Void Rivals #19: Skuxxoid Kills The Energon Universe

Void Rivals #19 takes a step away from the main narrative to deliver a Skuxxoid centric tale, picking up with his apparent death and introducing Wreck-Gar and the Junkions. This issue does feel like a breath of fresh air, separating itself from the very decompressed storytelling of the last arc to tell a fairly self-contained story with promises of larger, future implications. Additionally, the focus on Skuxxoid gives readers more of this character that seemingly died in the background of the larger narrative.

Just to catch everyone up, the last time we saw Skuxxoid was when he died at the hands of a Cobra-La squadron. This was all told in the background of the last Void Rivals story arc, with little direct connection to the adventures of Darak or Solila. Thankfully, there is payoff here, with the big reveal being that Skuxxoid cannot really die, rather he grows into a copy of himself if a large enough piece of him is cut off. So, he essentially becomes two Skuxxoid’s here, since his demise came from an almost perfect bisection, apropos of Darth Maul.

The real joy in this story comes from the way that Kirkman writes Wreck-Gar and the Junkions. Fans of Transformers: The Movie will recognize these characters as being the Cybertronians that live in a wrecked wasteland. That is still mostly solid here, although Kirkman adds a small piece of character to them that makes them all talk in references to TV shows and movies. This is played for laughs and genuinely makes for a fun read, especially when played against multiple straight men who just cringe at every piece of dialogue.

When it comes to the crux of the story, a lot is revealed about Skuxxoid and who he really is within the Energon Universe galaxy. The ending reveal may not be all that shocking if you are following along with the story, but it does set up a major new force that will definitely have an impact in this universe moving forward. With the next major arc being the Quintesson War, the implications of this issue seem to point towards a conflict that may be greater than any of these characters expect.