A comiXologist recommends:
Chrononauts #4

by: Dane Cypel

When Chrononauts #4 was first presented to me, I had very little knowledge of the series or the story.  What I knew was that Mark Millar was the author and that Sean Murphy did a Back to the Future homage cover - that was it. Between these two things, there was nothing else really spectacular or eye catching. So I wrote it off and did not take any notice.

Then I worked on the book, and everything changed.

As I went through page by page, I began to construct a story around what was presented to me. Granted, I came in on issue #4, the final issue of this series so the events were not set-up. Yet I thought: how did the protagonists got into this situation, who was this antagonist they were facing, and why was time so distorted? Then I got to a specific sequence that wrangled me in: one of the protagonists, Corbin, rallies an army.

It begins with a montage through time- Norway, Sparta, France, Rome and China, where Corbin gathers soldiers and weapons to wage a war to set his friend, Danny, free.  Before an amazing double page spread, Murphy illustrates Corbin with an MG-42, flanked by Romans and Spartans, draped in traditional armor and wielding automatic weapons. Perhaps this is the geek in me, but this image is awesome.

After completing this issue, I want to know what caused these events. Why was Danny captured? HOW was he captured? How does time-travel work? And why is there such a goofy looking Tyrannosaurus Rex in the first couple pages? Luckily, this is a four issue series and issue #1 is not far away.  All of these questions can be answered.

If this hasn’t convinced you, just a little bit, to pick up these series and give it a read, I have one final thing to say: a portly Christopher Columbus falls off a boat.

I’m hooked and I want more.

[Check out Chrononauts on comiXology]

Dane Cypel is a digital editor at comiXology and freelance illustrator based in Manhattan.