Watch your step, we don’t want any paradoxes during this week’s “So You Want To Read Comics”. This is our weekly feature where we take a look at a single topic or genre and then give you two comic book recommendations, perfect for new readers, based on that topic. This week we’re taking a look at time travel.
While most people are familiar with the novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, one of the first truly popular stories involving journeying to another era, time travel in fiction actually goes all the way back to at least the 1700s. People have been fascinated with what has been and what will be for a very long time. This type of story is often used as a way to compare modern-day to some sort of halcyon days of the past, or a warning of what might come if we continue down a certain path. In less social commentary-focused stories, time travel is used to ponder on the nature of time, paradox, the laws of physics, and just what people in the 1950s would think about a Delorean. Time travel stories have real stakes to them, one wrong step could lead to a complete change in history 1000s of years later, or obtaining too much knowledge about future events could then affect the outcome of those as well, which is just a couple of the reasons why these stories have remained part of our popular culture for centuries.
Here are some comic books that use time travel exceptionally, while also being a good place to get into the hobby.
Pax Romana
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: 2009
Cover Price: $19.99
Reading a Jonathan Hickman comic is rarely a normal comic book reading experience. While some people might say this makes it bad for new readers, I think this makes some of them perfect for new readers who haven’t been inundated with “normal” comics. Pax Romana tells the story of a group of modern-day soldiers being sent back in time to ancient Rome, in order to ensure a lasting empire for the Catholic church, but things quickly go sideways. Pax Romana manages to capture a lot of the best parts of a good time travel story. There’s conflict between modern and old technologies and ways of thinking, there’s a lot of consideration about how things changed in the past have lasting unforeseen effects, and there’s a decent amount of science jargon to satisfy the science fiction fan. On top of this you have Jonathan Hickman’s unique approach to the comic book medium, with surreal art, and a non-linear approach to narration, making this an eye-opening introduction to comics.
FLASHPOINT
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Andy Kubert
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 2012
Cover Price: $25.00
There’s no shortage of time-travel stories from DC or Marvel Comics. The problem is that so many of them involve events that are steeped in years of history, or they themselves have become wrapped up in other storylines that it’s difficult to come into comics through one of these stories. Except one. Flashpoint is the story of the DC Universe as a whole, if The Flash had gone back in time to make one change to his own history. A lot of familiar faces from movies, TV shows, and cartoons appear here, albeit changed and skewed, so there’s not a lot of deep comic knowledge needed for this one. Also, this event was used as a way to wipe the slate clean, in a sense, with all following comics being based on the events of this event. Sure a lot has happened since Flashpoint, but if you’re a fan of time travel stories and looking for a way to get into reading DC comics, it’s hard to beat this one.
What did you think of these suggestions? What are some of your favorite time-traveling stories in and outside of comics? Let us know in the comments section below.
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