Time Bomb #3

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Paul Gulacy

Time Bomb has been a pretty cool comic.  Palmiotti and Gray have given us an entertaining story about four Americans sent back in time to put a stop to a German contingency plan that almost wiped out the entire world.  In this issue, our heroes penetrate the secret city under Berlin where scientists have been constructing the missile, and raise all kinds of hell.

There's plenty of mayhem, torture, and, because Paul Gulacy is handling the art, women in their underwear.  As much as I have enjoyed this series, there are a few elements in this last issue that don't make a whole lot of sense.  I don't like the deus ex machina capsule that Peggy pulls out (actually, I don't want to say where she pulled it from) and saves the day.  Also there are more than a couple of time travel issues that pop up right at the end of the comic, making some of the story pretty hard to swallow (accepting, of course, that this is a time travel comic).

Still, we get to see some people smack Hitler around, which never gets boring.  In the end, this was another successful comic for Radical, and one that feels like it's been ready-made for a movie adaptation one day.

Time Bomb #2

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Paul Gulacy

Time Bomb is a very cool comic.  It feels like Palmiotti and Gray are writing for an eventual screenplay with this, and I think the story would work as well for a movie as it does for the comics.

A group of operatives have been sent through a 'time bomb' to 1945 Berlin to put a stop to a Nazi doomsday device that has devastated their own time.  They have a limited amount of time to secure the device, or destroy it.  They did not expect to arrive at this particular time, thinking instead that they would simply have to convince subsequent German leaders from staying away from it, and now have to improvise.

Most of this issue (the comic is in that wonderful Radical double-sized format) deals with these four splitting up and finding different ways to achieve the same goal.  Their technological advantages give them an interesting edge over the Germans, and it's cool to see how the writers set the characters loose in this time period.

Gulacy's art is great.  I know he's a love him or hate him artist for a lot of people, but I really like his work, and feel that he's well suited for this type of comic.  This comic manages to take some pretty standard ideas - Nazis, time travel, Armageddon - and do something unique with it.

Time Bomb #1

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Paul Gulacy

This is a can't-miss comics project.  To begin with, Palmiotti and Gray have been doing amazing things lately, especially on their independent projects (check out The Last Resort and Random Acts of Violence).  Next, we have Gulacy on art, which is never a bad thing.  Finally, this is one of those 56 page square-bound Radical comics, which is a format I love.  Add all these up, and we have a definite purchase.

This book completely lived up to my expectations.  The story revolves around an underground Nazi missile complex that is discovered in the middle of Berlin when some repair work is done on a section of subway.  The exploration of said complex triggers the launching of a missile, which carries a strange bioweapon payload, which has left humanity with only 72 hours of existence.  A team of operatives is tasked with riding a 'time bomb' into the past to stop anyone from ever opening the bunker.  Of course, the 'time bomb' is not very accurate, and there is no way of knowing when the operatives would be sent, providing us with the next two issue's worth of story.

Much of this issue is taken up with the necessary exposition and character development, which is unfortunate but needed.  It may have gotten boring with a lesser artist, but Gulacy is more than up to the task of making talking heads interesting.  This whole thing reads as much as a treatment for a movie as a comic, but I have no problem with that when the book is this good.