I told a friend that I was interested in speculative historical fiction, and he said I would get a kick out of this book, and let me borrow it. I finally picked it up to read it on the beach, and finished it in a day or so.

The art was great, pushing the form of sequential art in comic book form, using a shit ton of white space, frames that are abstractly shaped tear across the page and blend into the next frame without any warning or boundary. At times, however, the art was too sparse. The transcripts of discussion, with only one frame at the top to remind you who the characters speaking were, is, I think, a cop out.

The premise of the book is intriguing, once the requisite disbelief suspension about time travel (and the power of the Vatican, especially 50 years from now) is out of the way. The Vatican commissions a group of 5000 handpicked, best-of-the-best warriors from across the world to secure its dominance in the present via cementing the security of the Holy Roman Empire over all of Europe (and, presumably, the rest of the world) in the past.

But when they get there, the evil cardinal's ambition is not to make the world a better place, but a place in which Catholicism reigns. Though Catholic himself, the cycloptic American Badass general has more abitious plans, so he shoots their supervisor dead, and embarks to make the world a better place. This is where the plot starts to irk me. According to this military mastermind, the world needs to be jumpstarted with technology and tolerance, and then stratified with three major ideologies: Fascism, Communism, and Republicanism, with three generations between each important strata: a revolutionary generation, a something-or-other generation, and a consolidation generation, rinse, repeat. Luckily, things go haywire pretty quickly, with a faction of the team (who is really to be considered a tiny collection of 6 or 7 people, with presumed accompanied underlings), making off with the nukes and going to... Britain?? And another team wandering into Africa.

The plot ran out of steam pretty quickly. Too much setup and not enough follow-through. The plot twist mentioned above gave me an "O SNAP" moment, but was not able to deliver on the intense potential, with only 100 some pages left. This would have made a much better series had it explored The Kingdom of Africa, or the British whatever. Also, if it hadn't bothered to include fascism. Fuck fascism. ( )

Great science fiction story - interesting art. I definitely felt that the last issue was rushed, and I bristled a bit with the scene taking place at the Council of Nicaea, but otherwise I thought it was really good. ( )

Recensione su: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-dy
Review at: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-dy ( )

This is not just a simple time travel story that Jonathan Hickman has created, it's much more. It's a story of individuals struggling against and for a collective vision and the bonds that are forged along the way. What can a few dedicated souls accomplish in the interest of advancing humanity technologically, philosophically and politically in a shorter time span than was originally written in the history books? What is the morality behind utilitarian principles that place ideology and absolutes above the progression of human events? All of these questions and more are posed and pondered in Hickman's tale of human vision and potential. The art is wonderful. It weaves a tapestry of almost dream like proportions, as the characters ethereally slip in and out of the story. If you're in for a rewrite of history and a few thoughts regarding time paradox and philosophy, check this one out. Although, I feel this book ended a little abruptly, there is still a very worthwhile and refreshing piece of storytelling wrapped in a nice package. Read it. ( )

What would you change if you could go back in time? ( )