Devil's Due Publishing

Devil's Due Publishing (aka DDP) revived the Voltron property in comic book form in 2003.

The initial issues were produced by DDP and published through Image Comics, though later DDP was able to take on the publishing duties themselves.^{[citation needed]}

Voltron: Defender of the Universe

Main article: Voltron: Defender of the Universe (Devil's Due)

Voltron: A Legend Forged (limited series)

Limited series (2008). 5 issues.

Collections

• Voltron: Defender of the Universe: Revelations - TPB collecting the 2003 limited series.
• Voltron: Omnibus - hardcover collecting the 2003 limited series and 2004 ongoing series, plus additional content to complete unfinished storylines
• Voltron: A Legend Forged - TPB collecting the 2008 limited series.

General information

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From 2003 until its hiatus in 2004/5, Devil's Due began publishing an updated version of Voltron for modern audiences. The characters remained the same, but were given further backgrounds and character development. Stylistic changes were also made. In the cartoon, Keith, Lance, Sven, Hunk, and Pidge were all members of the Galaxy Alliance, and knew the Vehicle team quite well from their academy days. In the comic book, each member was a nobody of sorts, scrounged together by Colonel Hawkins (later demoted to Commander) to search for Voltron, and did not meet the Vehicle team until the second story arc. In the cartoon, the team's search for Voltron was a result of mere chance. The characters are also possibly slightly older than in the cartoon, but then, ages for the characters in the cartoon were never officially given. Also, in the cartoon, Zarkon was described as a renegade of the Drule Empire, and Queen Merla was queen of an unknown kingdom. In the comic book, the Drule Empire is instead the Drule Supremacy, consisting of 10 kingdoms, with Zarkon ruling the Ninth Kingdom and Merla ruling the Seventh Kingdom. Another stylistic change went to Allura's space mice, who are now bio-mechanical, created by King Alfor when Allura was little to be her companions. Their familiar mischievous tendencies don't emerge until Pidge modifies them into diagnostic tools ("sensors on legs", as he puts it). These modifications appear to have set up "a few unexpected behaviors".

Comic book version of characters

• Keith Akira Kogane: The comic book version of Keith depicts him as 26 and a very anti-social character in the beginning. Born to a Japanese father and a Chinese mother, his father trained him in kung fu until Keith's parents died tragically in an accident when he was 12. Afterwards, Keith continued to practice many other forms of martial arts until he turned 18 and enrolled in the United States Marine Corps, spending several years as a reconnaissance specialist. When he was 24, he met and proposed to Beverly Hagel, who died 7 weeks before their wedding date in a plane accident. Two years later, he was approached by Colonel Hawkins to join a team of outcasts to search for the legendary robot Voltron on the distant planet Arus. During the course of the series, he begins to form a comradeship with his teammates, and begins to develop feelings for Princess Allura and vice-versa.

• Lance Charles McClain: The comic book version of Lance depicts him as 24 with a criminal record. For most of his life, Lance grew up as an adolescent daredevil and drag-racer. His life changed forever when he won a gift certificate for 10 free flying lessons in a radio contest. These lessons displayed that he had a natural talent for flying. At age 18, he joined the navy, and flying became his obsession, but his hot-headedness landed him in deep water when his jetstar buzzed the penthouse of a vindictive senator. Three months into his five-year sentence in a military prison, Lance was approached by Colonel Hawkins to join a team of outcasts to search for the legendary robot Voltron on the distant planet Arus. The comic book version of Lance is given the catchphrase of exclaiming "holy cats!", or sometimes "ho-leeee cats!".

• Tsuyoshi "Hunk" Garrett: The comic book version of Hunk depicts him as 24 and born to an American father and Japanese mother. His nickname "Hunk" comes from his 4 brothers, of whom he's ironically the smallest, despite his own great size. While his brothers sought activities to take advantage of their physical prowess such as football and sumo, Hunk found a knack for all things mechanical. He was not very social, though, and would spend most of his time tinkering in garage workshops. Later he put himself through college on the G.I. bill, and after gaining a Master's in engineering, he discovered the equipment that fascinated him most was military in nature. However, he remained rather anti-social, establishing himself as someone who it was unwise to harass, until he was approached by Colonel Hawkins to join a team of outcasts to search for the legendary robot Voltron on the distant planet Arus.

• Darrell "Pidge" Stoker: The comic book version of Pidge depicts him as a growth-stunted 16-year-old, and as an Earthling (as opposed to his cartoon counterpart hailing from the planet Balto). He's also depicted as an orphan abandoned outside a convent when he was six weeks old (however, he may yet have a family because later he talks with Vehicle team member Chip about the similarities that exist between the two of them, he remarks that '[they]'re one DNA test short of discovering [they]'re brothers' which is a nod to the cartoon establishment of Pidge and Chip as twins). During his years at the orphanage, his scores on a state-mandated IQ test caught the eye of the New West Point military academy, who promptly enrolled him to put his awe-inspiring understanding of computer systems to good use. However, his life at NWP turned out to be worse than at the orphanage, and was the subject of regular beatings by his intellectually-threatened peers, until he was approached by Colonel Hawkins to join a team of outcasts to search for the legendary robot Voltron on the distant planet Arus. Pidge didn't have to be asked twice, and promptly agreed.

• Sven Holgersson: The comic book version of Sven depicts him as 27, the oldest member on the team. Unlike his cartoon counterpart, the comic book Sven is given much further depth, and plays a major role. Much of Sven's past remains unknown, except that he was a former member of an elite Navy squad similar to the SEALS. During an insurrection in a small South American country, a serious miscommunication caused a foreign national Sven was supposed to extract to believe Sven was an assassin and opened fire. Sven was left with no choice but to fire back, protecting himself and eliminating the extraction target. He was then placed on "administrative leave" until he was approached by Colonel Hawkins to join a team of outcasts to search for the legendary robot Voltron on the distant planet Arus. Sven was possibly the most anti-social of the group, but this is possibly due to being the oldest and most mature. Unlike in the cartoon, Sven never got a chance to properly form Voltron, or even get to wear his classic black uniform (the only comic book image of Sven in his uniform is in a promotional picture in the back of Issue #0, although Allura did offer to find him a uniform, possibly in black, when the team plus Allura finally attained their own familiar uniforms). This is due to him having a brain defect that caused the magic of Voltron to somehow reject him. This brain defect caused him to fall under the influence of Queen Merla and Haggar, under which he betrayed his friends and Arus by stealing files from the Castle of Lions' control room. He was then placed on a mission alongside Prince Lotor, during which the two found themselves having to survive together and try to trust each other. During a conflict that erupted later, Sven apparently crash-landed on planet Pollux, where he was discovered by Princess Romelle. Due to the comic's hiatus, what path Sven's tale would have taken from that point remains a mystery.

• Princess Allura: The comic book version of Allura places her at age 19, and depicts her with a much stronger backbone than her cartoon counterpart. When her home planet Arus was ravaged by the forces of Zarkon and her parents murdered by Zarkon's own hand, she was taken in and raised by Coran, a retired combat instructor in the royal army, and was forced to grow up much too fast. Years later, she would renounce her title of "princess," answering only to "Allura," until her people are liberated from Zarkon's tyranny. Visions while she slept showed the spirit of her father King Alfor promising that five young men would come to Arus in search of the legendary robot Voltron. When Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Sven arrive on Arus and speak of the mighty robot, Allura instantly knows that they are the ones spoken of in her visions, and helps them to find the five hidden lions that will unite to form Voltron. When Voltron fails to combine properly due to a brain defect within Sven, Allura mans his Blue Lion, and with her royal Arusian blood, the unification of Voltron is finally a success, and she becomes a member of the Voltron Force. During the course of the comic, she begins to develop feelings towards Keith and vice-versa.