Time Warp #1

I mentioned that I was getting this one and it may be my first Vertigo title. This of course is about Time Travel and has Rip Hunter in it. Clearly a must buy.

R.I.P.

If you think Rips' hard on Booster then you should seen how he treats his past self when he gets trapped in the past. Here's a bit of it:

Rip Hunter: "Now Move Idiot!"

"Paddle Asshole!"

"--and trim your beard! You look like shit!"

Which is very amusing because he's so damn impatient with himself and while it doesn't seem like Lemire has used anything from the BG series as canon I can't help seeing things. Like how hard Booster is on himself Rip has the same trait, although this is far funnier. The plot really doesn't make any sense for the character because Rip isn't just a Time Master, he's THE Time Master. So seeing different versions of himself going back in further to help him out seems kind of ridiculous when you think about it. Something that raises a lot of questions like why one version couldn't help him out the whole time. Why he can't work around the paradox of the time sphere holding two Rips even though there already are two in one place. But at the end a old Rip gives his sphere to the younger one and accepts his fate of getting eaten by a dinosaur. Since that's the way he wanted to die as a kid he thinks it's not too bad. It's bittersweet especially if you recall the father/son moment where Booster let's his son see one in person in TMVP. It doesn't make sense in any logical way nor live up to Rips' image as a fighter. I liked it but mainly for the way he treats himself and because I remember similar things from the BG series. Otherwise it's a little cliché.

It's Full Of Demons

This one was built up around the big reveal at the end. You know the one everyone always asks. If you can kill this person as a child to save lives, would you? It happens but I found his sisters' altered life very tragic and couldn't help feeling for her. I likely wasn't supposed to and the reveal came across a little hammy.

I have what you need

Written by Simone this is the first story of hers in awhile that I've liked. This has to do with a store owner that sells candy that altered one's state in time related ways. Like reliving good moments of their lives. A father and son go there letting the son relive a fun time to forget if only for a moment that the kids' dying. Another man visits his late lover before she died. (Although she knows she died?) Then we gets a grade A jackass that murdered his wife and wants to relive the moment again and again. In his haste to get what he wants he has the father shot but the store owner reveals the twist. That the bastard already had the candy 25 years ago. The father will recover, the lonely man was a cop that disarmed the guard resulting in the guards' death and the son getting the right donor. The cop and the father fall in love. The store owner was shot too but since only he controls the time warps the evil ass and him are stuck in a time loop.

The Grudge

This only talks about time in theory but in it's simplest form is about two men using science to publically embarrass each other by spelling out immature digs. A little entertaining by not much of a pay off. More annoying after the first read.

Dead Boy Detectives

Like the title says as two alive boys end up at a school for dead boys while looking for the spirit of a dead cat. Interesting but it's not even finished! It says it's followed up somewhere else! GAH!

She's not There

Woman dies and her husband goes to a company that can make a ghost off of the wifes' information.  She appears, we find out that her husband didn't let her have a life of her own. It's hinted at that she might be something else not a ghost. It ends there. Interesting story but again it cuts off just when it was getting good.

00:00:03:00

The first time I read this I found myself skipping over the text boxes because the techno-babble bored me. A female pilot realizes she's going to die in space during a battle and breaks protocol to send her mother a message. That's pretty much it. While a tragic tale it didn't really do too much. I guess she inspired others to do the same thing? That was kind of implied but not shown. Having home movies play on her robo-ship when she had a hour to live felt like it was trying to force emotions onto us so we'd empathize. I wouldn't mind it if it didn't make me wonder how many people in the army/etc. would have that stuff playing in the backround when this went down. Kinda distracting.

Warning Danger

I didn't expect to like this one. It's very wordy and goes on about the tech being used. What's interesting about it is that two warring planets are fighting over taking over another planet for it's resources. The two fighters chosen have the most expensive and absurdly over thought out weapons you can imagine. But neither race (they both look human) is willing to kill. They both find it immoral but the winner likely will have to if they want the planet bad enough.

The Principle

Finally another story that has to do with actual time travel! Two agents are charged with protecting Hitler from being killed. They have to do this a lot just like agents in Dallas have to ensure JFK dies. A neat take on protecting the timeline even with some amusing explanation for strange events like Rasputin dying so many times. Though it make you wonder where these guys were in the "it's full of demons" story. While that story came off as cliché this one had more fun with the idea. I liked how the agents talked about why time travel should be illegal (which it was during Boosters' time) and how it would happen anyway. Plus calling time travelling assassins "tourist" will never not be funny.

Overall: This had some weak stories that went no where. There were some tales that had nothing to do with time travel other than it being in the future or having ghosts from another century. Some of the stories just ended on a cliffhanger making it highly frustrating to read. The Grudge just pissed me off because it starts off with a man of science telling the reporters how dumb they are and that he's going to explain time travel to them. Then it turns into a tale of his rival and him acting like jackasses to each other ending with him proving he's still a jackass.

This was a male heavy book with only one real strong female lead who story revolves around her sending a message to her mom before she died. I guess the "ghost" in She's not There took over as lead from her husband but it's not even clear if she was a piece of tech or something else. The person she's based off of was shown as meek and stuck in a smothering relationship. The warrior in Warning Danger wasn't really a lead character per se and neither was the male warrior. The most insulting was the supposed love interest in The Grudge that seemed to be fought after just because the two men wanted her, died because "she never was too bright" and one of her suitors couldn't even recall her name. Even Gail Simone had two dead women in her short story, one of who was brutally murdered by her husband.

Some writers really had fun writing these and it showed. I have what you need, Warning Danger and The Principle all used time travel/sci-fi elements in creative ways. Whether it was candy that creates time loops, insane tech like elaborate A.I. bullets or just the idea of glitches that are created through excessively fixing a moment in time. This isn't something I would normally get and although I was entertained I was disappointed by a few stories and wasn't thrilled with the price despite getting it at a discount.