Hopefully just the end of the first chapter of Tim Hunter’s story.
Creative Staff:
Story: David Barnett
Art: Tom Fowler, Craig Taillefer
Colors: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
The true masterminds behind the Cult of the Cold Flame now stand revealed-as does their purpose in handing the power of the Book of Possibilities over to Tim Hunter’s onetime friends Ellie, Fatimah, and Tyler! But can Tim save his schoolmates from making a terrible choice? Or is their Destiny already written?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
And the end of the run is here with David Barnett guiding us through the last few issues to bring the title to a close. I’ve definitely enjoyed his run on it since there was likely a known quantity of issues ahead of time that was designed to bring some measure of closure for the short term. And that was definitely needed for a character that’s been around since the 90s but generally mismanaged. Tom Fowler and Craig Taillefer have done a great job throughout the run and with this issue in making it distinctive, especially with Marissa Louise’s coloring, and this one feels like they just leaned into everything just a touch more so that it really hits home in a great way.
There’s a bit of time travel shenanigans involved here as we follow Ellie and her group as they chose the right path to go and fight Tim and that shows how they became Cold Flame and battled for years against him, even resulting in Constantine having to kill Zatanna for her skull and power at some point. The trio have seen the reality of Tim unhinged and its impact on the world and that has lead them to their biggest move in coming back in time to kill him. It’s the whole killing baby Hitler thing and they think Tim qualifies for that. What’s amusing is that they end up not hitting the date they wanted – which was expected – but ended up dealing with their younger selves just after choosing the right path. So that opens a whole host of possibilities, especially while holding said Book of Possibilities.
All of this plays out while Tim has been put in court for the murder of three dozen people previously. Tim being Tim admits to it and there’s a lot of amusing wrangling and dialogue throughout this, especially the whole bit about Rose and Dr. Occult sharing the same body-space. But the tricks at play in here allow for some creativity that comes from both magic and time travel to let it unfold in a way that helps to teach Tim the real thing he needed to learn all this time. It’s not the whole “the friends we made along the way” thing but rather the importance of consequence. Which, as we well know, the teenage brain is not really wired to handle and process properly. So while they do get that here, and set Tim up for a better future that I hope we’ll see someday, I’m also wary because the character at this age just isn’t at the best of places to really have it connect – regardless of how talented he is at magic.
In Summary:
There’s a good sense of finality about the story here that works well but it’s not the end of Tim Hunter’s story. Part of the problem with the character for so long was that he was told of the choices and the power he has, and the damage it can cause, but it was all there in the future as a threat. That’s now been dealt with, to some degree, and the character is in a place where the writers can finally move him forward. But there’s also a sense that the writers over the years since his introduction have squandered that potential and we may not see another series for him again for quite some time. Which is unfortunate as Barnett has put him in a good place here and provided the right connections for him to begin moving again and living his own life with friends. Fowler and Taillefer did a great job with the artwork on this series with Marissa Louise and I’m glad I stuck with it to the end. But it did leave me with several moments across Barnett’s running wondering why we didn’t have this kind of series from the start.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology | Amazon
Release Date: September 22nd, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
