It's the Skuxxoid?! Really?! Okay, that's...random. But, if the Quintessons ARE going to show up later, I guess that makes sense?
tfwiki.net
And...that's it as far as Transformers references go. Jetfire doesn't come back this issue. Unless that "comet" or shooting star in one of the panels earlier was him attempting and failing to leave this rock? Are you coming back, Jetfire? I mean...at this point, maybe Devcon is more likely to show up first?
But, we do get some backstory on this war between these two races here. Apparently, their sun turned into a black hole (...I don't know how their planets survived that, but oh well) and then they seemed to deconstruct their own homeworlds in order to build a Ringworld together, each building half of the new structure. I...guess that stopped their new "Sacred Ring" planet from falling into the black hole. Not a very strong black hole, if that is what it is.
We also learn that one of the races believes in a Goddess-type figure, who they call Zerta, who narrates this history to the guy from the other faction. Given that the font they speak in looks pretty Cybertronian...I'm guessing this "Goddess" is going to turn out to be a female Transformer. And given how Sunbow-leaning this comic has been so far...I'm going to guess it's going to turn out to be Elita-1. I guess it COULD be someone like Windblade, another "cityspeaker" class character, or maybe a Titan...but given the other choices in the comic, I'm still guessing Elita-1, myself. I suppose it COULD be a new character, but...for something like this, I think revealing that it's actually a character that we know would make the most sense.
Also, "The coming of the Goliant draws near!!"...whatever that means. That COULD be a reference to Unicron, I guess. But, I think it's more likely a new villain for the Void Rivals gang. If they're going to get toys, they need a villain of their own. The first thing *I* think of when I hear that name is the Ungoliant from Lord of the Rings (The Primordial Spider).
Ungoliant (Sindarin; IPA: [uŋˈɡoljant]) was a primordial taking the shape of a gigantic spider. She was initially an ally of Melkor in Aman, and for a short time in Middle-earth as well. She was a distant mother of Shelob, and the oldest and first giant spider of Arda. The true origin of...
lotr.fandom.com
But, there DOES seem to be a trend of combining the words "Goliath" and "Giant" to make "Goliant" in other things. Most interestingly...in Kaijudo/Duel Masters. Which I believe Hasbro ALSO owns.
kaijudo.fandom.com
So...could Void Rivals actually be a stealth Kaijudo Duel Masters revival? This comic is already doing crazier things. *shrug*
Also, there's a scene where the crystals on the foreheads of both of these factions are combined. I feel like that's supposed to be significant somehow. I guess the shapes of both crystals SORT of look like general shape of the Autobot and Decepticon logos? Maybe? If you squint?
But, here's a random thought I had: What if BOTH of these races actually evolved from Energon? Like, what if Energon is their primordial ooze? What if these are both races that evolved from Energon that was left out by the Transformers and over the millions of years they've been gone, it changed bacteria that got inside the canisters into these lifeforms? It would potentially explain the crystals in their foreheads. And maybe why there's two factions, one evolved from Energon from a Autobot base and the other on a Decepticon controlled planet. And why this is the "Energon Universe". Both of these races could be basically Energon-creatures. I'm probably wrong, but I think it's a interesting idea.