#devils due publishing

First, the worse:

Those fucking skull belts. I just can’t take either Lotor or Merla seriously with them on sometimes.

Space Elf Biker Queen Merla. It wasn’t even the 90s (when the “bad girl” craze happened) so there was no excuse. Her design doesn’t match any of the other Drules, and each Drule Kingdom has something different about it. Still, it’s Merla and I’ll take her any way that I can get (don’t make that dirty you pervs).

The art style(s) is/are all over the place, and I don’t mean that as a dig against the art itself, but the style(s)—styles of competing western superhero body builds vs kind-of-sort-of anime-inspired faces and so on—don't always convey important concepts.

A glaring example of this being the age, height, and weight/muscle difference between Zarkon and Lotor. The physical difference between them is an important visual representation of the power that Zarkon holds over Lotor (who is 22 years old at 6’3” 200 lbs against Zarkon’s 93 years of age at 6’8” and 365 lbs). The difference between them is obvious in some issues of the series but not in others as different artists illustrate different issues which is a little jarring at times. It’s like they couldn’t consistently decide on whether to illustrate Lotor as either tall-and-slender with more anime-elf-like features or…as a super villain six-pack straight out of DC comics or something (guess which version I prefer).

Some of the artists’ styles make Pidge look like a 16 year old with stunted growth (as he’s supposed to be), while others’ styles do not.

Other than Pidge, every character is in their mid-20s and up, but Allura is younger (19) in a way that had me thinking: “Okay fanboys, I get it, the hot barely-legal Princess is a Thing…but why is she chasing after Keith* (26) when he’s clearly not interested…?”

The space mice are robots (yeah…).

* Speaking of Keith, this reminds me that every iteration of Keith has something new tacked onto his character (often taken from another character). In DDP Voltron, for the first time, we get to see Adult Angst Keith who has Tragically Lost Everything That Mattered (dead parents, dead fiancée). Enter innocent Princess Allura to heal all that pain away. LOL. At least Keith’s dead fiancée was given a full name. Joking aside, Ka//llura in DDP Voltron is done well and an interesting take on that ship.

ONTO THE BETTER!

The writing is clearly for older teens and adults, meaning that it can tackle deeper concepts and create a setting of consequences when it wants to. The writing does a good job at moving beyond black-and-white morality characterizations—[salt] “Moral grayness” done right [/salt]—handles the complexity of many interacting characters while setting up myth arcs and a larger world to explore without preventing/stalling the main characters from moving through smaller plots (an actual writer could probably explain this better but there it is).

The comics show love for the original series (both Lion and Vehicle seasons of DotU) without ditching the made-for-US DotU episodes that gave us characters like Merla. (looking at you Voltron Third Dimension and Voltron Force)

True DotU love is a Stride the Tiger Fighter reference.

Even Stride from DotU shows up and I love it. I never thought I’d see Stride again. I love that he’s a space pirate in this. Lotor vs Stride is so much fun and I need more of it. Alas, A Legend Forged is all we’ll get.

The writing is also more military/comic-sci-fi focused with the politics of the Galaxy Garrison, Galactic Union, and Drule Supremacy driving the larger plot lines and rivalries. The writing doesn’t cross into magic/fantasy territory as much as the original DotU series did, and definitely not at all like VLD does. So that can be either a pro or a con depending upon what one’s blended genre preference is.

Despite my picks about Allura’s age, with the exception of Pidge (and later Chip), all of the characters are adults! No teens here.

Additionally, the concept of Allura having a magical and mystical bond with Voltron in an actionable way (and the lions being sentient forming bonds with the pilots) is first found in this series. VLD iterated upon that and added a lot more. Those aren’t the only concepts either...

BASIC PLOT SUMMARY:

Captain/Commander Hawkins (originally from Vehicle Voltron) assembles a team of highly-skilled yet questionable men to go find the mythical Voltron in order to help the Galactic Union in its long cold war against the Drule Supremacy (currently under armistice with no active hostilities). The problem is that the Galactic Union (aka Galaxy Alliance) doesn’t believe in Voltron and thinks Hawkins is crazy. Hawkins has to go behind his superiors’ backs to prove that Voltron exists.

This is how Hawkins ends up with a team of:

Ex-Navy Special Forces (not SEAL) Sven (age 27) who is stuck on “administrative leave” due to some complicated self-defense killing while on a mission in South America;

Pidge (age 16) orphaned-ward-of-the-state-child-prodigy and student at New West Point;

Former Navy pilot Lance (age 24) is an inmate serving time for fly-boy antics (pro-tip: don’t buzz a senator’s penthouse with a navy jet);

Hunk (age 24) military engineer/mechanic who has resigned himself to being the tough guy (this is interesting and I wish there had been more time to explore this concept for Hunk);

And finally, Marine-on-leave Keith (age 26) who has thrown himself into his martial arts training to get over the tragic death of his fiancée.**

** This concept for Keith works well because it sets up a parallel between him and Lotor that feels more natural than the formulaic shōnen style from DotU. We don’t see Lotor’s side of it until Vol 2, and had the series continued then that could have been explored more.

After this set up, the story points are small and contained. The summaries below are of these smaller plots and they overlap with each other so what follows is not a chronological-by-issue summary.

VOL 1:

Find Voltron, Hawkins gathers the team, and explains the myth of Voltron and Drule Empress Jain IX (think VLD Honerva/Haggar if she had been Empress of the Galra instead of Zarkon).

Voltron, the Great Intergalactic Fairy Tale.

The team goes to Arus, which is in ruins as Zarkon razed the planet a decade prior. They meets Princess Allura, who doesn’t like being called ‘Princess’ because after the death of her parents and destruction of her world, she doesn’t see Arus as independent or a kingdom anymore (they are subjects of the Ninth Kingdom of the Drule Supremacy). Haggar does her “magical sensing the return of Voltron thing” while Allura has a mystical dream conversation with the Ghost of King Alfor. Zarkon sends a detachment to investigate Haggar’s warning of a threat coming from Arus. The detachment arrives, a fight ensues, and our heroes get into those Lions and form Voltron.

Getting to know Arus and Allura, where there is some set up of the Lance-Allura-Keith triangle in a fun-and-believable way (and that says a lot coming from me).

No kl//ance in sight.

Did I mention that I have a strong and abiding bias against romance being mixed into action/sci-fi/mecha/adventures?

Yeah, the writers handle this well here and sold me on Ka//llura when I’ve always found that ship to be ‘meh’, while for DotU I leaned more towards Allur//ance instead (which isn’t saying much because I’m nearly always ship agnostic). Not saying that to rag on any ships, but the treatment of Allura with regards to relationships (platonic or romantic) and her agency is my #1 deal-breaker for any iteration of Voltron. So that’s why I bring this up. This is American comic book style romance, similar to what you’d find in series with ensemble casts like The X-Men, The Avengers, or Justice League. It’s neither shōjo, nor reliant on “cut-to-the-chase” clichés necessary for including romance plots within the time constraints of animation. It’s not terribly deep either, which means that it also doesn’t distract from the rest of the story. To me, that’s a win.

Save/Free Arus, which introduces Lotor (age 22) fresh from Drule bootcamp and sent by Zarkon to further investigate Arus now that they have confirmed Haggar’s vision of a threat in the form of Voltron. Lotor’s brilliant idea of investigating is to show up in Allura’s bedroom as the grabby stalker space barbarian we all love-to-hate from DotU.***

Ugh. You can’t see my wretch-face. No thanks. Fortunately, I got over this BECAUSE IT GETS BETTER.

We find out that Lotor and Allura were kinda-sorta childhood friends, but mostly that Zarkon had sent Lotor as an adolescent to Arus as a spy under the guise of diplomacy. This re-introduces the “instrument of evil” concept from DotU such that in this continuity, Lotor is raised by Zarkon to be an unquestioning tool of conquest and their power dynamic is very one-sided. Zarkon’s abusive-and-controlling behavior becomes obvious once Lotor fails in this first mission. (some of this backstory comes from the character bios which appear in some of the issues)

***The issue that shows this creepy/gross scene was my introduction to the series and I put it down immediately as that characterization of Lotor and treatment of Allura is my #2 Voltron deal-breaker for me. Needless to say Vol 2 redeems this so well that—once I read the Vol 2 issues—I picked up the entire series and was able to catch on to what was happening, and this scene bothers me less now.

Lion Swap, where Sven is mysteriously rejected by the Blue Lion during his second time flying it (hmmm that sounds so familiar!), and Allura becomes the Blue Lion’s pilot instead. They fight Lotor’s forces and a Robeast. Obviously, Lotor fails his mission and Sven is benched and he’s not happy about it.

I love DDP Sven. He’s so grumpy.

VOL 2:

Lots of world-building in Vol 2. I love what the writers did with the Drule Supremacy. My only pick is that they didn’t include any of the Drule (like Hazar, Dorma, Throk) from Vehicle Voltron, even though the political focus of Vehicle Voltron is reflected in the world-building of Vol 2.

Primary plot:  Rebuilding Arus while the politics of both the Drule Supremacy and the Galactic Union create obstacles for everyone, and Something Is Up With Sven. A lot of story is packed into Vol 2, and sadly, the series was cancelled before it could be completed. So the conclusion (kind of) of the story is only found within the Voltron Defender of the Universe Omnibus.

Rebuiding Arus interrupted by Theft of the Lions, while Arus is being rebuilt and Sven is having Issues™ (cough VLD Shiro/Kuron cough).

Proof of Hawkins’ BDE.

Hawkins arrives/crash-lands in a stolen/commandeered Drule ship to ask if the Garrison could send scientists to study Voltron, but Allura doesn’t like that idea at all. While they discuss this, Arus is attacked (sort of) by the Galaxy Garrison (distinct entity within the Galactic Union) who steals Voltron from them, and forces Hawkins to return with them (essentially he’s arrested and about to be demoted for his actions at the beginning of the series).

Team Voltron leaves Arus to try to get the lions back, and while doing so, uncover a conspiracy between the Drule Supremacy and important leaders within the Galaxy Garrison. Also, Hunk’s brothers are larger than him…like much larger. He’s called “Hunk” because he was the smallest of his brothers and it was a teasing nickname from them.

Obligatory giant robot fight between Lion and Vehicle Voltrons: Our heroes find out that the Garrison stole Voltron in order to study it and create their own (as well as some other things). So now we get Vehicle Voltron which made me super happy. It’s not as powerful as Lion Voltron (and a good reason is given for why it requires 15 pilots instead of 5). Team Voltron sneaks into where the Lions are being held and manages to fight off the Vehicle Force Team to escape. As they leave Earth with the Lions, Vehicle Voltron is sent after Lion Voltron to bring them back to Earth.

I love the Vehicle Voltron uniforms in this so much...

Right. Giant robot fight. Rather than winning the fight, Lion Voltron manages to escape while Vehicle Voltron has its energy over-loaded. Then, the Lion Team hides out to give time for the Lions to recover. Lotor shows up, making the claim that the Lions were going to be sent to the Drule, and he’s here to collect what’s rightfully theirs.

Former classmates ragging on Lotor...but wait! Is that a tiny hair bun/knot/something pulling his hair back? YASSS.

Bring on the Robeasts, but first, another obligatory fight: a one-on-one between Lotor and Keith. No swords this time (because this isn't space fantasy). It’s martial arts instead, and Keith (who is 4 years older than Lotor) kicks Lotor’s ass because Lotor spends more time talking shit and less time fighting.

Patience yields focus son!

Political fallout from Lotor’s failures, and Lotor Meditates Upon The Nature of Honor (or something): This introduces the politics of the 10 Kingdoms that make up the Drule Supremacy, including Queen Merla.

MAJOR UPGRADE. Girl you belong on a Lady Death cover. Did Vampirella style your hair?

Zarkon gets into political embarrassment over Lotor’s run-ins with Voltron (and thus the Galactic Union) and is sanctioned for it in front of the other kingdoms. Other rivals appear, and this sets up a lot of interesting subplots that are sadly never explored (as the series was cancelled).

Sick burn Skath.

One of the political rivals is Prince Skath of the Second Kingdom. Skath’s attitude towards Lotor over Merla is interesting as Skath assumes that Lotor “has designs” on Merla when nothing could be further from the truth. Lotor is not the schemer in this continuity, Merla is. Merla makes it clear (to Haggar and others) that she wants to merge her kingdom with Zarkon’s, and marrying Lotor is a part of that. Here, Lotor is shown as someone who doesn’t get to make many choices for himself (and when he does, he gets into a lot of trouble for it).

Since Lotor failed terribly in his first mission and screwed up his un-approved actions to retrieve the Lions after the incident with the Garrison, he—like Keith—has thrown himself into his martial arts training (best described as “honorable warrior code meets ancient Drow Drule fighting techniques”). This further highlights the difference between Lotor and Zarkon, as Lotor grows to see that Zarkon “does not follow the creed.” Gone is the grabby stalker space barbarian characterization from Vol 1, and it’s been replaced with something else that’s kind of hard to describe (e.g. character development is a Thing That Happens), but it involves meditation and loin cloths.

Yeah. That happened. Again with the skulls!

The Drule creed and honorable warrior code doesn’t get explored much further in Vol 2 but I think that the “Followers of the Lion” stuff from A Legend Forged has something to do with that (cough Lion Goddess cough).

Queen Merla has political rivals of her own and they cause trouble later, in this panel we see Queen Xarnaren of the Fifth Kingdom giving Merla the evil-eye.

“Is that leather or latex? What kind of Queen wears...never mind.” - Queen Xarnaren, probably.

Merla and Haggar scheming: We find out that Lotor is confined to Korrinoth (aka Planet Doom) because Zarkon will not risk or tolerate any more political embarrassments. To send that message, he violates Lotor’s privacy (Lotor has his own home) and physically threatens him.

Zarkon deadlifts Lotor with one hand around his neck.

The art style in this scene more accurately represents the physical difference between Zarkon and Lotor as well as their personalities. Lotor is enjoying private time with a servant and is wearing lounge-wear and sandals, while Zarkon shows up in his authoritarian military leader uniform with a gun holstered at his side. Lotor is never seen using a gun (maybe once?), he only uses swords and hand-to-hand combat (unless he’s piloting a ship and firing the ship’s weapons).

Meanwhile, Sven continues to have Issues™ and Merla and Haggar launch their plan. Sven betrays the team, sabotaging the security system that he designed and built for Arus, and leaves with Merla.

Camo Sven with a bandolier meeting Biker Queen Merla in the jungle will never get old.

Merla introduces Sven to Lotor (whom she has managed to get to leave Korrinoth despite the threats from Zarkon). Lotor calls Merla out on brainwashing Sven, and right in front of him too (this happens a few times and it’s clear that Lotor does not approve of the brainwashing).

Merla, Sven, Lotor, and Haggar travel a secret base on Caldaran to discuss the deposition of Zarkon and alliance between the Seventh and Ninth Kingdoms against Bhorn (of the First Kingdom), using Sven to get at Voltron to give them the power to do it. During their discussion, they are attacked by a ship sent by Queen Xarnaren. This puts them all in a bad situation, as Merla is wounded and has to be healed/watched by Haggar, while Sven and Lotor team-up to get through the caverns that cut around the wreckage that blocks the exit and gives access to ships that Merla has hidden at the base. Naturally, the caverns are full of threats.

First date: talk philosophy (seriously). Get to second base: Warrior bonds between men.

Voltron to the rescue…sort of: Team Voltron leaves—but not before Allura gets a blushing eye-full of shirtless Keith doing his katas—to find Sven.

Get you some Allura. You’re 19, he’s 26 and lonely!

Sven and Lotor make it out of the caverns alive to find the ship.

Aaand some mutual appreciation bonding between Sven and Lotor over the beauty of Merla’s ship.

Like, a lot of bonding.

(✧ᴗ✧✿)

So much bonding.

I’m just saying…for those who paddled that Sho//tor canoe…here it is.

Anyway...Voltron arrives while Lotor and Sven have their ship in orbit to take out the Fifth Kingdom ship that attacked their meeting with Merla. Keith hails them, asking about Sven, not knowing who is on board. Sven is all “let’s do this!” and fires weapons on Voltron, splitting the lions apart. While they fight, Captain Yurak (e.g. VLD Sendak = DotU Yurak) of the Fifth Kingdom shows up and the battle gets complicated. Eventually Voltron and Lotor/Sven work together to fight off Yurak.

Merla’s true plans revealed: While the battle rages in orbit, Haggar finds out that Merla was planning to assassinate Zarkon all along (not merely depose him) and she’s not having any of that nonsense. Haggar reveals her Horror Movie “Druid/Priestess/Follower of Sarga” face and they go at it.

Also, it wouldn’t be an American style comic book without at least one hot babe in a shredded costume.

Enjoy lads, and you too @teamsincline ;-)

Haggar uses a jump gate to summon Robeasts, and since Haggar is on her own side, the Robeasts are unleashed on everyone.

Did I say Robeasts? More like cosmic horrors the size of asteroids.

While the Robeasts are being fought, Allura has a Mystic Moment with the Spirit of Voltron and realizes that Sven has been brainwashed. Their minds meet in the astral plane (or wherever) and Allura heals Sven’s mind, breaking the influence that Merla had over him. Unfortunately, the battle isn’t going well, and now that Sven is in his right mind, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice

Whelp, there goes that ship...

Enter Romelle and Bandor: who find a nearly-naked Sven crashed on their planet…

Yeah Bandor, “Wow”.

The battle with the Robeasts over Caldaran is over. Lotor peaced out in an escape ship/pod just in time, and Team Voltron returns to Arus where they mourn the loss of Sven, while Merla tries to get her shit together (speaking of nearly-naked) and finds that she’s not alone.

Yo, Merla, the 90′s are calling and they want their bad girl dress-code back.

Team Voltron’s time on Arus is short-lived as they receive a distress signal, and they go to investigate. Naturally, it’s a trap. This time by Soltorn, General/Ruler of the Fourth Kingdom who has Lotor captured and the ship is rigged to blow.

Aaaaand that’s the end of the series because it was cancelled.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Sort of weirdly rushed conclusion: Merla and Haggar continue their telepathy vs magic fight, resulting in Merla desperately forcing Haggar to open a jump gate—it’s occult-science so magic is involved—via telepathy.

Things Go Wrong and weird spatial/dimensional rips across the galaxy, including on the rigged ship where Lotor was held captive by Soltorn. Lotor tells Team Voltron that they need to return to Caldaran.

Meanwhile, Sven has a Meaningful Dream About Voltron, and Coran contacts the team to tell them that psychic visions are being reported all over the quadrant. The team arrives at Caldaran to find another Robeast, and the battle doesn’t go well. Sven arrives in time to help and he enters the Heart of Voltron with all it’s shiny blue quintessence quasi-mystical energy. I have no idea how this fixes the problem of the psychic distortions. The story kind of loses me here.

The day is saved and Team Voltron is reunited with Sven, while Lotor takes Haggar to return to Korrinoth, leaving Merla behind. And since Lotor was threatened by Zarkon to not leave Korrinoth, the final panels conclude with Zarkon waiting for Lotor in his home and ready to teach him a lesson in disobedience.

Fade to black with tortured screams.

The End!

Finally, a follow-up mini-series called A Legend Forged was released that takes place after the events of Vol 2. The plot is more self-contained, and involves Team Voltron, Lotor, and Stride being sent to the past when the Thing That Stride Was Stealing from the Drule gets triggered in the wrong way. This series reveals Korrinoth’s past, before it became the desolate Planet Doom during Empress Jain IX’s conquest. The story focuses on the mythology established at the beginning of Vol 1 with the creation of Voltron. It’s interesting and fun, and I usually don’t like time-travel stories.

There’s also the Followers of the Lion...hmmm that tattoo looks kind of familiar.