Back to the Future #3

I was surprised that this mini series suddenly went from a four parter to a five parter but according to IDW there was enough demand that their going to have an ongoing series ! I wonder if the adventures will continue from the third movie on or fill in more blanks. Maybe their do both. More information will be available "very soon" so it's likely sometime after this mini ends.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In Search of Calvin Marty Klein

This takes place between Marty leaving the fifties and a few years prior to Docs' home burning down last issue. I always wondered if George and Lorraine tried to contact "Calvin" especially since they named their youngest after his nickname. While Doc wasn't as infamous as he would be around Marty's time his mom still knew where Doc lived and that he was supposed to be Calvin Kleins' uncle. George is starting to get his writing in order (I love how offended he gets when he assumes Doc will give science fiction crap) his love life however isn't doing so well. He feels like Marty is the only one who can help him.

Marty however is back in his own time and Doc does his best to help George to ensure his friends' existence. Lorraine ends up at his house too since she also wants to talk to Marty. George seems to be ignoring her in pursuit of his writing. Doc does remember Marty talking about his father. Marty says how George used to let himself get pushed around and things get in the way of his dreams. It turns out they did too good of a job at making George more assertive and now he has an ego. Misunderstandings happen when Doc tries to keep Lorraine from figuring out his plan and by a happy accident he ends up saving their relationship.

Jurassic Biff

This one isn't told by Doc, in fact there's no way he would know about it since it revolves around old Biff from the future (October 21 2015) after he stole the time machine. As you might have guessed by the title he didn't know how to work the car and ended up going back further than he wanted. Biff himself is entertaining but I can't see the older version doing all of this. The other stories make sense often explaining plot threads that were skimmed over or adding something. This tale doesn't fit with either of those categories. It's unnecessary and seems to try to hard to make him seem more badass than he is.


Overall: An enjoyable read, although the first story is the superior one. It also made me think of the odd way George, Marty and Doc connect since they all show interest in Sci-Fi stuff. Remember Doc loves Jules Vern after all. It does make me wonder if Marty's parents think fondly of Doc especially since their son Marty (who they never realize was their friend Calvin Klein) ended up working for him.

Biff's story doesn't work for me, I kept thinking it was more likely that he'd have a heart attack. While he's impatient he's also a guy that used pretty advance tech. He was smarter than his past self so it seems like he'd know better than hitting things on a time machine then hoping for the best.

Personally I wish we could have seen why he was erased from the future after he changed his past. In the commentary for BTTF 2 they said old Biff originally faded away after he gets out of the car. We see him in pain just not the last part because audiences were confused. They said Lorraine would eventually shoot Biff which is why he was being erased. That would have been incredible to see her pull the trigger and what happened to the family.


Say What?: "Where this was going...I didn't know if there were roads." I see what you did there.

I love Doc turning to cover up mentioning future tech with awkward phrasing much like Marty did to explain why he called George "dad."


Did You Notice?: Doc using Marty's catchphrase again. Or for the first time. Time travel.

Lorraine: "I need Marty right now!"
Doc Brown: "You, er...is that...that can't be the problem. Can it?" Doc assuming she wants Marty and his awkwardness about thinking about it.

I'm glad they remembered the detail of older Biff understanding the "make like a tree" joke that his younger self messed up.