r/EnergonUniverse

Sales of the EU Transformers book are shockingly good. The only thing really outselling it on the charts are some of DC’s Absolute titles, #1s and event books. It is really incredible to me that the only thing able to outsell a random issue of the Transformers comic on any given month are Absolute titles, events and #1s. Sales of GI Joe tend to land in the 30 range on the top 50 chart which is also really incredible. Which leads me to Void Rivals…

Void Rivals is essentially a second Transformers book in all but name. All the villains, the concepts, you name it are straight out of Transformers lore. It has featured many popular Transformers characters. I’m not getting in to spoilers here, but the whole Sacred Ring thing, yeah, that’s Transformers. So considering what the book is and where Transformers itself is on the sales chart one would think it too would be a top seller. I mean, its sister title is pretty dominant right now and yet that doesn’t seem to be translating in to sales the way one would think it would.

I’m curious why everyone thinks this is. Is it that buyers don’t understand Void Rivals is a Transformers book? Does Transformers just have a base of people that will buy anything with “Transformers” in the title, but will ignore connected books? I get property recognition, but usually with other titles the sister titles get a massive bump. For example X-Men would be the draw, but a connected title like X-Force or X-Factor will have some built in readers just by being associated with the bigger title. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Transformers and Void Rivals for some reason and I am curious on people’s thoughts on why.

I know Void Rivals is doing well by Image standards and in trades so it is in no real danger of cancellation because of sales. Also sales in no way effect one’s enjoyment of the materials. I’m just looking to start a conversation on the sales aspect which is somewhat puzzling to me.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse that if you don’t like Elita as the next prime you’re sexist. Now, sure, there are probably sexists out there but from a writing standpoint it’s just a shitty decision.

In the Netflix series when were introduced to Skylynx, Alpha Trion tells him that taking the matrix by force isn’t how they do things and he promptly banishes him to try and learn some empathy.

In the comic, it’s shown that Elita is a little confused considering she thinks Optimus and the Autobots and Decepticons have been living it up on earth yet they’ve been sleeping for eons.

Instead of just asking him, she goes off on him and tries to let him let her essentially destroy earth to save cybertron which isn’t what an autobot would do.

On Cybertron, she’s poisoned the minds of all Autobots that Optimus is evil and abandoned them.

But from the Ark crew, they could see Cybertron was lost and knew they had to leave to get more sources of Energon and find a way to take back their home. It’s unclear if Elita and the others chose to stay or they weren’t allowed to go but from the way Elita acts, she chose to stay. Which is dumb to blame Optimus since she made her own independent decision and is now blaming someone else.

From the clues of Starscreams past, factions weren’t a big thing on Cybertron with those in the middle (like Jetfire and Ulchtar) were clueless to the bigger conflict going on. With how Optimus and Elita talks, it seems Megatron was a big part in the violence which spurred Optimus to fight back but he eventually became as bad as him. Now with his kindness and determination and courageousness, he probably got the Matrix that way. But it’s established that being peaceful is generally the way of Cybertronians. Along with talking things out.

So Elita going ham on Optimus and others like Cliffjumper makes for an interesting character but not enough to turn her into a prime.

Arcee had amazing character development from caring for Carly to aiding Ultra Magnus and becoming his successor. They put more energy into her character that Elita imo but something that’s interesting is when Elita digs at Arcee, the latter punches her instantly. And even though they apologized, the way DWJ framed Elita’s character made me think a lot of Autobots dislike her. Almost like Elita is known for her violence.

So when it comes to her being a Prime, it felt rushed. If a bully comes and beats the shit outta you and then tries to take your stuff, you wouldn’t really respect them and give the stuff over. But for Elita? She kicks Optimus around, bitch slaps his ass and then he goes “Y’know what? You made some great points here’s the Matrix.”

I would’ve preferred if they made Elita have to build up her character more or Optimus dies and passes it on to her and now she’s gotten what she wanted and is a Prime but has to learn to pains for being a leader.

Instead they just make everyone cool with it instantly. I think Elita would be an excellent Prime and the way DWJ wrote her made her a flawed character as are all the Autobots and it made her more interesting but just the way Optimus handed off the Matrix felt off.

And the other Autobots following her? Extra off. Maybe Jazz is a spy but idk. It just felt very rushed.

Discuss below!

I've seen people complaining about these, but they have to take into account that there are several characters who They are not the same character they transformed from, jetstorm, cyclonus,scourge, soundblaster,Nemesis Prime sometimes ect

Why isn't it the same with Elita and Blackarahnid?