Void Rivals #16 // Review
Skuxxiod has managed to find a rather large organic creature. It’s a hell of a lot bigger than himself and he’s just really happy to have it there. He’s kind of wondering if it’s edible. Then he’s kind of wondering if it’s intelligent. Then a few people come around to attack him in Void Rivals #16. Writer Robert Kirkman continues his space action fantasy with artist Lorenzo De Felici and colorist Patricio Delpeche. It might not be all that engaging on a dramatic level, but De Felici and Delpeche pound the page with action in a way that overcomes a pretty forgettable Kirkman script.
It’s Pythona. She’s attacking Skuxxoid. She’s pretty lethal, but she’s not going to be able to take down Skuxxoid all on her own, so it’s a good thing that she’s brought a whole squad with her. It’s not going to be easy. There are going to be fatalities but there’s no question of the outcome once things really get going. Meanwhile, there are problems on Agorria. There are a couple of conspirators who have found a place where they can speak freely. They wish to work for unity, but things are bound to get complicated for them.
Kirkman is trying to keep a story running on a few different levels, but he’s failing pretty miserably at all of them. The dramatic events on Agorria feel pretty dull when they should be deeply engaging and the combat between Skuxxoid and Pythona really only manage to make much of an impact at all due to the fact that the artwork hits the page with enough force to overcome the inadequacy of Kirkman’s writing. There IS some momentum to what Kirkman is putting on the page, but it lacks the kind of impact it needs to really engage on a deeper level.
De Felici and Delpeche orchestrate much of the issue’s appeal in highly kinetic combat that tends to catch the action in ways that it isn’t often brought to the page. There’s a great deal of energy flowing as Pythona and her squad strike. De Felici hammers the impact home with a grand sense of grace. Elsewhere, the artist wrestles with the drama a bit in a way that is powerfully punctuated by some pretty impressive bits of action that hammer home the brutality that Kirkman is attempting to explore in the course of the script.
Though it carries moments quite well, the overall space opera that Kirkman and company are bringing to the page feels pretty bland and without the kind of novelty that could drive the action. There’s a lot of intensity being presented, but not a whole lot of emotional connection to bring it all together. Clearly what’s going on is of great importance to everyone on the page. It would be nice to be let-in a bit more on WHY it’s all so important. Void Rivals is clearly too busy delivering the intensity to let the reader in on much of what it is that drives all that intensity.
