WARNING! Potential Spoilers for Void Rivals #17The Energon Universe is getting ready to expand theTransformers’origins, asVoid Rivalscontinues to explore the beginnings of Cybertron. The mysterious Zerta-Trion finally appeared after months of build-up at the end ofVoid Rivals#16, and from the looks of the next issue, fans will finally learn of her past on Cybertron.
Released viaSkybound.com, the preview forVoid Rivals#17 by Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, Patricio Delpeche and Rus Wooton finds Solila encountering Zerta-Trion at the heart of the Sacred Ring after searching the last few issues, where the ancient Cybertronian promises to reveal all.
Although it’s brief, the preview forVoid Rivals#17 promises perhaps one of the most monumental issues yet seen in the Energon Universe, as readers will finally learn the hiddenorigins of Zerta-Trion, the Sacred Ring, and even Cybertron itself.
Zerta-Trion Makes Her Debut inVoid Rivalsin a Major Transformers Twist
Her Origins May ChangeTransformersLore Forever
Zerta-Trion was first mentioned by theTransformer Springerwhen he metVoid Rivals’s central protagonists, Darak and Solila. Springer described her as an ancient Cybertronian who rebelled against her own kind after helping to free Cybertron from the Quintessons. Solila quickly assumes that Zerta-Trion must be the deityZerta, the god worshiped by the Zertonians of the Sacred Ring. Desperate to learn more, Solila parted ways with Darak and Springer to travel deep within the heart of the Sacred Ring to find Zerta-Trion herself. Now that she is face-to-face with her god, it sounds like readers are finally going to get some answers.
The main setting ofVoid Rivalsis the Sacred Ring, a collapsed world at the edge of a black hole where two races – the Zertonians and Agorrians – war over dwindling resources.
While meeting her god is understandably an emotional moment for Solila, there are hints that Zerta-Trion may not be as benevolent as she initially appears. Considering that the Zertonians and Agorrians of the Sacred Ring all have Cybertronian biology, many fans have assumed that they are all thecreation of Zerta herself, perhaps after she left Cybertron. It’s been a mystery running throughoutrecent issues ofVoid Rivals, but it looks like readers will get to hear the whole story of how Zerta-Trion left Cybertron straight from the ancient Cybertronian herself.
If Zerta-Trion is indeed responsible for creating the Sacred Ring, that couldchange everything fans know about the Energon Universe thus far. The events ofVoid Rivalshave added a significant deal to already-establishedTransformerslore, establishing Skybound’s Energon Universe continuity as distinct among the franchise’s many iterations. Learning how Zerta-Trion fits into the origins of Cybertron in the Energon Universe in the months to come will be very interesting as fans discover what has been added to the classic continuity and what has been changed outright.
The Ancient Cybertronian Could Be Connected to Unicron
Perhaps most intriguing of all are the hints thatVoid Rivalshas been dropping regarding Unicron,the ultimate big bad of theTransformersuniverse. In recent issues, both the Agorrians and Zertonians have been talking about “Unity,” a coming together of both races of the Sacred Ring. Readers have recently learned that the leaders of both races engineered the conflict between the Agorrians and Zertonians to prevent this Unity from ever occurring, hinting that the consequences could be dire. Given all the context clues, it’s not hard to imagine that Unity somehow ties intothe awakening of Unicron, given the similarities to their names.
Readers also got a glimpse of a massive being thatmany believed to be Unicronopening his eyes inVoid Rivals#12, after Darak and Solila touched the Energon Ports in their foreheads together before Solila went on her quest to find Zerta-Trion. Unicron’s connection to the Sacred Ring opens up a number of intriguing possibilities, including story threads that will hopefully get explanations beginning withVoid Rivals#17 as well as answers about whether Unicron is hiding at the center of the black hole that caused the Sacred Ring to collapse and about whether theSacred Ring is actually Unicron himself, sleeping in his alt-mode as a planet.
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Now that fans know the next issue will provide a little more context to Zerta-Trion’s origins, hopefully the answers to these ongoing mysteries are forthcoming. AsVoid Rivalsenters its third year of publication, the title continues to be the lynchpin of the entire Energon Universe, and it looks to be shaking things up considerably with its changes to classicTransformerslore. The Energon Universe has come a long way since thesurprise appearance of JetfireinVoid Rivals#1, and the series continues to surpriseTransformersfans at every turn.
Source:Skybound.com
Transformers (2023)
Optimus Prime was supposed to have led the Autobots to victory. Instead, the fate of Cybertron is unknown, and his allies have crash-landed far from home, alongside their enemies—the Decepticons. As these titanic forces renew their war on Earth, one thing is immediately clear: the planet will never be the same. New alliances are struck. Battle lines are redrawn. And humanity’s only hope of survival is Optimus Prime.
