Eye on Comics
  • About/Submissions

Time in a Butthole

  • Reviews - Dark Horse

VariantPast Aways #1
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Scott Kolins
Colors: Bill Crabtree
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover artists: Kolins (regular edition)/Kindt (variant)
Editor: Brendan Wright
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99 US

When I first learned of this new title, I was immediately interested, given the involvement of artist Scott Kolins. His is such a distinct and strong visual voice in comics storytelling, I’m always up for more work from him. Unfortunately, there was also something off-putting in the promotional material for this series: the title itself. The punny nature of “Past Aways” makes me think the play on words is the starting point for the story instead of an actual plot or cast of characters. It feels like Kindt came up with “Past Aways” and worked his way backward from that. Maybe that’s not the case, but that’s the impression I got when I heard of the book. Nevertheless, I wanted to see what the creators had in store here, and unfortunately, the title pretty much sums up the plot on the nose. I could live with that, but after reading this inaugural issue, I found I wasn’t interested in spending time with these characters. Almost all of them are unpleasant in some way, and that makes it hard to care about what happens to them.

A team of time explorers from more than a million years in the future have been stranded in the 21st century for years, and they seem to have resigned themselves to life in our backwards and seemingly savage culture. But a shocking and deadly development in Greece alerts the team leader to the possibility of returning home. For that to happen, the members of the team — now scattered about the globe and feeling disenfranchised over their losses — must come together once again, not only to make the most of a new chance to go back to the future but to save mankind from displaced threats from elsewhen in the time stream.

I’ve always enjoyed Kolins’ rough linework. The loose nature of his art has always managed to instill it with an added degree of energy. It seems more… kinetic somehow; it’s probably one of the reasons he had such a long and successful run on The Flash and related comics for DC. I like the diversity he brings to the individual character designs here, and I was especially struck by the stature and imposing quality he’s instilled in Marge. His portrayal of Arthur as a grizzled, unclean, recluse specifically reminded me of the sorts of characters one would find in Garth Ennis or Warren Ellis stories (Spider Jerusalem in Transmetropolitan #1, I’m looking at you). Where the design work goes astray is when the characters are geared up. Arthur and Phil are identical figures in their uniforms and helmets, and it makes for a slightly confusing sequence. Bill Crabtree’s colors really add a lot to the energy of the story as well. Everything “normal” seems muted, but the time-displaced tech and creature bear bolder, brighter tones that separate them from the mundane.

Writer Matt Kindt is clearly taking pains to ensure this first issue is as accessible to new readers as well, which is a wise choice, but one of his methods ends up working against the reading experience he’s trying to offer. There’s no shortage of little footnotes throughout the book, meant to explain what future tech the protagonists are using and who these characters are. Those little narrative asides keep pulling the reader’s attention away from the story, and little of it actually seems like vital information. Perhaps he’s trying to establish a dispassionate, cold tone for the future elements to contrast with the clear intensity of the emotional states of these time-displaced characters, but it doesn’t quite click.

Kindt’s script does a solid job of establishing an emerging threat to the present in this inaugural issue, but what he doesn’t do is give the audience a reason to keep tabs on his cast or care about what they’re doing. Almost the entire lineup of the team is gruff, hostile or off-putting in some way. Even Ursula seems unlikable, given her suicidal tendencies, which come off as weakness, as though she’s given up on the adventure just as we’re joining her on it. I get what the writer is trying to do here. I see why he’s brought an edge to these characters, why he’s embraced dysfunction as his starting point. It just didn’t really hook me, and with my mild scorn for the cutesy title, he and Kolins really needed to draw me in to get me to read more — in the future. 6/10

Follow Eye on Comics on Twitter.

March 29, 2015 Don MacPherson

Post navigation

‘Verge of a Breakdown → ← Turn the Page, If You Dare…

Recent posts

  • The End of the World As He Knows It
  • Burnt-out Ends of Smoky Days
  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off
  • Scar Issue
  • Of Gods and Monsters
  • Genre Splicing
  • A Mouthful of Dollars
  • Striking the Wrong Chord

Categories

Archives

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Editorials
  • Features
  • Original Comic Art
  • Reviews – Action Lab
  • Reviews – AfterShock
  • Reviews – AiT/PlanetLar
  • Reviews – Archie
  • Reviews – Black Mask
  • Reviews – Boom! Studios
  • Reviews – Dark Horse
  • Reviews – DC
  • Reviews – DC/Vertigo
  • Reviews – DC/Wildstorm
  • Reviews – Devil's Due
  • Reviews – Drawn & Quarterly
  • Reviews – Dynamite
  • Reviews – Fantagraphics
  • Reviews – IDW
  • Reviews – Image
  • Reviews – Indy/Small Press
  • Reviews – Legendary
  • Reviews – Lion Forge
  • Reviews – Marvel
  • Reviews – Miscellaneous
  • Reviews – NBM
  • Reviews – Oni Press
  • Reviews – Other Media
  • Reviews – Quick Critiques
  • Reviews – Radical
  • Reviews – Slave Labor
  • Reviews – Titan
  • Reviews – Tokyopop
  • Reviews – Valiant
  • Reviews – Zenescope
  • Reviews- Humanoids
  • The New 52 Review Project

Search

Recent Posts

  • The End of the World As He Knows It
  • Burnt-out Ends of Smoky Days
  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off

Recent Comments

  • Marcelo Soares on Coming Clean
  • Perry on Scoop
  • R Phillips on “Fixed… With Tape”
  • Leslie on Avengers… Disassemble Those Guys
  • Perry Beider on 2018 Glass Eye Awards – Creators
April 2021
S M T W T F S
« Mar    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
Powered by WordPress | theme cats456