The Time Tentacle is all manner of awesome.
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Kindt
Art: Scott Kolins
What They Say:
The team battles a bizarre creature through a tear in space-time, but the mind behind the monster holds a secret that could change the PastAways’ future! As they face a new kind of time paradox, the crew are also forced to contend with an internal plot against one of their own!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Past Aways has been a very fun series so far with what it’s wanted to do, both in the art and writing department, as it’s had this kind of weird and crazy energy about it while working with a familiar concept. Heck, the whole concept gets called out by Herb in the middle of this issue as being a cliche of this time period’s writing. But there’s also the simple truth that with many cliches, they’re that because they’re true things that happen pretty regularly. With the first arc now closed, the book is ready to start moving forward with the next and we get some great teases about it here with what it can be about, and a few more insights into the characters as well.
Taking place a bit of time after the Chicago incident, the book wants to give us another incident coming through the time tear that the team has to deal with. This one is out in the Pacific Ocean, so it’s out of sight. The downside is that it’s a strange time anomaly type of giant purple tentacle that they can’t really get a read on. There’s some fun action to it as we see Art trying to get the team to act as a team, but they’re totally individuals that just luck out in things working out right. The difference here is that Phil gets inside the command module of it and discovers that the pilot in it is someone from the future that was sent to rescue them, but has been caught in a time loop that Phil has only just now broken. Phil being the dangerous type that he is, executes his own plan here that help somewhat with the Time Tentacle, but furthers his own agenda. Namely that of killing Art in secret.
Wrapped around all of this is Art spending time with a therapist, a suggestion by Phil no less, where he talks about everything going on even though he knows she must think he’s crazy and is likely to be sent to a padded room. But through this, and the time at the conference table with his team, we get to learn a lot about Art’s history and why he’s trying like he is to make this family his real family in a sense, and to do right by them. But they’re a fractious lot, made up of just individuals really, and there’s no love between any of them at this point. Even their desire to get back home feels like it’s secondary to the kind of friction that exists between them. Art’s past helps to explain his side a good bit, and when added to what we know from the others in the previous arc, it’s an intriguing narrative that’s been built up for all of them.
In Summary:
Past Aways sets up things for the next arc here, but it also fills in some more of the gaps for the characters and their pasts. What works well is that we do essentially get time where characters sit down and just talk shit out. It’s not all done amid the action, though we do get some of that to good effect, but there’s so much that comes from people sitting around a table, with no filters on their thoughts really, and saying what they think. The sniping is fun, but it also reveals a lot. I’m really curious to see more of what Phil’s up to as his character is the most intriguing since partially his reasons are unclear, and it’s uncertain whether to fear or be rooting for him. Kolins again does a fantastic job of bringing this world to life visually, present and future, with so many neat ways of looking at things. And how often do you get to illustrate a massive purple Time Tentacle? That’s resume worthy right there.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 24th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
