IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally published on Patreon.]
WRITER: Mark Millar – @mrmarkmillar
ARTIST: Eric Canete
COLORS: Giovanna Niro
LETTERS: Peter Doherty with Melina Mikulic
EDITOR: Rachel Fulton
COVER: Pasqual Ferry with Dave McCaig
VARIANT COVERS: Travis Charest; Eric Canete with Giovanna Niro; Kevin Nowlan; Rey Macutay with Walter Pezzali
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (October 2019)
Chrononauts created by Mark Millar and Sean Gordon Murphy
Rated M / Mature
Chrononauts: Futureshock is a four-issue, comic book miniseries written by Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) and drawn by Eric Canete. All four issues were simultaneously published on October 30, 2019. Colorist Giovanna Niro and letterers Peter Doherty and Melina Mikulic complete Futureshock's creative team.
Chrononauts: Futureshock is the sequel to the four-issue miniseries, Chrononauts, which was created by Millar and artist Sean Gordon Murphy. Published in 2015, the first series focused on the world's first time travelers, Dr. Corbin Quinn and Dr. Danny Reilly, and the problems they encounter or create while time-traveling.
Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 opens in the present day and finds Quinn and Reilly ready to take the next big step in the advancement of time-traveling. They want to finally travel forward in the time-stream, after making six missions into the past. The duo has a new vehicle, the “Time-Hawk,” which is built to resemble a giant electric guitar, and they also have special new “chrono-suits.” There is, however, a specific reason why Quinn and Reilly have thus far failed to travel into the future. Until one of them discovers that reason, they will always be going backwards.
Like much of Mark Millar's creator-owned comics outside of Marvel Comics, Chrononauts was the usual, glossy, high-concept piece featuring characters that know a lot, but don't realize how much they don't know. An action-comedy, Chrononauts was a four-issue romp through time that was quite entertaining to read. I recently read the entire series and found myself quickly reading through the entire thing in less than a day (in between work and assorted tasks).
Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 suggests more fun in the same vein. Nearly four and a half years after the release of the original, Millar's story for Chrononauts: Furtureshock seems to pick up right where the first left off. Furtureshock's artist, Eric Canete, has a graphic style that is close to Sean Gordon Murphy's drawing style, so the change in artists is not jarring. Canete is a little flashier and more dramatic both in his composition and in his graphic design of the page and within individual panels than Murphy. It is now, however, a case of one artist being better than the other. They are simply similar in some ways and different in others.
The coloring by Giovanna Niro is fiery and flashy and that makes the story edgy and gives it a jolt of energy that picks up the pace. There are pages in which the coloring even mimics the camera flare effect. The lettering by Peter Doherty, with an assist from Melina Mikulic, keeps punching the story into action every time it seems as if the narrative is going to be quiet.
I won't call Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 a great comic book, but it is hugely entertaining. Since I was too clueless to figure out that Image Comic released all four issues simultaneously, I don't have issues two, three, and four. I will get them, though; the end of the first issue offers the kind of cliffhanger that makes readers want to come back for more.
7.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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