Skybound - Void Rivals #4

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Lorenzo de Felici

Colourist: Matheus Lopes

Letterer: Rus Wooton

Editor: Sean Mackiewicz

Plot

With the ship approaching Zertonia, the Handroid attempts to stop Solila, and send them to Agorra instead, but Solila manages to disarm the robot, by threatening his Aggorian master.

Solila brings Darak to Zertonia, where he is villified as a monster by the people, and sent to a cell, which the Handroid determines there's no escape from.

Solila visits with her leader, Zalilak, and is relieved when he explains that he will return Darak to Agorra, after they meet his demands for supplies. Zalilak notices her relief and asks if they bonded, before asking if she saw his face...leaving her fearful.

Soon, Solila is dragged to Darak's cell, and is doomed to share his fate for her "treachery", which Darak can't help but be amused by.

Soon, Zalilak contacts Minister Dulin of Agorra, to tell him that the two pilots saw eachother's faces, and both agree to have them executed to keep their secret connection secret...

Elsewhere, the Skuxxoid arrives on Cybertron, intending to collect on a presumed bounty on his Quintesson prisoner, but Shockwave, being one of the few still active Cybertronians on the world declines the offer, due to the lack of supplies, let alone currency, sending the Skuxxoid away... 

Characters

Zertonian

Solila Imprisoned on Zertonia 

Premier Zalilak

Zertonian Dignitary

Zertonian Guards

Zertonian Civilians

Council of Vite (Mentioned)

Agorrian 

Darak Imprisoned on Zertonia

Handroid Imprisoned on Zertonia 

Minister Dulin 

Other

Shockwave - Flying Artillery

Skuxxoid

Quintesson Prosecutor Imprisoned by Skuxxoid

Zerta (Mentioned)

Skuxxoid's Family (Mentioned)

Other Decepticons (Mentioned) In Stasis 

Notes

• As previously shown in issue one, the Handroid can control Darak's hand to drag his unconscious body around.
• On the brief switch to Cybertron, Shockwave laments on how he barely has enough energon to keep himself alive...perhaps he should consider turning off some of the lights in the building behind him?
• The leader of Zertonia, Zalilak is revealed to have contact with Minister Dulin of Agorra, with both even showing their faces to eachother, which is supposed to be against their beliefs.
• It's clarified in the letters section that Zertonia and Agorra were separate worlds that were rebuilt around a black hole, creating the Sacred Ring. It's still unclear how they can survive the exposure to a black hole's gravity field etc, but I think it has something to do with their forehead crystals.
• Cybertron appears to be fairly close to the space around the Sacred Ring, since the Skuxxoid has managed to make it there within a month (based on last issue's time skip), making it quite interesting that the two species apparently never met.

Skybound - Void Rivals #3

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Lorenzo De Felici

Colourist: Matheus Lopes

Letterer: Rus Wooton

Editor: Sean Mackiewicz

Plot

The duo fight off the Skuxxoid, and manage to escape him. The Skuxxoid doesn't chase them, as he knows they'll probably kill themselves with the other dangerous cargo in the ship, and investigates their ramshackle ship

The two rivals fight off a mechanical scorpion in the ship, and eventually encounter a Quintesson, who leads them to his ship, supposedly to escape together. Unfortunately, the Skuxxoid is waiting for them at the Quintesson ship, where he offers the rivals a Nebulon transport for them to use on exchange for their ship, since it's made with a rare material that he wants to sell, and since there's no bounties on their heads. The duo accept, leaving the Quintesson to his fate.

The two rivals set course to the Sacred Ring, where they consider how to save themselves. A few days later, they approach their home, where they are detected by both people. The initially intended to take escape pods to go to their respective homes, but Solila betrays Darak, by electrocuting him, knocking him out, and takes him prisoner for her people, whilst apologizing...

Characters

Agorrian

Darak Knocked out by Solila 

Handroid

Minister Dulin (Mentioned)

Zertonian

Solila

Other

Skuxxoid

Quintesson Prosecutor

Mecha Scorpion

Slizardo (Mentioned)

Skuxxoid's Family (Mentioned)

Nebulons (Mentioned)

Notes

• Following on from the seeming trend of this series, we get more Transformers franchise characters introduced here, with a Quintesson Prosecutor appearing, and Slizardo and Nebulans being mentioned.
• The two halves of the Sacred Ring are revealed to be called Zertonia and Agorra. 
• The Quintesson mentions the Age of Wrath, which his species has been blamed for. In past media this refers to a period of time where the Quintessons controlled Cybertron, but considering most sentient life apparently hates the Quintessons for this event, it's likely something else here.
• The Handroid has no information about Quintessons in its database, implying the Aggorians arent part of the wider Galactic community.
• The Quintessons in this continuity appear to be much smaller than past ones, where they seem to be about the same size as humanoids (which from issue one, we know are about human size, from the scale with Jetfire).
• Solila is revealed to be a warrior and not a pilot, despite previous implications.
• This issue features a three page preview of the upcoming Transformers series, showing Spike and an unnamed female friend (Carly?) discovering the sleeping Transformers in the Ark.

Skybound - Void Rivals #1

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Lorenzo De Felici

Colourist: Matheus Lopes

Letterer: Rus Wooton

Editor: Bixie Mathieu

Plot

Two rival alien craft crash on an unnamed world, where they soon start fighting. However, realising that if they work together, despite it being illegal, they can probably escape the planet.

After a failed repair effort, both ships are rendered completely unusable, and Solila leaves Darak to die by herself. Some time afterwards Solila returns, having found another crashed, but intact, craft.

The duo arrive at the third craft, and give it some energy to power it up, when it suddenly starts changing shape, revealing the Cybertronian Jetfire, after analysing himself, he determines that he has been stuck here for a long time, and flies away, trying to reach Cybertron, not realising that the aliens needed help leaving the planet too.

Later, Darak returns to one of the crashed ships and believes that they may be able to use their flight suits to fix the ship, just enough, to leave the planet, despite it breaking their laws again. The duo remove their helmets at revealing similar looking faces, shocking them both, but Darak reveals that this is just like his vision...

Characters

Darak

Solila

Handroid 

Jetfire - Space-faring Jet 

Notes

• So funny story, pretty much right after I started talking about Astrobots, since there was no word on a new Transformers continuity, this dropped! The reveal that this was the start of the new continuity was left until the last moment, and I love it! 
• Darak is an Agorrian and Solila is Zertonian. I wonder if their species names being A-Z has any importance, since they have a similar appearance, as shown by the end of the issue.
• Jetfire being lost, buried on an alien world for seemingly millions of years is clearly a callback to his introduction in the G1 cartoon (just with a lot less ice).
• Additionally, Jetfire is missing any faction insignia, implying that he was lost before the war, again like in the G1 cartoon.
• At the end of this issue, three new series were announced; Transformers, Duke and Cobra Commander. Afterwards the main cast of the Transformers series were announced, but Jetfire is not present on either team's roster.