What is Robert Kirkman’s Big Secret Universe in Void Rivals?

Back at ComicsPRO in February, Skybound’s Morgan Perry announced Void Rivals, a new ongoing comic book series by Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici. While any new launch from Kirkman is notable and De Felici made some waves with his creator-owned series Kroma, reuniting the team behind Oblivion Song is certainly a strong statement from Image & Skybound – one punctuated by the fact the series was chosen as the cover of the recent Diamond Previews catalogue. But the big appeal to this series is trying to solve the “new shared universe” that has been promised to debut in the series. So, without further delay, we’re going to take a guess at five possibilities so that we can cover our bases and say “I told you so” when Void Rivals debuts in June.

1. It’s Tied To Invincible: With the second season of Invincible on Amazon Prime set to drop sometime this year, it seems like the right time for Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley to reteam for something big in the universe they created 20 years ago and continues to sell like few other comics. It also would explain why Ottley recently said he’s moving back to creator-owned comics…
2. It’s Tied to The Walking Dead: The enduring franchise is also celebrating its 20th anniversary and while Tillie Walden is continuing the world in her successful Clementine graphic novels, it would be a very Kirkman thing to do if he brought back his hit series in a surprising manner…not unlike how he ended it.
3. It’s The KirkmanVerse: This might be a cheat, but there are enough parallel universe devices in Invincible to allow for all of Kirkman’s series – Fire Power, The Walking Dead, Oblivion Song and more – to somehow finally all cross over. That would be a love letter to all the big comic events that we know Kirkman loves and open the opportunity for some franchise mashups you never expected. And maybe an attempt to beat Mark Millar’s Big Game to the jump.
4. It’s Some Kind of License: Skybound has been aggressive about working with LEGO, Creepshow and other licensed partners (including the still-unannounced Transformers and GI Joe comics from Hasbro but would any publisher debut some kind of shared universe without announcing it, really?
5. It’s The New Image Universe: We’ve seen Radiant Black build out a shared universe, Spawn of course has its own aptly named Spawn’s Universe …so could Kirkman be channelling his love of early Image years with the aforementioned Spawn, Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, Prophet and more with some kind of new twist, like an Ultimate Universe?

While I don’t expect we’ll get confirmation of this reveal before June, expect chatter – and speculation – around this “new shared universe” to only grow as we get closer to Void Rivals #1 releasing on Wednesday, the 14th of June,  A new #1 from Robert Kirkman is probably as sure of an investment as one can get these days, but the added secret here could make Void Rivals #1 appealing to loads of new readers beyond traditional comic fans. And will sparks fly with Oblivion Song star Jake Gyllenhaal so he can reunite the band by starring in the feature film version of Void Rivals? Stranger things have happened…

VOID RIVALS #1
IMAGE COMICS
APR230038
(W) Robert Kirkman (A) Matheus Lopes (A/CA) Lorenzo De Felici
SERIES PREMIERE The blockbuster OBLIVION SONG team of ROBERT KIRKMAN & LORENZO DE FELICI debut the biggest new comic book series of 2023 with the launch of AN ALL-NEW SHARED UNIVERSE and a SURPRISE you won’t see coming! War rages around the Sacred Ring, where the last remnants of two worlds have collapsed around a black hole in a never-ending war. However, when pilot Darak and his rival Solila both crash on a desolate planet, these two enemies must find a way to escape together. But are they alone on this strange planet? And what dark forces await that threaten the entire universe?  In Shops: Jun 14, 2023
SRP: $3.99