Can Corbin save the day?
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Millar
Art: Sean Gordon Murphy
What They Say:
Captured by enemies and robbed of their ability to time travel, Danny and Corbin have created the biggest mess the space-time continuum has ever seen. Now, it’s up to them to defeat the bad guys, fix past wrongs, and escape the wrath of their bosses!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Chrononauts had a very fun third issue where it was essentially one extended car chase scene, which is damn hard to do in comics in general and make it exciting, unlike film. The movement throughout time, covering so many areas and so many situations, made for a lot of laughter but also some great tension as well with the way it unfolded, and as you kept wondering what the long term impacts would be like. Having them escape from Mannix, for the moment at least, only to end up in a more dire situation in the past definitely had the kind of cliffhanger to it, since the idea of this man from the past taking control through one of the suits is something that could spin off into its own bit of great fun.
With the finale, we get an extended issue, one that doubles the price, but definitely has a whole lot of fun about it. Interestingly, it’s almost entirely about Corbin, since after we reconnect with them here, Danny is taken for interrogation and Corbin is kicked into the desert night to die, whether by cold or dogs. Amusingly, before that, we see Mannix having survived his accident that landed him 65 million years ago, where he’s intent on getting back in gear to take down Danny and Corbin, but his adventure is cut comically short, which is an important setup point for what Corbin has to do. While Corbin is definitely your science type, albeit one with a bit more wit, flair and charm about him than is usually assigned, he’s also a smart guy that can put in the time to do what’s needed. Having survived so many odds over his entire life, we see him going the distance here to acquire Mannix’s suit in order to save Danny.
And what a job it is, with him first spending so much time and travel to find it and then to spend a great deal of time putting together an army to accomplish the rescue. Again, it’s done so cinematically that the pages leap out so well that you can visualize it so clearly, and there’s a great deal of fun in watching the extended action sequence, the downfall and the rescue itself, which is what gives Corbin his due after seeing so many other instances where Danny was a bit more center stage. But we also get some real Corbin time here, as they start to wrap things up and Danny suggests that he takes advantage of the situation and lives the life he never could because of how driven he was. Essentially being in two places at the same time, we see how different his life would be in this way and it’s really great to humanize him in this sense, and to see some real change made based on it rather than it being elusive like it so often is in movies and TV shows.
In Summary:
Chrononauts is an absolute treat of a series to read from start to finish. While it felt a bit wonky in the first issue as you tried to connect to what it wanted to do, once it got underway it was just a crazy action adventure piece with two wild and crazy guys. You have to totally discount the science of it all when you get down to it, which is easy with most time travel based properties, and just enjoy it like the characters do. There are serious things along the way, but for the most part it wants to just enjoy what a situation like this could provide, but not in your old school stoner style that we might often get instead, or something hyper militarized and dramatic. It finds the right mixture of fun and adventure along with tension and great action scenes. Very recommended across the board.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 10th, 2015
MSRP: $5.99
