by thefourthman » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:57 pm
A late review of this here Time Masters book.
The reason that I dig DC over Marvel has a lot to do with ideas. DC is a Universe full of potential. It realizes that multiple stories can cause problems and as such has come up with ingenious ideas over the years to deal with them. The biggest of these is of course the multiverse. It doesn’t hurt that Batman is a mainstay and as such there is a pulpy feel to some of the stories. Throw in the occasional runs of Doc Savage, The Shadow and Spirit and well, it’s the universe that works more for me, forgetting reality and diving into its big concepts.
As such, I want to like this book. I really do. It is a tie-in to the big old Return of Bruce Wayne book that is mad and crazy. The first problem with this book is that it seems tangently related to that series. And that relationship would be a push even then. This is pure and simple a Booster Gold book. IT’s written by the guy that made the first year or so of Booster’s book awesome. It was Quantum Leap with my favorite Superhero characters as the people being helped. The issue that dealt with The Killing Joke was a bit of genius.
So, both Booster Gold and This book being about time travel (as is that Morrison book), it is important to keep things straight. Jurgens did an admirable job of that with Booster Gold. Here not so much. As much as Rip is concerned with maintaining the time line, it is clear that Jurgens is losing his grip on it. The book darts back and forth between different eras with no time or reason. There is talk about a Vanishing Point, but no explanation to what it is. Characters start chatting about the future and we don’t know what happened there yet. Then there is the confusing archivist guy. It’s all just a mess and there seems to be no reason to it. Problem is, I still like it. I like the interactions between the characters and I like the ideas presented. The real deal is that it just isn’t a good book and that is a shame.
Rapmund does a bang up job, it seems like an iconic DC super book and that is important. Too bad he wasn’t given a book with a little more direction behind it.
Story 2
Art 4
Total 6