A knight is still on the hunt for an evil sorcerer. His quest has him currently in modern day, but it’s only the most recent stop on his journey across time. But does he remember everywhere he’s been, and what he’s done? Your Major Spoilers review awaits.

KNIGHTS TEMPORAL #2

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Fran Galan
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Aftershock Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 28,2019

Previously in Knights Temporal: Auguste de Riviere is a crusader who has found himself thrown from his time. His mission to hunt down Gaspard has taken him into a mystical forest that has in turn, thrown him through time. Still accompanied by the enigmatic Jane Foole, his most recent stop is somewhere in the modern world. To his surprise though someone other than his target and companion, has recognized him.

WELL NOW THINGS ARE GETTING COMPLICATED

We kick things off in Knights Temporal #2 with a nice little montage. It seems that Auguste hasn’t just been sent to modern day, but has made stops all across time including: Ancient Rome, the old west, World War I, and a far flung cyberpunk future. Now back in the modern day setting, Auguste has headed to the library, much to Jane Foole’s chagrin, in an attempt to do some research. He’s quickly thwarted though by the most vicious villain there is, computers. He enlists the service of a random young person to do a search for him. Specifically, a search on himself. This query reveals a grim history filled with gruesome events, apparently caused by men who look very similar to Auguste. The only problem is, he doesn’t remember all of these pasts. Before he can question Jane Foole the library is attacked by the homunculi, Gaspard’s minions. Things then start jumping back and forth between modern day Auguste and old west Auguste as they both fight off homunculi. Modern Auguste tries to summon his magic sword but can’t seem to do it, while old west Auguste is wielding it with ease. Both versions survive their fights, with the one in the modern day Auguste suffering from a pretty bad wound. When things start to look like the end for the knight, he manages to transport his wound, to the old west version of himself. This issue wraps up with a quick scene featuring Gaspard. He’s lead into a dungeon where he’s confronted with a prisoner: Auguste de Riviere.

TIPTOEING A THIN LINE

I like the writing in this issue. It does a lot to deepen the overarching story while sprinkling tidbits here and there to instill some doubt about what we and the main characters believe to be real and not. I am weary though. There’s always a peak amount of weird, paradoxical, timeline eschewing, that a time-travel story can contain before it goes from fun to confusing and I think this series has already reached it. This issue feels short. I double-checked, and there are 20 pages of story here (I read the Comixology version for clarification), but with so much page real-estate devoted to montage, flashback, and action, this whole book really comes off as one scene rather than a chapter of a story.

STILL REALLY PRETTY

The artwork still remains my favorite thing about this title. What’s especially nice here is we see multiple eras and that each one is given their own color scheme and style. The montage sequence in particular is a lesson in effective wordless storytelling. With the plotline continues to obscure itself, the art acts almost as a reference material to keep things in order.

BOTTOM LINE: WE’VE REACHED CRITICAL MYSTERY

Knights Temporal remains to be a fun time travel story with effective and wonderful art. This issue in particular is a good mix of action, revelation, and increasing mystery. But, like a lot of other stories that play with the concept of time it’s getting close to imploding on itself and being too incomprehensible to enjoy. 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

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