I may or may not have a friend who is working on a super secret project with writer Mark Millar. He may or may not have asked me to familiarize myself with Millarworld for reference. So this past weekend I checked out a book called Chrononauts from Image Comics. And so should you. I’ll break down why after the cut.
It’s hard to talk about Chrononauts without getting into spoiler territory but I will do my best.
What would you do if you could travel back in time? Would you go back to 1955 and give yourself a sports almanac? How about preventing the JFK assassination? At the very least, you would probably go back and tell your younger self to definitely NOT get in a relationship with that one girl, no matter how crazy hot she is. Whatever is your thing, with the entire history of the world at your fingertips, you could do whatever you wanted.
That’s basically the concept of Chrononauts. What starts as the greatest scientific invention in human history turns into a rescue mission when Corbin gets lost in time. But when Danny manages to track Corbin down in 1504 and he is now a “God”, will Danny bring Corbin back to the future or join him romping around the timeline, doing whatever the hell they want, ignoring all the consequences? I think you can guess the answer.
From that point onward Danny and Corbin begin living the highlife. Moving back and forth in time with no regards to the “butterfly effect” and the impact they are having on the timestream. But the story needs some antagonists, so let’s just say that some people don’t take too kindly to their Bill and Ted like excellent adventures. And when the boys inevitably bite off more than they can chew, it all comes crumbling down.
Stellar writing from Mark Millar keeps the story fast paced, funny and smart. Co-Creator and artist Sean Gordon Murphy’s pencils are crisp and he does a great job with facial expressions to convey the extreme emotions that can occur when you just want to have fun and when you want to fix all the wrongs of your life.
If you enjoy time travel stories and Mark Millar’s other works like Wanted, The Secret Service (the basis for the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, natch) and Kick-Ass, I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy the hell out of Chrononauts.
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