyset men. Zalilak is more stocky than truly fat like Dulin is, but he's also shown as the only one sitting at a table covered in food.
• Age Lift: In the G1 cartoon the Energon universe draws from, Orion Pax was a young bot by the time the Third Cybertronian War began and he became Optimus Prime. A flashback shows him as one of the original Transformers who rebelled against the Quintessons.
• Alien Invasion: The Quintesson War arc plays this straight with the titular Quintessons launching an all-out surprise invasion of the Sacred Ring with armies of Sharkticons and Allicons ferried aboard an armada of corkscrew-shaped starships.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Government Conspiracy behind the Forever War between the Agorrians and Zertonians has been in power for thousands upon thousands of years.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: In issue #26, Zalilak and Proximus are together in front of a landed Quintesson warship as the first line of defense between Zertonia and the invaders after Zalilak publicly rejected the Quintessons' demands for surrender and sent their representative packing with a broken jaw. Zalilak warns Proximus that whatever comes out of that ship next will be sent specifically to fight them, and the two seem ready to stand their ground. However, he changes his tune quickly once a horde of giant Sharkticons come charging out and screams at Proximus to fall back.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Jetfire quickly realizes he's been unconscious for millions of years by observing the fungal growth and wind erosion on his own body.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Darak and Salila.
  Darak: I thought we were friends.
  Salila: Friends?! No. I'm sorry, but there's just too much at stake for my people. I will admit I no longer consider us enemies. But friends? No. More like... rivals.
  Darak: I like that. Okay. Rivals it is.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Issue #24 ends with Unity narrowly being avoided, keeping Goliant from emerging and destroying the Sacred Ring for now, though now he's only going to get more powerful. Darak and Dulin have become closer due to the whole ordeal, and the Forever War between the Agorrians and the Zertonians has effectively been stopped due to everyone know the real reason behind it, with the discovery of Energon fixing the resource crisis on both sides of the Ring. However, Zerta Trion punishes Solila for preventing Unity, by removing her powers and imprisoning her in one of her temples. At the end of the issue, Darak expressive confidence that they can handle anything that the future throws at them, unaware that a massive Quintesson fleet is approaching the Sacred Ring, ready to unleash devastating war.
  • Issue #31 is one for Skuxxoid's story. Skuxxoid defeats the tyrant Skuxxoid Alpha, freeing the rest of the Skuxxoid army. When our Skuxxoid demands to know where his wife and kids are, Alpha somberly reveals that they've been dead for centuries, perishing in an accidental housefire. The revelation causes all of the Skuxxoids to break down in tears. The main Skuxxoid leaves to continue his journey, leaving the rest to live life as equals. He's joined by one of Alpha's robot hunters, feeling remorse for its actions. Skuxxoid may have earned his freedom back, but now he has nothing and no one to keep fighting for.
• The Cameo:
  • Shockwave makes an appearance in issue four. Giving us our first look at Cybertron in the Energon Universe.
    Shockwave: You dare bring a Quintesson to Cybertron?!
    Skuxxoid: To sell! As a prisoner. Am I missing something here? I thought you hated each other.
    Shockwave: What currency would you expect me to have that I haven't already spent on resources? I barely have enough Energon to sustain myself! My fellow Decepticons are in stasis.
    Skuxxoid: Well, then I expect you to relate to my plight, friend. I've got mouths to feed. Surely such a hated enemy to your kind is of value? Maybe you have something to trade? I'm sure we can work something out. Let's be reasonable.
    Shockwave: Remove this foul creature from my sight before I commandeer your vessel and strip it for parts!
    Skuxxoid: Fine fine fine. I can tell when my services are not appreciated.
  • A more obscure cameo appears in issue #11 in the form of Bosch, the alien gambler from the Transformers G1 episode called, well, The Gambler. He meets with Skuxxoid to hire for a job on the planet Monacus to steal from its ruler Lord Gyconi, which both appeared in the same episode. Monacus and Gyconi would show up the following issue.
• Canon Character All Along: The bulk of the plot for the Cybertronians and Quintessons is spent searching for a legendary Transformer known as Zerta Trion, believed to be the creator of the Sacred Ring. Issue 17 reveals her to be the comic's counterpart to Beta, Alpha Trion's Lancer from the cartoon episode Forever Is a Long Time Coming.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Considering the comic is an original IP that shares a universe with the long-established Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises, the entire original cast is this.
  • More specifically to G.I. Joe, all of the Cobra-La scouts that make up part of Pythona’s crew are all original characters to this comic.
• Cross Through: Issue 13 picks up on the ending of Cobra Commander, showing Pythona out in space hunting for Cybertron.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Zerta, a deity worshipped by the Zertonians (but not the Agorrians) who may or may not be working In Mysterious Ways to help out Darak and Solila.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Issue #27. Once Darak gets the bright idea to use the Energon that the Agorrians and Zertonians stockpiled to mass-empower their soldiers to superhuman levels, the entire Quintesson War suddenly turns into a one-sided rout as the Sacred Ring's now-superpowered inhabitants easily tear through the invading Sharkticons and Allicons — sending the previously-smug Quintesson Judges into panic as they scramble all their remaining reserve troops in hopes of regaining the battle's momentum before the Agorrians and Zertonians overrun their positions.
  • And then Issue #28 turns things around as the Quintesson Tribunal arrives with an army of Elite Mooks which start slaughtering their way through the defenders, to the point that Dulin quickly acknowledges that they're likely going to lose.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: The wise-cracking, hopeful, and self-proclaimed “trusting to a fault” Darak and the abrasive, pessimistic, and rigid Solila fit this to a tee.
  Darak: Well? You up for that?
  Solila: I'm as good as dead if I stay here.
  Darak: That's the spirit!
• David Versus Goliath: A inversion in issue where the antagonist Proximus is the David and the heroic Springer is the Goliath. Despite Springer being a towering robot giant from Proximus's perspective, the Zertonian warrior gives the Autobot a tough fight, even managing to stop his massive sword from crushing him with his bare hands. Springer ultimately gets the upper hand when he gets the idea to transform, throwing Proximus off, giving Springer to land a (literally) disarming blow.
  Proximus: Your size does not intimidate me.
  Springer: Funny. Same.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: It turns out that Skuxxoid keeps taking on all sorts of unsavory and dangerous jobs to distract himself from the pain and loneliness of losing his family.
• Didn't Think This Through: Skuxxoid tries to sell a Quintesson prisoner to Shockwave and the Decepticons for quick cash. An annoyed Shockwave points out Cybertron is so strapped for resources that even if he wanted the prisoner, he'd have nothing to pay for them with, meaning Skuxxoid is wasting his time on Cybertron and should damn well know it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Anyone speaking the name of Zerta Trion in the presence of a Quintesson is immediately killed.
• Domain Holder:
  • Zerta has the ability to command the very fabric of the Sacred Ring itself due to her role in guiding the construction of the Ring and her connection to Vector Theta (the sapient planetary supercomputer connected to everything on the Ring).
  • Solila gains these same powers in issue #18. Zerta Trion asks Vector Theta to bestow her powers upon Solila after the latter agrees to serve as Zerta's executor in her plan of unifying the Agorrians and Zertonians to awaken and slay Goliant. Upon receiving this power, Solila discovers she can now near-instantaneously teleport to any location on the Sacred Ring by simply willing it. When she wishes she could check-in on Darak, the ground beneath her swallows her up and she later pops out of the floor inside the Agorrian throne room, interrupting a discussion Darak had been having with his father. She is also physically enhanced to the point where she effortlessly takes down a whole roomful of armed Agorrian royal guards trying to kill her singlehandedly and later holds her own in a duel against Proximus (whereas previously she feared him and tried to flee from him). She loses these abilities in issue #24 as a consequence of losing Zerta's favor after sabotaging Proximus's attempt to forcibly unite the Agorrians and Zertonians upon realizing that Goliant's awakening would result in the Sacred Ring's physical destruction. As punishment, Zerta strips Solila of her new powers and imprisons her inside one of her temples.
• The Dreaded: Proximus for the Zertonians. Him simply moving and talking was enough to bring another Zertonian to his knees in tears. Zalilak is more composed with regards to Proximus, but even he's not happy that the situation has come to this. When Solila realizes Proximus is after her and Darak, she manages to convey fear through her helmet.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite treating his son like shit, when Dulin is confronted with the idea of Darak being executed to keep the conspiracy a secret, he is visibly distressed and heartbroken by the situation. For as awful as their relationship is, Darak is still his son, and Dulin is tormented by the possibility of the greater good costing him his child.
• First-Episode Twist: Two:
  • On a meta level, the story takes place within a new Transformers continuity called the "Energon Universe," with the back promising G.I. Joe stories as well.
  • More directly related to the story, the Agorrians and Zertonians are actually the same species, and their societies' rules are designed to keep them in the dark on the subject.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Darak makes it to the shelter he found in the middle of the Wastelands, there's a green and yellow vehicle waiting inside, the likes of which fans of The Transformers: The Movie will recognize as the alt mode of the Autobot Springer.
• Forever War: The Agorrians and Zertonians have been warring against one another for thousands upon thousands of years, long enough that the fact that they're the same species has been forgotten after being covered up by their governments.
• Foreshadowing: All of the rules Agorrians and Zertonians are told to follow are to prevent them from empathizing with, interacting with, or unmasking in front of each other. This is because they're actually the same species, apparently a high-level government secret.
• Futuristic Pyramid: Per Zertonia's triangle motif, the building which serves as both the Zertonian seat of government and the official residence of their leader, the Premier, is a massive teal-colored pyramid that towers over every other building in Zertonia's capital city.
• Gem Tissue: The only thing distinguishing Agorrians and Zertonians is a small crystal embedded in their foreheads — an orange hexagon for Agorrians, and a blue triangle for Zertonians. It's actually an Energon port, allowing them to ingest Energon for survival.
• Government Conspiracy: Run by the leaders of both sides of the Forever War to both keep the conflict burning and ensure their people never realize they are one species being pitted against one another.
• Government-Exploited Crisis: Subverted. It quickly becomes apparent that the "war" between the Agorrians and Zertonians is a False Flag Operation of sorts; the leaders of both sides are really allies aware of the shared origins of their people and the true nature of the Sacred Ring and conceal it while pitting their people against one another for unclear reasons, possibly to maintain control. It turns out that their reason is to prevent Unity, which would unleash someone or something call Goliant.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Darak fights using his laser blaster, while Solila fights with her spear.
• Headbutt of Love: Darak and Salila share one right before Salila goes off on her quest to find Zerta, tapping the Energon ports in their foreheads in the process. This awakens something inside the Sacred Ring's black hole...
• He Knows Too Much: The very instant that Zalilak and Dulin realize that Darak and Solila know the big secret about the war, they begin taking steps to kill them both and keep the secret.
• Hope Spot:
  • Darak and Solila seem to have gotten an abandoned spaceship up and running... only for it to turn out to not only be a Transformer, but Jetfire, who's generally a nice guy. Unfortunately, Jetfire notices just how long he's been out, flies into a panic, and immediately wings it back to Cybertron, leaving the stranded aliens behind.
  • In issue four, Solila and Darak seem in the clear after the former turns over the latter to the Zertonian government, who intend to trade him back to Agorra as a war prisoner rather than hurt him, meaning they can put everything that's happened and all they've learned behind them. But then Solila slips up in a conversation with Zalilak and expresses relief that Darak won't be executed, causing him to become immediately suspicious and ask if she saw Darak's face. Her hesitation and panicked expression answers the question and prompts Zalilak to imprison her with Darak in preparation of executing them both.
  • Issue #24 is one for the whole series. Solila has narrowly prevented the destruction of the Sacred Ring and despite being imprisoned is already planning her escape, Darak and Dulin have moved past their father-son issues with Dulin admitting Darak will be a worthy successor, the Forever War between Agorra and Zertonia has effectively ended with the two races ironically closer to a lasting peace than ever before despite never unifying, and the discovery of Energon technology has seemingly fixed the resource crisis plaguing both sides. Darak ends the issue happy to have reconciled with his estranged father and confidently believes they can face whatever the future holds for them together. The final page of the issue tests his words as Agorra and Zertonia are about to be blindsided by an all-out invasion from the Quintessons, whose armada of starships have finally reached the Sacred Ring.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Jetfire barely talks to his rescuers, never mind learns that they are stranded on the mysterious planet, because he is rather understandably more preoccupied with the fact that he's been offline for millions of years, a long time even by Cybertronian standards.
    Jetfire: Cybertron... After all these years... I'm sorry. I have to get home.
  • When Pythona's Living Ship, the Leviathan, succumbs to its injuries and crashes, the wisecracking Darak says that he's had ships die on him before, but never literally. Pythona is enraged that he would joke about the death of the Leviathan, tearfully explaining how beloved the creature was to her people.
• Internal Reveal: Pythona and her Cobra-La squad learn the full details about the Cybertronians, the Autobot-Decepticon war, the Energon crisis, and the decaying state of Cybertron itself from Wheelie in issue #24. Given her mission was to gather intel on the potential threat the Cybertronians posed to Cobra-La following the mass chaos already caused by just the presence of a handful of Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, Pythona is both relieved and underwhelmed to realize that Cybertron as a whole is too weakened, depopulated, and crippled to pose any sort of serious planetary-scale existential threat in the near future.
• La Résistance:
  • The Unifiers are a group of both Agorrians and Zertonians who are working together to end their peoples' Forever War and bring them together.
  • After the Skuxxoid we've been following through the series is captured by Skuxxoid Alpha and treated like just a disposable pawn, he convinces the many other Skuxxoids made from his body parts as punishment to rebel, becoming what he dubs Skuxxoid Liberators.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The variant covers for the second printing of issue 1 feature Jetfire, one of which being a parody of The Monster at the End of This Book, and a special variant from the first printing of that issue featuring the character was withheld from display until after the publication date.
• Melting Pot Sci-Fi Setting: Played With. The series largely focuses on the people of the Sacred Ring, with only the occasional appearance of Cybertronians. As the series progresses however, more alien races and characters start appearing, largely in Skuxxoid’s storyline, such as the Quintessons, people from Monacus, scouts from Cobra-La, and Junkions. After issue #30, we’re poised to meet even more alien races after Darak and Solila leave the Sacred Ring with Pythona, starting with Rom the Space Knight.
• Mirroring Factions: The Zertonians and Agorrians... because they used to be one species, and the various rules of warfare between the nations are meant to disguise that fact by hiding how not so different they are.
• Moment Killer: In issue #32, Darak, Solila, and even Handroid have a tender and bittersweet moment as Darak lets out of his emotions regarding his father’s death. As the other two comfort him, Solila’s blue Handroid pipes up to alert them of an approaching lifeform.
  Handroid: Seriously Blue. Read the room.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Much like in the original The Transformers cartoon, Jetfire first appears waking up after being buried for millions of years and wearing no faction symbol, implying he is unaware of the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons.
  • The TPB for the first six issues is titled "More Than Meets The Eye" after the iconic Transformers tagline.
  • Skuxxoid’s journey has him come across Bosch and Lord Gyconi in issues #11 and 12, both coming from the G1 episode called "The Gambler". The planet Skuxxoid meets Bosch is called Chaar, the barren planet that the Decepticons fled to after the events of The Transformers: The Movie.
  • The Quintesson trial given to Darak and Dulin in issue #29 is practically one-to-one to the trial shown in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • At the end of Issue #32, Rom greets our main duo with the universal greeting, also first appearing in the movie.
• No Blood for Phlebotinum: Resources are perpetually scarce on the Sacred Ring, and this is suggested to be one of the main reasons for the war embroiling it.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The status quo is changed completely by Issue #30, as the Quintessons conquer the Sacred Ring, and to get help, Zerta sends Darak and Solila to leave with the Cobra-La team, indicating that this series will finally be tied closer into the rest of the Energon Universe than they have been until now.
• Not Named in Opening Credits: The legal indicia on page 1 of issue 1 does not include its copyright notice, just that of Image Comics.^note The only IP that the publisher owns is its name and logo. The notice appears on page 27, after the book's narrative, and states that "VOID RIVALS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2023 Hasbro... Licensed by Hasbro." alongside the Hasbro logo (most material produced by Skybound is owned by the company). This is, of course, all done to conceal the First-Episode Twist that the comic takes place in a Shared Universe.
• Obviously Evil: Deconstructed. The Quintesson Inquisitor is so blatantly sinister in his behavior and demeanor that Darak and Solila have zero compunctions about turning him over to Skuxxoid at the drop of a hat, since he's blatantly going to turn on them the instant he gets an excuse.
  Inquisitor: I have many dealings with many civilizations across the cosmos. My kind have made enemies.
• Oddball in the Series: A retroactive example; This is the only comic in the Energon Universe to not be based on Transformers or G.I. Joe, and instead is an original story with new characters, though it's eventually revealed that the race living on the Great Ring was created with Cybertronian technology.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Quintesson captive of the Skuxxoid grumbles that the lack of trust he faces is due to much of the Galaxy not having forgiven his race for the Age of Wrath.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: When Solila is unconscious and close to death after the fight with Proximus, her mental state is depicted this way, just a nude, blue form floating in nothingness, Barbie Doll Anatomy in full force. Later, we see that this happens with anyone who is communing with Zerta.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Quintessons. Aside from Darak and Solila, who had that one-off encounter with a lone Quintesson captive aboard Skuxxoid's ship in issue #3, none of the Agorrians or Zertonians had been aware that the Quintessons even existed. Prior to the Quintesson War arc, the series had been focused on a trying to stop a intraspecific Forever War contained to a single world between two warring nations with the Government Conspiracy running both sides being the main antagonists hounding Darak and Solila. Both Zertonia and Agorra are portrayed as relatively low-tier within the broader Energon Universe — lacking any capital ships, reliant on small piloted starfighters for space battles, rationing and fighting over basic resources like water, and treating even a single friendly stranded Autobot like Springer as The Juggernaut. When the Quintessons finally attack the Sacred Ring after many issues of scouting, preparation, and build-up — both Agorra and Zertonia are simultaneously hit with full-scale surprise invasions by this previously-unknown external alien third party. From the Agorrians' and Zertonians' perspectives, an armada of colossal star dreadnoughts invisible to their sensors FTL-jumped into orbit out of nowhere, landed on top of their cities and crushed the buildings beneath their mass, and then deposited ravenous hordes of Cybertronian-sized Sharkticons that stampede over the human-sized defenders.
• Phlebotinum Muncher: Both the Agorrians and Zertonians are able to consume Energon using a crystal embedded in their foreheads. A single drop is enough to instantly heal Solila's wounds and restore her to full vitality.
• Power Crystal: Agorrians and Zertonians have a small crystal growing out of their foreheads. It's actually an Energon port, allowing them to ingest Energon.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: The plot is partly kicked off by Darak having a bizarre dream/vision depicting the creation of the Sacred Ring, the beginnings of the war between Agorra and Zertonia, and a warning of an oncoming threat known as "Goliant", all of which is subsequently confirmed when Darak and Solila take off their helms and find they are one race. Solila believes the vision to have been sent by Zerta, the god of the Zertonians. Darak dismisses the idea as superstition, but admits he has no alternative explanations.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Skuxxoid is barely even a villain, being a mere bounty hunter/scrapper who works to support his family and nothing more. He holds Darak and Solila, but only until he finds that they have no bounty, at which point he genially apologizes for any trouble and sends them on their way after they trade the alloy on their trashed ship for a new shuttle.
• The Reveal: Issue #31 finally answers the question of Skuxxoid's family: They died in a house fire. It was just a dumb, freak accident.
• Ring World Planet: The Sacred Ring which the Agorrians and Zertonians inhabit consist of two planets forged together into a ring around a black hole.
• Rip Van Winkle: The Cybertronian Jetfire quickly realizes he has been asleep for millions of years.
• Sad Clown: The Skuxxoid may come across as a slimy, opportunistic, and cavalier bounty hunter to the beings he meet, but it's all a cover for the deep sorrow he feels for losing his wife and children. To make things worse, they're not even his wife and child; he's a clone-spawn of the original Skuxxoid, and he has to keep reminding himself that those are his ancestor's inherited memories — they've been dead for centuries.
• Scary Scorpions: Darak and Solila fight a giant mechanical scorpion-like alien creature, the Scorpia, in issue 3 aboard the bounty hunter Skuxxoid's asteroid ship.
• The Scottish Trope: The Quintessons forbid anyone from speaking the name of Zerta Trion. Anyone doing so is immediately executed.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The true purpose of the Sacred Ring was to serve as a prison for Goliant—a planet-sized, star-devouring sentient machine superweapon originally created by the Quintessons to help them in their ancient war against Cybertron. And implied to have been created to serve as a defense against Unicron.
• Servile Snarker: Darak's Handroid.
  Solila: How much charge does your blaster have?
  Darak: Maybe they're not hostile? Let's start with "Hello" or "Have you any food?".
  Handroid: I'm with the Zertonian on this one.
• Shared Universe: This comic is part of the Energon Universe, meaning it shares a setting with Transformers (2023) and G.I. Joe (Energon Universe).
• Star Killing: Goliant is capable of slowly consuming a star over the span of a millennia.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In issue #26, Judge Naven formally issues his demands to Zalilak for Zertonia's unconditional total surrender to the invading Quintesson forces, and launches into a very long-winded speech about the futility of resistance and that the Quintessons may show leniency if the Zertonians capitulate quickly. He never even gets to finish his speech as an impatient Zalilak strolls right up to Naven mid-monologue and uppercuts one of his five faces hard enough to break his jaw while deadpanning that he talks too much.
• Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: For the first few arcs, Dulin and Zalilak are the main antagonists of the comic, seeking to kill/silence our heroes after they learn the truth that Agorrians and Zertonians are the same species in order to keep The Masquerade up and the Forever War between them fighting forever. However, it's slowly revealed that their motivations are more noble that previously understood, as keeping the two sides of the Sacred Ring fighting keeps Unity from happening, which would allow Goliant to be released, which would destroy the Sacred Ring. Once the threat of Goliant is made perfectly clear to everyone, both Dulin and Zalilak step down from being antagonists and are happy to work on repairing their homes and managing resources. This is immediately followed by the Quintessons stepping up as the new Big Bads of the story, who quickly demonstrate their unbridled ruthlessness, destructiveness, and enthusiasm for conquering as they spread violence and slaughter across the Sacred Ring.
• The Unmasqued World: After issue #23, the truth behind Agorrians and Zertonians being the same species, both sides' governments having secretly known all along but covered it up for countless millennia, and the consequences of what "unification" between the two races would entail ^note since Goliant nearly awoke when Zertonia almost annexed Agorria, and his planet-shaped hand emerging from the Sacred Ring's black hole was visible to everyone becomes common knowledge to the masses on both sides. Unusually for this trope, the Government Conspiracy is actually rather pleased with this complete shattering of the status quo since it means both races' leaders can finally drop the phony, mentally-exhausting Forever War charade — and now can focus all resources (that would otherwise be spent on their militaries) towards rebuilding damaged civilian infrastructure without constantly worrying about another attack from the other race.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: Many Agorrians make use of Handroids, robotic gloves with their own minds that serve as assistants to their wearers.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Hot Rod in issue 11 piloting his ship through an asteroid field towards the Sacred Ring in search of his lost fellow Autobot Springer. Unbeknownst to him, a Quintesson cruiser was patrolling the asteroids nearby on a mission to find the mythical Sacred Ring, and secretly tail an oblivious Hot Rod all the way to the Ring's location. Upon confirming the Ring's existence, the Quintessons return to Quintessa to plan a full-scale Alien Invasion which eventually happens at the end of issue 24.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Goliant is coming. Who or what Goliant is, or if it is even an entity at all, is unclear. Even how it will come is agreed upon, with Darak's vision saying that the two sides will need to reunite to defend against it, while Zalilak is of the opinion that the Agorrans and Zertonians reuniting will be the catalyst that Goliant needs. All we know is that whatever Goliant is, both Zalilak and Proximus, neither of whom are timid individuals, fear its coming.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Darak struggles endlessly and futilely for the approval of his emotionally distant father Dulin, the ruler of Agorra.
  Dulin: Darak, in a matter of moments, you will launch as the greatest Agorrian pilot in history. That is the only thing that has spared you from my wrath. Return with the same sterling reputation... or do not return at all.
• Wham Episode: Issue #30. The war with the Quintessons ends with their victory and occupation of the Sacred Ring, as Dulin is killed and Zalilak surrenders. Zerta tasks Darak and Solila with finding the other Cybertronians for help, with them convincing Pythona to take them to Earth, with Proximus and Ultum following after them.
• Wham Shot:
  • The alien ship found by the protagonists makes a familiar whirring and clanking sound effect ^note CH-CHI-CHU-CHIK-CHI and transforms, revealing himself to be Jetfire, and the setting to actually be a Shared Universe.
  • A less iconic but still significant wham shot occurs at the end of issue two. Darak and Solila are captured by an unknown ship. Who has captured them? Recurring alien the Skuxxoid from the original Transformers cartoon!
  • The ending of issue four has Zalilak amicably meeting with an unseen individual to discuss Darak and Solila's situation and how they've found out the big secret. It turns out the person he's talking to is Dulin, confirming that the conspiracy to keep the Agorrians and Zertonians at war goes all the way to the top.
• You Have Failed Me: In issue 5, the Skuxxoid decides to return the Inquisitor to Quintessa hoping that he can get some compensation for bringing him back. The Imperial Magistrate asks the Inquisitor about the "Scorpia" (the scorpion-like creature that Darak and Solila fought in issue 3) he was transporting on his ship. When told that creature was destroyed, the Magistrate angrily has the Inquisitor taken away for punishment.