BW Media Spotlight

When last we saw our heroes, the Voltron Force ended up in a parallel universe, separated from Princess Allura while the Black Lion was being rebuilt by the Robotech Defense Force after it crashed into Breetai’s ship, destroying it and Breetai. Meanwhile the disappearance of the SDF-1 may be tied to the same Omega Comet that brought the Voltron Force to Earth. Back in the future/alternate timeline/whatever Lotor is looking to use the comet to bring Allura back. That’s the best I can tell of what happened because the pacing thus far has been terrible. Writer Tommy Yune decided to add in unnecessary scenes to flesh out the history of both Robotech and Voltron that we didn’t need fleshed out while not really explaining what’s going on in the present.

We come back into the trade collection at the second half of issue #3 before continuing through the last two issues. Will the pacing pick up or should I prepare to be more confused? Let’s find out.

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For the record I’m doing this review under protest.

I’ve reviewed plenty of crossovers in the past, from great ones like Battle Of The Planets/Thundercats to horrible crap like Thundercats/Battle Of The Planets. I do enjoy a good crossover, and some of the ideas work within their given realms because the concept of the multiverse either exists or at least isn’t too far-fetched based on the universe the story takes place in.

Robotech and Voltron: Defender Of The Universe are not those franchises. At least it wasn’t until that one clip of Legendary Defender I saw and you can make the case for the “realms” of Third Dimension but Robotech doesn’t qualify. It wasn’t hard sci-fi. It was a war story melodrama set in outer space. The idea of alternate realities doesn’t fit into the that mythos (not counting the Clone series from Academy Comics, and I don’t think any of us want to do that–yeah, I’m sure somebody liked it and I liked the concept at least but it was hardly Robotech). And yet this is the only way to can connect two series whose only connection is “cobbled together from multiple Japanese animated series”.

I’m not even against the crossover. I just don’t care about it. It’s not the kind of story I care to see. Sure, I may want to see both groups of 80s animated Ghostbusters to join forces, my Transformers and GoBots were best buds as were my small number of Masters Of The Universe and Thundercats figures, but for some reason having the Voltron Force fighting the Zentraedi I don’t care about. Fighting the Imperial Empire maybe, but Panosh Place’s Voltron action figures were roughly the same size as my Star Wars figures.

So why do this review? You can blame Sean, the guy from the comments…and why aren’t more of you commenting on stuff? I want to know other people’s thoughts on the stuff I write and I know people are reading. Feel free to comment. Feel free to disagree. Just don’t be jerks about it, because I had to freeze an article once because of that. Anyway he really wants me to review this crossover and brought me his graphic novel trade so we’re going to take a look at this. What I can say, he’s one of my best friends, and it’s not like he’s asking me to review crap. I hope.

Robotech/Voltron trade GN

(collecting the five issues of the miniseries)

Dynamite (2015, so “today” in quotes)

WRITER: Tommy Yune

ART & LETTERING: Digital Art Chef Team

PENCILER/DIGITAL INKS: Elmer Damaso

COLORISTS: Ariz Santos, Armand Roy Canlas, Sam Gellia, & Melvin Calingo

LETTERER: Armand Roy Canlas & Melvin Calingo

SUPERVISOR FOR COLORS/LETTERS: Melvin Calingo

COLLECTION COVERS: Tommy Yune

PRODUCTION MANAGER: James L. Palabya

I notice no editor listed.

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