It has become something of a tradition, for the New Year, for The Transformers comic to publish a twenty-years-hence tale. This year the clock moves forward to 2010¹ and catches up with the “future” Autobots after their return from the “Time Wars”.

Following on from the storyline briefly touched upon in “Aspects of Evil” some twenty-plus issues ago, “The Void” sees Rodimus Prime’s Autobots in full retreat after Galvatron (alive, well and dangerous in this new “reset” post-”Time Wars” future) has conquered Cybertron, and killed scores of Autobots. Problem is, as the crew try to navigate through the Void, there’s a saboteur on board!

Filling just five pages of black and white comic, “The Void” packs in plenty of tension and paranoia. The script moves along quickly, carrying the reader through the mystery. Unfortunately with just five pages, there’s little space to build up any mystique and before long the first plot twist/cliffhanger is already upon the reader.

While the main characters are familiar to long-time readers of the comic, much of the incidental cast are simply present because their toy versions are still readily available. Story-wise, their roles are generic and interchangeable.

Stewart “Staz” Johnson’s artwork is appropriately atmospheric, with some excellent use of heavier inking and grey tone to convey the tense mood of the story. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Stewart makes a black and white strip look like it’s supposed to be black and white.

“The Void”, admittedly, could use a few more pages but nevertheless pulls the reader into the shallows of a muddy Transformers thriller.

“The Void” (5 pp) was originally published by Marvel UK in The Transformers #251 (January 1990)

Note 1: The strip itself incorrectly frames the story as being set on New Year’s Day 2009, but a later letter’s page corrects it to 2010, as “Time Wars” was actually set in 2009.

Category: Marvel UK
Tags: Simon Furman | Stewart Johnson

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